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(The author of My Little Corner is still recovering from an operation. Get well soon John!)
Bureaucrats from the Town of Iqaluit and the federal government have all but decided where Iqaluit's new Nunavut buildings will be located but only now will Iqalungmiut get a chance to see what's been decided for them.
ANNETTE BOURGEOIS
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT It's Friday afternoon.
The downtown area of Iqaluit is congested with vehicles and pedestrians, as people leave work, go to the bank, pick up children from daycare, and stop at a restaurant for dinner.
The dust swirls around broken pavement as scores of people, unassisted by sidewalks, try to keep out of the path of traffic.
The "four corners" area where the Ring Road crosses the Airport Road is the busiest area in Nunavut's capital.
That's why many people are puzzled that it's the spot chosen by Iqaluit Town Council as the site for two new Nunavut government office high rises.
Iqaluit town councillors gave federal officials permission last fall to consider the downtown location as the site for office buildings for federal and Nunavut government employees.
Plans unveiled next week
For months they've been tight-lipped about what's planned for the area, but next week they'll reveal their plans to a Town committee.
The newly renovated Parnaivik Building, headquarters of the Qikiqtani Inuit Association, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc and Qikiqtaaluk Corporation, as well as other offices, shares part of a corner lot with the federal government.
Across the road on the opposite lot sits an old military building, home to Nunanet, Iqaluit's Internet service provider.
The Kamotiq Restaurant occupies another corner facing the Iqaluit Hunters and Trappers Association building and Nunavut Arctic College's arts and crafts centre.
"We thought of the downtown area as being the most favorable," said Brian Hellwig, chair of the Town's development committee, which will hear three development proposals for the area next Wednesday.
A traffic nightmare?
QIA President Lazarus Arreak disagrees. He said an already hazardous traffic situation will worsen when dozens more people are working in the area.
He said the Town has major work to do to improve the current situation, including widening the road, installing traffic lights, and constructing sidewalks.
"And they're thinking of adding 40 or 50 more cars to the area?" Arreak said. "We're very concerned with safety."
The council committee will get a look at three plans to develop the four corners lots at the July 2 meeting. The meeting is open to the public, but there's no formal process to allow people to make presentations.
However, Arreak said he's planning to ask the committee to let him voice his concerns.
"That's when they get into trouble when a project of this magnitude is done with very little input," he said.
Public shut out of the process?
And it's not just QIA members who are unhappy with how the public has been shut out of the process. Several groups have approached the Town recently requesting that it hold a public meeting, but that request was denied.
Iqaluit Chamber of Commerce President Mike Hine said the development of the downtown core has a direct effect on the business community and it wants a say.
But time for public consultation is running out. The federal government wants to have the design for the buildings completed by August in order to have everything in place for the 1998 construction season.
Hine fears the public is being left out of a process being driven by federal bureaucrats in the South.
One of the organizations most affected by the four corners development is the Hunters and Trappers Association.
Affected agencies left in the dark?
Their building would have to be moved or torn down to make way for offices or parking space. HTA secretary Sara Phillips said she's unaware of any plans to develop the area and no one has ever contacted the association.
Nunavut Arctic College, whose arts and crafts building is less than 10 years old, is one of the few organizations that hasn't been left in the dark. Iqaluit Campus Director Dave Wilman met with Town staff and federal officials Tuesday afternoon to discuss the project.
Wilman wouldn't comment on the college's position until he has a chance to talk with Nunavut Arctic College President Greg Welch, who's on vacation.
It's expected that arts and crafts centre would also have to be moved to pave way for the development. The meeting was to encourage college officials to come on side with federal officials.
"It was to discuss a parcel of their land and brief them on the future aspirations of one of their lots and building," said Iqaluit's town engineer, Ian Mosher.
Council will decide
After federal officials present their three options to the committee member, they can either outrightly reject all of them or choose one and recommend that design to council. Council will meet Tuesday to decide on any recommendations.
Whether or not the public will have a say in that process is up in the air as see-sawing continues about who's responsibility it is to let Iqaluit residents know what's going on.
Mosher said it's up to the federal government, not the Town, to advertise if it wants the public to be informed.
