Last Night Yellowknife City Council had one of their budget meetings. Non profit organization were presenting their case on why they should get funding from the city.

First up was the Dog Sledders Society. They talked about how the Dog Race that was normally scheduled during the time of Caribou Carnival was the whole reason the carnival started. It is a historic event that has now turned into a recreational sport. Which is not only for spectating it is for participating as well creating an attraction for tourists.

Up nest was Ecology north who were looking for funding so that they could further there studies into sity wide composting. The idea seems feasible and would work but in the long run would cost more than just this funding that is being requested. The presented the idea that instead of garbage pick up once a week it would go to every other week and in the weeks where there is no garbage pick up the garbage truck would pick up your composting. But lets think about that for a second, most people hit the 3 bag limit every week and I don’t think they have a bag and a half of composting. So by the end of the 2 weeks of no garbage pick up an average house hold could have 5 bags of garbage piling up at the side of their house. Well that’s good for the cities image.

Then on to Ecology north, wait didn’t they just go up …… oh so this is for something else …… So they want more money ….. mmmmm …… blood sucker…… Apparently this is for Ecology North as a whole, while the previous presentation was just for a special project. E.North is looking for Core Funding so they can employ someone to manage there finances? I suppose they are wanting to hire this person so that they can then start proper fund raising so that they can become self sustaining. So how have they managed for the last 20 years? OH and here’s something interesting I’m sure you want to know. 3 or 4 City Councilors are also so on the Ecology North board … so .. wouldn’t that make them exempt from voting on whether or not they should get funding or not? ISN’T THAT CONFLICT OF INTEREST! HELLO!

Okay enough of that on to Folk on the Rocks. They are also looking for core funding and I’m sure you can see the benefit in them getting the money. They are huge here in the north and around Canada seems like every one’s heard of them and they have has some pretty big Canadian Musicians in past. They try and go for a 50/50 split of Norther and Southern Canadian Musicians and it work out well. It is a part of the summers tourist opportunities and having worked for a totally different type of tourism I heard that a lot of my tourist had also gone there and enjoyed it.

NEXT On to the Curling Club. They too are looking for core funding. Recently they have had to spend the money they have been saving for a dehumidifier on building building maintenance or something to that extreme. But they were not here looking for funding for that right now, which would be upwards  to a million and half. They were looking for a bit of funding to redo the paint on the walls as well a new floor. The floor which is just tiles of carpet glued to the floor is coming up because of the humidity in the building.

Okay I think the next part was my favorite, a member of the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerces got up to speak. I didn’t really know what he was going to speak about, thinking why would they need money. They DID NOT! This gentlemen (who will remain nameless) got up and basically blasted the budget. Letting the councilors know what was really on his mind. He didn’t really seem to have anything good to say about it. I wish I had of recorded his speak or at least wrote down some point. I do remember though that one point when he was having a “debate” to a councilor the councilor only by mistake said something like “residential can shop down south” He right away clarified himself saying that he did support local shopping 100%. But as soon as he said that initial statement about down south some other people in the audience started shouting about “We need to stay in the north and shop in the north, we have everything down south has. It Creates Job”. Okay it does create more job (because every person wants to make $14/h at a full time job, But I will not agree with them when they say the north has everything the south does. HAVE YOU BEEN BLIND FOR 100 YEARS OR SOMETHING, we are not like the south. I support shopping locally for most things but by darn if I find a better price online or down south I’m going to buy it. I generally do, even with shipping its still cheaper. I’m on the fence with it all, I think we should shop locally and support Yellowknife but if there is a better deal somewhere else go for it (isn’t that like Business 101 or something, I thought these people were suppose to be smart). Quite frankly I think everyone should have that point of view, that way there aren’t these battles and people can’t criticizes everyone else constantly.

The final women who was also just criticizing the budget I think was a bit of a “greeny”. All he point were how we should better ourselves. She wanted the council to put more money to into outdoor winter sports such as hockey. Okay so to do that we would need interest, but who in there right mind wants to play hockey on a regular base outside in the cold. Has she seen our weather lately. I’m all for going out and enjoying the winter but we all have to draw the line somewhere.

It was really good to go see all this, I enjoy going and plan to go as often as possible from now one.

What are your veiw on council, come on I know you have something to say about them