City councillors have shared with SA国际影视传媒 the issues they want to hear raised during this general election campaign and it's a wide-ranging bag.

Coun. Tom McLennan put his thoughts in the form of questions for all parties.

"Municipalities across the country, and especially in the North, are facing aging infrastructure at the same time as replacement costs are soaring," he said. "How would the parties fund municipalities to address this challenge?" 

One idea McLennan mentioned was passing along a portion of income tax revenues to or increase funding of the Canada Community Building Fund.

"Many federal programs are available to fund municipalities, however the timelines to apply and use these funds can be unrealistically short," McLennan added. "These funds can also be very time-consuming to apply for and report on if awarded as well as being inflexible if situations change."

He asked rhetorically how each party would make timelines for federal funding programs more realistic and less labour intensive for city staff to apply for.

McLennan also listed climate change as another concern. The GNWT is scrapping its version of the carbon tax come April 1, prompting him to ask how northern Canada is going to transition away from fossil fuels.

The next two topics he mentioned go hand-in-hand: housing and homelessness. For the former, McLennan wants to know if the parties will commit to continuing the Housing Accelerator Fund and Reaching Home Fund.

"If not, how will municipalities' efforts to increase housing supply be supported and how will money committed to municipalities under the program be handled?" he asked.

Coun. Ben Hendriksen put housing as his top concern. Like McLennan, he mentioned the need for ongoing support for the two funds. 

"These are two programs that have been critical to incremental improvements in housing generally and supportive housing specifically over the past few years," he said. "If these didn't continue as they are, what would a candidate and party propose to replace them with?"

Also important for Hendriksen is how candidates will advocate for funding that support either new and/or replacement infrastructure. 

He mentioned sewer and water lines as two examples.

"Across the country communities are struggling for investments in infrastructure. What will our candidates do to make the North, and Yellowknife specifically, a priority?" he asked rhetorically. 

Hendriksen mentioned the GNWT cutting its carbon tax as well. 

"Love or loathe it, and argue about effectiveness, for sure, but the carbon tax was a policy with the goal to have an impact on climate change," he said. "With that gone, and with the summers getting hotter with more intense fires and lower water levels and our winters getting shorter with impacts on winter road transportation, what are the candidates' proposals for climate policy in the life of the next parliament?SA国际影视传媒�

Coun. Rob Warburton went bigger-picture with one of his concerns: defence spending. 

If the federal government is serious about Arctic sovereignty, then it needs to include Yellowknife, he said.

"That includes the infrastructure and military spending up here," he said.

Warburton said he would also like the federal government to keep true to its promises, citing Defence Minister Bill Blair's announcement of $2.67 billion being allocated for building military hubs in Yellowknife, Inuvik and Iqaluit. But in reality, only $18 million would be available in the first five years.

"That's election money, that's not real," said Warburton. "That's saying 'I'm gonna spend money after my term.' That doesn't help us at all."

This has been an issue for both Liberal and Conservative governments over time, he added, and regardless of who forms the next government, Warburton said they'll need the NWT for its critical minerals and Arctic sovereignty.  

Coun. Garrett Cochrane, who has already publicly expressed support for Liberal candidate Rebecca Alty, said he wants to see a debate between parties.

"I would primarily like to see what the different parties' responses are to our current external issue with our formally most reliable ally," he said, talking about the United States.

On the municipal front, Cochrane mentioned funding for housing and infrastructure as priorities along with a discussion on disaster mitigation.

"Emergency management, especially post 2023, is all the more highlighted in it's necessity," said Cochrane. "Having a way to be able to address that with federal funds would also really assist this municipality and, even more, smaller municipalities. I think making a particular fund that addresses smaller cities, rural areas and Northern communities, would be a great way to start to address the climate change crisis that we are all going through."

See the next edition of Yellowknifer for the second part of answers from city council.