"We don't really think we should take the ball and we've made that clear to the federal government," Mosher said. "We don't see it being our role to take responsibility for a presentation to the public, public opinion or a presentation to the committee. It's their development."
Mosher added, however, he's planning to personally invite several groups.
"It's our intent to call all the community group representatives and it's up to them to inform their members," he said. "We don't plan to advertise."
Residents can be kept in the dark
If council approves a motion to accept one of the three plans, it isn't obligated to inform Iqaluit residents of that decision. It must, though, hold a public meeting if it plans to amend a bylaw. Bylaw amendments will depend on the type of development accepted for the area.
Back to Nunatsiaq NewsPurchase seals airline's bid to extend control of air service across the Arctic
DWANE WILKIN
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT First Air has further expanded its northern empire by acquiring troubled NWT Air from Air Canada.
With 180 employees and revenues of roughly $50 million, NWT Air operates a number of passenger and cargo routes in the western Arctic, including direct flights from Rankin Inlet to Winnipeg, and from Yellowknife to Edmonton.
Details of the purchase were not disclosed, but First Air hastened to assure customers and suppliers that no immediate changes to NWT Air's routes are planned.
Andrew Campbell, vice president of sales and commercial operations at First Air, told Nunatsiaq News that the airline is in no hurry to drop the NWT Air logo, either.
"In the interim we will keep First Air and NWT Air separate. NWT Air will retain the brand and First Air will retain its brand," said Campbell.
"We want to be in a situation where we operate it and see how it actually works and get our feet wet, before we make any moves any other way.
With 750 employees and revenues reported to be in the vicinity of $110 million last year, First Air, a wholly owned subsidiary of Makivik Corp., is already the dominant carrier in Canada's North.
Since purchasing Ptarmigan Air in 1996, First Air has added connections to Yellowknife, Gjoa Haven, Cambridge Bay, Pelly Bay, Rankin Inlet, Coppermine and Resolute to its roster of regularly scheduled flights.
The company began a due diligence review of NWT Air's financial operations several months ago. The deal announced last week will permit First Air to restructure delivery of services to several western Arctic communities.
"I don't think it was a profitable organization the last couple of years, but it was pointed in that direction, possibly, this year, from what we've been able to see," said Campbell.
"So we only hope that we can make it profitable, and go from there."
The deal with Air Canada was greeted with some apprehension by business customers in the Baffin region, who expressed concern about the concentration of ownership in the northern airline industry.
Business anxiety
Mike Hine, president of the Iqaluit chamber of commerce, said the 1995 withdrawal of Canadian North from north-south routes to Montreal and Ottawa resulted in several rate increases for passenger and cargo service.
"We are concerned that the same situation might occur in the east-west routes, should Canadian decide to leave the marketplace," Hine said in a press release.
The Iqaluit chamber of commerce has called on First Air for assurances that the company will do everything possible to control its operating costs and limit freight and passenger rate increases.
The takeover effectively removes a key competitor for north-south routes in the Keewatin region, but business leaders there remain comforted by the continued presence of Canadian North.
"They're still going to have to compete with Canadian, so I don't see them being able to raise prices over here," Bob Leonard, vice president of the Keewatin Chamber of Commerce, said.
A good match
Ray Mercer, a cargo agent for both NWT Air and First Air in Rankin Inlet, actually welcomed news of the takeover.
"It's a good thing to see that you have one professional airline buying another, so at least the purchasers have a knowledge and understanding of running the business," said Mercer.
"I think both airlines should benefit from this move."
Bad for workers?
But a spokesman for the union representing flight attendants at NWT Air warned that the purchase of the airline could be bad for workers and customers alike, in the long run.
"We think it'll be to the detriment of our people," said Roy Findley, secretary treasurer of Teamsters Local 362.
Findley said the growth of First Air's monopoly is directly related to the deregulation of the airline industry.
"Deregulation hasn't done anything for our people. The job opportunities are less, and they're dominated by one company," he said.
Insiders say, privately, that the airline's disappointing financial performance was partly due to restrictions placed on it by Air Canada, which prevented NWT Air from offering direct flights to vacation destinations in the U.S.
