A year of pride and turmoil for Iqaluit

Iqaluit residents will remember 2002 as the year when the Arctic Winter Games and the visit of Queen Elizabeth II brought recognition and pride to the people of Nunavut’s capital city.

But they’ll also remember it as a year when residents fought each other over how the community should develop.

January

• The City of Iqaluit proposes to borrow between $24 million and $35 million from the Nunavut government to pay for badly needed capital projects. It would mean a property tax increase of up to 30 per cent. Iqaluit ratepayers must approve the city’s plan to go into debt. By the end of 2002, that vote still hadn’t taken place.

• City council announces it will close Iqaluit’s oldest skating and hockey arena by the spring. With the new Arctic Winter Games complex in Iqaluit, there isn’t enough activity to support two arenas, council says.

• Iqaluit’s hotels are all booked up for the Arctic Winter Games in March, so the city asks residents to open their homes to visitors. The zero vacancy rate worries organizers of the AWG event.

February

• The Iqaluit District Education Authority recommends that schools send students home on days when teachers are absent. The current practice is to have principals and gym teachers fill in for absent instructors.

• Frozen water pipes leave residents in the Brown Row area without water for an entire week. The -40 cold freezes the main line that supplies the 15 houses.

• Iqaluit starts researching no-smoking policies in other municipalities in hopes of drafting one for the city. Restaurant and bar owners say the smoking ban should be introduced gradually.

• Iqalungmiut make a plea to Ed Picco, MLA for Iqaluit East, to save the Arnaitok arena from being shut down in April. They say the old rink serves residents living in downtown Iqaluit.

March

• Iqaluit hosts the biggest sporting and cultural event in its history: the Arctic Winter Games. More than 900 participants, including athletes, coaches and cultural performers, from nine circumpolar regions arrive in the city for the March 17 to 23 event. Iqaluit co-hosts the games with Nuuk, Greenland.

• After months of begging the territorial and federal governments for money to buy an incinerator, city council halts its plans to install an incinerator at the dump. The incinerator will cost too much, council says, and it may be hazardous to residents’ health.

• Support trickles in for the city’s plan to create “healthy homes.” The system takes household sewage, treats it, and then pumps it back into people’s tanks to be used for flushing toilets. It’s hoped the project will save money for homeowners and the municipality.

• Tammaattivik, the medical boarding home in Iqaluit, bans a 21-year-old Pond Inlet man after he was found guilty of sexually assaulting two women who were staying there.

April

• Fearing the Kamotik Inn is a fire, health and safety hazard, Nunavut’s fire marshall closes the popular restaurant’s doors. It is in violation of 58 health and safety codes. The owners fix up the problems and the restaurant opens later in the month.

• Iqaluit residents shoot down some of the suggested names for the city’s streets. Eva Aariak, Nunavut’s language commissioner, worries the simple Inuktitut street names were chosen for the sake of non-Inuit who may have difficulty pronouncing Inuktitut words.

• Iqalungmiut weigh in on the Nunavut Liquor Act debate. The city hosts public meetings to get an Iqaluit perspective on proposed changes to the way liquor is distributed in the territory.

• Iqaluit gets one step closer to having walking trails in the city. The designer unveils a map showing trails in the downtown core that would cater to people walking to offices or stores in the area.

May

• The city requires Baffin Building Supplies to pay to repair potholes that developed over the winter in the pavement it laid on the Airport Road last summer.

• Members of the Amarok Hunters and Trappers Association reject a ballot regarding hunting assignment rights. They were supposed to vote on whether Inuit can assign hunting rights to other Inuit and non-Inuit, but they say the ballot is densely worded.

• Iqalungmiut sign a petition opposing the proposed names for the city’s streets. Longtime Inuit residents say that naming roads after people is a qallunaat practice, the Inuktitut names are too simplistic and the project is meant for qallunaat who are new to the city.

• Taxi drivers oppose the idea of bringing a public transportation system to Iqaluit for fear that they’ll lose customers. Residents, however, are eager for a cheaper way of getting around town.

June

• A study of Iqaluit’s water and sewage systems urges the city to increase the capacity of the water treatment plant and take a serious look at Lake Geraldine to see if it has enough water to sustain Iqaluit’s rapidly growing population.

• Because of worries about the depleted stocks of Arctic char in the Sylvia Grinnell River, the Amarok hunters and trappers association bans boating and fishing there. This summer, the department of fisheries and oceans begins a study to update information on char stocks.

