KRG public works director ‘insulted’ by infrastructure funding

Last year’s $163-million infrastructure deal with the Quebec government is “peanuts” and has made it difficult to keep up with problems across Nunavik, says Kativik Regional Government’s public works director.

Amid ongoing water and sewage distribution issues in multiple Nunavik communities, Hossein Shafeghati told regional council Thursday that he is “insulted” by the funding given to the region in 2023.

“If they need help to decide if they should be proud or ashamed [of this funding], I can help them,” he said in his presentation to council, which is meeting this week in Kuujjuaraapik.

“They should be ashamed.”

The province made the $163 million available to use until September 2027, but Shafeghati said “that’s not a lot of money, that is really peanuts.”

“We still have two years ahead of us in this program and we don’t have any more money.”

In his two-hour presentation, he offered a long list of ongoing and future projects related to water and sewage services, community infrastructure, and shipment of equipment such as trucks, loaders and snowblowers.

He mentioned that in the deal, there was a clause that states an extra $7.5 million could be released if well negotiated.

His department sent a document to Quebec’s municipal affairs and housing ministry with “detailed calculations and demonstrations of what the needs really are” in Nunavik.

“But the real number that we need is another $60 million,” Shafeghati said.

“You are expecting major projects, new municipal offices, new garages and a lot of things that need to be done, and the money I have in front of me is $22.5 million.”

He pointed to Kuujjuaraapik where a new dump site is being built. According to law, the other dump site needs to be decontaminated and covered within six months of its closure.

Shafeghati said this project alone will cost “upwards of $10 million.”

Money must be set aside for obligatory projects like that, he said, otherwise “we will be in breach of some laws.”

The public works department uses a selection process, approved by the council in November, which sets out the highest-priority projects.

However, “it is really difficult to select what to do” with limited funding, Shafeghati said.

Even so, he announced that some major projects have been or are in the process of being completed.

For the village of Aupaluk — which had to take water directly from the nearby lake for nearly a month and residents have lived under a boil water advisory — he said the pumps that feed the water treatment plant are repaired, and the reservoir is filling up.

According to the department’s activity report, there are currently 105 approved municipal public works projects either started or waiting to start and related to infrastructure in Nunavik.

Tasiujaq and Ivujivik have the fewest projects with three each, while Puvirnituq has 14.

At Thursday’s meeting, Shafeghati reiterated that communities need to provide their mandatory water testing results to his department every three months. In February, he told council only two out of the 14 communities sent their samples to the Montreal lab.

“If the Ministry of Environment decides that we are not doing enough quality control, they can put the whole region on an indefinite boil water advisory,” he cautioned.

Shafeghati said mechanical instructors are being sent to communities to assist with heavy equipment and service truck maintenance.

Many villages have improved but two villages, which he did not identify, have “severely gone down in their management,” he said.