No fleet exchange
Air Canada and First Air already cooperate closely under joint reservations and marketing agreements.
NWT Air's fleet consists of three Boeing 737s and Canada's only commercially operated Super Hercules Turboprop. The 737s, leased from NWT Air's founder, Bob Engle, are not destined for use on routes currently served by First Air's aging fleet of Hawker Siddleys and Boeing 727s, Campbell said.
"At this time we don't see any intermix of the aircraft type."
Back to Nunatsiaq NewsDWANE WILKIN
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT If northerners really want more choice when it comes to airline service, they should consider actively soliciting competitors.
That's the advice of Phillip Cyrenne, a professor of economics at the University of Manitoba, who specializes in competition and regulatory policy.
Cyrenne says there's nothing to stop consumers from getting together and negotiating a long-term contract to buy air services from a carrier other than First Air.
"My prediction is that it would probably be hard to get fairly large airplane service in the North, but it doesn't strike me as being unreasonable for some smaller operators to come in," said Cyrenne.
First Air announced its purchase of NWT Air from Air Canada last week, a move that now allows Makivik Corp. to extend its airline monopoly across the Canadian Arctic.
Passengers and business customers alike have complained that the airline's prices are unfair.
In the South, discount carriers such as Greyhound have been a continuous source of downward pressure on prices.
"But in the North," said Cyrenne, "if there aren't any other carriers who are willing to go in, then that's going to leave a greater margin for First Air to raise its prices."
A better deal could be a simple matter of shopping around, though.
Without transportation regulators dictating who can fly where, entry into the airline business is relatively easy, Cyrenne says.
What the northern business community could do, he says, is form a "buyers group" to negotiate the lease of bulk airline services from an alternate carrier.
"Running an airline isn't as complicated as it seems. You can call a broker, hire a pilot, and what you need is a sort of ticket-reservation service.
"As long as you can land somewhere, and take off somewhwere, it's like a taxi on wings.
"That's one way you can beat a monopoly."
Back to Nunatsiaq NewsDWANE WILKIN
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT NWT Air workers can expect layoffs if the airline's new owner decides to merge operations with First Air, a union spokesman said this week.
"If there's amalgamation, definitely there'll be a loss of jobs," Roy Findley, secretary-treasurer for the Teamsters Local 362, predicted.
First Air, now Canada's third largest domestic airline, completed its takeover of the Yellowknife-based carrier last week for an undisclosed sum.
Scott Bateman, NWT Air's new president and chief operating officer, has promised better service and improved finances will result from greater operating efficiencies.
Some of those efficiencies could eventually come from merging head office operations, and by sharing a system of ticket reservations.
They probably won't come from lower wages.
Although the sale doesn't immediately affect existing contracts with employees, First Air may actually have to expand its own collective bargaining to accomodate unionized NWT Air workers.
Whereas flight attendants are the only First Air employees to enjoy union membership, nearly all non-management staff at NWT Air are unionized.
Several unions
In addition to the Teamsters Union, First Air will have to deal with the Canadian Air Line Pilots Association and with the Canadian Auto Workers Union, which represents reservations, cargo and ramp workers.
Bateman, First Air's corporate comptroller, who has had previous stints with Air Inuit and Makivik Corp., was to begin meeting with employees this week in Yellowknife.
Findley's Teamster's bargaining unit represents 35 workers at NWT Air. Flight attendants with First Air are members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).
If First Air pursues a complete merger of First Air and NWT Air operations, Findley said it will be up to the Canadian Labour Relations Board to decide which union should represent the amalgamated airline's flight attendants.
"It's our information that the plan is to run the the company separately for a period of time, and if that's the case then the certificatons will remain in place and the agreement will remain in place," said Findley.
First Air's vice president of sales and commercial operations, Andrew Campbell, said the airline has no immediate plans for staff reductions.
Back to Nunatsiaq NewsDWANE WILKIN
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT Greenland's prime minister is reported to have offered his territory as a disposal site for dismantled Russian and U.S. nuclear warheads.
