Council okays new pool lease

Iqaluit residents will get to use Nunastar’s popular but aging swimming pool in the Astro Hill complex for at least three more years, thanks to a new lease that city councillors approved this past Tuesday.

And the rising cost of annual lease payments is sparking efforts to study the idea of building a new pool for the community.

The new lease, retroactive to April 1, 2004, will cost the city $170,980 for 2004-05. That figure will rise to $181,392.68 by 2006-07.

The municipality of Iqaluit has leased the old pool, located in Nunastar’s Astro Hill complex, for about 15 years, under arrangements first set up more than 30 years ago by the Government of the Northwest Territories.

David St. Louis, the city’s director of recreation, told councillors that the city’s last deal with Nunastar expired March 31.

When negotiations for a new lease began, Nunastar opened by asking for a three-year agreement, with a 10 per cent increase in each of the three years.

The city countered by appealing to Nunastar’s “sense of community,” St. Louis said, and after negotiations, Nunastar presented the city with its final offer: a three-year lease, with a 3 per cent increase each year.

The deal does not, however, include money to upgrade the pool. St. Louis said the city spends an average of about $20,000 a year on minor maintenance.

Coun. Stuart Kennedy said the pool is now past its expected lifespan, and that he’s impressed the city can manage with such low annual maintenance costs.

St. Louis said he is preparing a discussion paper – to be presented to council early next year – that would look at options for building a new municipal pool.