Kuujjuaq sees a service crunch ahead

These new buildings under construction in a previously undeveloped area of Kuujjuaq will serve as staff housing for the Kativik Regional Government. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

When you drive around Kuujjuaq, you can’t miss the signs that this community of 2,200 is growing.

New apartment units and duplexes have popped up like mushrooms along roads which didn’t even exist a couple of months ago.

A drive from the airport to the other end of town can now take 15 minutes— or longer, depending on the time of day and the number of vehicles, a mix of all-terrain vehicles, cars, motorcycles and trucks.

For Kuujjuaq’s mayor Paul Parsons, this new development raises new concerns. Parsons wonders how his fast-growing municipality can stretch its services to provide water delivery, sewage pick-up and trash removal to an increasing number of dwellings spread over a larger area.

“We have to provide municipal services,” Parsons said. But he’s not sure how to do this with the limited equipment and infrastructure at Kuujjuaq’s disposal.

Kuujjuaq now has seven water trucks, five sewage trucks and two garbage trucks which work six days a week. In the evening and on weekends, a water truck and a sewage truck continue to run around town.

But add 20 new housing units this year and at least 20 next year — and possibly many more when the long-awaited housing catch-up program finally becomes reality — and Kuujjuaq may not be able to provide these basic services, Parsons said in a recent interview.

The new growth may also means that Kuujjuaq will likely have to look at building a new child care centre, its third, or a school, also its third— which will also require more services.

“Those are the things that we well have to take into consideration,” Parsons said.

Kuujjuaq welcomes the new housing, but although there’s a construction boom, the community still faces a severe housing shortage of about 180 units.

Kuujjuaq will need more money to cope with its growth, Parsons said.

So “don’t forget about us” is Parson’s message to Quebec and its municipal affairs department, as Premier Jean Charest decides how and where Quebec will spend money in its northern development plan—“plan nord”— expected to be announced before the end of 2010.

Meanwhile, to better control Kuujjuaq’s development, Parsons hopes to direct residential construction in a new way. He’d like to see new housing built in a circle down from the dump road (officially called Aqpik) to an existing neighbourhood closer to the centre of town.

Right now, most houses are built straight out along the dump road or in clustered neighbourhoods off this road, which consist of staff housing for different employers in town, such as the Kativik Regional Government, Kativik School Board or health board.

Linking these neighbourhoods will help with the delivery of services, Parsons said, because municipal trucks won’t have to head out one direction and then drive back the same way. Instead they will be able travel in a loop and end up driving a shorter distance.

To date, there’s been no talk yet about a piped water delivery and waste system which could relieve the stress on the municipality’s services, Parsons said.