According to Reuters news agency, a Danish newspaper quoted Lars Emil Johansen last week as supporting a proposal to establish a secure storage site in northern Greenland for weapons-grade uranium and plutonium.
The idea for the storage site comes from a study prepared for the U.S. Department of Energy by the Rand Institute, a private American strategic think-tank.
In it, the authors argue that the quickest way to solve the world's current oversupply of nuclear weapons is to transport them to a remote facility for burial, or for use as a future source of fuel in nuclear energy programs.
"A storage site should be considered a strategic material prison, where the contents are dangerous, escape is physically prevented and release subject to considered procedures," the study's authors write.
Greenland, in fact, is only one of several potential locations for a nuclear weapons depot, according to the Strategic Material Accelerated Removal Talks (SMART) proposal. Canada, too is mentioned.
Plutonium sent to Canada
"Another option is a 30-year program of burning plutonium in CANDU reactors in Canada. SMART could seamlessly be integrated with this option if U.S. and Russian excess material were stored in Canada," the report continues.
The Rand paper, written in 1996, notes that Greenland has experienced economic difficulties since the closing of an important lead and zinc mine in the late 1980s, and that "the additional employment and income resulting from nuclear storage facilities ...could be a significant incentive for the acceptance of such facilities."
Qaanaq contaminated by accident
The nuclear warheads could be stored 200 kilometres from Grise Fiord at Qaanaq, (Thule), site of a major U.S. military base, the authors suggest. There they would be guarded by a multinational security force.
Thule housed nuclear-armed U.S. bombers during the 1960s and was the site of an accident that resulted in radioactive contamination of the area in 1968.
Prime Minister Johansen was quoted as saying Greenland would like to contribute to world peace.
During World War II, when Denmark was under German occupation, the U.S. government took over Greenland as a protectorate. Denmark turned down a U.S. offer to buy Greenland in 1946.
Back to Nunatsiaq NewsBaffin drug bust nets two
DWANE WILKIN
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT Police have charged a legal aid worker from Iqaluit with drug trafficking after intercepting a shipment of hashish they believe was destined for sale in Igloolik.
Police say they were led to the shipment by an Igloolik man who RCMP in Igloolik had previously charged with simple possession.
Cpl. Glen Siegersma of the RCMP's drug section in Iqaluit said police believe that an Iqaluit man was using the Igloolik man to transport the drugs to Igloolik.
Two ounces of hashish, worth between $1,200 and $1,500 dollars in Iqaluit, would command at least twice that price in Igloolik, Siegersma estimated.
"Taking $3,000 or $4,000 out of a community the size of Igloolik is a fairly large economic bruise to the community," he added.
Francis Piugattuk was charged last Friday with trafficking in a narcotic. He is scheduled to appear in territorial court on August 25 to enter a plea.
Piugattuk is a long-time employee of Maliiganik Tukisiiniakvik, Iqaluit's legal aid centre.
Under Canada's new Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, the maximum sentence for a trafficking in a narcotic is 15 years in prison.
Piugattuk is on an undertaking to notify the RCMP before he leaves the community.
Jose Awa of Igloolik, who is charged with simple possession of a narcotic, will have a court appearance in Igloolik at a date that's yet to be determined.
Back to TopIn Transition:
More people, more responsibility, more opportunity for development and more pressure on communities. As construction projects get underway this summer to prepare for Nunavut's creation in 1999, Nunatsiaq News is pleased to offer the first instalment in a series of articles that examine the impact of this rapid development on those 11 communities chosen to be part of Nunavut's decentralized government, Nunavut's Communities in Transition.
In transition: Igloolik mayor Aime Panimera says residents embrace the opportunity that infrastructure development will bring, but are aware that change can't come without some risk
ANNETTE BOURGEOIS
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT Igloolik residents pride themselves on their ability to adapt readily to change. They'll need to rely heavily on that ability as this community of 1,175 residents braces for an influx of 250 people over the next two years.
"It's going to be quite a difference," said Mayor Aime Panimera.
Situated on the flat expanse of Melville Peninsula, Igloolik marks the geographic centre of Nunavut. It's also one of 11 communities chosen as a base for decentralized Nunavut government operations after April 1, 1999.
