The doomed dome falls

For some, it was a way to honour the iglu; for others, it was an embarassing, overpriced eyesore.

Now, it’s just a memory.

The Qikiqtaaluk Corp. tore down Iqaluit’s blue dome building this past Wednesday, removing one of downtown Iqaluit’s more notable features.

Known to some local wags as the “ugloo,” it was put up by the old Baffin Region Inuit Association in 1993, for about $1.4 million, and was a source of controversy from its very beginning.

It was supposed to be an office building, and BRIA did use the first floor to house its administrative offices.

But many questions were raised when it turned out that the Qikiqtaaluk Corp.’s general manager used the other two floors as a private residence.

That summer, a group of angry Inuit beneficiaries from around the Baffin region circulated a petition demanding a complete review of BRIA and the Qikiqtaaluk Corp.

They complained that Qikiqtaaluk and BRIA ignored beneficiaries’ interests, were acting secretively, and weren’t providing enough information about economic development activities.

By 1996, new people were in charge of QC, and BRIA had morphed into the Qikiqtani Inuit Association, which moved into the Parnaivik building.

By then the building’s structural flaws had already turned it into an “ongoing maintenance nightmare,” as one QC official said in 1997. That’s because the building was based on design and construction standards intended for California, not the Arctic.

After briefly looking at the idea of tearing it down, QC decided in 1997 to renovate it, and then rent it out to the Office of the Interim Commissioner, which functioned as Nunavut’s transitional government from 1997 to 1999.

It then served as Premier Paul Okalik’s first office, and for some employees with the Department of the Executive and the Department of Justice.

QC then used it to house a youth centre — but young vandals trashed the interior, the plumbing failed, and the building was closed.

A QC press release issued this week said recent engineering analyses reveal that it’s now damaged beyond repair.

“Recently the building became uninhabitable, uninsurable and far too costly to renovate. Once it was vacant, it became the victim of increasing vandalism and it had become a safety hazard,” the press release said.

QC and QIA now say they’ll consult the community on what to do with the vacant lot, and will aim at putting up a new development there in 2007.