Iqaluit fireworks consultation ends with a fizzle

Members of Iqaluit’s Public Safety Committee wait in vain at Iqaluit’s city hall June 4 for members of the public to arrive for the public hearing on a potential fireworks bylaw. Although nobody from the public attended the hearing, more than 65 Iqalungmiut took a survey on the issue, giving overwhelming support to permitted use of fireworks in Iqaluit. (PHOTO BY THOMAS ROHNER)

So you want to celebrate a special occasion in Iqaluit with fireworks? Well, soon you may need to get a permit for that and confine your celebration to one of a handful of locations.

The City of Iqaluit’s public safety committee decided June 4 to draft a fireworks bylaw based on the final results of a public survey.

“The vast majority of people [surveyed] want fireworks in Iqaluit, but with a permit,” Coun. Stephen Mansell, chair of the committee, said at Iqaluit’s city hall June 4.

Mansell and five other committee members held a public hearing, which, Mansell said, was intended to complete public consultation efforts on whether Iqalungmiut want a bylaw for fireworks.

No members of the public attended the hearing, but Mansell said the number of people who responded to the survey — 67 — was the most for any public survey in recent memory.

“Hopefully everyone that wants to be heard on this issue has been heard,” Mansell said.

According to the survey results handed out at the committee meeting, 88 per cent of respondents think fireworks should be allowed in Iqaluit with a permit.

But 67 per cent of those surveyed think fireworks should be restricted to special occasions only.

New Year’s Eve and Toonik Tyme topped the list of special occasions, winning approval from 82 per cent of respondents.

If fireworks are limited to certain locations, those who took the survey preferred the causeway (24 per cent), Road to Nowhere (19 per cent), West 40 (17 per cent) and Rotary Park (16 per cent).

But the vast majority of those who took the survey — 89 per cent — said they haven’t set off any fireworks in the last 12 months.

Yet 72 per cent of respondents said fireworks caused them a “disturbance” or “concern.”

It seems clear the majority of people who completed the survey are those most bothered by fireworks, not those who most enjoy them.

That came across in comments left by survey-takers.

“Fireworks have woken me up in the middle of the night. I thought they were gunshots,” one respondent wrote.

“We have a dog and small children, and setting off fireworks that close [to our home] caused extreme stress in the dog and kids,” another wrote.

“Those who use fireworks must pick up their garbage. The permit should make sure they clean up,” an Iqaluit resident who took the survey wrote, echoing a concern found in multiple other comments.

But at least one person surveyed expressed joy in fireworks: “I love fireworks! Keep them legal as long as it’s safe.”

Mansell committed to writing a draft of the bylaw based on the survey’s final results in time for the committee’s July meeting.

“This council is going to be dissolved in the fall, so if we want a bylaw we have to act pretty quickly,” he said.

Mansell added the current noise bylaw would apply to a potential bylaw on the use of fireworks. The noise bylaw prohibits loud noises after 10 p.m.