Nav Can compromises with Iqaluit

IQALUIT — Nav Canada is proposing to build a radar site in Iqaluit’s Upper Base area.

At the Aug. 14 city council meeting, Nav Canada asked councillors for permission to go ahead with the project.

Nav Canada, a private corporation in charge of air-navigation services throughout Canada, says the radar site is needed to improve air-traffic safety in the North.

The council shot down an earlier request from Nav Canada to install the radar station behind The Road to Nowhere, in the city’s south-east end.

Citizens opposed the project, saying the area should be preserved for recreation. Residents often hike, pick berries and go for picnics in the surrounding area.

They suggested Nav Canada instead put the radar at Upper Base, the site of a radar base operated by the U.S. air force in in the 1950s and 1960s.

Before Iqaluit city council gives Nav Canada the go-ahead, it wille require that Nav Canada will hold a public consultation on Aug. 28 at 3:30 p.m., in the Iqaluit city hall.