Gas tax saves Iqaluit’s capital plan from the trash can

JOHN THOMPSON

The City of Iqaluit could wind up sinking into less debt than expected.

That’s partly because the city expects the federal government to kick in $2.25 million from gasoline tax funds to help build projects remaining in the capital plan, a $50 million spending agreement signed with the Government of Nunavut in 2002 to boost infrastructure in the territory’s capital.

The city currently expects to go $2.5 million into debt from the projects. That’s significantly less than the $4 million that ratepayers agreed the city could borrow during a plebiscite in January 2004.

However, if the Liberals are thrown out of office this federal election, the fate of those gas tax funds could change.

Iqaluit residents can expect a complete sewage treatment plant, increased treated water capacity and repaired water mains in 2006, Ian Fremantle, the city’s chief administrative officer, said during budget discussions this week.

Iqaluit’s new sewage treatment plant should be complete by March or April this year, Fremantle said. That leaves one year before the capital plan’s deadline to work out any glitches with the system. “The problem is that you need a year until it works right.”

The city’s existing sewage lagoon will also have its berms repaired. Currently, sewage spills into the sea after a number of weeks, rather than months.

“It has the ability to be used as an overflow, if we need to shut the new plant down — God forbid we do,” he said. “If we have any kinks, we have a fallback plan.”

Residents can also expect to see another big blue and white water tower on the hillside by the summer of 2006. The existing water tank was only meant to serve a city of 5,000, said Fremantle, while the city has grown to about 6,200. The additional tank should boost capacity to about 12,000.

Work will continue to raise the dam at Lake Geraldine by two metres, and to reinforce the dam with metal anchors drilled into the bedrock.

Water mains will be repaired near the Astro Hill complex. “We found some pretty major problems there,” Fremantle said. “Some of the infrastructure is 30 years old.” New water mains for Federal Road will be designed, to be installed the following year.

Sewage lift stations by the beach will also be repaired — the ones that leaked effluent into the ocean several years ago, causing hefty fines to be leveled against the city. Engineers dug into the ground there in 2005, and only hit bedrock after 90 feet, Fremantle said.

“The thing has been hanging, suspended,” he said.

Homes along the Uivvaq Loop will also begin to be switched from trucked to piped water and sewage in 2006, to be complete in 2007.

The city hopes to settle ownership disputes at the landfill, remove hazardous waste and compact garbage to make more room.

And secondary road improvements will continue, although residents will have to put up with potholes until these other infrastructure projects are complete, Fremantle said.

The projected costs of work related to the capital plan this year is over $6.4 million, with over $5 million of that picked up by the Government of Nunavut.

There are 13 projects remaining from the original 66 in the capital plan. The city has until May 2008 to finish the work. After then, Fremantle said, the money dries up.