Iqaluit city budget proposes millions in spending, no tax hike
City’s finance committee backs $82M capital plan; $58M operating budget
Iqaluit’s finance committee discusses administration’s proposed capital and operation budgets during Tuesday night’s committee meeting at city hall. (Photo by Jeff Pelletier)
Iqaluit’s draft budget includes tens of millions of dollars in water upgrades and no proposed tax hikes.
“[This] is the best-prepared budget I’ve seen in my time on council,” said Coun. Kyle Sheppard during Tuesday’s finance committee meeting at city hall.
Sheppard, the committee chairperson, and his colleagues unanimously approved proposed capital and operations budgets presented by Peter Tumilty, Iqaluit’s senior director of corporate policy.
The $82-million capital budget lists several proposed projects and a $26-million surplus.
Water-related work accounts for $41.44 million, or nearly half of the proposed capital spending. If approved, that work will include water and wastewater system upgrades, water supply work, a dam safety management program and a wastewater treatment plan.
In April 2022, the federal government announced it would spend $214 million to help the City of Iqaluit upgrade its water system. This year’s budget reflects $27.7 million of that spending.
Another $17.65 million is allocated for solid-waste projects.
Several city facilities would receive approximately $6.2 million in upgrades. Notably, $3.4 million is set aside for the city’s operations centre, and $1.1 million is earmarked for Arnaitok Arena ice plant upgrades.
City administration proposed to spend $5.6 million on drainage and roadway improvements, of which $3.4 million would go to replacing the Apex bridge.
The expansion of Apex’s cemetery is listed as a $3-million project; however, in response to a question from deputy Mayor Kim Smith, city engineer Sumon Ghosh said it might cost less.
“We’re going to be able to get a lot done,” Sheppard said in an interview after the meeting.
“We’re really going to start to hit the ground running on some of the water and sewer improvements that we need to be able to add to our housing stock in the community.”
The city’s operations budget is listed at $58.7 million and includes a $2-million surplus.
Most city services will see a general increase in spending.
At the same time, there is no tax increase proposed for residents.
The budget lists tax revenue as $25.1 million — an increase of $1.6 million from the previous year. Tumilty said the dollar figure listed is simply a more accurate account of how much tax revenue the city collects.
Sheppard said after the meeting that he’s “excited” about no tax increase, and that there should be some “big news” at the end of February about reduced water rates.
“There’s going to be a bit of a restructure where we’re hoping to rebalance the rates that residents pay versus what government pays to kind of alleviate some of that burden,” he said.
“We have some of the most expensive residential water in Canada, if not the world, and we’re definitely charging astronomically more than what residents in the hamlets in the territory are paying.”
Overall, Sheppard said he’s happy the city has some room in its wallet this year.
“I’d love to spend more money,” he said.
“With more revenue, we’re able to invest more in our services, more in our capital and the infrastructure that supports our city.”
The budget will now move before city council for final approval.
Excessive self-congratulations by Shephard for a budget whose numbers are cooked by taxpayers dollars laundered through federal government contributions.
He sure has a way of making it sound like him and the other council members sat around a table and hammered out this budget, rather than just receiving it from Peter Tumilty (a very experienced and qualified public servant), reading over it, and voting yes.
I’d encourage you to actually read the budget.
tax dollars, I thought a tooth fairy put the money into the city. now my world doesn’t make sense anymore
Why is one councillor always quoted by Nunatsiaq News pieces? Why not the Mayor, city officials, another councillor? Is it just the lowest hanging fruit for the paper because that councillor talks more than others at meetings and the paper does not have to set up interviews separately or is it because that councillor is somehow a favourite of the paper?
we all know the counsellor has ambition to be Mayor and or a MLA!
No tax increases yet, over the years whatever the city does it has had to find more money and increasing taxes for home owners has always been the way for them.
I am happy with the additions and changes on the city council as more of them on there are home owners, before majority of the city council were not home owners,
It was easy for them to just take more money from the home owners.
Now with this huge annual budget, where can we find the break down for each department?
Will there be less contracts being tendered out to the most expensive way to get things done! Such as paving, utilidor maintenance and replacements, the city contracts work out way too much and it’s not economically sustainable, with your huge budget, the city must have staff that can work on these things without having to use the expensive contractors, city has the staffing in place, they need to train their staff.
We will see how they handle it. Not well is my guess! Tower Arctic and Nunavut Excavating will make most of the money and the owners will just spend those millions in the south and not here in Iqaluit or even Nunavut. So economically it will be no better off for the city than it is now. That’s the best case scenario of getting all these talking points completed on budget on time and without having to go back over the water system down town again this year for the 10th year in a row.
I agree, instead of building capacity to do the work within the city staff they contract it out too much, those companies getting the city contracts laughing all the way to their bank account while less is being done.
I’d encourage you to actually listen to the meeting.
https://www.iqaluit.ca/content/finance-committee-whole-meeting-01-4
They just dont get that nothing will be done before sealift. To cut cost and help planning they should plan 2 years in advance
The article reports that Sheppard said there should be some “big news” at the end of February about reduced water rates, and quotes him as saying “We have some of the most expensive residential water in Canada, if not the world, and we’re definitely charging astronomically more than what residents in the hamlets in the territory are paying.”
Unlike the rest of Canada and other Nunavut municipalities, we have a serious water shortage, or at least the potential for one. Expensive water rates are one of the only things actually forcing people to moderate their water use. Sure we have an opportunity to top up Geraldine (under contract, for $) in summer/early fall, but the rest of the year we just cross our fingers and hope to avoid catastrophe. And isn’t our precarious water supply one of the main constraints to developing more housing?
Besides some kind of targeted relief for the most needy families (with limits), residents need to be directly exposed to this problem and engaged in managing it.
Councilor Sheppard’s statements (and apparently Council’s fiscal plan for this issue) are highly irresponsible.
Sheppard’s recent election campaign explicitly included lowering residential water rates:
“We can also immediately lower the cost of water for our residents as much of our water related capital costs can be addressed by the funding now in place, which is a big first step in helping with our cost of living challenges.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/iqaluit-municipal-candidates-election-2023-1.6995447
Do I think it is a good idea? No, I agree with you Prickles.
Does Sheppard have a clear mandate to push for this? Yes, absolutely.
Please make it make sense!
I guess it’s just naked populist pandering?
I would love to know the percentage of households that actually pay for their water.