It's a challenge, Panimera added, that the hamlet is eager to meet.
That desire was apparent when residents made an unsuccessful bid to be the legislative capital of the new territory, a title Nunavut residents bestowed on Iqaluit in a 1995 plebiscite.
Losing out on the capital was a disappointment, Panimera admits, but it's made residents more determined to share the spoils of Nunavut.
"Once we found out we're going to become one of the headquarters, we were satisfied with this and began work for this."
More than other communities rewarded with government offices, Igloolik considers itself well prepared for the changes.
It's one of the oldest northern communities with a history, some say, dating back 4,000 years. It's also one of the fastest growing. Igloolik's population has risen 27 per cent over the past 10 years, from 857 residents in 1986 to 1,174, according to the 1996 census.
After Iqaluit and Pond Inlet, the increase marks the third largest population jump in the Baffin region.
Social welfare considered
The priority for these residents as they head toward 1999 is the social health of their community. The hamlet has recently taken control of the social services from the territorial government.
"We want to try to minimize the social problems that might and will arise with the population increase."
Panimera said he's bracing for an increase in alcohol and drug abuse even though the community is a controlled community. That means anyone wishing to bring in alcohol must apply to a hamlet committee, which is now concentrating on drug-free education.
"It will no longer deal with day-to-day liquor applications," Panimera said. "It will be promoting alcohol-free (lifestyles)."
Exactly what department of government will move into Igloolik hasn't been made public, but it's expected the community will be the seat for cultural affairs.
"We might be advanced in various areas, but we're also traditional and we live in one of the oldest communities in Nunavut," Panimera said. "We feel this is a perfect place for the culture department."
Demographics encouraging
Although it's one of the oldest communities, Igloolik has a very young population. It's estimated average age is about 30. Unemployment plagues the community, which can boast little more than 234 full time employees, 68 of which are GNWT positions.
In 1994, 37 per cent of Igloolik residents were out of work, yet only 5.8 per cent, or 274 people, were identified by the GNWT Labour Force Survey as "wanting a job."
Social assistance funding doubled in the community from $650,000 in 1990 to nearly $1.2 million in 1993.
To Igloolik residents, a decentralized Nunavut government and the construction boom that comes with it is a relief from chronic unemployment.
Fifty per cent of the employees to be hired for the start-up of the Nunavut government will be Inuit. Igloolik residents have been educating themselves through intensive college courses in management and administration to be ready for those jobs.
"I am very confident in the people of the community," Panimera said.
There will also be plenty of jobs in the area of construction if Nunavut Construction Corporation president Tagak Curley keeps his promise to employ 50 per cent Inuit this year, rising to 85 per cent by 1999. NCC has also promised an intensive apprenticeship training program for Inuit.
The NCC will construct 12 residential units in Igloolik this summer. To ensure the local population is involved in as much of that construction as possible, the hamlet has formed an economic development committee.
"It's not only the local contractors, but the local people and trying to prepare them to get into the apprenticeships and take advantage of the construction as much as possible.
"I'm confident there will be quite a number of graduates of the apprenticeships that NCC is proposing to implement in the community.
"I don't see too much of a problem provided NCC will do what they say they will do - such as tendering out as much work as possible."
Job interviews next week
The NCC training co-ordinator and project organizer will be in Igloolik within the next couple of weeks to interview for the construction jobs.
As well as the NCC construction, the local housing corporation will build six access units and a four-apartment senior's home is also scheduled for this year's construction season. Local hotel operators are also planning the construction on a new hotel, however, that hasn't been confirmed.
Non-Inuit first settled in Igloolik in the 1930s by establishing a Roman Catholic mission. By the late 1950s Hudson's Bay Company and the RCMP had moved in and a school, nursing station and Anglican mission had all been established.
Igloolik's Inuit population remains at about 90 per cent of the total.
This will change dramatically when the population surges. Most of the 250 people who will take up residence in the community are expected to be non-Inuit.
"We've thought about that, but we feel very strongly that although Igloolik is one of the older communities, we're one of the communities that adapt to change very easily."
