And then there were five – including a city staffer.

This morning, Colin LaForme, who works as a bylaw constable with the city, announced his intentions to seek the mayoralty in the Oct. 18 municipal election.

LaForme announced on the same day nominations closed in the race.

He plans to take a leave of absence from his job.

LaForme announced his plans to run for mayor today. He will go up against incumbent Mayor Dan Curtis, Wilf Carter, Rick Karp and Kelly Suits.

“I am very passionate about running for mayor,” LaForme said in a statement released on his website.

“This city has given me and my family so much, and has incredible potential; a potential that is being squandered by doing things the way we always have.

“I often hear, ‘that’s just how we do it here’; I want to break the status quo and help the city live up to its full potential.”

Among his major proposals, LaForme cited livability and affordability; growth; efficiency and modernization; safety and security; and the bigger picture as areas that need to be focused on.

He then highlighted initiatives to take under each issue with ideas around increasing housing dominating livability and affordability.

He noted the city could pursue those initiatives by:

• working with Ottawa to ensure the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.’s program to finance building of rental units makes affordable housing construction a priority;

• using funding from the federal National Housing Strategy to build new “purpose-built” rentals; and

• using grants under a Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) program to build green housing options.

LaForme also cited FCM grants “to build green, and functional development” in dealing with the continued growth of the city.

To address the growth, he suggested, there’s a need to unlock city land and work with other governments to co-develop community plaza options.

Also necessary, he said, are streamlining and modernizing the city’s Official Community Plan to expedite a number of initiatives.

Those include affordable housing and spaces for groups and providing incentives to architects, planners and developers for new construction that meets the needs of the North.

LaForme then went on to address efficiency and modernization. He outlined his plans to “get Whitehorse back on solid financial footing,” making sure tax dollars are spent efficiently on service delivery residents depend on.

Updating the city web page, internal modernization of the city, and negotiating new agreements with city service providers would help the community move toward that, LaForme noted.

On safety and security, in the city he highlighted:

• efforts that would focus on crime prevention;

• working with other governments to address crime;

• reducing speed limits in residential areas and those with high pedestrian use;

• working with the RCMP to enforce speeding in school zones; and

• replacing yield signs with stop signs at intersections.

LaForme cited plans to work with the federal and territorial government to increase the RCMP budget to properly staff and maintain operations.

He also envisions expanding bylaw officers’ roles to work more closely with the two First Nations in Whitehorse.

“When it comes to our safety, we can’t just wait for a crisis to act,” LaForme said

“As your mayor, I will be focused every single day on ensuring we all feel safe in every corner of our city.”

LaForme pointed out that all of the matters are intertwined in the bigger picture of the city.

He suggested other plans and designs from elsewhere could be used for positive change in the city, along with technology, looking at farming for better food security and creating communal spaces in the city.

Another list of individual items shows matters he envisions bringing forward to council for discussion. They range from traffic flow in a number of areas of the city to bike routes to the recreational use of facilities.

Along with his work as a bylaw officer, LaForme has experience working in education, justice and as an entrepreneur.

He also established the Yukon Men’s Basketball Association five years ago. He has extensive involvement in the local basketball community, having organized the Lights Out Tournament, coaching at various levels including at the Arctic Winter Games, and assisting with Special Olympics events.