Candidate wants to restore sense of community

DENISE RIDEOUT

Tom Bragard wants to bring the sense of community back to Iqaluit.

For the five years he’s lived here, Bragard has watched as the community’s needs and city council’s priorities have gone in different directions. He fears this has caused Iqaluit’s sense of community to wane.

Now, he wants to fix that. He wants to bring residents’ needs to the forefront of city council. That’s why he’s running for one of the two vacant council seats in the upcoming municipal byelection.

“It seems somehow that the message of Iqaluit residents isn’t getting to city council. If someone was to convey their frustrations to me, I’d be open to listening to them and delivering that message to council,” Bragard said in an interview.

Originally from Gatineau, Que., Bragard is a trained air force helicopter mechanic. The 46-year-old came to Iqaluit five years ago to work for Baffin Building Supplies. He now works for the Nunavut government’s Department of Transportation as the manager of inspections and services.

This is his first foray into municipal politics.

The key for Bragard is improving life in the community. He said city council should play a larger role in developing social programs to help its citizens.

“People would like to see affordable housing and the availability of it,” he said. “We need to be able to house the homeless and help low-income people who have nowhere else to turn.”

Another focus for Bragard is Iqaluit’s young population. He’s an advocate of sports and recreation, and he would like to see the Arnaitok arena turned into a community centre if it isn’t kept open after next year.

In addition, Bragard is keen to get the four-year-old sewage treatment plant finally working.

“It’s critical to get it up and running as soon as possible, considering we’re dumping three times as much sewage into the lagoon since the population has tripled,” he said. “We need to find out why it isn’t working and what we need to do to get it working.”

Bragard is quite aware that council’s budget won’t allow the city to act on everything residents want. “We have to give careful consideration to how we are going to spend the limited funds,” he said.

“I want to go in there on council and represent the community. I’ll listen to the community and work with the council to achieve the things we’re trying to accomplish.”