While it was Dawson City's debt which helped lead to the mayor and council being fired, the former supervisor recommends the territorial government should pay most of that off.

Andre Carrel, the town's former supervisor, wrote a report for Community Services Minister Glenn Hart which was tabled in the legislature yesterday.

The report talks about the $4-million-plus debt currently held by the town of 1,800.

'As long as Dawson is burdened with that debt, elected local government cannot survive, much less succeed,' Carrel wrote in his report

'The municipality's total long-term debt, including the cable TV loan and the recreation complex loan, should be reduced to $1.5 million.'

As part of that, Carrel said 'the government of Yukon should assume full responsibility for a secondary sewage treatment facility in Dawson, including design, construction and financing.'

Carrel believes the territory shouldn't pay for everything in Dawson City.

'I am recommending a limit to the bailout' Yukon taxpayers offer to Dawson residents. My recommendations would have Yukon taxpayers assume the bulk of Dawson's debt and all the risk associated with the design, construction and financing of a secondary sewage treatment facility. That is a lot, and it would be most generous of Yukon taxpayers. They should not expected to do any more,' he said.

Besides being required by the courts to build a secondary sewage treatment plant, the town also has a new recreation centre that is rife with problems, including a roof which buckled somewhat in the winter under the weight of snow.

'The recreation complex should remain a problem for Dawson citizens, taxpayers and their council to sort out among themselves.'

Carrel used his report to spread the blame for Dawson's dire financial situation.

He said the political responsibility for taking on a loan from the territorial government he believes Dawson City could not afford 'rests equally with the government of Yukon and the council of the City of Dawson.'

Carrel believes council should have taken the loan to a referendum. He also notes there was no word of caution from then Liberal Community Services minister Pam Buckway of Dawson taking on the debt.

'To be critical now of the manner in which that loan was authorized by the minister is not a case of 20/20 hindsight. The inevitable consequences of this loan were plainly visible at the time the loan was approved,' he wrote.

Carrel also decided to target some of his blame at the staff of both governments.

'The chief administrative officer (CAO) of the City of Dawson and the deputy minister of Community Services for the government of Yukon are responsible for the fact that neither the minister nor council were presented with the kind of hard, realistic information that politicians need to come to an informed decision,' wrote Carrel.

'Dawson's CAO and the Yukon government's Community Services deputy minister failed in their duties by not producing, in writing, an urgent warning about the financial consequences that a loan of that size would have on Dawson and the Yukon.'

The loan was for $4.48 million.

Carrel said that once the measures he's recommended, including paying off much of Dawson's debt, are in place, 'the minister should return the government of Dawson to a democratically elected council.'

Currently, Ray Hayes is in charge of the town as its government-appointed trustee.