Homeowners unite to fight city hall

GREG YOUNGER-LEWIS

Fed up with city hall, Iqaluit homeowners are taking matters into their own hands.

More than 40 homeowners frustrated with recent council decisions gathered in the Nunavut Employees Union building on Jan. 11 to discuss how they can have more influence over their elected officials.

Homeowners claim councillors are cutting services, like recycling, and raising taxes in ways that they don’t approve.

“It’s getting really tiresome,” said Frank Cunha, a homeowner for the past three years on Tundra Ridge. “We have to find a way of getting heard.”

Debate swept over a long list of grievances, from potholes to so-called “infrastructure fiascos.” Some people talked about new ways of taxing, such as a levy on car owners. Others want to restructure municipal elections, so every section of the community has its own councillor.

However, everyone agreed that homeowners have to create a new communication link with council before any issue can be addressed. By the end of the night, the group resolved to push council to create a committee devoted to homeowners’ concerns.

“There’s not enough public participation in the running of the town,” said Ed McKenna, a 15-year resident of Iqaluit.

McKenna said he’s seen a breakdown in communication between council and residents on two occasions recently. He used to be a member of the lands and planning committee, but it disbanded. Last month, he went down to council chambers for a public consultation on land use, and found that it had ended after a few minutes.

Administration called on the assembled audience three times for expressions of interest, and then formally ended the consultation. McKenna said.

McKenna said council needs to stop its current approach to consultation, which he described as “rubber-stamping” recommendations from administration.

However, one of council’s harshest critics softened the tone of the meeting, saying he wanted to take a co-operative approach, not “bash heads at city hall,” as one homeowner suggested.

“I don’t want to give the impression that we’re against the council,” said Brian Willoughby, who owns a home in the Lower Base neighbourhood. “I think the members of the town council care about the city.

“But there’s a problem with the whole way that it’s being run.”

The homeowners’ meeting marked the latest incarnation of a taxpayers’ lobby group. About 15 years ago, ratepayers banded together to contest how city hall was developing land. Previous groups formed in the 1970s and 1980s.

This time, the homeowners have grown in numbers, according to Larry Simpson, a long-time homeowner and former vice-president of the Iqaluit ratepayers’ association.

Simpson said the “critical mass” of homeowners in Iqaluit can now throw weight around in ways they haven’t before.

“I get the feeling that city hall doesn’t want to see a ratepayers’ association, because they know how powerful it can be,” he said.

The group plans to meet again Jan. 19. Inuktitut translation will be provided, with special efforts being made to recruit more Inuit homeowners. For more information, phone Susan Gardener at 979-4209.