Couple face eviction from house nobody wants

GREG YOUNGER-LEWIS

An elderly couple from Iqaluit moved back into their house this week after bureaucratic delays at city hall and complaints from disgruntled neighbours threatened to leave them homeless.

Peter Salomonie, 64, and his wife Ooleepeeka, 53, recently received permission from Iqaluit’s development appeals board to move back into their simple beige bungalow, which now sits in an area known as the “trailer park,” near the red federal government building.

Trailer park residents had blocked the couple from returning to their home, by complaining to the appeals board that the City of Iqaluit had violated their own development and zoning bylaws by putting a house in a commercial zone.

The complaint led to a moving delay that Peter Scott, president of the Nunavut Housing Corp., described as “ludicrous” and “totally unacceptable.”

Scott’s department oversees the Salomonie’s house under a low-income program that gave the family a new home 11 years ago, when the couple was living in a shack on the beach.

After the board threw out the complaint at a meeting on June 28, Scott called on city council to revamp their development approval process, in order to avoid similar ordeals.

“There has to be an easier and better way of resolving this type of issue, rather than this bureaucratic type of process,” Scott said after the meeting. “I’m just glad we can move on and get our clients into their home.”

Trailer park residents, including Sheldon Nimchuk, said they filed the complaint in order to clarify just what sort of development is permitted in their neighbourhood.

Nimchuk, who has lived in the area for two years, said he was shocked when he found a new house at the end of his road, without any prior notice from city hall.

“One Sunday, we woke up and the house appeared,” he told the board. “We simply want some answers as to whether due process was followed.”

A City of Iqaluit representative admitted at the board meeting that it had failed to follow normal procedure of telling neighbours about pending development.

Michèle Bertol, city lands planner, said a staffing shortage contributed to delays and confusion.

Council passed the first reading of an amendment to Iqaluit’s zoning bylaw on June 29 that they hope will prevent future confusion over development in the area.