The City of Yellowknife is planning its own version of a major projects office to handle coming federal investment. It wants to add a deputy city manager, too.
Council was briefed on the plan at a Wednesday lunchtime meeting.
City staff say the creation of a new department would be funded primarily through federal contributions associated with $5 billion or more in Department of National Defence spending earmarked for the area over the next 15 years, as well as possibly funding for other projects – and would not require local taxpayers’ cash.
“Standing up this office is 100-percent attributed to the federal dollars received in order to advance these projects,” city manager Stephen Van Dine said.
Van Dine said a new department and a deputy manager are needed as the city seeks to “materially grow and change sustainably in directions we never thought possible” on the back of renewed federal interest in the North.
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Councillors were generally supportive, though a few retained skepticism about the mechanisms city staff are proposing to streamline how some project-related work is handled.
The city is proposing a bylaw that would give senior staff expanded powers to advance work related to procurement, management and “other operational decisions necessary for the timely delivery” of big projects.
That bylaw will come back to council on August 19 with possible amendments. Councillors had queried whether it offered enough oversight.
Overall, councillor Steve Payne said, the creation of a new department and addition of a deputy manager pointed to a “pretty exciting thing that we’re going through right now.”
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“I know that we can’t keep going the way we’re going with the level of staff that we have. We’re looking at billions of dollars in spending, and I don’t think the public realizes how much billions is,” Payne said.
“We’re in a really exciting time in the history of Yellowknife right now, and it’s coming at a really good time too, with one major industry that’s closing up,” he added, referring to the closure of two of the NWT’s three diamond mines this year.
Van Dine told council a new department and a deputy manager – a position paid upward of $200,000 a year, a creation he said he’d resisted until now – would allow extra work to happen without disrupting “regular business” at City Hall.
“We are now clearly at that point where we need to make sure we’ve got that dedicated management focus to allow for both the strategic and overall authority of the municipality,” Van Dine said, as well as “make sure that the day-to-day operations are attended to, and responding to residents’ needs in a timely manner.”
He said the cost to the city would be “essentially zero” based on federal contributions and the city’s accounting approach.
The major projects department would work on DND-related issues but could also take responsibility for big city projects beyond the coming military work. Examples given on Wednesday included the city’s plan to develop an area north of Frame Lake into a new neighbourhood.
A final council vote on the proposals will come on August 26.
“Residents have made clear to us that the cost of living cannot continue to grow at the rate it’s been over the last five years without seriously impacting the decision-making of a substantial proportion of residents,” councillor Tom McLennan said.
“Given these conditions, I see two choices: one is to scale back, reduce services, accept a smaller population as mining declines and live within our current means. The other is to seize this opportunity and do everything we can to grow our tax base and spread the load over a larger population. This is the path I believe the majority of residents support.
“I’m aware this means spending more resources to ensure critical projects are not being done off the sides of people’s desks. The spending before the corresponding growth comes along does carry some risk, and I’m wary of this. But I believe it’s in the best interest of residents to move forward and make the most of this opportunity.”
