In a rare appearance to city council, representatives from the NWT & NU Chamber of Mines will be attending MondaySA国际影视传媒檚 Governance and Priorities Meeting to bring awareness about the state of the mining industry.
Tom Hoefer, executive director of the chamber said he hasnSA国际影视传媒檛 addressed council since 2013 but feels there are SA国际影视传媒渨orrisomeSA国际影视传媒� and growing economic indicators that the city must address. Much of it is tied to the mineral industry.
SA国际影视传媒淥ne of big reasons for (MondaySA国际影视传媒檚 presentation) is the state of our mineral industry not being healthy,SA国际影视传媒� Hoefer said. SA国际影视传媒淵ellowknife is not just the administrative capital, but also the mineral industry capital where all of our exploration jumps off. The majority of diamond mine jobs are here in Yellowknife and the majority of businesses are out of Yellowknife.
SA国际影视传媒淵k has a vested interest in the health of the mineral industry and that is what we really want to flag with them.SA国际影视传媒�
The new city council was elected in October and passed its first budget on Dec. 10 with a $75.5 million budget 1.44 per cent property tax increase. Council is now in the process of planning its priorities for the coming four-year term, which will stretch into 2022.
Hoefer remains concerned that with economic indicators within the last year, including the Conference Board of Canada report predicting a SA国际影视传媒済rimSA国际影视传媒� economic future in the NWT, the city has a role to play to cut costs.
SA国际影视传媒淭he voices are growing louder and it is really based around our minerals industry and the fact that it is maturing, that we donSA国际影视传媒檛 have replacements in the wings and that there are expected future losses,SA国际影视传媒� Hoefer said.
SA国际影视传媒淭here are a couple of areas where industry can be helped. One is relieving cost pressures. You have a lot of people living in Yellowknife that work in the industry. Living in a high cost city, if costs were reduced, then it would help those workers and would help those companies that have to pay those workers and offset their higher costs.SA国际影视传媒�
Hoefer said the city should get behind a GNWT proposal to join the Taltson hydroelectricity power system to the Snare River system to cut costs for the city and by extension, mining companies.
