What can you do for me?
Forum to question city candidates coming up
Evan Kiyoshi French
Northern News Services
Wednesday, October 7, 2015
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
If time permits, residents will have a chance to fire questions at municipal candidates during a public forum on Friday.
The 17 candidates are likely to debate what to do about the 50/50 lot plaza plan, whether or not to bid on the 2023 Canada Winter Games and how they'll treat previous council's commitments to revitalize the downtown during the forum organized by the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce running from 5:30 to 9 p.m. at Northern United Place.
In a random sampling conducted by Yellowknifer, six residents were asked what one question is they'd like to pose to prospective candidates. The answers ranged from helping the unemployed, food production and city schools - some of which are not municipal responsibilities.
Council candidate Shauna Morgan stated in an e-mail many of the issues raised by residents don't fall within the city's mandate. She said people need to learn which departments are in charge of what, so they can direct their concerns in the right direction and avoid being disappointed and frustrated when the person they're talking to isn't able to help. Coun. Niels Konge said he's heard many of these questions before, but echoed Morgan's statement - that the city isn't directly responsible for answering all of them. In an e-mail, he wrote that he looks forward to answering the questions at the forum. Council candidate Julian Morse stated he has heard some of these questions as well, as he has been making door-to-door visits.
"Several of these are outside of city jurisdiction, but looking forward to addressing these and all other questions at the forums," he wrote.
City spokesperson Nalini Naidoo said staff and council deal with misdirected questions from residents all the time.
"We get this all the time, and the approach we've taken is there is no closed door in the city," she said. "We'll point them in the right direction."
"People just aren't sure in a small city what the layers of jurisdiction might be," she said. "When you get questions about the sandpits, sometimes you need to know exactly where on the sandpits we're talking about because some areas it's the city that's involved, in some areas it might be the territorial government, in some areas it might be a lease holder ... but we will do our best to point residents in the right direction."
"So we just have to make sure we're communicating with all of the returning officers in each of those elections," she said.
"We have to do a lot of ground work just so we know what is going on."
