Lower base residents await answer on utilidor costs

MICHAELA RODRIGUE

IQALUIT — Iqaluit ratepayers may be asked to foot a $1.14-million bill to hook up lower base homeowners to Iqaluit’s piped water and sewage system.

Property owners in the Lower Base district now have three years to hook up to a new utilidor system. But with the average price tag running between $15,000 to $20,000 per homeowner, no one has hooked up so far.

They say a Town bylaw that requires homeowners to cover the cost of extending pipes from the main water line to the edge of their property lines is unfair.

Last week, the committee members extended an olive branch to irate lower base residents, and discussed ways in which the Town can help homeowners cover the hefty costs.

Iqaluit engineer Denis Bedard presented various options to the development, works and public safety (DWPS) committee.

Option one is to split the $1.14 million bill amongst all ratepayers. To cover the cost in one year, the property taxes would have to increase by 47 per cent, said Don Piche, Iqaluit’s director of finance.

“The option would be that the general taxpayer, through our levies, would have to carry the burden of these costs,” Bedard said. Bedard warned that paying for lower base residents to hook up would likely set a precedent for residents of Iqaluit’s new subdivision.

Bedard estimated it would cost the Town $1.44 million to pay for the pipes in that subdivision.

Other options include retaining the status quo, which forces building owners to pay for the pipes from the water main to their property line. Or the Town could cover the initial price of the pipes and gradually tax back the expenditure to lower base residents through a levy, Bedard said.

“This option allows the municipality and homeowners some flexibility in how the levy will be repaid,” Bedard told committee members. He said council could decide to give residents 15 years to pay back the expense or to pay up front with no interest charged.

Before Bedard presented his options, lower base residents John Thomas and Steven Roberts urged committee members to consider subsidizing the cost of the hookup based on the savings that the switch to piped service is expected to generate.

“We understand the reason the Town wants to bring the utilidor down or has brought it. There’s significant savings for the town. We’d be very interested to see those numbers on those savings. And we would like to make the argument that the savings shouldn’t be borne on the backs of lower base residents,” Roberts said.

“And in fact if there are significant savings to be had, that savings should be considered in extending some kind of subsidy to the residents of lower base to hook-up.”

The former GNWT previously subsidized homeowners for the cost of extending pipe from the water main to their property line. That subsidy is now gone, and the owners of the 61 affected properties each face differing bills depending upon how close their property line is to the main.

The price variance is unfair, Roberts said.

“Under the proposal from the municipality at the moment, the hookup to the mainline is completely unfair. It penalizes people who are on the opposite side of the road. We believe many residents in lower base simply do not have the financial capability to hookup under what the town is proposing,” Roberts said.

When lower base residents were first told in June they had to hook up in three years or lose sewage and water service, residents railed against the high cost.

In fact the high cost has some residents speculating many homeowners will not be able to hook up in time for the three-year deadlline.

Thomas told committee members, lower base residents are also lobbying their MLA for the subsidy to be reinstated. But neither residents nor Town officials are optimistic the Nunavut government will cover the cost.

“We have been assured that they are trying to work on a subsidy, but there’s no guarantees,” Thomas said.

“As far as subsidies for hookups, I would be very surprised if that kind of subsidy was available,” Piche told committee members.

The DWPS committee deferred making a decision on how to help lower based residents. But committee chair Matthew Spence said the Town wants to sit down with lower base residents to come up with a solution that is “palatable to both sides.”

Spence, along with committee member-at-large and Bobby Gunn and Bedard are expected to meet with lower base residents before the next committee meeting. They will also discuss upcoming water rates.