Iqaluit moves to eliminate $500,000 deficit

Iqaluit City Council has amended its 2011-2012 municipal budget to eliminate a $500,000 deficit that turned up in an audit of last year’s financial statements.

The 2010-2011 year-end audit identified a municipal deficit stemming from “unexpected disasters such as the fuel spills that happened on city property, human resources expenses arising from employment, including overtime related to the dump fire at the Iqaluit landfill,” new release issued July 13.

The same news release spelled out the following adjustments:

• a Road to Nowhere sewer line repair of $260,000 was moved from the water and sewage fund to the gas tax fund;

• the cost of an Apex bridge repair increased from $120,000 to $180,000;

• new cemetery work was reduced from $100,000 to $40,000;

• a deferral of the purchase and construction of a $100,000 shed for public works road equipment.

The city says it made some additional cost savings by leaving some staff positions unfilled and through making new local hires that did not require a settlement allowance.

Overall, the city’s director of corporate services, John Mabberi-Mudonyi said the cuts would reduce the city’s budget by $706,000.

“[This] ensures that the previous year’s deficit will be eliminated and the additional reductions will go towards two new fuel spills that happened on city properties,” Mabberi-Mudonyi said.

Fuel spills were identified at the Nanook school in Apex and another at the elder’s centre. This past January a vandal knocked the bottom off the fuel tank in an Apex garage, causing a spill. In May, the same fuel tank was vandalized again, along with the tank at the elder’s centre.

Invoices for those spills have yet to be received by the city, but are “likely to be several hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Mabberi-Mudonyi said.

Iqaluit mayor Madeleine Redfern called the unexpected costs from fuel spills “unfortunate.”

“I’ve asked city staff to identify and find ways to reduce these risks. We also need the help of the community to prevent and stop acts of vandalism,” Redfern said in the release.

“These fuel spills not only cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars for the clean-up, but they also damage the environment and impacts on the city’s ability to move forward on important projects for the benefit of all our residents.”

The city says that the fuel tank for the Apex garage has been moved indoors while officials consider ideas to protect the fuel tanks and the lines connecting the tank to all city buildings.