Fremantle’s departure a “tremendous loss”

The community of Iqaluit has suffered a tremendous loss with the departure of Ian Fremantle from the position of CAO.

Like almost everyone else, I wasn’t pleased at the enormous tax increase we have been handed this year, but Fremantle can hardly be blamed for that.

Ian Fremantle was the hardest working, most effective and most aggressive CAO that I have seen in 20 years in this community. He prioritized a long “to-do” list and set about accomplishing what had to be done to fix the battered infrastructure of this city.

Did he make mistakes? Sure. Did he accomplish more than any of his predecessors? Absolutely. They pale by comparison. His immediate predecessor, the “affable” Rick Butler (as your article described him last week), lived in fear of council, kowtowed to two self-serving councillors, and left having accomplished nothing.

No doubt the homeowners association, pawns of Keith Irving since his humiliating defeat in the last mayoralty race, will be overjoyed at Fremantle’s departure. Fremantle refused to be pushed around, and refused to let council be pushed around by Irving. He gave the council good advice, often in camera, where advice on controversial issues should be given.

He also refused to tolerate the shenanigans of councillor Stu Kennedy, who slunk away from council without completing his term when he couldn’t get his way.

But the situation of the city now is grave. Councillors’ comments that rotating department heads can effectively fill the CAO position until a permanent replacement is hired are naïve in the extreme.

Remember the period after John Raycroft left? It took an inordinate length of time to replace him. During that time, with department heads alternately sharing the role of CAO, one power-hungry councillor tried to exert an undue amount of influence and control, especially over staff, in contravention of the Council Procedures Bylaw, which prohibits any individual councillor from attempting to direct staff members. All he accomplished was an unseemly level of disruption.

That was in the days leading up to the creation of Nunavut, when millions of dollars of capital infrastructure money was available from the federal government, if only someone competent had been in the CAO’s chair to ask for it. The city’s infrastructure would not be in the condition it is in today if there had been a competent CAO in the office at that time. Today, with an ambitious program of capital works under way now, we need a CAO who can see the jobs through to completion. That should have been Ian Fremantle.

Who will it be now? Somebody tough, I hope. Someone who will advise council, often in camera, and help with the difficult decisions necessary to complete the projects that have been started. It will take six months to hire a permanent replacement for Fremantle. This city can’t afford six months of chaos.

Kenn Harper
Iqaluit