An increase in population will also put on strain on existing municipal services. That's not something the hamlet is worried about, though, because the territorial government, through the Municipal and Community Affairs (MACA), is providing extra funding.
"I don't see much of a problem," Panimera said. "We'll be getting funding to hire about six more people to help out with municipal services."
He added the hamlet is adding a water truck, sewage truck and fire truck to its stock. The water resevoir and sewage lagoon will also be expanded to handle the increase.
Jet service to Igloolik?
The hamlet has been pushing MACA to extend its airport to allow jets to land, thus partly reducing the cost of living in the hamlet. A 1991 study of food costs in the Northwest Territories revealed that an average family of four in Igloolik spends about $306 for a basket of food. The only community where families spent more was Arctic Bay at $311.
The territorial government hasn't budged, but Panimera continues to press the issue. Also on the hamlet's wish list is a new nursing station to replace its 25-year-old one.
"We feel the existing nursing station is getting too old. We feel we need a bigger nursing station and a doctor in the community."
Health and Social Services Minister Kelvin Ng told Panimera during the annual meeting of municipalities last month that it isn't funding that's the problem; it's getting doctors to commit to working in small, remote communities.
But Igloolik knows its limit and has rejected an offer by the GWNT to turn over control of its public works and housing association departments to the hamlet.
"They wanted us to take the DPW and housing association over, but we told them because they are so similar, we felt they needed to be amalgamated first. They're not really priorities on our list. We told them we can wait for them to be working together before we'll start talking about taking them on."
Back to TopANNETTE BOURGEOIS
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT The company building the residential and office buildings for the Nunavut government may have to go outside the territory to find skilled labor.
"That's a preoccupation of our training co-ordinator," said Nunavut Construction Corporation president Tagak Curley.
Curley said he's recruiting not only in the 11 communities affected by a decentralized government, but throughout Nunavut. This week NCC officials travelled to Coppermine seaching for apprenticeship trainees and site superintendents. Coppermine is one of five communities where NCC will construct residential units this summer.
"There's only so much of a labor pool in particular communities," Curley said.
Curley suggested that, because of a lack of skilled laborers in Nunavut, NCC may have to look to the western territory or southern Canada for workers.
"Maybe for some of the skilled labor force," he said. "If we can't find any certified carpenters then we may have to look elsewhere. At the moment our plans aren't at that stage."
Curley said he's in the process of determining how big a workforce he'll need during the next three construction years.
"We're just now starting to put the detailed community plans for employment labor together."
Curley wants to have the labor force hired by the end of July. Construction will begin in Arviat in August, where supplies arrive early, and as late as September in Igloolik, depending on the arrival of the sealift. NCC will also build in Iqaluit and Cape Dorset this summer.
Curley said he's committed to employing 50 per cent Inuit, even in the plumbing, electrical, mechanical trades.
Although the company had only six months to designs plans and order supplies for this year's sealift, Curley is satisfied with the pace.
"Things are going great," he said.
Next year NCC will concentrate on building office buildings in the communities.
Back to TopHealth boards must be accountable
Excellent editorial in your last (June 20) edition: Health board fails communities.
I hope this editorial will awaken people to what can happen and will happen when board members are not kept informed or not encouraged to take part in discussions, decisions and open line shows on health issues with the stakeholders, the public.
All health boards are run on public money, so we have to be accountable to the public.
Please encourage your readers to have more public meetings when important issues arise. For example, what do people think about privately owned hospitals?
What do members of the public think about privately-owned organizations taking over boards, and health and social services and their CEOs? Are these important issues?
The Baffin Regional Health and Social Services board has implemented a 10-year preventive health program. The Baffin Health and Social Services board sees dental therapists as a vital part of the program. I don't have to go into details of how important these therapists are to our children.
Health and Social Services board members need to speak the same language when it comes to understanding issues, the needs of communities and ethical matters. Health boards must, ultimately, be able to speak with one voice, such that issues are discussed and agreed upon, taking into consideration each individual board member's community needs.
Ann Meekitjuk Hanson,
Chair, Baffin Regional Health and Social Services Board.
Iqaluit
hanson@nunanet.com
That was a very good editorial on the Keewatin Regional Health Board (June 20 Nunatsiaq News). I fully agree with you. They don't know how to spell two words: consulting and accountability.
