Iqaluit council decison on Plateau was a good one

This is in response to the editorial published in the July 26 edition entitled “Weak council, weak decision” that appeared in Nunatsiaq Online on July 26.

I did attend, as a concerned citizen, this debate at the city council meeting on July 20.

I would like to raise further attention in this regard as I strongly disagree that Iqaluit voters chose a weak council that makes weak decisions. It would be sad if Iqalummiut were to just read this side of the story.

Some councillors might look inexperienced from your point of view, but they are experienced in that they, on average, have lived in Iqaluit for at least more than a decade.

To be able to look forward, we need to know where we are coming from. That’s where the councillor’s experience is valuable. For a city to be sustainable, it needs to have a long-term vision and long-term planning.

This vision is usually reflected in the municipal bylaws that have the power to back up this vision by regulating community land use with proper planning. The land use plan gives homeowners and home builders confidence that Iqaluit is an attractive place to live with a good quality of life.

The Plateau protest debate and some of the views expressed by the neighbourhood homeowners might sound selfish, superficial or groundless, but the real point here might have been missed.

This debate was not based entirely on arguments like losing a view or having to cope with a two-storey building as a new neighbour, but the decision was more related to rezoning the land from public-insitutional to commercial use.

This is a big deal in a growing community that needs spaces reserved to allow a healthy and balanced life for the residents. A city like Iqaluit needs a children garden, pre-school shelter, community halls, art centres, you name it — any kind of infrastructure that can bring us all together.

The council voted almost unanimously in favour to have its own bylaw respected and to say “no” to a private company that tried to change established rules for its own benefit.

This was a strong decision from the council, showing self-respect for the city and for the citizens of Iqaluit. Boom towns are extremely sensitive to economic pressures that can turn them into an improvised, unorganized, not-nice-to-live-in kind of city. The council stood up for the wellbeing of all Iqalummiut by saying no to the rezoning.

David Rochette
Iqaluit

Email your letters to editor@nunatsiaq.com.

Nunatsiaq News welcomes letters to the editor. But we are under no obligation to publish any given letter at any given time.

In our print edition, we usually print letters on a first-come, first-served, space-available basis. In our online edition, we usually print letters as soon as we are able to prepare them for publication.

We edit all letters for length, grammar, punctuation, spelling, taste and libel. You may withhold your name by request, but we must know who you are before we publish your letter.