Planning committee votes to cut fees on 2 Iqaluit developments
Ampere, Uquutaq Society both operate non-profit programs in the city
The City of Iqaluit is advising residents to expect delays over the next week in trucked water delivery and wastewater collection services. (File photo)
Uquutaq Society and Ampere will both get a break on development fees for new spaces they are building in Iqaluit.
The city’s planning and development committee voted Tuesday night to cut in half the fees the groups will be charged.
“We thank the City of Iqaluit for this. Any money that we save on fees like this will ultimately go toward continuing to offer free programming both here in Iqaluit and throughout the territory,” said Kevin Kelly, associate director of Nunavut operations for Ampere, in a phone interview Wednesday.
Ampere, formerly known as Pinnguaq Association, is a non-profit that provides science, technology and arts courses in rural, remote and Indigenous communities across Canada, including Nunavut.
Kelly said Ampere hopes to start construction next spring on a new learning space in Iqaluit near the Road to Nowhere and was due to pay $57,804 in water and sewer development charges.
Those charges are applied to all new developments within city boundaries. They are used to offset some of the financial burden that comes with new construction due to additional strain on the city’s sewage, electrical grid and water supply systems.
The city has the option to grant full or partial fee exemptions to Iqaluit-based non-profits.
Ampere applied for a full exemption. However, the planning and development committee voted Tuesday to grant a 50 per cent reduction, cutting the fee Ampere will be charged to $28,902.
The committee also voted to cut Uquutaq Society’s development fee on a mixed-use 27-unit residential building it’s planning to $56,151, down from $112,303.
A spokesperson for Uquutaq Society, which operates a men’s homeless shelter, transitional and low-barrier housing in Iqaluit, was not available for comment Thursday.
The committee’s decision still requires final approval from city council, which meets next on Sept. 9.
Don’t worry, residents and businesses, money grows on trees! It just shows up in the budget under this magical line called, “Taxes”.
… if Ampere and Uquutaq aren’t paying for it, guess who is.
I have 0 issues paying more taxes so that organizations that do great work can get some extra support,
These two organizations are so important to our community.
Good for you, you’re 1 person that has no issue. You don’t speak for everybody. Maybe you should set up a recurring donation to Ampere because they’re so important? Maybe that way you could get a charitable donation tax credit instead of having the City of Iqaluit decide where you want your forced donations to go.
Your tax dollars spent is not your purchasing power. You as an individual rarely decide where your tax dollars go, this is no different. That’s why we have a city planning committee. So they can do the work you clearly didn’t to establish the importance of the organization.
This is not a blanket approval for all decisions made by the City, but an easy one to get behind when considering youth delinquency and homelessness in Iqaluit.
There’s so much wrong with this in such a short few sentences that I don’t even know where to start.
1. Are my tax dollars my purchasing power? No, I never said they were. However, some of those dollars could be part of my purchasing power if taxes were lower.
2. Technically, we as a collective absolutely do decide where our tax dollars go. That’s exactly what a democracy is. And yes, representative democracy is how the City Planning Committee exists, and I am within my fully within my rights to complain about what they do.
3. You basically say that I should accept what they say because I rarely decide where my taxes go, then immediately say it’s not a blanket approval? So you get to decided what you or I can gripe about?
4. Community and social services, children and youth services, are and should be a Territorial responsibility, not a municipal one. If they want $50,000 for development charges, go ask the Territorial government for it, not the City.
5. If the City wants to give our (yes, our) money away to an organization, I’d rather they don’t give it away to an organization based in Lindsay, Ontario. In fact I’d rather they let me hold onto as much of it as possible and, like I said, if you feel the work they do is so important than you can cut them your own cheque and get a tax credit.
Seems like you knew where to start with your numerical list lol.
1. You are acting like you tax dollars are your purchasing power. Read you first response to the other commentator. You suggested the other person exercise their purchasing power. It’s not reasonable to expect a handful of people to fund or subsidize programs that benefit the community as a whole.
2. No one said “as a collective”, technically. So, good point, you should reconsider your response to the first commentator.
3. Never said you should just accept anything, in fact I said I don’t. You’re free to complain and I haven’t claimed I decide anything. Nice try though.
4. Disagree and why? Only a Territorial issue, why? You do understand that asking for $50,000 and receiving this subsidy are two completely different things. Although you seem to distort what people say based on your 3rd point, so it makes sense.
5. And again, super grateful we have the city’s planning committee to actually do the work to benefit the community. You seem like the type of person going around telling government employees you pay their salaries.