• City council nixes a developer’s plan to put up a 48-unit apartment building because it doesn’t like the proposed size and look of the building. Kenn Harper of NewNorth Developments (formerly Urbco), the developer behind the plan, criticizes council for rejecting badly needed housing in Iqaluit.

• Planning for Iqaluit’s future growth sparks lots of debate in the city. Longtime residents no longer want Iqaluit to grow in such a haphazard way, and building developers say city council makes them jump through hoops before they can build apartments and offices.

• After listening to emotional pleas from hockey players, skaters and coaches, Iqaluit city council decides to hold off on its plan to shut down the Arnaitok arena. It hopes corporate sponsors will help pay to keep the rink operating.

July

• The Iqaluit Chamber of Commerce slams Iqaluit city council for what it says are badly needed housing developments. The Chamber says that small business are being deprived of affordable space in the downtown core, and residents are deprived of housing.

• Consultants recommend that the city use bylaw officers to direct traffic at some of Iqaluit’s busier intersections.

• Three missing boaters are saved after Coast Guard staff in Iqaluit overhear a radio message saying that the outboard motor on their 22-foot canoe broke down.

• Iqaluit city council passes its street-naming bylaw on July 23.

August

• The City of Iqaluit is fined $100,000 under the Fisheries Act after pleading guilty to one count of discharging sewage into Koojesse Inlet. About 822,000 litres of human waste overflowed into the inlet on five separate occasions between April 23 and July 4, 2001.

• The Nanook taxi dispatch and garage are destroyed by fire, leaving five people homeless. Sparks from a grinder landed on rags on the floor and started a blaze that quickly engulfed the building.

• An engineer’s report shows the city must pay almost $4 million, on top of the $7 million already paid to get its sewage plant up and running. The plant, which was intended to replace the city’s sewage lagoon, was in trouble as far back as 2000 when it was built. Engineers discovered leaks in the walls of the concrete tanks and work was halted.

• A report on the city’s public works department calls for changes to the way it provides water, sewer and garbage services. “The Public Works Capacity Review” says the best way to improve services is for some to be contracted out to local businesses and to boost the workers’ morale.

• Careless treatment of household garbage is hampering Iqaluit’s recycling program. Non-recyclable items are ending up in blue bags destined for the city’s recycling bins. Organizers of the recycling program estimate two of every three blue bags are contaminated.

• City officials prepare to crack down on tax evaders. The city is owed $1.3 million in back taxes and officials say they are prepared to go to court to recoup the money.

• City councillor Simon Nattaq resigns on Aug. 12 after five years of service. A warrant for Nattaq’s arrest is issued the previous week after he fails to appear in court in connection with a sexual assault charge against him.

• City council approves development on the Road to Nowhere under the condition that neighbours are consulted. Jomanic-Can planned to build two duplexes and a 10-plex but the company’s president, George D’Aoust says the condition given by council was, in effect, a refusal of the development. He says the company will probably scrap the project and return the land to the city, adding it’s becoming harder to build in Iqaluit.

• At a meeting on Aug. 27, about 21 members of Iqaluit’s Amarok Hunters and Trappers Association vote in favour of allowing Inuit to transfer harvesting rights to non-Inuit spouses. To do so beneficiaries must complete a promise to assignment form that then must be approved by the HTA. Only 21 of a possible several hundred voters take part in the vote.

• The city’s engineering department tells Lower Base landlords and homeowners how much it will cost them to connect to the city’s water and sewer pipes. Residents can expect to pay between $5,500 and $13,500 each, while the city will put a $300,000 grant from the GN toward the cost of extending the pipes from the main utilidor pipe to homeowners’ property lines.

• After hearing recommendations from the Amarok Hunters and Trappers Association, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans sets new rules for fishing at the mouth of the Sylvia Grinnell River.

September

• Iqaluit’s first preschool opens Sept. 3 with classes beginning Sept. 9. The preschool is bilingual, with Inuktitut lessons running twice a week and another class for English-speaking children twice a week.

• Kenn Harper, one of several shareholders in Northern Property Real Estate Investment Trust, says he will sue the city for lost development fees after council rejects his company’s apartment proposal. The building proposed by Ninety North Ltd. would have housed 48 apartment units and 16,000 square feet of office space. City council rejects the proposal, stating it doesn’t like the size and look of the building. Harper says council made its decision on personal taste, not planning bylaws.

