Not a fan of “pointy stakes”

I’m writing this letter as a concerned citizen of Iqaluit.

I’ve been living in Iqaluit long enough to see what’s dangerous and what’s not in Iqaluit.

Most things are dangerous when we walk around Iqaluit, but this is something I cannot ignore anymore given what I’ve been seeing for a few years.

What I’m talking about are those stupid posts or dangerous wooden spikes around the city in what was supposed to be a project for making Iqaluit more beautiful with artistic characteristics that make Iqaluit a little more different than other communities.

Well, after a few years of watching people trying to hold on to something when the crappy sidewalks are too slippery to walk on because of poor maintenance or lack of sand, I cannot see what the City of Iqaluit was thinking when they got pointy wooden spikes that are dangerous at times because of splinters and sharp edges caused by poor design or accidental damage caused by loaders trying to clear snow.

It’s doesn’t take much to realize that when people are walking around sharp, pointy objects, someone is bound to get seriously hurt when trying to grasp something while falling or trying to regain their balance.

It saddens me when in the heart of winter, with all the snow piled up between wooden posts, we see people, young and old, trying to negotiate between the wooden posts with nothing to grab but a splintered piece of wooden stake.

I would like to see the City of Iqaluit make Iqaluit a safer place for people to walk in.

I recommend the City of Iqaluit immediately remove all dangerous wooden spikes and replace them with less pointy objects and if it’s too much to do that, then I recommend at least cutting off the top portion of the most dangerous part of the posts to be more people-friendly when it’s slippery to walk.

If the City of Iqaluit cannot make Iqaluit a safer place to walk in, especially in the winter, then we have to ask what other options we have as citizens of Iqaluit to voice our concerns.

If they say it’s not a safety problem, the we should ask Transport Canada or some other level of government that has the authority to make our roads and sidewalks safer places to freely walk without getting sharp, painful splinters in our hands, or worse, impaled onto the wooden stakes because of a terrible accident.

Thank you for reading my opinion on safety issues I have with the City of Iqaluit.

Sylvain Degrasse
Iqaluit

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