Councillor seeks solution to dog team dilemma

GREG YOUNGER-LEWIS

Iqaluit city council will revisit the long-unresolved issue of where to keep Inuit sled dogs in the community without putting children at risk.

Councillor Chris Wilson plans to table a motion to update the Canadian Inuit sled dogs bylaw as early as the next council meeting to allow owners to keep their dog teams only in certain areas.

In an interview, Wilson said he hopes to avoid the emotionally charged debates of the past, where parents pushed to have the dogs kept outside city limits. Dog team owners countered that such a move would take away from the visible Northern heritage that they argue sled dogs bring to the city.

The dispute over dog team storage exploded in March 1998 when six-year-old Leah Tikivik was mauled to death and partially eaten by a dog team staked to the sea ice near Iqaluit. City hall formed an ad hoc committee to deal with the fallout, and spent years grappling with whether to force owners to keep their dogs at least 500 metres outside the community, as recommended in the coroner’s report.

Although councils have been unable to resolve the issue for six years, Wilson said the recently elected council would be able to make progress where others had failed.

“I think calmer heads will prevail,” he said in an interview. “You’ve got one extreme [in the debate] where people think the dogs are massively dangerous, and are going to eat children.

“On the other extreme side, you have people that are saying our culture is being killed.

“From my perspective, both are unfounded.”

Designated areas proposed in past bylaw amendments were quashed after lobbying by the Iqaluit Dog Team Association. The sanctioned areas Wilson intends to propose would exclude residential areas.

Wilson said his motion would not set out to resolve whether sled dogs should be caged or muzzled, or other details related to how they are kept.

The next council meeting is scheduled for Jan. 13.