Iqaluit ill-equipped for snow removal

ARTHUR JOHNSON

Snow blankets Iqaluit for at least seven months of the year, but the municipality is almost completely lacking in the equipment or capacity needed to actually remove it, members of a city council committee learned this week.

And as traffic density increases, the number of tall commercial buildings in Iqaluit grows and suburbs sprout on open, wind-swept hillsides, huge piles of snow are trapping elders and the disabled in their homes. Snowdrifts are also creating traffic hazards and inconveniencing and enraging many residents.

“There’s a lot of talk about snow removal, but the truth is, Iqaluit is geared up for snow moving, not snow removal,” Ian Fremantle, the city’s chief administrative officer, told the public works committee.

Fremantle said the city owns just two dump trucks, and “to get into serious snow removal we’d need 12 to 15 trucks.”

Private contractors in Iqaluit could probably muster that number, but Fremantle said it’s impossible for the city to hire them because the contractors are busy clearing snow from parking lots and driveways for their existing customers.

As the temperature soared to a unseasonable two degrees and shirt-sleeved residents basked in bright sunshine, committee members considered a number of issues related to snow hazards.

Mark Hall, director of the public works department, said that the city receives numerous requests from homeowners and tenants to plough their driveways.

But he said doing so exposes the city to increased insurance liability and the risk of danger to people and property from city-owned heavy equipment. Besides, he said, it would raise the troubling issue of providing free municipal services to certain residents.

Committee members backed his recommendation that the city stay out of the business of clearing private driveways.

But after several councillors expressed concern about the elderly and disabled being trapped in their homes by huge snowdrifts, the committee approved a resolution calling for the city to try to persuade the Iqaluit Housing Authority and other government agencies to be more diligent in removing snow from the driveways of their frailest charges.

Mayor Elisapee Sheutiapik said she knows one elder who often requires an ambulance twice a week, adding that she’s concerned that massive snowdrifts could make it difficult for such people to get help in an emergency.

“Whoever is responsible” for removing snow from the homes of the low-income elderly “they’re not taking it on,” the mayor said.

Concern was also expressed about conditions in the Road to Nowhere subdivision, which is especially exposed to drifting snow because of its windswept hilltop location.

One resident sent a letter to the committee complaining about city crews making it difficult for him and his family by pushing snow from the street onto his property.

Hall, the public works director, agreed with Coun. Glenn Williams that there was merit in considering the installation of snow fences, as other communities have done. But he added wistfully that the situation would be much improved if only trees would grow in Iqaluit to provide a natural snow barrier.

Coun. Williams said that he’s lived through many years when Iqaluit got far heavier snowfalls than it did this winter, but added that tall buildings constructed downtown create wind tunnels, which create drifting problems.

Given the limits of Iqaluit’s municipal resources, residents will have to learn to adjust to the snow hazards.

During a recent storm three or four weeks ago, Fremantle, the chief administrative officer said, “both of our sand trucks broke down.” When officials inquired about hiring a privately owned sand truck, he said, “we found it had broken down too.”