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GN should review decentralization

As some readers will know, the Government of Nunavut issued a new "Pinasuaqtavut" document last year, just after the 2004 election, replacing an old one that many of us remember as the "Bathurst Mandate."

The new one is called "Our Commitment to Building Nunavut's Future." You won't find a more high-minded pile of words anywhere this side of the treeline.

In the spirit of these noble intentions, and assuming, of course, that at least some GN officials actually believe in them, we propose the following: that the territorial government hire a competent expert in public administration to review its decentralization program and to provide an accurate, honest assessment of its benefits - and costs. Such a study should also evaluate whether public services have been either weakened, or improved, by decentralization.

Decentralization is a cornerstone of the structure that the GN built for itself after April 1, 1999, and was a major obsession during the first legislative assembly. Premier Paul Okalik promised that he would distribute about 420 headquarters jobs among 10 selected communities. For good or for ill, he was true to his word. Okalik and his senior staff kept that promise.

So now that the decentralization project is more or less done, this fall would be an excellent time for someone to begin a thorough evaluation of it. The second legislative assembly will be in office until 2008, so MLAs and the government will have plenty of time to correct whatever shortcomings are likely to be revealed by such a study.

There's no reason why GN officials, from the premier on down, ought to fear such an exercise. It's no secret that decentralization has worked better in some communities than in others. It's in the GN's interest - and above all, the public interest - to figure out exactly where the problems are and to fix them.

And if they're looking for justification for such a study, GN officials should read their own words, especially the high-minded ones contained in their Pinasuaqtavut document.

For openers, here's one of the GN's guiding principles, as set out in Pinasuaqtavut:

Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit will provide the context in which we develop an open, responsible and accountable government.

"Open" means, among other things, that you don't play games with the truth. "Accountable" means that you tell people about the real cost of your decisions, and you tell people about your failures as well as your successes.

Another section, called "Pijarnirniqsat Katujjiqatigiittiarnirlu," or, in English, "Simplicity and Unity," sets out another value that is supposed to guide the GN:

Every activity and expense must have a productive purpose.

Right now, we don't know if every activity or expense associated with decentralization had a "productive purpose." We don't really even know what the expenses are.

We do know, however, that in 2003, the GN tried to order the Workers Compensation Board to relocate its office from Iqaluit to Pangnirtung. We also know that the WCB hired a consultant to do their own evaluation of such a move, and concluded decentralization would damage its ability to serve its clients, and that it would not serve any "productive purpose." The WCB stayed put.

We also know that the Nunavut Power Corp., created on April 1, 2002, was asked to set up a decentralized "head office" in Baker Lake that would handle customer billing. Two years later, after $13 million in losses and numerous blunders, many of them in its billing operations, the power corporation was getting "severe warning" letters from the auditor general of Canada.

As a result, many Nunavut residents believe, rightly or wrongly, that this is a major reason for our increasing power bills. Don't forget, even if your own bills are subsidized, you'll pay those higher power bills indirectly every time you buy food from a store in your community.

Here's another set of noble words from the Pinasuaqtavut document. By the year 2020, they say that in Nunavut:

The structures and activities of government serve Nunavut's needs, with the most effective use of resources.

So if the Government of Nunavut intends to be true to its own mandate, they really have no choice but to take a thorough, honest look at decentralization and to share their findings with us. JB

August 12, 2005

When the past bites back

Like all other organized communities in Nunavut, Iqaluit's history is short, so short that the community's very beginnings still reside in the memories of people who are still alive today.

But even though Iqaluit's history is short, it's made of many layers - literally.

Over the past couple of summers, residents of Iqaluit's Lower Base neighbourhood discovered how easily those layers can be pealed away. Work crews, while digging trenches for utilidor lines, have unearthed the nearly-forgotten refuse of the 1950s: long-buried fuel drums and deposits of what appear to be 50- to 60-year-old fuel spills.

They're turning up in an area of Iqaluit that, in a time before the erection of the tank farm, was once a fuel dump for the U.S. air force, a great outdoor warehouse for fuel drums. In those days, environmental regulations, as we know them now, barely existed, and even if they did, there was no one around to enforce them.

Homeowners in the neighbourhood now worry if it's safe for their children to play outside on top of soil that may be contaminated, and some worry that it might now be more difficult for them to sell their houses.

But at the same time, it's not clear what should be done about it. It's not even clear that anything ought to be done about it.

Those who believe that a clean-up should be done, will, understandably, turn first to the City of Iqaluit. That, however, is the level of government least able to pay for such a costly undertaking, and it's extremely unlikely that the city would ever accept responsibility for cleaning up a problem that they did not create.

As for the Government of Nunavut, it has the ability to do some types of environmental testing and to act as a public health watchdog. But the GN doesn't appear to have the capacity to do much more than that. And it's highly unlikely that the GN will even begin to start looking within its budget for clean-up funds.

That leaves the federal government, which has already committed many millions of dollars to clean up numerous contaminated sites that are much bigger and present a far more serious threat to the environment. As it is, the federal government is not accepting responsibility even for the North 40 site despite the City of Iqaluit's insistence that it's Ottawa's problem.

In this case, Iqaluit residents have no choice but to accept what the past has thrown up into their faces and to go on living with it, as they have for at least half a century. JB

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

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