‘You can hear the sound of people’s wallets smashing shut’

While some Yellowknife residents want to see more spending from the city in its 2025 budget, at least one business owner is calling for austerity.

The city released its draft budget earlier this month, which proposes $143.8 million in spending and an 8.05-percent property tax increase.

At Monday night’s council meeting, four residents pitched ways they hope council might alter the budget during deliberations early next month.

Three want increased service levels, facility availability and more bike parking. One said she’s ready to take a highlighter to the budget to indicate where spending could be slashed.

“We really need the city to do some internal navel-gazing and see what can be done internally, what we can cut,” said Ainsley Dempsey, owner of the Gallery on 47th Street and co-owner of Event Rentals Yellowknife.

She noted residents and businesses are also facing a potential energy rate hike and the impact of the ongoing Canada Post strike, among other challenges.

‘We have to stop the bleeding’

“You can audibly hear the sound of people’s wallets smashing shut,” she said, adding rising costs could result in people leaving the city.

Dempsey said business owners cannot sustain an eight-percent tax increase and asked for that to be cut by at least two percent. Areas where she believes the city could save money include reducing its use of consultants and relying more on volunteers and local organizations.

“We really have to stop the bleeding,” she said. “We can’t just keep exponentially raising taxes.”

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business has also called on city council to reduce the property tax increase.

Tax increases approved by Yellowknife council over the past decade have often been well below those proposed in draft budgets.

Meanwhile, the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce sent a letter to mayor and council on Monday requesting that they “rein in operational expenditures,” scrutinize plans to add 20 staff positions, and fund infrastructure projects with excess mobile equipment replacement money.

The chamber specifically encouraged the city to reduce the cost of operating its dog pound and delay upgrading the fields at Fritz Thiel park.

Final push for budget proposals

Dozens of Yellowknife residents and organizations submitted budget requests to the city earlier this year ranging from a new dog park and bike lanes to an extension of the Frame Lake trail.

None of those proposals made it into the draft budget, save for those the city was already planning such as the resurfacing of tennis and pickleball courts.

Kavi Pandoo, the city’s director of corporate services, said accepting all of the submissions would have resulted in an estimated tax increase of more than 9.8 percent.

On Monday, several residents made a final push for some of those proposals to make it into the budget.

Becca Denley, on behalf of Communities in Motion, urged the city to improve snow removal and the maintenance of roads and sidewalks during the winter.

“I am not alone in the belief that this winter city, the capital of the Northwest Territories, has the opportunity to start shining and supporting accessibility all year,” she said.

“If you want to retain residents, the city needs to be more accessible, inviting and less challenging.”

People ‘are being stranded’

Denley said the city’s current snow removal schedule and maintenance methods may have worked in years past, when snow would quickly become hard packed. But she said climate change has resulted in large, damp snowfalls that create conditions in which vehicles and pedestrians struggle to manoeuvre.

“These extremes mean that we can’t just use one method of snow removal, we need to adapt to the weather and remove more snow during the warm snow events,” she said.

“Waiting weeks or months to remove heavy snowfalls means that people who have accessibility issues are being stranded.”

Denley highlighted that the City of Whitehorse is currently facing a proposed class-action lawsuit related to its winter road and sidewalk maintenance.

Last winter, several residents complained about Yellowknife’s road maintenance and snow removal as some streets developed deep ruts. Chris Greencorn, the city’s director of public works, told Cabin Radio at the time that increased service levels would require a significant fleet expansion.

Denley said on Monday that Yellowknife could adopt snow removal methods used in other cities such as Montreal or Oulu, Finland. She said those include blowing snow into a truck following a big snowfall.

Denley said a large snow-blower is estimated to cost around $600,000. She suggested looking to the federal government for funding.

Walking hours and bike storage

Wendy Bisaro, president of the Yellowknife Seniors’ Society, asked councillors to increase the number of free hours for seniors at the fieldhouse walking track from three to seven mornings a week.

Bisaro said she believes that would have a minimal impact on the city’s bottom line while supporting a social activity and safe exercise for seniors.

“All of us live longer and better lives if we’re active, not just us old farts,” she said.

Echoing Denley, Bisaro highlighted how unsafe sidewalks can be during the winter, particularly for seniors.

“We are a winter city and the winter months radically decrease the opportunities for seniors to walk outside,” she said. “In some places, it’s taking your life in your hands to walk anywhere outside.”

Meanwhile, e-bike owner Anita Villeneuve presented ideas to increase bike shelter options in the city.

“During my time as a bike user this summer, I noticed a significant lack of parking spaces for bikes – parking spaces that were secure, within close proximity of my destination, wherever that was, and that had free spaces available for me to park and not damage my bike,” she said.

Mayor Rebecca Alty said the city is planning a grant devoted to bicycle racks and storage as part of a development incentive bylaw currently awaiting approval.

City councillors are set to deliberate the 2025 budget from December 2-5 and approve a final budget on December 9.