The mayor and council of Hay River have come up with an informal list of goals for the remaining seven months of their term in office.
"What we want to do is, as the (Arctic Winter) Games wrap up, we need to get on our horse and try and get some of this stuff completed," said Mayor Brad Mapes at a March 6 meeting of council. "We've done quite a bit in the last two years."
Coun. Kandis Jameson began offering goals to focus on, listing the general plan, land development and the electrical franchise for the town.
Other councillors generally agreed with that list, with Deputy Mayor Donna Lee Jungkind adding a review of the Procurement Bylaw and Coun. Steve Anderson adding GNWT funding for emergency services offered on the highway by the Town of Hay River.
However, it was Mapes who suggested the most goals – beginning with completing the budgetary side of the Arctic Winter Games, continuing fundraising for the new recreation centre and adding more pavement and sidewalks at the new recreation centre.
But Mapes was just getting started.
The mayor mentioned plans to reach an agreement with the GNWT on taxation and lease payments on land formerly owned by the defunct Northern Transportation Company Ltd., and now owned by the GNWT.
"We need to make sure that's there because it's a huge debt to our community," he said.
Mapes went on to list completion of upgrades at Porritt Landing, upgrades at Fisherman's Wharf with $800,000 the town has obtained from the federal government, sale of surplus land and buildings, planning for a future town hall or deciding if the municipality will continue to lease space, repairing the Fire Training Centre following a fire because available insurance payments expire this year, focusing on the high cost of air travel, and dealing with IT and waste management contracts.
It was at that point Ruth Boden, the town's acting senior administrative officer, jokingly asked the mayor, "I'm just wondering how many people we can hire here."
Mapes replied, "Some of the stuff is being worked on. It's just a matter of completion on it."
And he continued, listing upgrades to the town's tourism policy, support for the building of a new fish plant by the GNWT, and making sure the town's agricultural plan ties in with the GNWT's agricultural strategy.
Mapes final suggested goal was to make better use of Channel 649 on the Bell satellite television system, which has been reserved for the Hay River Community Channel for several years.
"We need to figure out a way that our town can utilize it more," said the mayor.
Jungkind suggested that another meeting is needed to discuss the list.
"I think we've got a fairly substantial list there and I think what we need to do is schedule some time to prioritize and then come up with a plan on how we're going to tackle some of these things so that we can get them done and so that administration has a clear understanding of what are goals are to them and what are priorities are," she said, while recommending that administration suggest a date for a meeting. "It will have to be sooner rather than later."
Speaking later last week, Mapes said some people might think he's a daydreamer to suggest such a lengthy list.
"But I always like to put all my ideas out on the table so people can take and see what they are," he said, adding he doesn't think there's a councillor who would disagree with anything on the list. "There are quite a few items there, but some of them are almost done."