Long life promised for Resolute Bay’s utilidor

Resolute Bay will see about $30 million dollars poured into making its aging utilidor system functional again. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

People in Resolute Bay will keep their piped water system, a joint Government of Nunavut and federal government news release said Oct. 31.

Repairs to the utility corridor system were earmarked in Nunavut’s 2011-12 to 2013-14 capital plan under the federal government’s “Provincial-Territorial Base Fund.”

The total budget: $30.2 million.

“This significant investment in infrastructure will ensure residents in Resolute Bay have access to a quality water system for years to come,” said Nunavut MP Leona Aglukkaq.

Under the Provincial-Territorial Base Funding agreement, Nunavut receives money from Ottawa for core infrastructure priorities such as water, wastewater, green energy and safe roads.

A team of consultants and bureaucrats from the GN’s Department of Community and Government Services had told the hamlet of Resolute Bay in 2009 to scrap its utilidor network or risk a “catastrophe” if the aging system was to break down during the winter.

There had already been some leaks in the utilidor pipes, leading to ice build-up during the winter.

The consultants said it would cost $29.5 million to bring the hamlet’s utilidor up to par and build a sewage lagoon.

The report prepared for the GN by Dillon Consulting Ltd. slammed Resolute’s current utilidor system as inefficient, wasteful and near breakdown.

The system had deteriorated to the point where, Dillon said, “the system as a whole will fail.”

“A system failure would leave the community without water supply, sanitation service and fire protection,” the Dillon report said

But people in Resolute Bay wanted to keep their aging utilidor system, installed more than 30 years ago, when planners imagined Resolute Bay’s population would some day hit 1,500.

More than 80 of Resolute Bay’s 230 residents signed a petition asking the GN to keep and maintain their utilidor system.

The petition asked the GN to consider all its options before deciding to replace the system with trucked water and sewage service.

“It is a money issue, and it is big, but we’re talking about a standard of living issue,” Quttiktuq MLA Ron Elliott said at the time. “Why are we here [in Resolute] in the first place? We are here to guard sovereignty — the government needs to live up to its responsibilities.

Now it looks like officials agree.

Resolute Bay remains the only community in Nunavut under 2,000 with a piped water and sewage system.