In the 1980s, as you stated, we (I was the President of the Kivalliq Inuit Association at the time) were asked to help finalize the transfer of health responsibilities from the government of Canada to the GNWT. We did so with the understanding that Inuit would play a major role in delivering comprehensive health care to Inuit of the Keewatin Region.
We were stupid enough to place our trust in the government. The Health board is now hiring many people from southern Canada. So much for northern hiring.
Peter T. Ernerk
Rankin Inlet
Do the people who belong to Iqaluit's current town council and work for the Town's administration all have vision problems? Including the ones who don't have to wear glasses?
After observing how they've managed to completely ignore Iqaluit residents in planning for Nunavut's capital infrastructure, you'd be forgiven for thinking so because they're now acting as if Iqaluit's 4,000 people are totally invisible.
It wasn't that way in 1995 when the Iqaluit-for capital-committee spent tens of thousands of dollars hustling us for our votes on plebiscite day. But after luring us inside the polling stations to romance us into voting Yes for Iqaluit, our fickle suitors in municipal government now appear to have abandoned us.
After years of listening to noisy declamations about what a great capital Iqaluit might make, the people who actually live in Nunavut's capital are now being treated as if they don't even exist.
That's too bad. There are many community members who could have called attention to the municipal planning disaster that the brainiacs working for Ottawa and Iqaluit appear to have cooked up for us.
At a council committee meeting on Wednesday, July 2 town councillors will look at options for locating new Nunavut government buildings on sites within Iqaluit.
The option that the anonymous bureaucrats seem to favor is one that would dump a cluster of new Nunavut government office buildings some perhaps as large as the Browne building onto Iqaluit's busiest corner.
That's where the Ring Road crosses the Airport Road the juncture whose four corners are now occupied by the Kamotiq Inn, the old HTA building, the old T-1 building and the Parnaivik building.
If that plan is carried out, scores, and perhaps hundreds of Nunavut government employees will all be forced to drive to the same small area, every day.
If that plan is carried out, Iqaluit will have made the same disastrous mistake that much larger cities have made all over the world. That mistake is to separate the places where people live from the places where people work.
The sprawling suburban-style development of Happy Valley and the new Apex Road subdivisions which have eaten up many acres of land between Iqaluit and Apex are already leading Iqaluit into that mistake. Because they live so far away from where they must work, shop and obtain other services, residents of those areas have no choice but to get into their cars and drive.
Fifteen or 20 years ago, there were relatively few privately-owned motor vehicles in Iqaluit. But now most adult residents seem to own at least one car or truck. And scores of new cars and trucks arrive every summer on the sealift.
More car owners equals more traffic. More traffic means more wear and tear on Iqaluit's rapidly deteriorating road system, and more traffic means more noise, dust and eventually, more air pollution. More traffic equals more danger for pedestrians especially children and elders who have no sidewalks to walk on anywhere.
Under the four corners proposal, the bureaucrats working for Ottawa and Iqaluit don't even seem to have considered where all those new Nunavut government employees will park all those new vehicles they'll need to get to work, let alone how Iqaluit's long-suffering pedestrians will protect themselves from being run over.
As the government that's responsible for municipal planning in Iqaluit, the Town should have made a major effort to consult the community about Nunavut infrastructure issues a long, long time ago.
Instead they've been arbitrarily and quietly working out their own deal with Ottawa's bureaucrats behind our backs.
Those who have lived in Iqaluit for all or most of their lives will remember the last time Ottawa dumped a bunch of buildings into the community without talking to Iqalungmiut first. That resulted in the mouldering eyesore known as the Astro Hill complex which since 1970 has stood as a living example of how not to build in the Arctic.
Now, Ottawa wants to dump another bunch of buildings into Iqaluit. The difference is that we now have an elected body whose job it is to make sure that planning disasters like the Astro Hill complex aren't repeated.
So far, the only work the Town of Iqaluit has done on our behalf is to ask Ottawa how high to jump. It's now up to the people of Iqaluit to make them do better. JB
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Last updated
June 27, 1997
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