Iqaluit: a timeline for the year that was
A look back at 2011 in Iqaluit

A big power failure Aug. 29 threw Iqaluit into chaos, idling workers and closing many businesses and other workplaces. (FILE PHOTO)

Air Canada quietly pulled the plug on its Montreal-Ottawa-Iqaluit jet service this past summer, without making a formal announcment. (FILE PHOTO)

The Iqaluit Humane Society closed its animal shelter on Ulu Lane this past summer. (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)

Joshua Kango helps butcher a bowhead whale that Iqaluit hunters caught Aug. 15. (FILE PHOTO)

Sgt. Jimmy Akavak, right, speaks to reporters in Iqaluit June 9, as Insp. Frank Gallagher looks on. That day police released the names of the four people killed June 7 in a devastating murder-suicide: Sylvain Degrasse, 44; Vivian Sula Enuaraq, 29; Alexandra Degrasse, 7; and Aliyah Degrasse, 2. (FILE PHOTO)
January
• The Qulliq Energy Corp.’s plan to raise power rates by 19 per cent is met with fierce resistance. Iqaluit businesses and the city say a graduated rate increase would do less damage to ratepayers.
• Mike Netser, 28, surrenders to police without incident, after a three-hour standoff with RCMP on Jan. 12, in an apartment building located in Iqaluit’s Road to Nowhere subdivision. Netser had failed to appear in court Jan.10, to face sexual assault and sexual exploitation charges. No new charges were laid as a result of the incident.
• Iqaluit City Council expresses some skepticism about a plan by the Government of Nunavut and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. to tackle poverty in the territory.
• Jayko Kilabuk is found guilty of aggravated assault for stabbing Jason Kipanik so badly the wounded man lost seven litres of blood.
February
• A memorial service is held in Iqaluit Feb. 4 for the late Jose Kusugak at the Cadet Hall in Iqaluit. More than 200 Iqalummiut paid tribute to the politician and broadcaster, who died Jan. 19, at age 60, of cancer.
March
• A first degree murder charge is laid against Jimmy Nowdlak, 27, in connection with the death of a Pond Inlet woman who was assaulted in Iqaluit during a medical trip in 2008.
• As many as 60 Iqalummiut lose their homes after a massive fire leveled an Iqaluit apartment building March 24.
• A poverty reduction workshop was held in the Anglican parish hall on Mar. 30. The workshop was part of a Nunavut wide “public engagement process” on coming up with solutions to reduce poverty in the territory.
April
• The coroner’s inquest into the August, 2008 death of Elisapee Michael wraps up in Iqaluit April 13. Michael had fallen down the stairs of the Nova Hotel after a night of drinking. She was taken to Qikiqtani General Hospital but was transferred to RCMP cells where she later died.
• Nunavut RCMP make changes in how they handle intoxicated prisoners in response to recommendations made by the coroner’s inquest jury into the death of Elisapee Michael. The jury made 29 recommendations, nine of which were leveled at the RCMP.
• Markoosie Tiglik, 18, was faces five criminal charges in relation to a firearms incident that occurred in Apex April 18.
• Iqaluit RCMP started making referrals for alcohol counselling for a list of repeat offenders who end up in their drunk tank as often as three or four times per week.
May
• Two missing Iqaluit women are found May 3, after getting lost during a trip along the Sylvia Grinnell River.
• The City of Iqaluit seeks changes to territorial law so that it can borrow small amounts of money without holding referendums among ratepayers.
• Highly respected hunter Johnny Nowdlak, 47, dies when two snowmobiles collide May 23, about one kilmetre outside of Iqaluit. The driver of the second snowmobile, Courtney Dunphy, 20, suffers serious injuries and is taken to Ottawa by medevac.
• Iqaluit residents tell National Energy Board representatives during an information session held in Iqaluit on May 31, that they want a bigger role in deciding whether there should be any offshore oil drilling in Canadian Arctic waters.
June
• Four people die in a murder-suicide June 7 in Iqaluit. The body of Sylvain Degrasse, 44, is found lying on the grave of his sister, Suzanne Apak Degrasse, with a shotgun he used to shoot himself in the head. The body of his common-law wife, Vivian Sula Enuaraq, 29, is found with two of the couple’s children, Alexandra Degrasse, 7, and Aliyah Degrasse, 2, inside the family’s home at house 2534.
• Stephen Mansell is appointed to Iqaluit’s city council on June 28. Mansell replaces outgoing councillor Mary Akpalialuk, who resigned in early June. Instead of holding a by-election to replace Akapalialuk, council decided to appoint the candidate who received the next highest number of votes during a municipal by-election held last December.
