City of Iqaluit to relocate offices this month
New city hall features open, accessible space with new audio-visual equipment
Iqaluit Mayor Kenny Bell posted this photo on Twitter on Wednesday showing his office at the new city hall. (Photo courtesy of K. Bell)
Iqaluit’s municipal offices and council chambers are on the move.
City hall offices currently located at 901 Nunavut Drive will relocate to a new location at 1085 Mivvik Street later this month, the city said in a news release.
The newly constructed building was designed to offer city staff and visitors a more open, accessible space, as well as audio-visual upgrades for public meetings, according to the release, dated Tuesday, Feb. 9.
Iqaluit Mayor Kenny Bell called the opening of the new facility “a highly anticipated milestone” for the city.
“The new office space will invest in our current and future staff by ensuring staff have positive and healthy work spaces, as well as the tools they need to succeed in providing high quality services to residents,” Bell said in the release.
The new building will provide office space for five city departments: administration, finance, corporate services, human resources and economic development.
The city said the new facility also has upgraded ventilation systems, improved acoustic and sound design and natural light from large windows.
The move from the Nunavut Drive office to the new Mivvik Street facility may require temporary city hall closures, which the city says it will announce in advance.
The city plans to host an open house event once staff are set up in the new facility.
As a tax payer, I would like to know if the mayor release the costs associated with the move.
-how much rent is Milan Mrdjenovich charging the city for this new space?
-how many years on the lease?
-what will be the difference in costs vs staying at the old arena?
-was a Tender Request put out for a new facility or was this hand picked?
If you regularly attend city meetings then you would already know.
Also, you can look at the city of iqaluit website and download the capital budget 2021. Comment sections of Nunatsiaq or FB are only open air complaints, comments, questions and are actually not meant to be used as a service provider for those posting. A little work needs to be done and active participation to find these things out. I’m not great with spreadsheets but it seems your very question is under schedule 7 as “RENT” at $307K. Given that same line item was listed as nil in 2020 and 2019 it seems that this is indeed the cost you are asking about. In this case I did the leg work but remember that a comment online is like yelling on a hill top. Few ppl might hear you and respond but it’s best to go directly to the source (be it an office, resources like reports, or to city councilors).
The city like the gn and federal government will pay for these private buildings twenty times over by the end of a lease. The city owns and controls the most prime land in the city. Surely it could have secured necessary capital loans and have a building built and owned by the City. That would be an undertaking, but save a generation of taxpayers money for other social programs instead of enriching mijenovic. This rent choice is an easy option though, but I really expected more. If the city owns the pool and rinks and fire station (I assume they do) it should own city hall as well. This is not downtown Toronto where Cadillac fairview owns everything and you have no choice but to rent. What favors this policy decision besides expediency and perhaps lack of dealing with asset management?