What you can’t see matters

Sometimes what you can’t see matters more than what you can.

That’s often the case with expensive municipal works projects, the kind aimed at producing clean water and ways of handling sewage that don’t foul up the environment.

They’re essential for public health and safety, but many residents don’t often appreciate the time, effort – and money – that’s invested in building and operating them. In Nunavut’s capital, those functions are accomplished by underground pipes and treatment plants located in places that aren’t usually in plain view. There are many Iqaluit residents who, when they turn on their taps, don’t have a clue where their water actually comes from, or how it gets from the reservoir into their homes.

So residents are more likely to complain about the things they can see, such as the city’s pot-holed roads and its bulging garbage dump. This is not to say that these things aren’t important. But the city must soon face its most exacting environmental regulator, the Nunavut Water Board, to convince the board, and numerous government agencies, that it’s qualified to receive a new water licence.

To do that, they must show they’re taking steps to provide a secure water supply and a better sewage treatment system, all of which costs many millions of dollars. That’s one of the key goals of the city’s $51-million capital plan agreement with the Government of Nunavut, signed in December of 2002.

Under it, the GN is to give the city $31 million over five or six years. At the same time, the city is to put in $18 or $19 million of its own money, then acquire the equipment and build the projects that are set out in its agreement with the GN.

Originally, most of the city’s share – about $12.9 million of it – was to come from special pots of money set aside for special purposes called “reserves.”

But in 2004, about a year and a half after the deal was signed, the city ran into big problems. Its reserve funds turned out to be badly depleted. It even appears now as if those reserves were already badly depleted when city officials agreed to the deal in 2002. As of the end of 2004, the city only had about $890,000 in reserve. So between 2005 and 2007, the city will need to find another $7 million or so in extra cash to put into its reserves just to fulfill its side of the capital plan agreement.

That’s why, for 2005, the city council had to make unpopular political decisions to cut programs and raise taxes at the same time – to produce a “surplus” of $697,500 to go directly into the capital plan. Until the capital plan agreement is fulfilled in two or three years, city officials will have no choice but to serve its needs – relentlessly. So don’t expect to see any new spending soon on popular, but expensive, items like recycling or a bus service.

It’s somewhat amusing, however, to see federal government officials heaping praise upon themselves this week for the $69.5 million municipal infrastructure agreement announced in Iqaluit this week. That’s because nearly 10 years ago, when Iqaluit was confirmed as Nunavut’s capital, it was obvious that Iqaluit’s municipal government would need a lot of help to pay the incremental costs of new Nunavut-related infrastructure. Instead, Ottawa contributed a pittance.

So now that Iqaluit’s population has nearly doubled, the GN and the city are scrambling to build what should have been planned and paid for 10 years ago. And when it’s all done, Iqaluit residents will still be unsatisfied: many road surfaces will remain unpaved, unrecycled garbage will continue be compacted, and property taxes are unlikely to come down.

As for the other 24 communities in Nunavut, their municipal infrastructure is, for the most part, also in dire shape. The $69.5 million – $16 million of which is coming from Nunavut, not Ottawa – will evaporate quickly over the next five years. JB