Duty-minded dozen discuss their issues

GREG YOUNGER-LEWIS, JIM BELL, SARA ARNATSIAQ

The number of people running for eight spots on Iqaluit city council has been reduced to 12, now that incumbent councillor Lynda Gunn has announced her withdrawal from the race.

The following candidate profiles are based on interviews conducted during this week in English, Inuktitut and French.

ROBERT BILLARD

Robert Billard, a local architect, is running a second time, after unsuccessfully contesting a seat in the November 2002 by-election.

Billard believes city council must do more to find consensus on issues, and must do more to communicate with residents and actively listen to them.

“We not only have to look like we’re listening, we have to listen. So in the past, citizens have got used to the idea that we’re not listening. In the past three years there has been a lot more community consultation, but people are not used to it yet. We’ve got to continue to encourage people to take an active role,” Billard said.

“You have to respect what they say, you have to listen to what they say. One example is city staff being at meetings without translation. I think that’s got to stop.”

Another point that Billard makes repeatedly is that everything is connected to everything else – which requires a “holistic” approach to decision-making.

As an example, he said, the city’s road-paving program may make roads easier to drive on, but it has other unintended consequences.

“You have to look at things on a holistic level, that everything has an impact on everything else, such as water run-off, when you pave roads, all this has an impact on everything,” Billard said.

In his door-to-door campaign work, Billard says ordinary people have been telling him that road safety is a top priority. And he says the city should move to deal with issues other than infrastructure.

“My issues are definitely safety, issues of community input and community support. I think council has made an effort to try to respond to a number of capital concerns, a number of infrastructure concerns. However, I feel that there are some things that tend to get ignored,” Billard said.

He also says the lack of affordable housing is a big concern for many residents.

“They want homes for their elders, homes for their kids. We’ve got to find a way to make affordable, good housing. It’s great to be providing 10 new lots or whatever on the Road to Nowhere that are completely unreachable … but we’re providing housing for the rich,” Billard said.

ANNIE GORDON

Annie Gordon wants to make the same difference to city politics that Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit classes made to her.

After attending workshops on traditional Inuit knowledge, Gordon could skin a seal and camp out on the land. She also started learning more from her mother.

The workshops, she said, gave her a sense of identity.

Born in Kuujjuaq but raised in Iqaluit, Gordon wants the city to step back from the southern ways she believes it has developed in recent years.

“Now it seems if you see something on the road, like a car broken down, you don’t see many people stopping to help,” Gordon said in an interview. “It’s hurtful to see that.”

More than southern ways, Gordon wants Iqaluit council to change its mostly qallunaaq face. She feels city politics are dominated by an older generation of white men, and the presence of an Inuit woman like her, at age 35, is long overdue.

If elected, Gordon said she would look to add the city’s support to workshops like the ones she attended on traditional Inuit knowledge. Beyond the workshops, she said traditional Inuit knowledge should have more influence on municipal decisions.

“With the Inuit, for a long time we’ve been laid back about the situation,” Gordon said. “I say let’s get involved … let’s start to take control of the community.”

She suggested council would be more reflective of the community, about 60 per cent of whom are Inuit, by consulting Inuit elders. Gordon declined to describe how such consultation might work, saying instead that she looks forward to brainstorming with other councillors on the issue.

“Elders have so much to share. They have a knowledge that’s not written on paper, but that’s written in their hearts about laws, laws of life,” she said.

While Gordon has never held a seat on council or other municipal boards, she expects her administrative experience with the Kativik Regional Government, and her counselling work with the Isuarsivik Treatment Centre in Kuujjuaq will translate well to work as an Iqaluit city councillor.

BRAD HALL

Brad Hall, a 31-year-old employee of the Government of Nunavut’s department of justice, says that bringing competent financial management to city council is at the top of his to-do list.

“I’ve seen too much in the past that when things go out to tender, the contractor gets paid but the work is not up to par. I want to make sure that the money that the city is spending is used appropriately,” Hall said.

Hall’s second priority is housing, and he wants city council to encourage, not block, new housing developments.

“I want to make sure that we have enough housing for the residents of the city, and for the future,” he said.

Hall would accomplish that by providing more land for developers to build housing.

“Currently, there’s not enough lots that are being provided for housing here.”

However, Hall supports council’s recent decision, carried by a narrow vote, to cancel development of the Tundra East subdivision, which would have been serviced by truck and is located a long way from the downtown core, where most people work.

