Iqaluit CAO Amy Elgersma resigns

Elgersma sent a letter of resignation to council on Sept. 13

Iqaluit chief administrative officer Amy Elgersma has resigned. In a letter to city council dated Sept. 13, she didn’t offer an explanation for leaving but called it a “privilege, honour and pleasure” to have served. (File photo by David Venn)

By David Venn
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Amy Elgersma has resigned from her position as chief administrative officer for the City of Iqaluit.

In a Sept. 13 letter to Mayor Kenny Bell and city councillors, Elgersma said her last day would be Nov. 11 but that she would answer questions and attend occasional meetings to help the transition.

“It has been a privilege, honour, and pleasure to serve the City of Iqaluit as your CAO for the past four years and as a city employee for 23 years,” she wrote in the letter, which is included in the package of reports for Tuesday’s city council meeting.

“We have accomplished many things together and I value what I have learned and the experience that I have gained working with the City of Iqaluit,” she wrote in the letter.

Her letter does not offer a reason for her resignation.

Before she was CAO, Elgersma was the city’s recreation director from October 2010 to January 2018, then served as acting CAO from February 2018 until March 2019 when she was appointed full-time, according to her Linkedin profile.

At Tuesday’s meeting, councillors will vote on designating an acting CAO and discuss how the city will select its next full-time chief administrative officer.

Elgersma could not be immediately reached for comment.

 

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(12) Comments:

  1. Posted by Toxicology report on

    Toxic work environments inevitably take their toll.

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  2. Posted by Thank you on

    I’m sad that the City is losing Amy but glad that she is leaving on her own terms.

    Iqaluit is a better place to live because of the work she did!

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  3. Posted by Northern Guy on

    Ms. Elgersma almost singlehandedly led the charge that got the new pool and recreation facility funded and constructed. She should be commended and remembered for her efforts to make this a much more livable city. She will be sorely missed.

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    • Posted by At the cost of everything else on

      At the cost of everything else. The city still has debt related to that pool, yet it is never open. They can barley staff it or maintain it. Hot tub is always closed, water slide never on, and no programming.

      On Amys watch the city infrastructure continued to crumble. Now she is not the only one to blame, she works for council, but this City needs to get its priority straight. Deal with the crumbling basic services before you go and build a pool you cant staff. Lets get the water sorted out and get more lots available to solve the housing crisis!

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      • Posted by Iqaluit Mom on

        Thank you for saying it! How short people’s memories have become. She was an expert on double speak. Never replied to questions about how to maintain the pool, how to justify the costs, how Iqaluit residents have to bear the burden of paying for something that most residents cannot afford.

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      • Posted by Northern Guy on

        The city’s infrastructure has been and would continue crumbling regardless of whether or not the pool was built. It is an issue that predates Elgersma’s hire as CAO by about a decade and a half. And while the city could be doing more to open new lots for housing development its policy of only building on utilidor and the overall cost of construction (upwards of $700K for single family home) both are out of the CA’s span of control so let’s at least acknowledge where the responsibility does and does not lay.

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      • Posted by sealmeat on

        Taxpayers, in a referendum, voted to pay for the pool. As a taxpayer, I voted to support he referendum, even though I would not use it, but knowing that people, especially kids, would benefit. As with any mechanical issues, I am hoping that these pool issues will be resolved, so that the full potential of the aquatic centre is realized.

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        • Posted by Make Iqaluit Great Again on

          I get so tired of hearing the same old voices criticizing the much needed investment in building the aquatic centre. These people dust off the same tired old arguments that money to build the centre would have been better spent fixing pot holes and doing other similar things. I suspect that many of them are big hockey people and of course have no difficulty supporting city money being used to support their favourite pass time.
          But I digress. What these people will never understand, is that for the City of Iqaluit to be healthy, it needs a robust and healthy rate payer population. You won’t get a stable and robust rate payer population unless you have adequate recreation and fitness facilities to offer people. If you don’t have those things, people won’t want to buy a home and put roots in a community. Most small towns/cities like Iqaluit get that and I’m happy Iqaluit understood that too.
          So, in conclusion, filling pot holes are important. But, giving people a quality of life and a reason to become rate payers is important too and that’s why the aquatic centre was and is a great thing!!!

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          • Posted by At the cost of everything else on

            I would agree if and its a big IF, we had the staff to operate these buildings. Buildings are just that. Buildings. Without staff to operate them and run programming your argument of enhancing quality of life is out the door. The city could barley hold recreation staff prior to the aquatic centre, and while I for one am also not a hockey fan, at least there is a core group of volunteer coaches who are supporting the programming aspect. I don’t see anyone stepping up to volunteer for much of anything in this town unless in includes “Honorarium”. So yes until they can staff and maintain in working order the debt pit that is the aquatic centre I will criticize it. Ms Elgersma was the champion of this project, who failed to understand the human resources needed to maintain and operate the aquatic centre when she provided information to voters and council at the time.

            • Posted by Northman on

              Let’s be a little clearer on this. The Aquatic Centre actually did have a core group of volunteers they could rely on that came over from Atii Fitness when they first opened, who offered all sorts of popular courses, fitness classes and other programming. Amy kicked them all out when they complained about maintenance and safety issues and they have had staffing issues ever since. So the voters and council had what seemed like good information at the time, they just didn’t take into account how Elgersma would mismanage the HR situation so badly to (permanently?) cripple the Centre going forward.

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  4. Posted by Personality conflicts on

    I think we all know what’s going on here. Hopefully folks can keep things going until the next election and a new mayor

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