July
• Disaster is averted in Iqaluit when a fire breaks out at the city’s tank farm. Fire crews were able to extinguish the fire, which started in a mostly-empty tank. There is no disruption to the city’s fuel supply.
• Air Canada quietly drops its service to Iqaluit, saying the route “did not meet the profitability targets” needed to make it viable.
• Police note an increase in calls to campsites along the Sylvia Grinell River this summer. Most calls are alcohol related. In response, police will increase patrols in the area.
• Iqaluit police, along with the Canadian Coast Guard and the Government of Nunavut, help find and rescue four boaters who run into trouble on Frobisher Bay.
• Iqaluit City Council amends its 2011-2012 municipal budget to eliminate a $500,000 deficit that turned up in an audit of last year’s financial statements.
• On July 24, the Iqaluit fire department respond to a call about a fire that destroys four shacks on the beach behind the elders centre in Iqaluit.
August
• The Iqaluit Humane Society’s animal shelter, closes its doors on Aug. 9. The non-profit organization, which formed in 2007 and opened the Iqaluit shelter a year later, says it lacks the money and manpower to continue to take in the city’s unwanted animals.
• An Iqaluit man is found guilty of assaulting his 11-year old daughter after he suspected her of stealing his vodka.
• A fire on Aug. 7 left a one-storey apartment building in the West 40 section of Iqaluit charred and empty.
• Iqaluit hunters catch a bowhead whale Aug. 15, Iqaluit’s first in many years.
• Governor General David Johnson tours the Iqaluit greenhouse Aug.15.
• Iqaluit City Council approved on Aug. 24 a $300,000 project to shore up the mounds of earth that control the water running off the city’s landfill.
• Justice Earl Johnson, in a written judgment issued Aug. 25, uses deferred custody and probation orders to sentence two teenage boys from Iqaluit for the part they played this past October in a home invasion that led to the sexual assault of a woman at knifepoint.
• Rolling blackouts left Iqaluit without power for most of the day on Aug. 29. The power outages were a result of two of Qulliq Energy Corp. diesel power generators being shut down for maintenance.
September
• RCMP figures released at city council on Sept. 13 showed that the number of people taken into police custody in 2011 was down by 20 per cent.
• Northwestel implemented upgrades to its cell phone towers, which should improve cell phone service in Iqaluit.
• The City of Iqaluit reached a tentative new wage-benefit deal with its unionized workers represented by Local 6 of the Nunavut Employees Union.
October
• Fire destroyed the former Sir Martin Frobisher Federal Day School in Apex on Oct.4.
• RCMP in Iqaluit launched a homicide investigation after Sangani Osuitok, 50, died at the Qikiqtani General Hospital of life-threatening injuries.
November
• The City of Iqaluit, in a public service announcement, assures residents its water is safe to drink. Iqaluit is one of the few Northern communities that have a fully operational water treatment plant. The announcement was in response to a report released by a Vancouver-based environmental watchdog group that gave Nunavut’s regulatory systems for a water a “D” grade.
• An early morning shootout on Nov. 23, in Iqaluit, leaves two people with gunshot wounds. A teenage boy, who suffered a serious gunshot wound to the chest, faces two counts of assaulting a peace officer with a firearm. A second man, 24-year-old Arthur Wilson, was also injured that morning when a stray bullet entered his residence and grazed his head. It remains unclear who fired the shot that injured Wilson.
• Iqaluit’s District Education Authority rules against the distribution of religious materials on school property.
• Kimmirut’s mayor, Jamesie Kootoo, goes missing on the land Nov. 26 while on a hunting trip. After more than a month, Kootoo is not found.
December
• Dr. Leia Cunningham, an Iqaluit raised veterinarian, brings a mobile vet service called the NunaVet Animal Hospital to the city.
• Police investigate the suspicious death of Matthew Petooloosie, after his body is found in the early hours of Dec. 12.
• Changes to how P3 Canada awards money to public-private infrastructure projects leaves the City of Iqaluit scrambling to find new funding for projects such as a new recreation facility and a proposed emergency and protective services centre.
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