“What the people of Iqaluit want is housing that is close to where they work. The people of the city don’t want to have to take a bus or a car to work. They want to be able to walk to work. We don’t have the parking downtown to support that. I think the community wants to have a subdivision that’s environmentally responsible,” Hall said.

Hall also wants to improve the quality of governance on city council, and to discourage councillors from engaging in private vendettas against perceived enemies.

“With fair and open council proceedings and sticking to the rules that are established, I think we can accomplish the goals we’ve set out in government for the people,” Hall said.

As for public safety and environmental issues, Hall said that most of them can be dealt with by better enforcement of current laws.

“I think we have enough laws in place to govern those issues. What I’m most concerned about is to ensure that those laws are enforced.”

STU KENNEDY

Stu Kennedy says part of Iqaluit’s future lies in the skies.

The veteran city councillor wants to see the next city council make economic development a priority more than ever before. And what better way to do it, he asked, than to take advantage of our consistently cold weather to make Iqaluit the “aircraft cold-weather testing capital of the world.”

Kennedy, who is seeking a second term on council, points to Thompson, Manitoba’s success as a preferred spot for testing cars in cold weather. Similarly, Fairbanks, Alaska, claims to be the best spot for testing airplanes in sub-zero conditions.

Kennedy believes Iqaluit, with the help of the Canadian military, could steal the multi-million-dollar industry from its Alaskan counterpart.

“We have better weather [than Fairbanks],” Kennedy said in a phone interview. “We have more consistently cold weather. It’s a matter of marketing it.”

Best of all, Kennedy said, the city could reap large profits from the boost in economic activity, see a boom in job opportunities, all within a few years — without having to spend any money on the city’s infrastructure.

“I’m sure there are some downsides,” Kennedy said of making Iqaluit into a hub of aircraft-testing. “I don’t see many.”

Besides pushing council to pursue the aircraft project, Kennedy hopes to work on public safety and environmental issues. He also pledged to be a watchdog for the council’s spending habits.

Even though he credits the past council with many successes, such as the creation of a new General Plan and Zoning Bylaw, Kennedy said voters need look no further than local sewage treatment for a reason why council needs to take better care of the public purse.

“The sewage management plant [is] the biggest monument to failure in Iqaluit,” Kennedy said, referring to the $7-million plant near the beach that was to start up in 1999 but still doesn’t work.

Kennedy, a local entrepreneur and owner of Iqaluit’s DJ’s Specialties and DJ’s Sensations stores, says the best way to avoid a repeat boondoggle is to be extra vigilant when hiring council administration to ensure staff are “capable, ethical and responsible.”

SIMANUK KILABUK

Simanuk Kilabuk, a newcomer to municipal politics but an Iqaluit resident for his entire life, gives a traditionally modest answer when explaining why he wants to run for Iqaluit city council.

“I really didn’t think of it myself, but people kept asking me to,” Kilabuk said in Inuktitut.

Kilabuk, the sergeant-at-arms at the Nunavut Legislative Assembly, said his main concern is to see a major clean-up and re-organization of the beach.

Another clean-up priority for him are Iqaluit’s creeks and creek valleys, which have become unsightly collection areas for garbage.

Kilabuk wants that work to be done by people who are unemployed. “I want people to be hired for real, paying jobs to do clean-up work,” Kilabuk said.

Asked about the rapid growth of Iqaluit over the past five or six years, a time when the community mushroomed in size as it developed into Nunavut’s capital city, Kilabuk said he doesn’t see any point in complaining.

“We agreed to have a capital here,” Kilabuk said.

And he said he doesn’t agree with some Inuit in Iqaluit who feel they have lost control of their community.

“No matter where you are from, the growth of Nunavut is out of our control. No matter where you are from, you are more than welcome in Iqaluit. We have to be welcoming to everyone who comes to our capital,” Kilabuk said.

NANCY GILLIS

When council candidate Nancy Gillis came to Iqaluit almost 25 years ago, few people locked their doors.

Schools didn’t burn down.

People crossing the street didn’t get hit by trucks with city workers behind the wheel.

That’s changed, and Gillis isn’t happy about it.

“I always say instead of bitchin’ and complainin’, do something active,” she said in an interview from her home.

So she’s stepping into the political fray with a laundry list of complaints. Gillis said the past council was too focused on one issue, the water and sewage treatment plant. She says council needs to concentrate more on housing and other social problems.

