SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The RCMP presented monthly statistics to the municipal services committee Monday, and Coun. Adrian Bell had questions.

He noted that under "community priorities" portion of the report, police visibility in downtown Yellowknife is "number one," followed by drugs, gangs and visibility at public events.

Over the month of March, the Yellowknife detachment responded to 903 calls for service, and completed nine foot patrols of downtown.

"And I guess my question is - that's the level that we get if it's a community priority?" asked Bell. "If it weren't a priority, would it be half that level?"

Inspector Matt Peggs responded that while a priority, the RCMP often has bigger fish to fry.

"I think the way that we can assess priorities basically depends on what we've got going on during the day," he said. "I mean responding to calls, and doing investigations obviously takes the priority over something extra like that."

He added that in addition to municipal priorities, the detachment also has territorial and RCMP priorities.

In the year to date, the RCMP has provided an enhanced presence at 12 public events, and has seen a six per cent increase in impaired driving charges over the previous year.

This year as well, the diversion rate for youth crime rose 73 per cent, which means out of 77 youth that the RCMP dealt with on criminal matters, 56 were diverted away from the criminal justice system.

"So just to kind of put things in perspective then, we call these community priorities but really they're dependent on RCMP priorities, on territorial priorities," said Bell. "Just because we make it a priority doesn't mean we'll necessarily get a significant increase in resources."

Bylaw almost backtracked

The adoption of a bylaw was almost sent back to the drawing board Monday night, thanks a proposed amendment.

Despite being reminded by Mayor Mark Heyck that any amendments would take issues back to another statutory public hearing, Coun. Julian Morse proposed an amendment to a bylaw adopting an area development plan for the Engle Business District phase two, specifically around the space marked for dog kennels.

Morse proposed the kennel zone on the map of the industrial subdivision be removed from the plan, as there was no provision for caretaker suites in the current plan.

"I just feel that if we adopt this as is, it's going to create some problems," he said.

Coun. Niels Konge agreed.

"We've heard it from kennel operators and such that for them to operate an effective kennel they prefer to have a caretakers component to that area," he said.

"What our best option is I'm not sure, but I certainly wouldn't be opposed to spend some more time trying to find something that's going to actually work for the people who we intend to use this land."

Because the Engle business district is industrial, and because of the existing fuel tank storage area, administration advised they were unable to have caretaker suites in this exact area.

Coun. Rebecca Alty argued against the amendment in the interest of moving the development forward, and if a need for kennels that include caretaker suites arise, they could look at rezone another piece of land.

"But in the meantime I think we should have a space if people are interested in starting a kennel," she said.

The amendment resulted in a tie vote, broken by Heyck, who voted it down.

"There's been decisions made to pursue kennel uses in other areas that would have less impacts on potential residential or business neighbours," he said. "At this time I think we've identified this area for potential kennel use and we should stick with it."

The bylaw passed second and third reading.

Proclamations aplenty

There will be lots of observe and celebrate in the coming weeks, after Mayor Mark Heyck proclaimed seven different awareness events at Monday's council meeting.

April 24 was declared Human Values Day in Yellowknife, April 25 was officially declared Parental Alienation Awareness Day, and the entire month of April was retroactively proclaimed Child Abuse Prevention month.

Coming up, April 28 was declared a National Day of Mourning to commemorate workers injured on the job, killed, disabled or who suffer from occupational illnesses. A ceremony will be held at the legislative assembly to mark the event today at noon.

May was declared MS Awareness Month as well as National Huntington Disease Awareness Month, and May 7 to 13 will mark North American Occupational Safety and

Health Week in the city of Yellowknife, kicking off with a breakfast at the Explorer Hotel on May 8.

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