Lower Base residents to find out how much they owe

DENISE RIDEOUT

Homeowners in Iqaluit’s Lower Base neighbourhood will learn next month exactly how much money they’ll have to pay to connect their water and sewer lines to the city’s utilidor system.

The project to hook up homes to a new utilidor system has been steeped in controversy. That’s because piped service comes with a hefty price tag for the neighbourhood’s residents. As a group, they’ll have to cover about $750,000 of the $1-million project.

By the end of the year, trucked water and sewage services in Lower Base will end and all homes will be connected to the utilidor pipes.

The $750,000 connection fees will be divvied up among the homeowners.

The next task — one that’s bound to stir up some heated debates — will be calculating how much each homeowner will owe. Next week, the city will begin looking for contractors to determine each ratepayer’s hook-up fees.

The city is asking homeowners to cover the cost of connecting their water and sewer lines all the way to the main utilidor lines. It may mean that residents whose homes are located further away from the main line will have to pay much more than others.

The city could also decide that all Lower Base residents will pay the same amount, regardless of where their houses are.

Council will hold public meetings to discuss the plan with Lower Base residents in March.

“The council will talk to residents about how to best finance it,” said Matthew Hough, the city’s director of engineering and the person responsible for overseeing the project.

Last year, the Nunavut government gave the city a $300,000 grant to assist with the cost of utilidor hookups in Lower Base. But residents will still have to foot a majority of the bill.

Residents have been frustrated by the plan since they learned of it three years ago. The city decided to install the pipes in 1999 while Urbco Inc. was constructing the Capital Suites building in the Lower Base area. Urbco and federal infrastructure money helped pay for the main pipeline.

At the time, the city infomred Lower Base residents they had three years to hook. up. They didn’t like being forced to hook up all the way to the main utilador line, which would mean they would have to fork out anywhere between $12,000 to $20,000 to connect to the pipes.

Now, with the pipes in the ground and the three-year deadline coming to an end, the city is gearing up to switch over to the piped service.

The project is one of the City of Iqaluit’s top priorities for 2002.

The switch from trucked to piped service will bring the city long-term savings. One study, conducted in 1999, estimated it costs the city 4� for every litre of water delivered by truck. It will only cost 1� per litre for piped water.

“The advantage to residents is convenience. The benefit to the municipality is savings,” Hough said.