Trash prompts tourism boycott

MIRIAM HILL

IQALUIT — An adventure-tourism guide who brings clients to Iqaluit has decided the city’s garbage-strewn streets are too disgusting for his customers.

Paul Landry, co-owner of Iqaluit-based Northwinds Arctic Adventures, says the city will be left off his company’s tour itinerary next year.
The decision came after numerous visitors who filled out the company’s post-trip questionnaires condemned the city as an eyesore.

“We will not be eating in restaurants, we will not be sleeping in hotels, and we will
not be visiting art galleries here.”
– Paul Landry, co-owner of Northwinds Arctic Adventures

Northwinds brings wealthy tourists to Nunavut for week- and two-week-long programs at destinations like Ellesmere Island and Auyuittuq National Park.
Normally, the company’s tours include a 24-hour stopover in Iqaluit. But because of his clients’ complaints, that won’t happen next year, Landry said.

“They’re commenting how unpleasant Iqaluit is for them because of the amount of garbage. We will not be eating in restaurants, we will not be sleeping in hotels, and we will not be visiting art galleries here.”

“It’s not just the garbage,” he said. “It’s also the conditions of the roads, the dust. It’s a combination of things.”

Landry said that when visitors compare Iqaluit to other places they visit, the litter-strewn ditches and garbage-clogged streams look terrible.

“If they only came to Iqaluit, they may think the rest of the North is this way, but our trips go to other communities,” he said.

Landry said Northwinds brings about 75-100 people to Iqaluit in an average summer. Next year, he said, his clients will arrive at the Iqaluit airport and immediately board planes bound for their final destinations.

Tourism official agrees

The issue of Iqaluit’s garbage also arose last week at a breakfast held for tourism operators and government officials.

At the Aug. 10 breakfast, Jim Watson, the president of the Canadian Tourism Commission, pulled no punches.

“There’s a lot of garbage in Iqaluit,” he said.

The Tourism Commission is responsible for helping Nunavut market itself as a tourism destination. But that’s not easy when the territory’s capital is so ugly.

Watson said visitors from the South expect Nunavut to be pristine and clean. It’s being marketed as such, he said, but that image is contradicted by the mounds of garbage and pop cans littering Iqaluit’s streets.

City councillor Stu Kennedy, part-owner of D.J. Sensations, an Iqaluit gift shop, called Watson’s comment “constructive criticism,” and said it was appropriate.

“As a community we have to do something about the situation,” he said. “I want to live in a place I can be proud of living in. I want to do my part as a citizen, and as a councillor to promote cleanliness in this city.”

After hearing Watson’s comments, Kennedy drove along the Ring Road between the Frobisher Inn and D.J. Sensations. He counted five garbage bins on that route. Four of them were lying on their sides.

“We’re living in a world that used to exist in other parts of Canada 50 years ago,” he said. “We aren’t even at the point of development to put our refuse away on the street. I’m not proud of that fact.”

Kennedy said the city has an obligation to put out more receptacles, and citizens have an obligation to use them.

But when asked whether legislation could solve the problem, Kennedy said bylaws may not be the answer. It’s the mentality of citizens that needs to change, he said.
The city’s chief administrative officer, Rick Butler, said the city has a solid-waste management bylaw that requires business owners, home owners, and construction-site managers to keep their premises clean.

Chief bylaw officer Terry Augustus said his department has been serving letters to home and business owners with trash around their buildings.

The city gives them time to clean up the mess, usually about three weeks, and if the site remains unchanged the offender can be charged with having unsightly premises. The fine for a conviction can range up to $2,000.

Augustus said people could also be charged under the Highway Act if they throw trash out of a car window, also resulting in a fine up to $2,000, but he said the bylaw department is concentrating more on unsightly premises.

The bylaw has been on the books, Augustus said, but this year they are taking a more proactive approach and not simply waiting for complaints.

“We made a commitment we wanted to do this this year, and we got a little sidetracked (because of the municipal lockout and strike) but we’re back at it now,” he said.

Tired of trash

Iqaluit resident Johanne Gilbert was so sick of seeing garbage on the beach that she took matters — and trash — into her own hands.

Gilbert helped organize a beach clean-up that took place behind the elders’ centre Sunday morning.

Few residents bothered to show up, but those who did spent hours collecting fuel cans, chip bags and even dead animals that were scattered along the shore.

Gilbert said residents should be pressuring the municipal and territorial governments to do something about the city’s litter.

She said looking at all the garbage makes her feel sick.

“I think of what it affects,” she said, gesturing toward discarded grocery bags. “The ocean, the fish, the smell, the kids that play in this.”