Leading up to the city's next budget, city councillors sat down on Oct. 21 to hear what projects the public is interested in.

For example: will there be new projects? Not anytime soon if some councillors have their way.

"I wouldn't be in favour of supporting any new spending at all," said Coun. Steve Payne, who also described this next budget as a kick in the guts. "This, for me, is going to be a 'back-to-basics' budget."

Whatever the next budget looks like, there's the possibility of a large shortfall that's coming with it. Back in July, Mayor Rebecca Alty spoke with SA¹ú¼ÊÓ°ÊÓ´«Ã½ and said the city is expecting to come up short by a little more than $40 million mainly due to various capital projects.

For 2025, the city is estimating at least $15 million be spent on renovations and repairs for city hall, for example. During the most recent council meeting, city manager Stephen Van Dine said during that number might actually be higher than anticipated.

Those renovations include fixing up city hall's heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems, Alty said back in July.

It's enough to make one resident, Rachel McVety, voice their concern. McVety was one of a long list of residents who wrote to the city with what they would like to see when the budget is eventually passed later this year.

Safe to say McVety was no fan of the proposed renovations.

"There is no need to add $15 million [to renovate] to city hall. If the city allowed people to work remotely, this issue would be removed," said McVety in her email to the city.

During the Monday meeting, Alty gave thanks to everyone who provided feedback as well, saying it was the most engagement received for a budget in a while.

However, Alty said she is not in favour of adding anything further on the budget plate when it comes to capital projects.

"At this time, I don't want to add anything to the budget, but I will take this feedback into consideration while I review it and go forward into deliberations in December," Alty said.

Coun. Garrett Cochrane sided with both Payne and Alty, saying the capital projects is keeping him up at night.

"I'm afraid that we are getting to a breaking point with that. So, anything we can do to assure our essential services don't balloon any more than they already are is incredibly important to me," he said.

Road safety seemed to be a high priority for some in their pitches to the city. Yellowknife resident Adam Denley had a number of them, including having multiple raised crosswalks.

Alison Ryan, another resident, asked for more bike lanes.

Coun. Rob Warburton is open to projects like that.

"Some iterations of those things, or some trying of those things, would not be adverse for me," he said.

Warbuton added that he'd be on board with improved winter maintenance for active transport infrastructure, which would feature things like multi-use paths, bike lanes, sidewalks and bike routes, according to Communities in Motion, the group that pitched the idea.

Even without anything new, the city still has much on its hands. Kavi Pandoo, the city's director of corporate services, noted the estimated cost for a new lift station has ballooned to more than more than $40 million from a revised cost of $15 million in 2022.

Warburton said that rise in cost terrifies him.

Van Dine said the station remains a priority for the city and is still one of their more central projects.

"We'll be digging into that a bit deeper," Van Dine said about the rising price, adding that the city is looking at other funding opportunities that could help offset the cost.

The draft budget will be presented on Nov. 12 with deliberations scheduled to happen at the beginning of December.