Three Iqaluit candidates seek your vote

Sutheat Tim (HANDOUT PHOTO)

Kyle Sheppard (HANDOUT PHOTO)

Jean-Luc Nevin. (HANDOUT PHOTO)

Iqaluit’s municipal by-election to fill two vacant seats on city council, set for April 10, has drawn a diverse crop of candidates with different views on how to tackle the Nunavut capital’s looming challenges, starting with the city’s deficit.

The two winning candidates will join a city council in the middle of its mandate, but facing critical decisions on the city’s outdated infrastructure, spending practices and future growth.

Nunatsiaq News reached out to the candidates and asked them what they hope to accomplish if elected and why voters should select them April 10 as well as their thoughts on infrastructure spending versus deficit reduction as well as housing development.

In the second installment of candidate profiles, we feature, in alphabetical order, Jean-Luc Nevin, Kyle Sheppard and Sutheat Tim.

Jean-Luc Nevin

The youngest candidate for this by-election, Jean-Luc Nevin says the youth of Iqaluit need a voice on city council.

“I’m in my 20s now and I see that even as a twenty-year-old, my voice can have meaning,” said Nevin. “I have a lot of things to say and I feel that the city needs a voice for the younger generation.”

The city isn’t doing enough to help its homeless and less advantaged, Nevin said, who said he was inspired to run after volunteering at Iqaluit’s soup kitchen.

“The city has done nothing essentially for feeding the homeless and disadvantaged people,” he said, adding that more can also be done for elders who need better transportation and access to culturally appropriate foods.

While Nevin acknowledges the city needs to bring its deficit under control, that shouldn’t come at the cost of much needed pedestrian infrastructure around town.

“It’s a vastly growing issue, there’s a lot more people walking around these days then in past years and the quality of the streets has been deteriorating,” he said.

As councillor, Nevin said he will push for more crosswalks in the city, as well as stop signs in high traffic areas.

Nevin admits he’s “not extremely familiar” with how land development works in Iqaluit, but will “remain open-minded in expanding Iqaluit” while respecting the land.

“Nunavut has been my home since birth and there’s been a lot of modernization to this city and its about time the city council has young people on it and people who are willing to be accessible, listen and voice opinions, yet maybe not be so complicit with the status quo,” he said.

Nevin added that he credits the city’s current mayor, Madeleine Redfern, for engaging with the city on social media.

Kyle Sheppard

A former councillor from Rankin Inlet, Kyle Sheppard currently works at the Royal Bank of Canada branch in Iqaluit. He has lived in Nunavut for the past 13 years with his wife and daughter.

Sheppard said he believes balancing the city’s budget and investing in infrastructure do not need to be mutually exclusive, and that options exist for the city to work with territorial and federal partners on city projects moving forward, while also controlling spending.

“I have a strong financial background, specifically in Nunavut and dealing with municipal finances,” he said.

“We can’t afford to not invest in infrastructure, but we also can’t afford to mismanage the municipal finances.”

Sheppard said he’s in favour of changing the city’s land development policies to allow for partnerships between the city and private sector to develop land.

“I believe we can offload some of the risk and cost of development onto the private sector whereby we can make available larger areas of land and put that in the hands of private developers to bear the cost,” he said.

“There’s a way to maintain city control of what gets built while allowing the private sector to develop that land and prevent the need of the city putting out large blocks of money upfront for subdivisions and neighborhoods.”

Strong fiscal management is what’s needed right now from Iqaluit’s elected officials, Sheppard said.

“To have someone that can bring the skills I have in regards to financial management would provide a big benefit.”

Sutheat Tim

Tim is a lawyer who works for Nunavut’s justice department. He has called Nunavut’s capital home for the last five years.

Integrity, transparency and accountability are values which Iqalungmiut need from its councillors, Tim said.

“I have a background as a lawyer and an accountant so when I looked at the city financials, there were a lot of expenditures that were unjustified, in my mind,” he told Nunatsiaq News.

By re-jigging the city’s spending, Tim said he believes city council will be able to fix its deficit while freeing up money for needed investments.

“This year, there’s a good chance the city will spend in excess of over a million dollars [in legal fees] because we’re doing collective bargaining negotiations and we’re also having to deal with the workers compensation complaint for the accident that happened,” Tim said.

By hiring a fulltime, in-house lawyer to deal with legal issues, Tim said the city could have freed up nearly $800,000 for other projects this year, such as helping the city’s homeless.

“Why is city administration refusing to look at the programs and make cuts to these low-hanging fruits that we can easily deal with?”

Tim said he also supports better partnerships between the city and private sector to develop land, citing the city’s work with the Qikiqtaaluk Corp. to develop parts of Federal Road as an example for the city’s future.

“We need to talk to anybody that wants to talk to us,” he said. “There are a lot of enterprises that have very good ideas for alternate construction methods that would help us address a lot of our housing issues in Iqaluit.”

The challenges facing the city “are not insurmountable,” he said, but Iqaluit needs councillors who “are able to stand up and ask the right questions.”

Election day polling stations will be open from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. April 10, at the Cadet Hall in Iqaluit and Abe Okpik Hall in Apex.

Advance polls will take place April 3 at the Cadet Hall from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m.

Eligible voters must be at least 18 years old, a Canadian citizen and have resided in Iqaluit for at least the past 12 months.

You can read the first instalment of candidate profiles, featuring Dushyenth Ganesan, Stephen Leyden and Noah Papatsie, here.