Councillors and city staff eliminated the travel budget for 2021, but some funds for in-person meetings were preserved during this week's budget deliberations.
image sourced from the City of Yellowknife
Since last March when the pandemic hit, most of mayor and council and city staff business meetings have been conducted virtually. There has been little need for travel due to Covid-19 related public health restrictions.
Councillors and staff agreed that there is a lot of uncertainty around what next year will bring with the pandemic when it comes to in-person meetings and travel.
A vaccine, depending on the time of its rollout, could allow for travel before the end of the year.
“As part of our planning methodology around this, of course, is making assumptions about things for 2021 which are really challenging to do because we don't know,” admitted senior administrative officer Sheila Bassi-Kellett. “Will we come to the front of the line for the vaccine and things will be back to normal in the North by June? We honestly don't know.
“And so at this point in time the presumption was to remove the bulk of those costs to make an assumption that we will continue to meet distantly, virtually for at least until the fall.”
The idea to reduce costs had been brought forward by the city during its initial draft presentation of the budget at the Nov. 2 governance and priorities committee meeting as a cost cutting measure.
“The amount referenced in the November presentation was to eliminate travel, (and) substantially reduce meeting expenses, with the expectation that the opportunities to meet, like we are doing right now, would be few and far between in 2021,” Sharolynn Woodward, director of corporate services, explained on Tuesday.
NNSL file photo
Coun. Shauna Morgan moved a motion on Tuesday night to eliminate all travel and meeting expenses. Council supported removing the line item of $211,244, for all travel and meeting costs to allow for a 0.65 per cent tax rate reduction.
On Wednesday, however, Coun. Julian Morse got unanimous support to restore $36,000 to ensure in-person meetings can be held, if need be.
Potential needs, council agreed, could involve cases like development appeal board hearings or in-person budget deliberation meetings, as have been held in recent weeks.
The cost for the technology required to host budget deliberations was about $5,000, council heard.
"The money for travel has been eliminated and that also included a reduction in meeting expenses," said Mayor Rebecca Alty. "But by eliminating those costs, it meant there would be no money for in-person meetings and there are costs to that that include a mix of web-based money to get technology from people like PIDO Productions."