Like other large Nunavut communities, Arviat embraces street names, addresses

This recent map of Arviat, prepared for visitors to find their way around with, shows the community’s landmarks — but soon everyone who visits the community or lives there will have an address with a street number and street name. (FILE IMAGE)

Finding your way around Arviat is about to become a little easier, now that the hamlet is finally adopting street names and addresses for its buildings.

“People used to gloss over it, but it’s something that really struck me,” said Michael Cohen, finance director for the Hamlet of Arviat.

That’s because calling a cab in the community of 2,500 often involves giving drivers directions.

“Try and explain to the cab driver how to come pick you up. Then you realize, why am I going through this?” he laughed.

The hamlet had planned to adopt street names and addresses for many years, said mayor Robert Leonard. What drove the hamlet to do so once and for all was a call from the local electoral officer.

The officer pointed out that the area would be covered by two electoral ridings for the next territorial election, he said: addresses would allow residents to know which riding they are supposed vote in.

“That gave us a little impetus to get it going,” Leonard said.

Right now, buildings in Arviat may have two or more numbers linked to them. This, said Leonard, is the result of various agencies and service providers giving separate identification numbers to buildings.

“The housing corporation picked their own numbers, private individuals picked their own numbers, businesses picked their own for their properties, and then maybe 10 years ago Northwestel came along and their picked numbers for all the buildings,” said Leonard.

Calls for emergencies or public utilities are often confused, he said, creating a need for a fixed standard.

The hamlet has laid out plans, with numbered streets running north-south and numbered avenues running east-west. Each house now has a number.

If they want to, residents can see the plan and find their address at the hamlet office.

Signage for the streets and addresses will be installed this summer.

In all, the project will come in at just over $40,000, with money from Nunavut’s Department of Community and Government Services covering a portion of the costs.

“This is a big move forward for our community and we know that it will take a bit of time (…) to adjust but it will be better and safer for the community,” the hamlet stated in a May 29 news release.

Other growing communities in Nunavik and Nunavut have gone through similar changes: Kuujjuaq named its streets in 2002; Iqaluit put up its blue and white street signs in 2004.