City of Iqaluit facilities dilapidated and unsafe, councillor says

This photo from Coun. Kenny Bell, taken this month, shows repairs to the dashboard, seats, doors and window of a municipal sewer truck done with duct tape. (PHOTO COURTESY OF KENNY BELL)

The walls next to a toilet at Iqaluit’s dog pound remain exposed this month, after workers repaired water pipes. (PHOTO COURTESY OF KENNY BELL)

Iqaluit city councillor Kenny Bell presents a series of photos at a council meeting Feb. 10. They show extensive disrepair at six of the city’s municipal buildings. Bell warned that exposed electrical wiring, blocked emergency exits, ruined walls, floors and ceilings pose risks to the safety of city employees and residents. (PHOTO BY PETER VARGA)

Iqaluit city councillor Kenny Bell is usually the first to remind city administrators and fellow councillors that much of Iqaluit’s water, sewer, and roads infrastructure is in urgent need of repair.

But when city employees gave him a tour of their workplaces this month, he was “shocked” to find the city might suffer from even more urgent problems in its buildings and other facilities.

“I know our infrastructure is dying,” Bell told Nunatsiaq News, “but I didn’t think that there would be holes in the ceiling, and so many life safety issues as I witnessed.”

In response to complaints from city employees and residents, Bell took a fact-finding tour of six municipal buildings that house recreation, emergency services, public safety, maintenance and storage facilities.

“At moments, it literally made me want to cry, that our buildings, our vehicles, are in such bad repair,” he said.

Bell presented his findings, with photographs he took of some of the worst cases, to council and city administrators Feb. 10.

The city councillor included those pictures in formal complaint he made to the mayor, Nunavut’s Office of the Fire Marshal, and the Government of Nunavut “because of the life safety issues that I believe exist,” he said.

Among them are dangling and exposed electrical wiring at the Arctic Winter Games Arena, damaged ceilings, walls and floors at two maintenance-storage garages and a woodworking plant, blocked emergency fire exits at several buildings, and repairs to damaged municipal water and sewer trucks done with duct tape.

“It saddened me,” Bell said. “We spend a lot of good money — a lot of good people’s money — from taxes that we collect on these things and we’re not up-keeping the buildings that we have.”

City employees have complained to administration and councillors in recent months, but carry on with their work.

Bell, the mayor and city council are unsure whether the problem relates to lack of funding, poor management, or both.

“I’m actually shocked at the amount of work we get from our staff,” Bell said. “We have some great staff that is doing a lot of good work with nothing — and it’s amazing to see.

“It’s sad we have to rely on them like that, duct-taping windows, duct-taping doors and seats,” he said, pointing to the water and sewer trucks.

“I can only imagine it’s because they don’t have money to fix those things.”

Even so, employees “do a pretty good job keeping things running so that we can still provide services,” Bell said.

After Bell gave his photo-exposé presentation at the Feb. 10 meeting, Mayor Mary Wilman and other councillors said they were not aware that the disrepair and possible safety hazards, are so widespreads.

“These are realities that we are working with, and a lot of them didn’t just happen yesterday,” said Mayor Mary Wilman, who said she had seen troubled state of the fire hall facilities, for one.

“These are an accumulation of many years, and sometimes it is overwhelming to just (figure out) how to prioritize,” she said.

“On the one hand, the public is screaming at us, because we are raising taxes. On the other hand, we are very familiar and aware of what we are up against.”

Bell’s tour took him to six troubled facilities:

• Arctic Winter Games Arena, where he found possible safety hazards from exposed electrical wiring and blocked fire escapes.

• The fire hall, which takes up part of the Arnaitok complex under city hall, and houses the fire department and ambulance services. Bell showed most of the emergency services work areas are cramped for space, and noted several asbestos warning.

• The dog pound, run by Municipal Enforcement: Bell showed dog cages are heavily rusted, and several fences and windows show damage from break-ins. A wall next to a toilet was left exposed after repair crews fixed some piping.

• Federal Garage, a vehicle maintenance and storage facility near the airport.

• Air Base Garage, a vehicle maintenance and storage facility in the city centre.

• A woodworking plant in the West 40 area of the city.

Coun. Terry Dobbin added that the city’s older arena in the Arnaitok complex also showed signs of disrepair.

If poor financing is to blame, “I would recommend we look at increasing our user fees” for sports and recreational programs, he said.

“Right now I think our user fees are the lowest in the country,” Dobbin said.

“These are some big issues you’ve raised, that we need to fix,” Coun. Stephen Mansell said at the meeting.

“We have to make a long-term plan. There are some organize-how-you-work space concerns that I think we can address quickly,” he said. “But the life-safety stuff, we have to fix right away.”

Coun. Bell pointed out that city council and administrators risk being held liable for accidents caused by safety hazards in the buildings.

“We are responsible for the citizens of Iqaluit, we’re responsible for our buildings, we’re responsible for making sure that these things are safe,” he said.

“Regardless of the money aspect of it, I don’t want to be held responsible for some little kid dying.”

Mayor Wilman recommended Coun. Bell send a report of his findings to the city’s chief administrative officer, John Mabberi-Mudonyi — who also witnessed the Feb. 10 presentation — as a first step.

“Hopefully, it will be useful for our directors,” she said.