“I think Iqaluit is losing out on a lot,” Gillis said. “[As a council], you have to look at what benefits the community. Somehow they [the past council] lost sight of it.”

Gillis accused the past council of squandering money on unused reports, on the water treatment plant, and on vehicles she doesn’t feel were warranted. Worse yet, Gillis said, council turned down housing development because some members didn’t like the aesthetics of the project.

Gillis would prefer council devote itself to creating more housing, making the streets safer, and improving programs and facilities for youth — including giving young adults “somewhere to go other than the bar.”

At 51, Gillis believes there are a lot of voters like her, thinking about what kind of future her children will have in Iqaluit when she retires. Like many candidates vying for a spot on council, Gillis sees building a sense of community as the key to improving present and future city conditions.

“I think the thing I can contribute is actually looking after the well-being of the community,” she said. “I’m not in it for the money, I’m not in it for the fame.…

“I would hope to do one little thing to better the community, to make the community more of a community [because] I find we’re not acting like a community anymore.”

GOOLA NAKASUK

Goola Nakasuk served as an Iqaluit village and town councillor for several years in the 1980s, and is now attempting a return to municipal politics.

He’s coming back for one reason — because he believes there are no inummariit, or “real Inuit” on Iqaluit’s council anymore.

“I’m Inuk. There’s nobody on that council who is truly Inuk. There should be an Inuk on that council,” Nakasuk said in Inuktitut.

Right now, however, he can’t say what his priorities would be if he’s elected.

“I can’t say what my priorities will be because some matters and issues are at various stages and different states of development. Because of some of the stuff already in the works, I can’t say what my priorities will be,” he said in Inuktitut.

SIMON NATTAQ

A former deputy mayor and a municipal councillor from 1994 until his resignation in 2002, Nattaq is no stranger to Iqaluit city council.

He said he’s running because he wants to represent people who can’t access city hall themselves.

“I’m running because the city hall cannot be entered by everybody. Only a certain number of people can come in. I want everybody to be able to approach council or the city hall,” Nattaq said in Inuktitut.

The popular Nattaq, 58, a former janitor at Inuksuk High School, has always done well in Iqaluit municipal council elections. In 1997, he finished a close third with 562 votes, only 15 behind the front-runner, the late Ben Ell.

In the October 2000 election, Nattaq finished first among council candidates, with 673 votes.

But not long after that, Nattaq was beset by a series of problems. In February 2001, while on a seal-hunting trip down the bay, he was soaked to the skin after his snowmobile and qamotik were thrown into open water.

He was rescued more than 48 hours later, but not until after his feet froze. His legs were later amputated below the knee.

In May of that year, Nattaq was charged with a sexual assault in an incident alleged to have occurred at a welcome-home-from-hospital party put on by the municipality. He was found not guilty in a trial in November 2001. The complainant was a prominent Iqaluit resident.

In August 2002, after another sexual assault charge was laid against him in connection with an incident at Inuksuk High School in 2001 shortly before his hunting trip, Nattaq resigned from council. He was found not guilty of that charge at a trial held in February 2003.

If elected, he said his priorities will include making sure that councillors act quickly on problems that come before them.

“For example, if there is a problem within the public works department, council should take measures to correct the situation quickly so that the public does not suffer,” Nattaq said.

CLAUDE MARTEL

Claude Martel, another newbie to municipal politics, is more familiar with how to build or improve houses than cities.

And in his light-hearted way, he’s the first to admit it.

The 48-year-old carpenter says learning the inner workings of local politics is one of his main reasons for running.

But his underlying reason is that he believes the past council wasn’t doing enough for the community.

“There is improvement, but it could be better,” Martel said in an interview conducted in French. “[By joining council], I’ll be getting my hands dirty and seeing how it works.”

Martel, a resident of Iqaluit for the past 28 years, is campaigning on three main planks. He wants to improve road safety in the city and the running of the public works department, especially in cleaning up streets, and is also pushing for more opportunities for youth.

The only francophone candidate, Martel also hopes he can be a bridge between council and the francophone community. Martel has been an advocate for local francophones, volunteering more than three years for the francophone association council, and the city’s French board of education.

Although Martel stands to harvest a lot of votes from the estimated 500 francophones living in Iqaluit, he said he aims to represent all residents, regardless of their language.

“I hope to serve citizens of Iqaluit the best I can,” Martel said. “When I do something, I go all the way. I never do anything halfway.”

THERESA RODRIGUE

Many people know Theresa Rodrigue as an inveterate writer of letters to the editor.

