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The top 10 stories in Iqaluit

What Iqalummiut were talking about in 2005

NUNATSIAQ NEWS

City hall flunks building inspection

City of Iqaluit officials weren’t surprised when its aging city hall and arena complex failed a building inspection, on several counts, but they’re still a long, long way from being able to build new quarters.

“We do have some major problems here,” conceded Iqaluit CAO Ian Fremantle when fire chief Cory Chegwyn gave him the bad news after a routine building inspection.

The old building, which houses an ice rink, the fire hall and the city’s administrative offices, failed to meet fire, ventilation and escape route tests.

Search and rescue turns up one
Iqaluit’s wildlife office became the centre of a massive four-day search and rescue effort in May, when two snowmobilers failed to return after a short trip in poor weather.

Four days later, 33-year-old Ed Norman was found by a searcher on snowmobile out by the Sylvia Grinnell River. Todd Reid, 27, was later found nearby. He did not survive.

Dozens of volunteers donated time, snowmobiles, gas, bannock and tea to the effort that went round the clock. A Kenn Borek Twin Otter and a Hercules from the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Halifax also contributed.

Iqaluit’s volunteer search and rescue organization later won the annual volunteer service organization award from the City of Iqaluit, with a special award for member Johnny Kolola.

Spa fight brings out the uglies

As the fight got ugly, Carole Collin continued to offer services in her home-based spa on Tundra Ridge. (FILE PHOTO)

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An advertisement in this newspaper sparked a long and protracted war over a home-based business in Tundra Valley.

A small group of neighbors were outraged to learn about the grand opening of a spa that had already been operating out of House 2628 for most of the year.

City Hall had mistakenly given the spa’s owner, Carole Collin, a business licence, without checking to see if she had a development permit — or even telling her that she needed one. At a council meeting, the city agreed it would be unfair to revoke the license.

But some angry neighbors and business owners said that amounted to giving the spa an unfair advantage.

The dispute over Carole Collin’s spa business culminated in an angry crowd showing up at a March town council meeting, which produced an exchange straight out of an episode of The Simpsons.

The spa continues to operate, under a variety of restrictions.

Stu Kennedy quits council
As the spa fight turned nasty, councilor Stu Kennedy also led a nasty moment at a city council meeting on March 8.

“Are you finished, Stu?” asked mayor Elisapee Sheutiapik, after Kennedy launched a full-scale verbal assault on Ian Fremantle. Kennedy outlined five complaints about Fremantle and the city, including a $15,000 annual bonus paid to Fremantle, whom Kennedy called “incapable and incompetent” during his tirade.

Kennedy resigned from council on March 31, saying he couldn’t support a council that didn’t support his view of Fremantle. Kennedy was also displeased that council didn’t agree immediately to shut down Carole Collin’s spa.

Joamie School reopens
Hundreds of kids returned to Joamie School on March 1, less than two years since the old Joamie School burned to the ground.

“We’re trying to have things as normal as possible,” said principal David Serkoak, as 218 students headed back to class.

The students spent their first day of school reading mail from other students sympathetic about the fire.

The new school cost about $12 million to design and build.

The posts

Soon you won’t notice they’re there. (FILE PHOTO)

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Pedestrians now have a safe place to walk, but the $300,000 project has left city councillors wondering how cop cars and ambulances will be able to slip past traffic to get to emergencies on time.

The city’s director of planning, Michele Bertol, said that people were worried about pedestrians, but didn’t want sidewalks. She said she was left with no option but “a vertical element.”

In spite of all the complaining, there were very few bust-ups on the first day of back-in parking outside of Iqaluit’s post office, although three posts were knocked down around town in what appeared to be accidents.

And thanks to the $300,000 project, Iqaluit pedestrians now have a safer way to get around in the downtown core.

The Salvation Army comes to town
For the first time, the Salvation Army came to Iqaluit this year to take over Iqaluit’s homeless shelter on March 31, after the former managing group, the Illitiit Society, ran out of money to do the job.

The group then moved out of the Oqota Shelter’s building and into the more spacious building 778 in the Lower Base area.

While several nearby residents opposed the move, only one naysayer showed up to an open-house held at the new shelter on May 28.

Councilor Nancy Gillis said she took that to mean there was no more to be said on the issue.

The oil mess downtown
When heavy equipment operators digging a trench for water and sewage lines struck oil in the Lower Base area in July, it didn’t take long for the news — and the smell — to spread.

The workers had hit on water with an oily sheen, possibly the remnants of a fuel cache used by the US Air Force between the mid-1940s and the mid-1950s.

The first to be affected were the workers themselves, who developed headaches and sore throats from the fumes. Residents soon noticed that the atmosphere of their neighbourhood had taken a turn for the worse. “Whenever anyone came to my door, they were holding their nose,” said Matty McNair, whose house is just down the street from the excavation site.

By July 13, all three levels of government — the city of Iqaluit’s engineering department, the Government of Nunavut’s environment department and the federal department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development — were involved in assessing the site.

By the time the utilidor project was wrapped up, the city decided the only way to deal with the mess was to rebury it.

A home on the beach

CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE
Beach-side living in Iqaluit is cold... and expensive. (FILE PHOTO)

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Iqaluit’s acute housing shortage was brought home this winter when Veronica Atagoyuk went public with a plea for money to help pay for the naptha fuel heating a shack on the beach where she lives with her husband and two young children.

The family was forced into the shack when Atagoyuk lost her job with the Government of Nunavut — and her staff housing. Her husband’s job at the elders’ centre doesn’t include staff housing.

It costs about $35 a day in kerosene to keep the 16-by-12-foot shack warm, but by early December, money was running out.

Moments after the story was published on Nunatsiaq News’s website, www.nunatsiaq.com, Iqalummiut showed their generous nature through phone calls to the newsroom offering insulation, building materials, fuel and money.

A whole new neighborhood
The opening of Iqaluit’s Plateau subdivision this summer could be the beginning of a complete town makeover.

Already, houses are beginning to go up, transforming the look of the ridge overlooking the northwest part of Iqaluit. The new neighborhood has room for 34 homes, nine small apartment buildings, and three mixed-use buildings (for businesses and homes).

The city’s planning and lands office is now considering new roads to service the subdivision.

In December, councilors agreed to start phase II of the subdivision this coming summer, creating 45 to 50 more lots at a cost of about $4 million, which will be financed through a debenture.

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