City dumps on Nunatsiaq News editorial

It was very disappointing to read your interpretation of “the public interest” in the editorial of July 5 (“Iqaluit council forgets the public interest”), where you discussed council’s recent decision to turn down the Nunavut Suites development proposed by Ninety North Construction and Development (a subsidiary of Urbco).

I wish to assure readers, and the residents of Iqaluit, that it was precisely the public interest that was foremost in council’s mind when it voted 5-1 to reject this development.

First, it is necessary to clarify the facts pertaining to this development. In your editorial you indicated that the contractor’s proposal met all the bylaws. This is not the case.

When Ninety North Construction applied for a building permit, the proposal met the city’s height bylaw, but the city was advised that the company had no intention of building its four-storey 65,000-square-foot project (twice the size of the Legislative Assembly) without a height variance.

When developers request building variances they are requesting an exception to the city’s laws. The majority of councillors felt that the building was too large in our capital district, with or without the requested variance.

However, it was another aspect of our city’s bylaws that was the determining factor in the rejection of this proposal. The city bylaws require a building to not detract from the character of the neighborhood. The location of the Nunavut Suites development, across from Nunavut’s legislature and government of Canada building, is perhaps the most important area of our city core.

The method of developing the downtown core surrounding our legislature will significantly define the method of developing into a capital city. Unfortunately, when asked, Urbco was not able to demonstrate to council how their building would complement or enhance our unfolding capital city core.

Council believes it is in the public interest to uphold its building bylaws so that the residents are assured that building developments follow a consistent and transparent process. Since the elections in October 2000, councillors have heard from citizens who are deeply concerned about the haphazard development of Iqaluit, much of it the result of variances being granted or developers ignoring guidelines set out in the secondary plan. The city planning department has also tried to negotiate compromises with some developers only to have these negotiations ignored once construction began and the building was occupied.

City council also voiced concerns about other aspects of this proposal, including the lack of requisite parking spaces on the site to meet the bylaw requirements, and the absence of a drainage plan for the project. City administration also had a long list of conditions that had to be met before any permit could be issued.

In your editorial you criticize city council for using ill-defined reasons of character for rejecting this development. In fact, there are guidelines dealing with character of buildings outlined in the city’s secondary plan, and these guidelines were used to evaluate this project.

Your editorial also criticized city council’s lack of responsibility in dealing with Iqaluit’s housing shortage. Please realize that Iqaluit’s housing shortage is, in part, a result of unprecedented growth in our federal and territorial governments. (Your editorial confuses the rejection of the Nunavut Suites project with preventing the opportunity to provide much-needed social housing, In fact the Nunavut Suites project was likely intended for government and commercial housing.)

For the City of Iqaluit to respond to this growth in housing demand in an orderly way, it needs to budget for, plan and develop land, a process that can take, on average, two years. The city cannot possibly provide land on an immediate basis for housing initiatives.

Many of our residents are also tired of the city accepting development proposals, however inappropriate, because external political pressures demand these decisions. It is disappointing that Nunatsiaq News has forgotten its own criticisms of ugly uncontrolled growth in Iqaluit, in order to defend the interests of a developer.

Council stands behind its recent decision on Nunavut Suites because in the end, in a 5-1 vote, it was felt that the public interest could best be represented by better, more thoughtful developments in our downtown core.

John Matthews
Mayor of Iqaluit

Editor’s note: Because of the shortage of government staff housing in Iqaluit and elsewhere, it’s rarely possible, as it once was, for public housing tenants to get better housing by going to work for the government – a process that frees up units for people on waiting lists.