• Gordon Barnes, the executive director of the Oqota emergency shelter, quits his job and leaves town, disheartened by the increase in crime in Iqaluit.

• The city threatens to cut off water delivery to customers with overdue water bills. The city is owed more than $200,000 from about 440 households and businesses.

• More than 60 per cent of students at Inuksuk High School who completed a basic Inuktitut literacy test this past spring couldn’t answer questions based on a reading exercise. Administered by Arctic College students, the test results show that of 180 students tested, only 82 felt comfortable taking a basic reading comprehension test and of the 82 students, 62 per cent are considered illiterate or semi-literate in Inuktitut by the test administrators,

• The Transportation Safety Board releases a report on a Sept. 22, 2000, incident where a Boeing 727 landed and slid off the left side of the airport runway in Iqaluit. Investigators who reviewed the accident say the First Air pilots weren’t given an accurate report of the runway’s condition, nor were they updated when the weather worsened.

• An inquest into the death of Nakasuk School principal Hal Richards gives no answers why the 52-year-old ended his life, but makes 16 recommendations aimed mostly at how the department of education should handle teachers accused of abusing students.

October

• City council drafts a 20-year vision for Iqaluit, but the rules and guidelines must go through public consultations before they can be adopted and become an official plan. The plan will outline where new housing units can be built, what plots of land should be protected, where commercial, government and industrial buildings should sit and provide guidelines for what new buildings should look like. The document suggests an area should be designated a “capital district,” where government buildings and offices would be clustered together.

• Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, touch down in Iqaluit Oct. 4 for a two-and-a-half-hour visit kicking off their Cross-Canada Jubilee Tour. Gov. Gen. Adrienne Clarkson and other dignitaries are on the tarmac to meet the Queen’s plane when it arrives at exactly 12:01 p.m.

• The city wants to create a referral centre that would direct people to health, employment, housing and education services. A public meeting is held Oct. 5 to discuss the project and residents at the meeting come out in full support of such a centre.

• Popular weight-loss program Weight Watchers comes to the city for the first time. Country foods are given point values, as well as other foods available in the city’s grocery stores to help people eat in moderation. A large turnout is expected.

• Iqaluit starts its four-week trial bus program on Oct. 21. For $2 passengers can be taken on two different routes, Loop A, or Loop B. The number of people using the service will be counted and a decision made on the feasibility of permanent bus service.

November

• Elisapee Sheutiapik and Doug Lem are elected to fill two vacant seats on Iqaluit city council. Sheutiapik won 432 votes and Lem 356. Only 31 per cent of Iqaluit’s 2,440 residents cast ballots.

• Construction of a long-awaited footbridge across the Sylvia Grinnell River is underway. Canadian armed forces officers spent two weeks paddling supplies across the river from Oct. 15 to 30. The bridge should be completed by September 2003.

• The city’s new garbage compactor makes its debut at the city dump. The compactor crushes garbage into smaller units before it’s covered by dirt, which means that the open burning of garbage will be reduced.

• Canada Post begins door-to- door parcel delivery on Dec. 1.

December

• Inuksuk High School will get a facelift and Aqsarniit Middle School will double in size as part of the Nunavut department of education’s five-year capital plan. Inuksuk will get $19 million between 2003 and 2008 and Aqsarniit will receive $7.5 million over the same period.

• The government of Nunavut will give the city of Iqaluit $7.2 million for capital projects.

• A teenage boy wanders the streets of Iqaluit in the early morning hours of Dec. 7, firing between eight to 10 shots from a rifle. Police arrest a 17-year-old boy the next day, and charge him with a variety of firearms offences.

• The Nunavut Construction Corporation proposes a privatized form of development in which the city would give NCC the right to develop a subdivision and sell lot-leases.

• The GN and the City of Iqaluit sign a five-year, $31-million deal to help the capital city pay for much-needed infrastructure.

• The City of Iqaluit’s budget shows that ratepayers will pay more property tax in 2003. Property taxes will go up by 2.25 per cent in 2003, while water and sewage fees will increase by five per cent.

• On Dec. 24, Ivan Kilabuk Joamie is released from custody after Crown prosecutors stay a charge of first-degree murder laid against him on Dec. 16, saying that the evidence doesn’t justify prosecution. Kilabuk had been charged in connection with the homicide of 13-year-old Jennifer Naglingniq, whose body was found at her home in the early morning hours of Dec. 6. RCMP say 11 police officers are still working on the case, but they have yet to charge another person with the offence.