City councillors met earlier this month to talk about Budget 2025 and the large deficit that is coming with it.

For now, city administration is expecting a budget shortfall of a little more than $40 million, mainly due to various capital projects.

"It is concerning, the cost of infrastructure projects now and how we'll be able to afford them in 2025 and beyond," Mayor Rebecca Alty acknowledged.

The governance and priorities reviewed a presentation on July 8 that detailed major capital projects in progress and others yet to start.

For 2025, they anticipate spending $15 million on renovations and repairs for city hall. The original anticipated cost was a third of that. Another major contributor to the shortfall is the spike in cost for a submarine water line, Alty explained. That project has ballooned to $62.7 million from $34.5 million.

"The submarine water line, we haven't begun yet, so we are taking a look at the difference between drawing form the bay versus drawing from the Yellowknife River," Alty said. 

She added that a risk assessment from Giant mine found that putting the submarine line in the bay might be more favourable.

As for renovations in city hall, Alty said that work hasn't started yet either.

She added that it's mostly city hall's interior that requires renovations, noting heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems as examples.

Meeting the anticipated budget shortfall may require another tax hike, said Alty. The municipality raised taxes by five per cent this year and 4.37 per cent in 2023. But, the mayor added that she and council are working at the federal and territorial level to increase the the City of Yellowknife's funding.

"When it comes to the federal government, we've really been pushing them to at least double our Canada Community Building Fund," she said.

That money goes towards capital projects. As of 2022, the Government of Canada reports that the community building fund for Yellowknife was $5.7 million.

As for job cuts at the city, it's too early to say, Alty noted.

"Right now, we're just taking a look at our capital as well as our budgets and seeing how we can budget them," she said.