City hall flunks building inspection

Bemused city administrators told Iqaluit city council’s engineering and planning committee this week that the community’s 35-year-old city hall complex contains serious building code and fire safety violations.

Iqaluit’s fire chief, Cory Chegwyn, along with the city’s building inspector, uncovered these lapses after being directed to do an inspection by Ian Fremantle, the city’s chief administrative officer.

“We do have some major problems here,” Fremantle said.

Chegwyn said the root cause is that the city hall complex contains three major sections used for different purposes: a public arena, a fire hall and storage garage, and the city’s main administrative offices, including city council chambers.

“These three uses are in conflict,” Chegwyn said.

Chegwyn said the main problems are insufficient fire separation between sections of the building, and insufficient venting of exhaust fumes emanating from ambulances and fire trucks kept inside the fire hall garage.

The fire department also stores diesel fuel and gasoline in its garage.

Another longstanding problem with the city council chamber is that it lies at the end of a long concrete staircase, easily accessible only to those who own a healthy pair of legs.

Coun. Nancy Gillis said it’s “ludicrous” that handicapped people still have no easy access to city council meetings, even though the National Building Code has mandated access provisions for handicapped people since 1985. Iqaluit’s municipal building was put up around 1970.

Fremantle said the city is talking to the GN about using an empty courtroom inside Iqaluit’s new justice centre for council meetings, but that option won’t be available for at least two years.

City administrators will study the city hall code violations and provide council with options for fixing them.