Nunavut DEA, GN attack Iqaluit subdivision proposal

Barry Cornthwaite, capital planning manager for the Government of Nunavut’s education department, speaks during a public meeting on Iqaluit’s proposed Joamie Court subdivision in council chambers May 9. (PHOTO BY STEVE DUCHARME)

Amidst concerns from educators over the safety of children at Joamie Elementary School, Iqaluit’s city council approved the latest reading of rezoning amendments for its newest proposed neighborhood, but expressed some reservations of their own during a council meeting, May 9.

The proposed Joamie Court neighborhood will be built on open land west of Joamie school, but has met steady opposition from the school’s teachers and the Iqaluit District Education Authority since its first public consultation a year ago.

In its current design, the neighborhood will create between 39 and 60 new units in the city, accommodating between 135 and 225 people in low- to medium-density housing.

Critics of the project returned to the latest public consultation, held in city chambers prior to the council meeting.

“We’re very concerned about the safety of the children attending the school, not just the children currently attending the school but the children that will be living in those new units if it’s built as proposed,” the IDEA’s Andrea Witzaney-Chown told councillors.

“The amount of traffic that we’re going to see through that area, I just don’t think it’s going to be safe.”

The city’s planning and development director, Mélodie Simard, said the neighborhood’s impact on the nearby road to Apex would be “marginal,” according to a city-commissioned traffic study done last year.

But Nunavut’s capital planning manager for the department of education, Barry Cornthwaite, questioned the conclusions of the study, citing the current traffic congestion at the school during pick-up and drop-off times.

Cornthwaite proposed an alternative design to councillors during the public hearing, turning the neighborhood into a cul-de-sac with a roundabout near the school to facilitate drop-offs.

The school was also concerned it would have to relocate its car plug-ins, which are fixed to wooden posts near the side of the current access road, he added.

“We feel its an expense we shouldn’t have to incur, we feel it would be easier for the city to move the road over towards the blue row-housing,” Cornthwaite said.

Deputy mayor Romeyn Stevenson later told council he was against any cul-de-sac or roundabout because such a design would complicate access to the area for emergency services.

Coun. Kuthula Matshazi recommended the city install speed bumps on the future road, while new Coun. Kyle Sheppard successfully passed a motion committing the city to protecting the safety of the school’s students.

Other councillors demanded to see the traffic report for themselves after Simard admitted the study did not take into account a proposed 60-child daycare that will be built at one end of the proposed development.

Stevenson acknowledged the current dangers for children walking to the school, adding that he supported hiring crossing guards for busy intersections.

“It’s bordering on negligent that there isn’t one there already,” Stevenson said about the lack of crossing guards.

It’s unclear whether the city, the school, or the IDEA would pay for such a position.

Councillors ultimately passed the second reading of rezoning amendments for the project, but many said they would review the traffic study prior to the rezoning’s third and final reading.

Simard reminded council that design would continue on the project after the land is rezoned, with an expected construction date set for next summer.

Council also passed second reading for a land disposal bylaw that will hand over a parcel of land to Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada which will operate a 60-child daycare on the Road to Apex, opposite the entrance to the future Joamie Court subdivision.

A map of one of the concept designs put forward for the Joamie Court subdivision. Joamie Elementary School is the large gray rectangle to the right of the proposed lots. (FILE PHOTO)