The city will be asking affected residents whether they have any interest in some sort of loan program to drill a well.

However, that doesn't mean all council members are willing to go ahead with the program proposed by the Yukon government.

Coun. Doug Graham voted with the rest of council Tuesday evening in favour of a survey to gauge interest in some sort of loan program for wells. But he said the current loan system suggested is a 'non-starter'.

'There's just too many things that are not really good for the city,' Graham said. The city would be responsible for the administrative costs and for paying interest on money borrowed from the territory until it's loaned to property owners, he added.

'I still believe a rural well drilling program could be a good thing, but not this one,' he said.

Although most residential areas of the city are serviced by the city's water system, in country residential neighbourhoods, home owners are responsible for their own water. This can mean having water delivered by truck or paying thousands of dollars to drill a well, which may come up dry.

Outside of municipal boundaries in the territory, the Yukon government offers its well drilling loan program.

With the loan payments attached to property taxes, the same program could not be offered within municipal boundaries by the territory because it's the municipality which collects property taxes.

Municipalities were asked by the territory to consider administering a similar loan program. Most recently, the government announced it would lend the funds to cover the cost of loans to property owners to municipalities.

Graham, who also serves as president of the Association of Yukon Communities (AYC), isn't in favour of this program. However, he pointed out the AYC proposed a couple of alternatives to the government two or three weeks ago.

One suggestion was for the territory to administer the loans within municipal boundaries around the territory by writing second mortgages on homes.

'They already have the what would you call it? administrative structure in place because Yukon Housing (Corp.) writes mortgages all the time,' he said.

One of the biggest concerns for municipalities looking at offering the program is the administrative costs, especially in cases where someone may default on the loan and a municipality is faced with issues like repossessing property.

Though Whitehorse may be able to absorb the costs of administration, smaller communities cannot, Graham said.

'In the small communities, the administrative costs are killing them,' he said.

The other proposal AYC made to the government, if municipalities were to offer the loans, was to give the funds to municipalities interest-free, Graham said.

'We'd put it in the bank and use the interest to pay the administrative costs, but that's probably not such a good idea, because who knows how much money we're talking about?' he said.

'We just don't know, but it was one possibility.'

The government will likely take some time to review the suggestions, Graham pointed out.

'They probably will come up with something of their own, an alternative of their own,' he said. 'So we're looking forward to hearing about it, that's for sure, because it's a big concern.'

In the meantime, Graham said, it would be good to have some idea of how many residents in Whitehorse would want to take advantage of a potential well drilling loan.

At an earlier meeting, Mayor Ernie Bourassa expressed similar concerns over administrative costs and interest the city would pay on the program, referring to the potential program in the city as a 'crap shoot'.

The program would end up costing the city money, he said.

'If we borrow, say, $1 million, from YTG (the Yukon government), we would have to start paying interest,' Bourassa said at the May 16 council meeting.

'We may take six to eight months before we lent that money out. And over that six- to eight-month period, we're the ones paying interest.'

Another councillor would rather see the program move ahead quickly.

'My only comment would be that we should be moving along as fast as we can because if we drag our feet long enough, then the folks that need the help (will) have done something else,' Coun. Mel Stehelin said.

The survey will be mailed out within the next week to 10 days.

There will then be a response period with a report on the results likely coming back to council on June 20, said Dennis Shewfelt, the city's director of operations.