Dawson Faces a Lean Financial Year

by Dan Davidson

After a year which saw the removal of a council for allowing the town to fall too far into debt and a $1.64 million bailout for operations and maintenance costs, Dawsonites could be looking at another lean year, according to the provisional budget worked up by trustee Ray Hayes and acting city manager David Skidd.

Provisional budgets are not final budgets, but there is a requirement under the Municipal Act for towns to make a rough projection of their finances by the end of December each year. Hayes and Skidd, with input from Dawson’s staff and the trustee’s advisory council, submitted this document to Minister of Community Services, Glenn Hart, on the last day of December.

The budget balances at $4,199,775.00, just over three quarters of a million less than the actual 2004 budget of $4,967,700.00 and well under the $5,059, 900.00 million that was projected for last year.

Perhaps the most alarming item in the revenue projections is that they foresee a further reduction in Dawson’s unconditional grant from YTG, which has declined or been frozen for the last decade. The budget expects it will drop to $1,100,000.00 from $1,186,900.00.

User fees for sewer and water services will increase by about $66,000. This will mean an as yet unspecified increase in rates.

In spite of layoffs and resignations at city offices the cost of running the town will increase from $645,700 to $780,100. Some of this will be due to the hiring of a new city manager. Interviews were held recently with five local candidates and a winner should be announced shortly. That person will be paid by the town whereas acting city manager David Skidd was on the YTG payroll.

On the expenses side, organizations that receive grants from the community will take another cut this year, as that part of the ledger drops from $100,300 to $83,000. The public works budget will increase from $455,100 to $835,425, in part because of some anticipated repairs and replacements which will be needed at the town’s water treatment plant.

There are no planned capital works for 2005, other than those which would fall under maintenance.

Tent City is Gone

by Dan Davidson

Unless something is done before the summer season, which tends to start in Dawson in late April and early May, dozens of transient workers are going to be scrambling to find places to live this year.

The West Dawson campground, otherwise known as Tent City, has seen its last season.

There have been seasonal campers on the west side of the Yukon River for many years. It is generally understood that the pool of local workers is generally insufficient in the summer to fill all the jobs that help drive the tourist industry. At one time there was a serious problem with people renting out yard pace for tents, running water

Tent City has been home to about one hundred transient workers every summer for the last several years, but 2004 was its last season. Photo by Dan Davidson.

lines to trailers parked in yards and generally turning portions of the town into a transient campsite.

Bylaws were passed to restrict this sort of activity during the late 1980s and early 1990s, and a supervised campsite with minimal seasonal fees was established within easy walking distance of the ferry landing. This was operated by the City of Dawson.

All this changed in 1997 during the Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in land claim process. The land in question was claimed by the first nation and the city agreed not to contest that in return for the Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in continuing to operate the site for “a minimum seven year period”.

That time has passed, and the first nation has served notice that it does not intend to continue the operation.

Deputy chief Clara Van Bibber addressed the matter in a letter to Trustee Ray Hayes.

“The seven year commitment has been met by TH and after consideration by TH Chief and Council, it is no THs intention to return the West Dawson C-88 land selection back to its natural state.

“This letter will serve notice that TH does not intend to operate a transient campground on the C-88 site during the summer of 2005.”

This was a matter which was on the long term agenda of the last two elected councils here, and had moved up to be dealt with the council which was removed in April 2004.

Among the suggestions discussed at various times was the establishment of a less convenient campground further up the road.

Former councillor Byrun Shandler agrees that some major decisions will have to be made fairly quickly before summer. Having a campground, he said, enabled authorities to have a handle on noise, garbage, human waste, campfires, danger from wild animals and a number of other things that could become more serious problems if campers simply go to ground all over town and in the surrounding woods.

Shandler thinks that an action committee made up of members from the chamber of commerce, the town, the first nation and any other interested parties should be assembled to come up with proposals to deal with the issue. From where he sits at Parks Canada, he hasn’t heard of anything along those lines and he says he’s worried.