New strategic plan for Nunavut capital sets milestones to 2023

The City of Iqaluit has passed a new strategic plan they hope will guide them in broad areas including finances, infrastructure and development over the next five years. (FILE PHOTO)

Iqaluit’s ship of state has its course plotted into the next decade, after the release of an ambitious five-year strategic plan, July 30, that the City of Iqaluit says will “more clearly define the business the municipal corporation is in.”

An official long-term strategic plan endorsed by Iqaluit’s city council has been absent since 2012.

That lack of policy coincides with a difficult five years that tossed the city into financial freefall as it struggled with deficits and fell behind in the repair and maintenance of aging infrastructure.

The plan identifies six priority areas including finances, infrastructure, development, city services and integrating Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit, with accompanying action plans which the city commits to executing through to 2023.

“This is an ambitious plan, but it is achievable,” the city’s chief administrative officer, Muhamud Hassan, along with the city’s departmental directors, said in a statement.

Along with guaranteeing a balanced three-year budget plan, the city promises to “address the issue of all arrears,” or overdue fees and taxes, which stood at around $3 million dollars last year.

Calling in overdue debts will accompany internal restructuring within city administration, the plan says, in the hopes of identifying “operational efficiencies” that shore up more money.

But with a reported net debt of about $7.8 million in 2016—improved slightly from the $8.2 million inherited by mayor Madeleine Redfern in 2015—the city will have to get creative if it wants to improve its aging infrastructure or finance much-needed housing development and spur private investment in the city.

The strategy plan outlines a two-fold policy to that end, split between the private and public sectors. But both will rely on finding partners for large projects.

The city says the plan moving forward will be to work with other levels of government to secure money for large infrastructure projects, like roads or drainage improvements—two specific areas marked in the plan for comprehensive studies that will inform a future master plan.

And public-private partnerships, or “PPPs,” like the one currently proposed with the Qikiqtaaluk Corp. to develop a new Federal Road neighborhood, was identified in the plan as a way “to foster business support and growth.”

The city’s $40.5-million-dollar Aquatic Centre can be used as an asset-in-hand by the city to “support local economic activity, business tourism and to strengthen community ties with the rest of the country,” the plan says.

The city is also allocating “at least” $2 million annually for capital improvement needs, subject to approval from city council.

An improved communication strategy, as well as online surveys and consultations with residents, will also improve transparency and coordination between city services and Iqalungmiut, the plan says.

The plan also commits the city to developing a bylaw by September 2018 requiring businesses to have Inuktitut signage, and by the end of 2017, the city also plans to complete an Inuit Employment Plan.

An Inuit cultural awareness program will also be developed by the city for its employees.

What the city’s strategic plan doesn’t mention is the fact that negotiations with its employees over a new collective agreement continue to be stalled. Its current three-year contract with unionized staff expired in December 2015.

Wage freeze letters issued by city administrators last year, meant to address its looming deficit, were burned by employees on the steps of city hall in March 2016.

According to the latest update from the Nunavut Employees Union, which represents city workers, negotiations broke down between the union and city administration in April 2016.

While both parties have requested an arbitrator, negotiations have yet to resume, the NEU told Nunatsiaq News.

To read the plan for yourself, visit the city website for an online copy available here.