Iqaluit councillor dumps on Nunavut Water Board

MICHAELA RODRIGUE

IQALUIT — An Iqaluit town councillor says that the Nunavut Water Board (NWB) has “hijacked” Iqaluit town council’s right to decide where to spend its money.

At two separate Iqaluit town council committee meetings this week, Coun. Matthew Spence lashed out at a recent water board decision to grant the municipality of Iqaluit a stiff one-year licence to distribute water and dispose of sewage.

The Town of Iqaluit’s administration had applied for a six-year licence with terms similar to previous water licences issued by the old Northwest Territories Water Board.

Instead, the licence that the Nunavut Water Board imposed on Iqaluit is replete with new conditions and requirements aimed at meeting environmental concerns expressed by various government agencies and private citizens at the water board’s public hearings last year.

Nevertheless, the licence still surprised many Iqaluit councillors with its severity. Few councillors, if any, however, appear to have read the Nunavut Water Board’s decision and licence, both of which were released to the public just before Christmas.

Draining capital dollars

Spence says the new conditions imposed by the water board are sure to take money away from other long-awaited Iqaluit projects such as road paving and a new recreational facility.

“I’m not sure the water board got it right,” Spence said at a meeting of the Town’s executive committee this week.

“They have highjacked our capital planning,” he said.

“If we’re going to have decision-making process taken out of our hands… what’s the point of having council?” Spence asked. Spence said roads and recreational facilities are more important to Iqaluit residents than a new garbage disposal system.

The new conditions imposed by the water board on the Town of Iqaluit include:

* completion and submission of a new solid waste management plan by May 1, 2000;
* holding of a public meeting on the new plan this fall;
* testing of the integrity of the dykes around the existing sewage lagoon should it be used as an emergency back-up facility;
* completion of a test on the effect of airborne emissions from the open burning of garbage at the Iqaluit dump on water quality in Lake Geraldine.

The board also criticized the Town of Iqaluit for going ahead with a new sewage treatment system before it had received water board approval for the plan.

However, the board stopped short of banning the open burning of garbage at Iqaluit’s dump, as various delegations had lobbied for.

And the municipality had already begun to meet some of the requirements outlined in the water’ boards new licence, including a new waste management plan, were already underway.

Who will pay?

But Spence said it appears as if the water board will force the Town to abandon open burning and spend millions of dollars on a new dump when the licence comes up for renewal again next year.

If that happens, Spence said, there won’t be any money left over for the capital projects that Iqaluit town council has decided are most important.

“We need roads repaired. We need recreational facilities. Where are we going to find the money?” Spence said.

Much of the money will likely come from the Nunavut government. The Nunavut government expects to pay the lion’s share of the cost said, Mike Ferris, Nunavut’s deputy minister of community government, when contacted by Nunatsiaq News.

Typically, the territorial government also helps the Town pay for other capital projects. Ferris said balancing regulatory requirements with other “nice-to-have” items, such as roads, would be a challenge.

But Coun. Lynda Gunn said that she’s happy that the water board’s decision will likely force the Town to find a new way to get rid of its garbage.

But she too is concerned that the cost of waste management will gobble up all of the territory’s capital money for Iqaluit. And she asked the town administration to look for federal money to pay for a new garbage disposal system.

“Maybe funds can be found for this from other sources,” Gunn said.

Administration didn’t tell council

Gunn also admonished administration for not keeping council informed about the Town’s water licence application.

Gunn said council never saw the licence application before it went to the water board. And as of this week, councillors still hadn’t seen the water board’s final decision.

“I would like from now on for this committee to be kept apprised. It should be on an ongoing basis until we receive a permanent licence,” Gunn said at a development, works and public safety (DWPS) committee meeting this week.

The water board’s demand that the town conduct a study showing a link between open burning of garbage and the quality of water in Lake Geraldine is the most contentious condition by far.

Speaking before the executive committee, this week, town engineer Denis Bedard said the municipality would not comply with the new licence unless they received financial help.