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Man charged in fire that destroyed St. Jude’s

Congregation gets more bad news: insurance won’t cover rebuilding costs

SARA MINOGUE

This could be the new look for Iqaluit’s St. Jude’s Anglican cathedral, if fundraisers come up with enough money to start rebuilding from scratch. (FILE IMAGE)

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Twenty-seven-year-old Litanie Pitsulak has been in police custody since RCMP arrested him on Dec. 21. He is charged with arson, breaking and entering to commit an offence, and possession of stolen goods under $5,000. He also faces a charge of impaired driving in an unrelated matter.

The tall young man wore a buzz cut, a short goatee, and the standard issue blue sweatshirt from Baffin Correctional Centre. He gave a shy glance to the media before sitting down to hear the Crown attorney and defence counsel make a joint request to postpone the matter to Jan. 23, in order to get more information on the arson charge.

RCMP would not discuss the circumstances of the arrest or the investigation with Nunatsiaq News.

The brief court appearance came about two weeks after Captain Ron McLean announced to his congregation that St. Jude’s Anglican Cathedral is unsalvageable.

McLean got the phone call at noon on the Friday before Christmas: the beams holding up the building are too damaged to repair.

“The beams are the structure of the church,” McLean said.

The cathedral will not likely be rebuilt. Rather, the igloo-shape will appear as it did in plans produced last year, as the central part of a larger, expanded structure.

The good news, McLean said, is that building an entirely new structure may cost less than the planned addition, which came with an estimated price tag of $7 million.

But it could still be a tight squeeze, because to make matters worse, the church was underinsured.

The insurance adjusters, Arctic West Adjusters in Yellowknife, estimate a price tag of $850,000 to rebuild the church as is — without adding luxuries such as plumbing to bring it up to new building standards. A contractor in Iqaluit has already told McLean that estimate is too low, and that the job would require at least $1 million.

Their insurance package, from Ecclesiastical Insurance co. in Calgary, is worth $535,000.

However, there are two other pots of insurance money. Money will be paid out for what it would have cost to upgrade the old church to today’s standards. The church is still negotiating what amount the insurance company will pay for the artifacts lost in the fire.

Fundraising is expected to cover the rest — and the success of that fundraising will determine the ultimate structure that goes up.

“We have people all over the world who are just waiting to hear from us on how they can help.”

A local fundraising committee already raised over $5,000 by selling snacks at the canteen at the Parish Hall during the Christmas Games. The profits were large because all of the coffee, chips and pop were donated by local grocery stores.

“That’s because of all these community conscious people coming in to give us a hand.”

The synod executive plans to meet soon to decide how to proceed. Meetings with congregations and an architect will follow.

“It’s obvious we’re not going to be in the new cathedral this fall, but possibly for Christmas 2007,” McLean said.

McLean leaving town

Meanwhile, McLean and his wife Carol are busy packing for a planned move at the end of this month, after three years in Iqaluit. They depart Jan. 23 to take up residence at the Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Yellowknife.

McLean said he’s experiencing “mixed emotions:” excited to take up his new role, but sad to leave Iqaluit, where he’s “gone through a lot with people.”

McLean is especially sad to leave town before seeing the new soup kitchen open, but said he’s pleased to see the project in good hands.

“I’ll go in peace, knowing that.”

Rev. John Tyrell and his wife Carol will soon arrive from Dawson City, Yukon, to take charge of the church for the next five months.

The Tyrells are both trained parademics, and Carol is a nurse, so McLean expects Iqalummiut to be quite safe for the time being.

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