Buildings destroyed by fire costly to replace

The Government of Nunavut should consider fire prevention programs, Iqaluit Centre MLA Hunter Tootoo said this week, pointing out that a fire shut down Iqaluit’s Inuksuk High School for an afternoon this week just months after the city’s Joamie School was destroyed by fire.

“The damage [at the high school] is not significant, but the fact it occurred is significant,” Tootoo told Manitok Thompson, the minister of education.

Thompson said the GN has learned a number of lessons from the recent fires. “When a building burns down, it costs a lot of money to rebuild one,” she said. “That’s the lesson for the territory. That’s the lesson for everybody.”

She invited fire departments to expand their work in Nunavut schools.

“This is a very important lesson for all the students across Nunavut,” she said.