P3 Canada’s changes send Iqaluit scouting for money

Iqaluit’s acting fire chief Blaine Wiggins shows how little room is available for firefighters to get into their gear when called out to a fire. (PHOTO BY DEAN MORRISON)

When one door closes, another opens — at least that’s what Iqaluit Mayor Madeleine Redfern is hoping after Ottawa changed the rules for how it hands out money to public-private infrastructure projects halfway through the game.

PPP Canada, also know as P3 Canada, the federal agency set up to deliver more public-private building partnerships, announced last month that it would no longer support certain types of P3 projects — such as recreation centres.

Other projects affected by the changes included those without clear economic advantages.

Those changes in the program directly hit a number of infrastructure proposals which the city had identified as priorities — an Emergency and Protection Services Centre, a new city hall and an aquatic complex.

“We had worked very closely with P3 Canada to ensure that our three big projects fit their criteria, but they changed their policy,” Redfern said. “Nonetheless, they have that prerogative.”

While many people in Iqaluit were disappointed that the proposed swimming pool project wouldn’t move ahead, city emergency services workers were stunned by the changes in the P3 funding criteria.

But that doesn’t change one thing: Iqaluit’s proposed Emergency and Protective Services Centre badly needs to be built, acting fire chief Blaine Wiggins said.

Last year, the city’s emergency services and municipal enforcement departments merged to form a new “emergency and protective services” department.

But since then, this new department — one of the busiest for its size in Canada, responding to as many as 2,300 calls a year — still operates out of different buildings.

And it’s squeezed.

“We have absolutely no training space,” Wiggins said about the city’s cramped fire hall. “In terms of space utilization, we use every square inch of the building. We have far outgrown our facilities and it is very similar for other departments in the city.”

As for the future, Ottawa says it’s developing a new long-term plan for public infrastructure, set to start when its current Building Canada Plan expires in 2014.

And it’s also tabled legislation to renew the Gas Tax Fund, which helps cover the costs for municipal infrastructure.

“The challenge is always trying to see and identify what existing funding programs are available at any government level,” Redfern said.

At least, Iqaluit is ahead of other Nunavut municipalities, she said, having completed a detailed infrastructure assessment in which it outlines the major projects the city needs to sustain its current levels of growth.

The plan, which will be presented to council in 2012, identifies over $200 million worth of infrastructure that Iqaluit would like to see built.

The projects should help also meet demands as the city continues to grow from today’s population of 7,000 to 10,000 by 2022.