Pastor fears Iqaluit could lose ‘igloo church’ over property tax bill
Loss of municipal exemption exacerbates ongoing financial woes, says pastor Rev. Abraham Kublu
Rev. Abraham Kublu says the Arctic might be losing its “mother church” over tax payments owed to the City of Iqaluit. (Photo by Arty Sarkisian)
Bishop Alexander Pryor says the church’s work will continue even if the St.Jude’s cathedral is lost. (File photo)
Iqaluit’s Anglican cathedral might have to be “auctioned out” to pay its overdue property tax bill to the city, says pastor Rev. Abraham Kublu.
“It would be a tragedy,” Kublu said Friday, after finishing his third funeral service of the week at the cathedral. He said the city has been patient while awaiting payment.
St. Jude’s Anglican Church — or the Igloo church, as it’s often called — is the Arctic’s “mother church” and one of the symbols of Iqaluit. More importantly, it’s also a place where Iqalummiut find comfort in times of despair.
But a $64,000 property tax debt adds to ongoing financial challenges that include a yearly $188,000 insurance bill, along with a decline in the number of churchgoers.
All of this could spell the end of St. Jude’s as Iqaluit’s main cathedral, Kublu says.
Unlike most of the rest of Canada, where religious organizations are exempt from municipal property taxes, the City of Iqaluit collects this tax.
That practice started in 2022 following approval of a bylaw amendment introduced by then-mayor Kenny Bell. He acted in response to the discovery of 751 suspected unmarked graves at the former Marieval Indian Residential School, about 160 kilometres east of Regina.
“Tax exemptions as a whole are supposed to be for groups that do the community good,” Bell said at the time.
“It’s very clear that the Catholic Church hasn’t done the community any good.”
Since then, the cathedral applied for and received a 75 per cent exemption from the city. However, it still has accumulated $64,000 in tax debt over the years which puts the cathedral’s existence at risk, Kublu said.
In October, the cathedral’s revenue was roughly $43,400 from donations, fundraisers and rent coming in from the cathedral’s properties, like the parish hall.
But with heat, water and electricity expenses of $53,050, St. Jude’s was left about $9,650 in the red for the month.
For the Anglican diocese, financial troubles are not new.
Over the years, it has accumulated close to $1 million in debt with many of its 47 church buildings across Nunavut, Nunavik and N.W.T. in poor condition and unable to afford insurance.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the diocese was on the “verge of bankruptcy,” said diocesan Bishop Alexander Pryor.
He said the cathedral’s problems might be the consequence of a “vicious cycle,” where churches devote their energies to fixing their financial issues at the expense of ministering to the community.
“As a diocese, our charitable purposes are all about ministry, not building maintenance,” he said in an email to Nunatsiaq News.
At the same time, the Arctic diocese is tapping into the home-building fever with a recently created Arctic Anglican Development Corp. aiming to construct rental housing units as an extra source of income for the church.
Iqaluit’s old St. Jude’s Cathedral before the fire that destroyed it in 2005. (Photo courtesy of Ansgar Walk/Creative Commons)
The original St. Jude’s building was constructed by volunteers in 1972 after Queen Elizabeth II participated in a sod-turning ceremony two years prior. It was destroyed by fire in 2005. The current building opened in 2012.
“It would be a big loss to quite a few Iqalummiut if we had to say goodbye to that iconic building,” Pryor said.
“Our interest is in proclaiming the good news of Jesus — God-willing, that can be in a beautiful igloo-shaped cathedral. But if not there, then any hall, rented meeting room, or over tea around a kitchen table will do just fine.”
But if Iqaluit’s Anglicans were to lose St. Jude’s again, Kublu said he would go into early retirement — it would be “too shameful” to carry on without it.
Turn the building into a museum, perfectly fitting nod to the archaic beliefs it once dumped like pollution into our information eco system.
A Museum is a good idea, but I could also see it be a gathering centre for artists. Like for workshops and such.
Whatever it is, it would need to be something that brought in profit considering how high it’s expenses seem to be.
The piece leaves out an important detail: the Diocese has rental properties across the north. If an organization is acting as a landlord and mixing commercial or residential rental activity with its charitable/worship work, it can’t claim a blanket exemption for everything it owns. That’s standard everywhere in Canada. Exemptions apply to genuine worship and community-service space not automatically to rental units that happen to be owned by a church.
It’s understandable that people care about St. Jude’s and its place in the community. But blaming the City for enforcing the same transparent policy applied to every other non-profit doesn’t help solve the real issues.
The church’s financial challenges are structural. The mosque managed to submit an exemption application without any problems. Somehow this has only become a “crisis” for the Diocese. It’s the Diocese’s own financial mismanagement and refusal to take responsibility at the end of the day.
Classic Nunatsiaq reporting leaves out key information. Welcome to our world of misinformation.
Kenny Bell being the one to decide who “does any good” is an accurate representation of our recent history of decision makers.
