3 Yellowknife councillors tell CBC what they hope to achieve as they start their 4-year terms

Yellowknife elected a new city council on Monday night of mostly new faces, along with two incumbents.

New councillors Rob Warburton and Cat McGurk, along with re-elected Stacie Arden Smith, spoke with CBC's Loren McGinnis, host of The Trailbreaker, Tuesday about their plans for the next four years.

The three, respectively, had the highest number of votes. Also elected were Tom McLennan, Garett Cochrane, Ryan Fequet, Steve Payne and Ben Hendriksen. Rebecca Alty was acclaimed as mayor.

Smith said one of the first orders of business for the new council will be about reviewing policies, and showing the new candidates the city's facilities. 

"That's going to be good for them to be able to see what our boundaries are and what it is that we actually have jurisdiction over," she said.

She said it will be important to use the feedback councillors heard from residents while campaigning.

"You have to take those with you because our job is to represent the community," Smith said. "It's not about … how we think and feel. It's about taking everybody's thoughts and feelings to the table and putting all those cards out."

Smith hopes to be back on the city's community advisory board on homelessness.

"It's where my heart is — for homelessness and reaching out toward addictions as well. It's one of the main reasons why I jumped into the pool in the first place," Smith said.

When it comes to the Tin Can Hill development — a hot topic during this election — she said it will be "interesting" with this new group of councillors, and added getting more information from the territory on the proposal will be key.

That's a sentiment McGurk agreed with.

"I hope that we can, in some capacity, hold the GNWT to account to actually provide meaningful engagement on these issues and actually consult with us and provide the information prior to having to issue these decisions," McGurk said.

McGurk said they learned a lot while being on the campaign trail with other candidates, door-knocking together and attending forums. One project McGurk hopes to touch on is community improvement grants, which would help residents to do projects in their community, instead of waiting for the city to do it.

"Sometimes [the projects are] very little, that can be as simple as building a short boardwalk," they said.

"It's both a way for us to build some infrastructure that is minor that we otherwise may not  get around to. But also, I think allowing residents [to] have more of an active stake in the community is really important for engaging in democracy in general."

Meanwhile, Warburton said over the years, he feels he's been "pretty consistent" when advocating to previous councils. Now, he's keen to work on some of those issues in his new position.

"Looking at who else got in last night was pretty clear to me that Yellowknifers also feel the same way," he said. "I'm just really keen to try to get those things done now, which I know are in reality much harder."

That includes having more discussions around the Tin Can Hill development. 

"We heard a lot at the doors and in forums about that, and different kinds of different opinions," he said. "A lot of folks that support that project got in."

When it comes to the emotional experience of being elected, Warburton called it "surprising."

"You know, you put your name in and you run and you want that outcome. But actually seeing it last night made it very real," he said.

All the elected members will be sworn in Nov. 7.