Iqaluit council seeks middle ground in dog-team debate

DENISE RIDEOUT

IQALUIT — Iqaluit’s town council is hoping its recommendations on dealing with sled-dog teams will achieve a happy medium between public safety and keeping the sled-dog tradition alive.

The Town of Iqaluit’s draft of a new animal-control bylaw, which includes a large section on dog teams, caused a major public debate in Iqaluit. Residents concerned about dog attacks were pitted against dog-team owners who defended the tradition of dog-sledding.

Now, the town council has come up with suggested changes to the bylaw that are aimed at pleasing both sides.

Rick Butler, the Town’s chief administrative officer, presented the changes at the Feb. 13 council meeting. The new bylaw proposals are less strict on the do’s and don’ts of dog-team ownership.

For example, the revised bylaw proposal no longer requires owners to carry $500,000 in liability insurance. After consulting with dog-team owners, the Town recognized that many of them were worried that the high insurance costs would make it impossible for them to keep their dog teams.

Whether or not they get insurance will now be up to individual owners. Butler said the Town is looking at other ways to manage the risks associated with dog teams.

The new draft of the proposed bylaw will also no longer ban dog teams from the town’s streets or residential and commercial areas.

The original draft wanted to prohibit dog teams from virtually any area in town.

The amendments to this section recognize that there may be circumstances where a dog team will have to cross streets in the town. It’s been suggested that if dog teams must be on town streets, the owners should choose low-traffic routes.

This recommendation struck a nerve with councillor Glenn Williams, who argued that many Iqaluit residents think it’s dangerous for dog teams to be on any road.

“It’s not acceptable to have dog teams running up and down the streets,” he said.

“Dog teams are not for survival. They are for recreation or they are for business. And they are a public-safety concern to the community.”

Another suggested change to the bylaw would abandon the idea of forcing dog teams to stay outside town borders. The change was prompted by concerns from dog-team owners and elders who argued it’s important for dogs to have some human contact.

The proposed bylaw now permits owners to keep dogs in designated parts of Iqaluit: highly visible, low-traffic areas far away from schools, playgrounds, shopping areas and pedestrian walkways.

Butler said a committee — made up of one councillor, two dog-team owners and two residents — will review places in Iqaluit that can be safely designated as dog-team areas.

In an interesting move, dog-team owners are asking the Town to create a special “Canadian Inuit sled dog preservation bylaw.”

The bylaw, which would be separate from the animal-control bylaw, is aimed at protecting the dog-team tradition and dealing better with the management of dog teams.

This sparked some debate among councillors about whether the Town should get involved in creating laws to preserve culture.

Councillor Keith Irving, a dog-team owner himself, suggested that Iqaluit has to decide if it wants to maintain its Inuit traditions.

“Do we want to be a northern community and encourage dog teams in our community, like they do in Greenland, or do we want to discourage this?” he asked.

In the end, Mayor John Matthews asked that both the animal bylaw and the newly proposed sled dog bylaw be presented at the next council meeting.