City of Iqaluit to hold meeting about waterless Wednesdays

Only 11 per cent of Iqaluit’s population requires trucked water delivery and sewage pump-out — but trucked services account for about 40 per cent of the $8 million budget set aside for water and sewage, the city’s director of engineering and public works, Matthew Hamp, told city council Aug. 25. (FILE PHOTO)

Iqaluit residents will get a chance Sept. 25 to tell the city what they think about a recent reduction in trucked water service, but their opinions won’t change the city’s new trucked service schedule.

That’s according to Matthew Hamp, the municipality’s director of public works and engineering, who told Nunatsiaq News Sept. 14 the public meeting will be held at the Anglican parish hall at 6 p.m. Sept. 25.

“We’re continuing on with the change in hours [for trucked water service], we’re not looking to go back on that,” Hamp said over the phone.

“But at the public meeting we’ll give the public reasons for the change and allow people to provide input if they want.”

Starting Aug. 19, the city stopped regular trucked water service on Wednesdays to over 600 Iqaluit buildings, including 491 residences, Hamp said at an Aug. 25 council meeting.

The reason for the change, Hamp said, is to allocate city resources more efficiently.

For example, more than 40 per cent of the city’s sewage and water budget is spent annually on trucked water service, but only 11 per cent of Iqaluit residents use it, Hamp said Aug. 25.

But at the same council meeting, a group of residents, led by Anne Crawford, voiced concerns about how the changes would affect families, elders and not-for-profit businesses, like daycares.

“We pay taxes like anybody else. Why should we get less water service [than those on a water utilidor]?” one resident told Nunatsiaq News at city hall Aug. 25.

Some residents have taken to social media and dubbed the weekly cut in service “Waterless Wednesdays.”