But instead of only criticizing council decisions through her letters to Nunatsiaq News, Rodrigue wants her voice heard on the council chamber floor.

A resident of Iqaluit for more than 10 years, Rodrigue laments what she describes as a lack of vision on the part of council in developing a long-term plan for the city’s infrastructure.

She points to increased traffic in the downtown core, and recent fatal accidents involving pedestrians and city vehicles, as evidence of council failing to handle the city’s rapid growth.

“You take your life into your hands … in the downtown core,” Rodrigue said of local traffic. “Why don’t we set [the streets] up properly in the first place?

To make the streets friendlier for pedestrians and drivers alike, Rodrigue proposes a public education campaign on street safety that recognizes a lot of new residents grew up in smaller communities with fewer traffic concerns.

Rodrigue also plans to push council to make housing a priority.

A long-time bookkeeper for a local construction business, Rodrigue questions how council has been handling development issues to date. In light of a recent development proposal that was turned down because of its appearance, Rodrigue hopes to encourage council to take a different approach when it reviews housing proposals.

In Rodrigue’s view, after receiving approval from the development committee, a contract proposal should receive a “quick vote” by council and not be sent back for further review.

“We complain there’s a housing shortage, yet council does little to promote [housing],” she said. “We have to promote development, not hinder it.”

GLEN WILLIAMS

Glen Williams, an incumbent councillor first elected in 2000, is asking Iqaluit voters to re-elect him to create continuity between the outgoing council and the new one that will be elected on Monday.

“At the top of my to-do list is to … go through with the five-year plan and to make sure it’s done in an appropriate way and not screwed up,” Williams said.

But he also has some new priorities that he wants to push for, including economic development and a new harbour for Iqaluit.

“I think it’s time we turned to economic development in Iqaluit, especially in small business in the community,” Williams said.

He said a harbour for Iqaluit would allow smaller fishing boats to land their catches here, instead of sailing back to the Atlantic provinces, and would provide better services for sealift and cruise ships.

That means he is opposed to the construction of a road to a new deep-sea port at Kimmirut.

“When I first heard about that I thought it was an April Fool’s joke. We can’t even afford to keep the road open between Nanisivik and Arctic Bay. How are we going to keep the road open between Iqaluit and Kimmirut?”

As for public safety, Williams said he supports more training for city staff and an independent review of the city’s public works department.

“One of the things I think we need to look at is better training of staff and look at updating of training,” Williams said.

He also said the city should make sure that it’s taking full advantage of municipal training programs available through the Government of Nunavut.

“The other thing too is to remember that there have been deaths caused by equipment not owned by the city. It’s specific to our department, but it’s also specific to safety for the whole community generally in the operation of heavy equipment.”

CHRIS WILSON

Incumbent city councillor Chris Wilson, an assistant manager at the Iqaluit Housing Authority, is seeking a second term.

He says his service on council is based on a desire to give something back to a community that has been good to him and his family.

“I love this town and care not only about the community we have today, but also the community that our children will have tomorrow,” Wilson, 38, said in a campaign hand-out.

His priorities include public safety, taxes, and what he believes is a need to review all city departments.

On public safety, he believes that the city should organize a public forum where people can vent their feelings. Three people have been killed by city vehicles within the past two and a half years.

“The community needs to vent its stress and emotion on this issue. There needs to be a public forum on what everyone’s concerns are, what everyone’s ideas are … a public meeting so that everyone can get this off their chest and so the city doesn’t have to come up with all the ideas,” Wilson said.

Wilson said the city needs a system of safe pedestrian pathways, and that expensive concrete sidewalks are not suitable for all streets.

“We have to have a cost-effective and efficient program that will develop proper pedestrian pathways through the community, as opposed to spending millions of dollars building up four-inch concrete sidewalks,” Wilson said.

Wilson doesn’t give much weight to the notion that ratepayers carry a disproportionate financial burden.

“My concern is that we’re getting to be a very divisive community. Renters pay tax. Whether they pay fair market value is an issue between them and their employer,” Wilson said.

But he is opposed to property tax increases.

“I don’t see any need for more taxes, other than what we’ve taken on to support our debt funding. Beyond that, I will not support any more tax increases,” Wilson said.

Wilson also said he wants the city to do a review of all city departments that would look at training, certification, service delivery, and whether they have the capacity to do their jobs.

“I think a couple of the departments are under siege and [can] barely keep their heads above water,” Wilson said.