Less church , more booze . Let’s go
Religion is also an addiction.
It’s great that these guys are getting taxed. Good job Kenny bell
What happens to all of the 10% ?
Asking for a friend….
How come local people don’t help?
How do you expect them to do that? And why should they?
Why did they build such a grand, ostentatious building? There’s been issues around how to pay for it since the beginning. Especially in an area where people are financially poorer. Seriously.
Pure hubris
Amazing news. Auction it off.
What is going to happened to families that need to have the funerals in church for their love once that are Anglican.
Think everyone all over Nunavut should do grand in your hands and do BINGOS to fundraise to keep the only Anglican Church in the CAPITAL OF NUNAVUT.
Government of Nunavut should help too with all their huge sales from the Beer and Wine Store that is destroying allot of families.
Maybe all the money that is collected from the hard drugs by the RCMP should go to the church to help out too.
Funerals don’t have to be in churches. No government money should go to religion. You want religion, you pay for it.
You must be at the Beer and wine store everyday to respond that way.
The Anglican church does not support gambling. Both grand in your hand and bingo are gambling, so the church would not support it.
Looking at all the Facebook posts recently, church members are doing what they can to help the church by holding bakesales. The number of people going to church is going down and so the donations the church receives that way is also going down. If you want to support the church attend and give a donation, or buy from the bakesale and donate there.
So why build such a huge building if attendance is down? Pride? Why did they choose to put that burden on people. Speaking of burden, how much are these ministers paid?
@Stressball, exactly how could they know that the building that fit the church goers when it was reopened in 2012 would be too big in 2025?
Was the church that burned down always filled to the brim? You know it is possible to make an educated guess and even do some forecasting when you build things, right? That’s what professionals do.
But they didn’t want a church. They wanted a cathedral, a concert hall, a feather in their cap. They wanted to glorify themselves at the expense of others. Not a simple place of worship.
Ah yes, gambling to pay for the church. You’ll support the cause that is supposedly so important to you, but only if there’s prize money involved.
As far as funerals go, why does there have to be a massive, ornate building for that? A dignified place is all that should be needed. Jesus had one nice piece of clothing. Nothing fancy. He would be appalled at that showy building and the unnecessary financial burden it has brought.
Yea, no thanks
Manitok, is that you?
It’s very sad that the ‘white and woke’ are taking away people’s choices. This is the new colonialism… woke mind virus.
Apparently the new colonialism is not caring about continuing on the old colonialism.
Watch out for that 2025 colonial boogeyman under your bed at night. He’s coming for you. This boogeyman is here to ensure you do not think for yourself, choose for yourself, be accountable for yourself, and of course at the same time, take away other people’s choices. Sounds like you are the new colonialist.
Stop living in the past. I don’t. My family was relocated. They don’t live in the past either.
Christianity has committed unspeakable horrors against Indigenous people in this country, and they absolutely should be paying taxes. Turning this building from a home to a colonizer religion into a public facility for use by the community would be a very good thing.
Those were the wolves in sheep clothing and those sent down south were sent to Catholic schools, my great great grandfather was the greatest shaman in Baffin and once he saw following Christ is the true way he converted, he was a shaman who could see the supernatural realm so get off this idea of the colonizers religion
Iqaluit’s new arena coming up!
Kenny Bell’s Thunderdome has a certain ring to it.
So they don’t have money to pay taxes and keep the lights on but they have money to tear down the Church in Apex to build housing to rent out and make money to float their operations. Right. This is the same Church who’s trying to evict the food centre. Right on. It’s good they’re taxed. Sell the Igloo Church to an organization that actually serves the community and be done with it.
What equipment is installed to provide heat, light, and water and the consumption costs $53,000 / mth?
The kind where you report those bills higher on the books than they actually cost so that the revenues you use to pay for them also flow into another account outside of the Church sounds like.
I met Rev. Abraham Kublu and his wife. I think she’s a minister also. Truly kind, honest and humble people. Parents. Ministers.
They’re from up north. Pond Inlet or Arctic Bay. Nunavut could use more people like them.
Hasn’t Nunavut been in need of a territorial performing arts space for many years? Seems like this would fit the bill.
This all started based on reports of unmarked graves, zero of which have been discovered since that time and millions of dollars taken. The irony that Bell left politics in a ball of fire is also something quite comical.
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Iqaluit continues to get worse year after year. It isn’t a surprise that the ongoing aggressive secularism, usually put forward by those with high school philosophy, that society continues to decay.
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The building is not the church and the message will continue with or without it. Two of three is all that is needed.
So much intolerance and small minded mean spiritedness in these comments and Mayor Kenny’s policy. And shame on a self-righteous council for passing it.
There are so many poeple/buildings in tax arrears with the city. Will city of Iqaluit fianlly auction it all to allow for some new owners that will pay their bills? Long overdue….