City lobbies Godfrey on infrastructure

In a special one-hour closed session Jan. 20, Iqaluit city council members and city administrators sat down with John Godfrey, the federal cabinet minister responsible for infrastructure, to lobby him for more money to pay for badly needed work on Iqaluit’s aging municipal infrastructure.

City officials told Godfrey about numerous problems that Iqaluit residents already know about: the old undersized sewage lagoon, areas not yet serviced by utilidor, bad gravel roads that are prone to washboarding and undercutting because of poor drainage, and the need to completely rebuild the Apex road.

But they also had a lot to say about the city’s desire for a deep-water port and dock that could help the community save on shipping costs. In the 2005-06 fiscal year, the GN is expected to give the city $100,000 to pay for a feasibility study on a deep water port, which could cost between $20 and $25 million.

Godfrey responded by listing various federal money-pots to which the city is eligible to apply for funding, including $37.5 million in gas-tax revenue that the federal government will give to Nunavut municipalities, every year for 5 years.