Though the municipal election is still five months away, three city councillors have already entered the race.Councillors Shauna Morgan, Steve Payne and Julian Morse, all first-time members of the municipal government, have announced their intentions to run for a second term.
Before the campaign moves into full swing, Yellowknifer asked the incumbents to reflect on the last two and half years.
Steve Payne
"Yellowknife is in my blood," said Payne on Wednesday when asked why residents should elect him to a second term. "People come to me with issues and I bring them forward."
Payne is a partner at Ragged Ass Barbers and teaches hairdressing at St. Patrick's High School.
When Payne campaigned for the first time in 2015, he hung around Walmart, Canadian Tire and the Yellowknife Co-op, and "talked to everybody."
He spoke of his desire to fight homelessness and make day-to-day life in Yellowknife more affordable, he said.
But after winning a seat on council, Payne realized, "those are pretty tough topics to take on."
Now he understands that getting things done at City Hall is about working as a team.
The most challenging issue council has dealt with over the last few years, he said, has been launching an inquiry into workplace misconduct at the Municipal Enforcement Division.
Last November, the city's director of Corporate Services Sharolynn Woodward said property tax increases in the future will be necessary in order to keep city programs and infrastructure in good working order.
Shauna Morgan
Morgan doesn't want to make any promises she can't keep.
"There's no use in focusing on just one thing because as a councillor, you have to look at a huge range of issues and be open-minded," she said on Thursday. "It's more about the kind of person you're electing and how they make decisions and how they're going to approach any problem that comes along."
Morgan wants to see as much information and hear as many perspectives as she can before she makes a decision.
Outside of council, Morgan enjoys a wide-ranging professional life.
She is a piano teacher, a member of the Snow Castle building crew, a harvester of forest products and she does facilitation.
During the last election, she pledged to address poverty and homelessness and to make Yellowknife more walkable, bikeable and liveable. She also focused on cost-effective renewable energy sources for the city.
Among council's accomplishments, Morgan cited the hiring of eight additional firefighters, the roll-out of curbside composting and the wood-pellet boiler system.
Morgan's take on property tax changes is that it is "backwards" to start with a desired percentage and then, "work the books to reach that conclusion that you start out with."
Julian Morse
To Morse, filling in a pothole is about more than meeting a basic duty to maintain the roads.
It's about improving infrastructure and attracting tourists and new residents, he said on Wednesday.
Morse is particularly proud of the city's investments in road and sewer improvements.
"It's resulted in some short-term grumbling, but maintaining the infrastructure of the city is probably our most important task," he said.
A regulatory specialist with the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board, Morse is a born-and-raised Northerner who holds degrees from the University of British Columbia and Aurora College.
Morse said economic development and working toward a sustainable future in the long-term are especially important issues to him. Though he acknowledges there is still more work to be done, Morse is pleased with steps the city has taken to address homelessness.
On council, Morse has been the most vocal proponent of bringing a university to Yellowknife, and pushed to get a university feasibility study included in the 2018 budget.
FACT FILE: Who's in, who's out of city council race
- Mayor Mark Heyck – out
- Coun. Rebecca Alty – in for mayor
- Coun. Adrian Bell – in for mayor
- Coun. Linda Bussey – out
- Coun. Niels Konge – undecided
- Coun. Shauna Morgan – in for council
- Coun. Julian Morse – in for council
- Coun. Steve Payne – in for council
- Coun. Rommel Silverio – no response