Iqaluit hires consultants to produce waste management plan

MICHAELA RODRIGUE

IQALUIT — Iqaluit Town Council is looking for new ways to get rid of Iqaluit’s garbage, but that’s no guarantee that open burning of garbage at Iqaluit’s dump will stop, an Iqaluit town councillor says.

Iqaluit’s Town Council awarded a $225,000 contract last week to two consulting firm who will prepare a waste management plan aimed at finding solutions to Iqaluit’s burgeoning garbage problem.

The contract was awarded to J.L. Richards and Associates of Ottawa, and Golder Associates of Yellowknife.

Right now, Iqaluit burns as much as 13,000 cubic meters of plastic pop bottles, household waste and other garbage at its dump site each year.

Faced with growing criticism from the public and various government agencies about the effects of open burning on the environment and people, Iqaluit’s municipal officials must find new ways of disposing of Iqaluit’s garbage.

Iqaluit’s new waste management plan is expected to be used for the next 20 years.

The consultants are also expected to come up with remediation plans for three of Iqaluit’s six old dump sites, and they will study ways of increasing the amount of waste that can be recycled.

But the Town of Iqaluit hasn’t officially ruled out open burning beyond 2001, and one councillor says he believes that the practice may have to continue.

Coun. Matthew Spence says no matter what recommendations the consultants come up with, in the end, money will determine how Iqaluit gets rid of its trash.

“That will be dictated by finances. If we don’t have any money we won’t be able to implement it,” Spence said, adding that every community in Nunavut uses an open-burn dump.

If government agencies decide that Iqaluit must stop open burning, pressure will mount on the Nunavut government to find money for a new waste management in Iqaluit, Spence said.

The Nunavut government is paying for Iqaluit’s new waste management study.

But at least one Iqaluit resident says the Town of Iqaluit has ignored its garbage problems for too long.

When he appeared at an Iqaluit Town Council meeting last week, Paul Crowley admonished the Town of Iqaluit for not fulfilling the environmental obligations set out within its last water licence, which has now expired. He said that open burning should have come to a halt in Iqaluit years ago.

“I feel it is unacceptable to continue open pit burning,” Crowley said. “There’s no excuse.”

Iqaluit’s dump was opened in 1995 as a temporary five-year site. Open burning was considered to be a stop-gap measure aimed at extending the life of the dump until the Town was able to produce long-term waste management plan.

Four years later, open burning continues, the Town wants to continue to use the dump until 2001, and a waste management plan submitted to the Nunavut Water Board in 1998 was rejected in 1998.

Iqaluit is now waiting to find out if the Nunavut Water Board will renew its water licence. The board is expected to make a decision next month on Iqaluit’s water licence next month.

Crowley called Iqaluit’s lack of planning “worrisome,” and told Iqaluit councillors he wants open burning to stop immediately.

Iqaluit Mayor Jimmy Kilabuk thanked Crowley for his comments, but said Iqaluit doesn’t have the money to deal with the problem right now.

Coun. Matthew Spence said he, like Crowley, wants open burning to come to an end, but he said that right now, Iqaluit can’t afford any of the more expensive alternatives to open burning.

“We don’t have another technology that is as cheap as open burning. It’s going to take longer than six months,” Spence said.

But in an interview after the meeting, Crowley said there’s no reason for open burning to continue, and he called on the Iqaluit council to make sure it’s stopped.

“It’s not enough to say ‘we’ve awarded a contract.’ They have to take a leadership role,” he said.

Crowley said he is “cautiously optimistic” that this latest round of planning will produce a good solution, but he wants the Town of Iqaluit to make sure that public consultation takes place.

“They’ve got to do more than get out one big document and say ‘we’re going to be talking about this on Tuesday at the Parish Hall,'” Crowley said.

Instead, Crowley wants the consultants to approach special interest groups such as the Hunters and Trappers Association and elders.

The consultants are expected to finish their plan by March 31, 2000. A new system would be up and running by the time the current dump becomes full in 2001.