It’s time to tell a tale about a city website that’s costing taxpayers more than $100 a pop.

And that has at least one city councillor fuming.

“To me it’s a poor bang for your buck,” said Coun. Kerry Diotte.

“I think it’s just a poor value for what we’re doing.”

Launched in 2009, edmontonstories.ca is costing taxpayers about $131 per tale, when the amount of stories is divided by the amount spent to help produce them.

But the city is defending the spending, calling it an important promotional tool.

“This is the city’s major marketing and outreach effort,” said Edmonton spokesman Robert Moyles.

“Council has directed the city to attract people, compete globally, and this is the way we do that.”

In total, the city spent about $660,000 to run edmontonstories.ca last year, $778,000 in 2010, and $1.3 million to launch the site in 2009.

The EEDC contributed $500,000 to the start up costs.

Another $600,000 will be spent to run the site this year.

Coun. Kim Krushell said she thinks the site has potential to be a great marketing and recruiting tool.

However, she said the site should be reviewed to determine whether it’s effective.

“When we first initiated Edmonton Stories, I thought it was a neat way to market Edmonton,” she said.

“I definitely think we should reevaluate the program. What the outcome is, at this point, I don’t know.”

Right now, there are 342 stories on the site.

Site users contributed the bulk of the stories, though the city has a team that helps review and edit them.

Of all the expenses the site has racked up, the story team has accounted for $15,000 per year, totalling $45,000 over the past three years.

If you divide that by the 342 stories the team helped churn out, it adds up to $131 per story.

Of course, if you include all the other expenses — including marketing and social development — the figure per story gets significantly higher.

Diotte, who called on cuts to the program during 2012 budget deliberations, is calling on the program to be scaled back.

“When I read through this (website data) it got me angry,” he said. “I think Edmonton Stories has failed miserably.”

The site is touted as a place where residents can post their positive Edmonton experiences in written, video or audio form.

The idea is that the stories will lure more people to the Alberta capital — either to live or visit, according to officials.

Moyles said outside companies are starting to recognize Edmonton Stories as an important tool too.

Some companies have been using the site as a way to recruit workers.

“They’ve found it quite valuable,” he said.

This isn’t the first time the site came under fire.

In March 2010, the site earned a Teddy nomination from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation for costing $1.4 million to launch but attracting only a small number of out-of-town visitors.

But the city argued the federation’s figures were old and “erroneous,” and said they vastly underestimated the amount of traffic being generated by the site.

According to the city, the site attracts about 600 people per day, and about 400 of those people aren’t living in Edmonton.

In total, the site has had more than 1 million hits from 187 countries, the city said.

michelle.thompson@sunmedia.ca