City council is being asked to set how much weight should be given to local content on two requests for proposals administration is planning to release.

Administration is recommending no weight for local content be set for the review of fire services in the city as the work is specialized and will require expertise from down south.

On the other hand, administration is recommending the weight for local content should be set at 15 points for the review aimed at modernizing the technology of parking meters, as local knowledge will be a benefit.

Council passed a bylaw in June assigning itself the responsibility of setting the weight to be given local content in professional service contracts.

Submissions for professional contract work are assessed on a number of key items, such as past relevant experience and methodology.

Companies scoring 80 per cent on the key elements move on to stage two of the evaluation which looks at local content and fees.

For the fire services review, the field of work is specialized, says the administrative report presented to council at its meeting Tuesday.

“Appropriate consultants are highly experienced in the fire and rescue industry with a significant background in business administration, department management, risk management and fire department operations,” says the report.

“They also have access to technology to quantifiably illustrate response time/area gaps in accordance with established and accepted standards.”

The report also notes that it would be difficult to find a local firm which is not somehow connected to fire services in the city.

“It is important to have an external provider perform this review from an unbiased and non-influenced perspective,” says the report.

Administration is recommending the local content for the parking meter review be set at 15 points out of a maximum 20.

The intent of the review is to look at parking meter technologies in use in various cities across Canada, the report says.

“It is believed that this research and analysis could be conducted from Whitehorse,” it says.

“Local consultants have previously conducted parking and traffic-related studies. This weighting, at the higher end of the 1-20 range, has been selected to reflect the desire to reward partnerships with local firms who have knowledge of our City and the intricacies of our downtown parking.”

Council will vote next Monday on the administrative recommendations regarding how much weight should be given to local content in the two requests for proposals.