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Wednesday February 24 2016 3 SPORTS AND RECREATION CANADA WINTER GAMES www.rmwb.ca IMPORTANT MESSAGE FOR PROPERTY OWNERS ASSESSED PROPERTY VALUE PROPERTY TAX RATE PROPERTY TAX BILL x The Property Assessment Notices for the 2016 tax year will be mailed on Monday February 29 2016 to all Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo property owners. Property Assessment for the 2016 Tax Year reflects market value as of the legislated date of July 1 2015. If you would like to discuss your Property Assessment Notice or you did not receive your Property Assessment Notice please visit www.rmwb.ca or call 780.743.7900 and ask to speak with an Assessor. Assessors will be available 830am to 430 pm Monday to Friday. If youre still concerned with your Property Assessment Notice after speaking with an Assessor you can address your concerns with the Clerk of the Assessment Review Board accompanied by the appropriate filing fee between February 29 and April 28 2016. Additionally Council will set the 2016 tax rates in May. Property Taxes are determined by applying the appropriate tax rate to the assessed value shown on your Property Assessment Notice. 2016 Property Tax Notices will be mailed in early June. By DALI CARMICHAEL Yellowknifesplayforthe2023CanadaWin- ter Games likely met its end at a Feb. 16 coun- cil meeting where councillors unanimously announced their intent to vote against the bid. The final vote took place in a council meet- ing held the evening of Feb. 22 after the Jour- nals publication deadline but councillors strongly indicated they were not in favour of the multisport event. A lack of ready infrastructure economic instability in the territory and uncertainty over the territorial governments involve- ment in the Games were key factors cited in each of the councillors decisions. I do not support the games for many rea- sons of which many of my colleagues brought up including budget concerns lack of com- munity support as well - for me - the plan to not remotely host any alpine events said Councillor Niels Konge. The bid is shaky with the lack of an alpine hill decreasing the attractiveness of the proj- ectaddedcouncillorRommelSilverio.Weare also not on firm financial footing. The lack of a firm commitment from the GNWT to kick in 26 million in Athletes Village funding is an extremelytroublingfinancialitem.Theeconomy right now is not in a good shape where mines areclosingandshuttingdown.Wealsoneeded to look not just at preparing for the CWG but also after the games what are the implication to the Citys budget for all the infrastructure that was build for the games. The Games were also discussed in Fridays Legislative Assembly session where Munici- pal and Community Affairs MACA Minister Yellowknife city councillors reject winter games bid Robert McLeod took questions from MLA and former Yellowknife city councillor Cory Vanthuyne who has been an ardent sup- porter of the games. It is understood that a Games bid by the City of Yellowknife would require the GNWT to support its share of the operational infra- structure requirements as per the standard Canada Games tri-party agreement McLeod said. If the City makes a bid GNWT will mo- bilize our departments to come up with po- tential financing models to meet the GNWT funding obligations. He noted that the seven-year timeline lead- ing up to the games would allow for some flexibility to come up with the necessary funding to support our part of the Canada Winter Games. If the city decides to proceed with the bid ... the NWT Housing Corporation is prepared to enter and negotiate a 7030 cost split on the construction of an athletes village that will meet the needs of the Canada Winter Games and the NWT Housing Corporation for public housing. Given the expected in- crease in the number of seniors this would I do not support the games for many reasons including budget concerns and the plan to not remotely host any alpine events. Niels Konge Yellowknife city council also be a project that would benefit the se- niors in the NWT as well. Councillor Julian Morse said he and a ma- jority of the constituents he had consulted would rather see the funds funneled into community infrastructure projects includ- ing a new pool downtown revitalization and addressing issues with homelessness sooner rather than later. If youre going to invest 50 million about the Canada Winter Games thats money that you cant spend somewhere else Morse said. Henotedthattheterritorialgovernmentslack ofhardfinancialcommitmenttothegameswas indicative of a chronic struggle to split funding between Yellowknife and NWT communities. I thinks its obvious to say that the Canada Winter Games would benefit more than just Yellowknife if they came up but the territorial governmentisfarlesslikelytohelpthecitywith the funding for these sorts of things precisely because of the political situation here that the communities often fight funding for Yellow- knifehesaidnotingthattheYukonterritorial government had provided a majority of money for the 2007 Whitehorse CWGs. Theres this attitude that Yellowknife gets too much and for a thing as big as the Canada Winter Games theres no way we could have done it without the territorial government. VanthuynesaidtheWhitehorsegamescame with a 120-million price tag but the positive economic impact was massive. He said visi- tors spent nearly 9 million during those two weeks according to an independent economic impactstudyandmanyofthemindicatedthey were likely to return in the near future. The numbers game Those figures just werent good enough to convincecouncillorstovoteinfavourofthebid. When Whitehorse hosted the games they had more than 1800 visitors of those 1800 visitors only 250 were people that traveled to the games that werent participating Morse said. Now thats not to say that influx of peo- ple wasnt good for the economy at the time but I think that it shows that the case that the games are putting forward for tourism I think that stands on pretty shaky ground. The next opportunity for Yellowknife to host the multisport event wont be until 2049. Councillors said they are hopeful that Yel- lowknife and the territory as a whole will be in a better position to host the national- level games in the future. I do hope that in the future there is a push for a Canada games but we would have a much easier time supporting a sum- mer games bid as I believe that we either have or could build all the facilities that are required to host all the sports in a summer games said Konge. Talk to instructors see our new video- conferencing system in action and learn how a Business Administration or Office Administration education from Aurora College can set you up for a bright future. See what the School of Business Leadership can offer you When Monday February 29 400-600 PM or Thursday March 3 500-700 PM Refreshments provided Interested in a career in Administration Finance Economic Development or Management Where Thebacha Campus Room 212 Fort Smith For more information 867-872-7500 or infoauroracollege.nt.ca Applications will be accepted