Kamotiq Inn re-opens but faces charges

CHARLOTTE PETRIE

The Kamotiq Inn re-opened its doors March 4 after the Nunavut fire marshal’s office ordered the restaurant closed due to potential fire hazards four days earlier.

But it’s certainly not business as usual for local managers, who will answer to several charges including up to $1,000 in fines during a March 21 court appearance in Iqaluit. After failing to comply with assistant fire marshal Don Corbett’s orders to close shop Feb. 28, the pizza and burger joint remained open for two more days.

As a result, management was charged with two counts of failing to comply with the fire marshal’s order to close, which carries a fine of up to $500 per day, and one charge of failing to follow previous orders from the fire marshal’s office to make certain property improvements to minimize fire hazards.

The most crucial improvements were never done, said fire marshal Gerald Pickett, who cited the restaurant’s management with 58 fire code violations in April 2002. Management promised the upgrades would be completed after supplies arrived on the next sealift, but Pickett says that promise was broken.

This time around, Pickett got the same promise in writing, and there will be no third chance, he said.

“I received a written commitment from management that major improvements, not yet completed, will be done by June 30, 2003. If it’s not, that building will be closed completely until major, major renovations are done to bring it back up to the standard of a new building,” he exclaimed.

The most recent closure order was lifted March 4 — with conditions, Pickett added.

“They told me last year that it would be done, and it wasn’t. This year I said, ‘OK, you tell me when it’s going to be done,’ and he said ‘After sealift.’

“I said ‘No, that’s not suitable. You told me last year, after sealift it would be done.’ And the supplies he needs to do that one improvement are available locally.

“So, they fooled me once. They can’t fool me again.”

Pickett says he can’t comment on the current charges because they’re before the courts. But the Inn’s previous violations include poor ventilation systems near the cooking appliances, grease build-up on the kitchen floor, walls and ceiling, the absence of any fire-safety plan, inadequate emergency lighting and inappropriate fire extinguishers, empty boxes piled high, and a 250-gallon fuel tank without a vent or shut-off valve — to name a few.

Besides the 15 fire hazards cited last April, the Inn also had 33 electrical violations, four boiler room violations and six health violations.