With the supervisor hiring people to clear snow and ordering town council which garbage bids to accept, there is a question as to who is running the show in Dawson City.

Dawson Mayor Glen Everitt confirmed today the town's government-appointed supervisor, Andre Carrel, hired someone to clear snow off the roof of the new recreation centre without discussing it with council. Carrel did inform Everitt over the weekend, via e-mail, that he was hiring the person.

Up to now, Carrel has mainly been in place to approve the town's financial plan and make sure council stayed within that guideline, since it is more than $4 million in debt.

But Everitt had no idea Carrel had permission to spend money without consulting council.

'It was a surprise to us. We don't have anything that tells us Mr. Carrel has the authority to hire,' the mayor said in an interview this morning.

However, Carrel's hiring was halted by the Yukon Worker's Compensation Health and Safety Board.

Occupational safety officials issued an order Monday that the snow removal be halted immediately because the roof beams in the new complex were twisting due to the weight of the snow, said board spokeswoman Becky Striegler. The twisting beams made it unsafe for anyone to be on the roof.

'No workers are to go on the roof at this time,' she said.

Due to the damage, the territorial fire marshal had already decided no one was allowed in the complex.

Everitt said council knew there was a problem with the structure of the roof not bearing the weight of the snow well, but wouldn't deal with it for safety reasons until an engineer inspected the roof.

Council was having a problem getting Carrel to OK spending the money for the inspection, according to the mayor, because the supervisor said it cost too much.

This morning, Community Services Minister Glenn Hart told Dawson staff the hiring of an engineer to inspect the roof had been approved.

Dawson has had issues recently with Carrel. They include not just in the hiring of snow removers, but also in its awarding of a new garbage contract.

Everitt said the town sent out a request for proposals on garbage collection in the town.

Officials received six proposals. According to Everitt, three were for basic garbage collection.

Those three were offering less than what the town is currently receiving, since the contractor does more than it's paid for, including cleaning garbage up on the waterfront and managing the bins in town.

'Three of those proposals were very limited to pick the garbage up and whip it into the landfill,' said Everitt. Those proposals were between $95,000 and $105,000 per year.

The other three were for $117,000 to $120,000 and were more 'progressive'. Everitt said these would mean more than just collection, and enabled for the contracts to be changed in the future if need be.

This was what council wanted. As well, the $117,000 was within the budget allotted in the financial plan, if the town increased revenues through collecting user fees, which it's planning to do.

With that in mind, the contract was given to Callison Waste Management, whose bid was $117,000.

Everitt said council did not go to the supervisor because this contract did not alter the bottom line of the financial plan.

But Carrel ordered the contract be rescinded and recommended to Hart that council be fired and replaced with a trustee.

Everitt said Carrel wanted council to write to Callison and say the contract had been rescinded because council erred and did not have the authority to hand out the contract.

As well, the supervisor said the letter needed to state that if there was any legal action, the council members who voted for the contract would be personally responsible.

While he originally balked at withdrawing the contract, Everitt has since rescinded it.

Hart said Monday he stood by his supervisor and if council defied Carrel's order, he would have turfed council and replaced it with Carrel as the trustee.

Everitt said it appears Carrel is already acting as a trustee. Hart confirmed Monday Carrel informed the banks the town deals with that no money can come out of its accounts without his signature.

'Do we even need to sign cheques anymore?' asked Everitt.

The opposition parties also wonder who's in charge in Dawson.

'You've got this guy who's micro-managing Dawson's daily affairs,' NDP Community Services critic Steve Cardiff said this morning. 'They're not being shown the respect that they deserve.'

'It's ludicrous. There's a duly-elected council in place. The supervisor is the supervisor,' Liberal Leader Pat Duncan added.

'He's clearly at odds with the duly-elected council. He's gone beyond what he should do as a supervisor.'

Both MLAs said this situation smells of political interference.

As well, they do not point their fingers at Hart but at Klondike MLA and Health Minister Peter Jenkins.

'He's the MLA and he should stick to his job as the MLA and stop messing around with the municipal government,' Cardiff said about Jenkins.

Duncan said Jenkins should stay out of this business.

However, Hart said he was the one who hired Carrel and kept him on and no one in government has said Jenkins has had any involvement in the Dawson issue.

Duncan said no one will have any proof of what goes on at cabinet. However, the long-standing feud between Jenkins and Everitt, coupled with Jenkins' comments about the town being in financial trouble when he was in opposition, point to the minister now interfering in the situation.

'It's no surprise he's perceived to be behind (this),' she said.

One rumour has suggested the government had a new supervisor lined up to take over from Carrel and that the person was local.

Everitt, who ran for the Liberals in the last territorial election against Jenkins, heard from 'many, many sources', some in government, that a person in Whitehorse had been approached to do the job.

That person agreed and suddenly, with the garbage contract issue coming up, Carrel was dictating to council and Hart was saying there would be no replacement.

The opposition has speculated the new hire was vetoed, possibly by cabinet.

Hart would not comment today but cabinet spokesman Peter Carr said Carrel remains supervisor and there was never any plan to replace him with someone local.