Iqaluit council approves road to new dump, quarry sites

Iqaluit city council approved a contract, Oct 14, to build a $2.9 million road to the Northwest site, top left in this image, where the city will build its next landfill and quarry. (FILE IMAGE)

An excavator spreads sand over a garbage heap that smouldered all summer at Iqaluit’s dump, formerly known as the “dumpcano,” in this photo taken Sept. 27. (PHOTO BY PETER VARGA)

Iqaluit city council took a cautious step forward on two new projects Oct. 14, when it narrowly approved construction of a four-kilometre road northwest of the city.

The new $2.9 million road will serve the city’s next landfill and quarry sites. Council approved the construction contract by four votes to three.

The road’s cost came to less than half the original estimate, according to the city’s engineering department. Councillors who voted in favour of the project highlighted the cost reduction, and noted the road was a prerequisite for the city’s new solid waste management plan – a city priority in the wake of Iqaluit’s summer-long dump fire.

“Everybody has been talking about landfills all summer long, and here we can build a landfill that’s going to work,” said Coun. Romeyn Stevenson.

Iqaluit’s dump fire, which burned for almost four months, forced the city to re-arrange its 20-year-old dump site. Public works staff now separate much of the city’s waste by type, in an effort to limit volumes and eliminate possible fire hazards.

“We know we need to do things completely different from the way we did before, and we can’t do it in that little area they’re stuck in now,” Stevenson told fellow council members in a discussion about the new road.

“We need space, and we need this road to get that space. If we’re going to save $2 million or $3 million with this contract today, we need to pass it today,” he said.

The engineering department first told council, Aug. 12, that the road could cost $6 million to $6.5 million. Council approved a motion to put the construction contract out to tender that day by the narrowest of margins. Deputy mayor Mary Wilman broke a 3-3 draw when she voted in favour.

Opposition on Oct. 14 centred around the same issue as in August: whether the site at the end of the road is viable for use as a quarry.

Coun. Kenny Bell insisted again that the city shouldn’t build the new road to the area until a full geo-technical survey confirms the quarry site is viable.

Bell pointed to a recent, and costly, council mistake: plans for a cemetery on the Road to Nowhere seemed promising in 2009, but eventually fell through in 2012 due to cost overruns and the unsuitability of the site.

“We did the failed cemetery without a geo-technical study, and that cost us $750,000,” Bell said.

In any case, the “northwest granular deposit” project is going ahead. Contractors will build the road to the new quarry in two stages.

Construction of an $800,000 “haul road” will begin this year so heavy equipment can be taken to the site and to provide access to the quarry and the new waste site. That road will allow the engineering department to complete a full geotechnical survey.

“We’re about to enter a $800,000 contract without a geo-technical study,” Bell said. “I’m just not willing to put my name behind it. And I hope I’m wrong.”

Coun. Stephen Mansell agreed. “I don’t feel comfortable going further down this slope without getting this (geotechnical) test done,” he said.

Councillors asked the engineering department’s project managers if they could carry out the geo-technical survey first, by taking survey equipment out to the quarry site over the winter ice and snow without a haul road.

Iqaluit’s director of engineering, Matthew Hamp, said that would require new environmental licenses which would take a minimum of two months to pass.

Weighing the delays and added costs, Coun. Terry Dobbin and Coun. Joanasie Akumalik said the city’s need for a new landfill should take priority. Both favoured the road construction contract on that basis.

Coun. Simon Nattaq also voted in favour. Coun. Noah Papatsie voted against, with Bell and Mansell.

The motion for the construction contract — which goes to Nunavut Excavating 2007 Inc. — passed by a narrow margin of four votes to three.

Although the city’s urgent need for a new dump site carried the vote, Hamp said the city is also running short of granular supplies from the quarry.

The new site will supply sand, gravel and rock for all public works projects, including road maintenance, construction, and landscaping, he said.

“It is fairly critical,” Hamp said. “Not just for the city. The contractors rely on granular resources as well.”