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January 20, 2006

Iqaluit this week

Coffee house this weekend
Saturday, Jan. 28, 7 :30 p.m., Inuksuk High School. The Iqaluit Music Society presents a coffee house. For info, call Jennifer Wakegijig at 979-8832 or email jenniferwalk@hotmail.com

Family Literacy Day, next week
Celebrate Family Literacy Day on Friday, January 27 from 4:30-6 p.m. at the Iqaluit Library, featuring the new NFB book/video "Let's all read together." Activities and prizes for kids. Contact the library at 979-5400 for more information.

Ongoing: Circumpolar art display
The Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum continues to display "Encounter," an exhibition by Norwegian artist Patrick Huse. The exhibition, which includes photographs from Iqaluit and Resolute Bay, runs through Feb. 12.

GN isn't pulling weight: City

The Government of Nunavut isn't paying its fair share for search and rescue, building inspections and emergency dispatch services, according to City of Iqaluit councilors.

"All these services are outside, basically, our jurisdiction," said deputy mayor Glenn Williams, during budget discussions last week. "It's not our responsibility to pay for it, or fund it."

The city spent over $20,000 last year on search and rescue, which hasn't yet been reimbursed by the GN. The city plans to meet with government officials on Jan. 24 to discuss where responsibilities fall.

"No one seems to want to take responsibility for paying for it," said Ian Fremantle, the city's chief administrative officer.

Williams also questioned whether the city's emergency dispatch should be funded entirely by ratepayers, which hires six people at $90,000 a year. Williams suggested the service could be merged with the RCMP's dispatch office to save costs.

"We do have to take a good hard look at this. We have to think about where taxpayers' money is going."

Similar negotiations happened a year and a half ago, councilors heard, but without any progress. Still, other councilors agreed the idea should be revisited.

"This has never been a cost effective operation, and it's at the ratepayer's expense," said Coun. Nancy Gillis.

And while the city has a new building bylaw, they don't have an inspector to enforce it.

"There's no accountability on behalf of the developer, because there's no one to enforce it," Fremantle said.

The Government of Nunavut provides building inspections for the hamlets of Nunavut. Iqaluit councillors said they need similar assistance.

Iqaluit this week

Saturday, Jan. 14, 8 p.m. and Sunday, Jan. 15 at 2 p.m. and at 7 p.m., École des Trois Soleils.

The Part Time Players present “The Shape of a Girl,” a play based on the life of a 15-year-old girl struck by the news story of Reena Virk, the British Columbia girl who was swarmed, beaten and killed by a group of teenage girls in 1997. For info and tickets, $10, call Bella Lamb at 979-2674.

Coffee house next weekend

Saturday, Jan. 28, 7:30 p.m., Inuksuk High School. The Iqaluit Music Society presents a coffee house. For info, call Jennifer Wakegijig at 979-8832 or email jenniferwalk@hotmail.com

Ongoing: Circumpolar art display

The Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum continues to display “Encounter,” an exhibition by Norwegian artist Patrick Huse. The exhibition, which includes photographs from Iqaluit and Resolute Bay, runs through Feb. 12.

To have your event listed, free of charge, please call 979-5357, fax 979-4763, or send an email to saram@nunatsiaq.com.

GN drops Iqaluit Square

The city of Iqaluit won’t receive help from the Government of Nunavut to finish Iqaluit Square, a project intended to distinguish the territory’s capital.

The GN helped fund the first phase of work during 2005 on the project, which currently resembles a semicircle of boulders located in front of the Elder’s Centre. But the city has been left on the hook to pay $220,000 to continue work in 2006 by themselves.

“They said no, there’s no funding for the GN to continue the project,” said Ian Fremantle, the city’s chief administrative officer, during a special budget meeting on Tuesday.

The project has three stages. When finished, a stage will stand in the middle of a giant circle of stones, meant to resemble an oversized version of stones left from a tent.

Iqaluit offered extended pool lease

The city of Iqaluit has been offered a two-year extension on the lease for its badly-aging swimming pool.

The public pool’s lease expires March 2007, and there has been speculation about whether an extension would be offered by Nunastar, the company that owns the Astro Hill Complex where the popular pool is located.

The extended lease would continue from April 2007 to March 2009. Rent would increase by 8.5 per cent each year. The city currently pays about $180,000 annually in lease payments.

“They’re looking for a fixed, two-year deal,” said facilities manager Simon Adams during budget discussions this week.

With rising maintenance costs, deputy mayor Glenn Williams said the city needs to consider whether keeping the pool open is worthwhile.

“It’s going to be a tough sell in a couple of years,” he said, estimating the annual cost of running the pool could hit $750,000 in two years.

In December, the city heard plans from a consultant for building a new pool. But that would come with a hefty $10.4 million price tag, and it likely wouldn’t be finished until early 2010.

“There’s a good chance that in three years we aren’t going to have a pool,” said Adams.

The existing pool is in poor shape. Adams says this year they must replace the chlorine pump and sauna element and fix the decking on the floor. Equipment problems frequently cause the pool to close, or else the pool is filled to capacity and they turn residents away.

“I think we really need to lobby the government. We’re trying to attract people to Iqaluit, and taxpayers can’t pay for all of it.

“It’s important to teach kids how to swim, because people are boating and out on the land.”

Sinking arena may need to move

The only way to save Iqaluit’s sinking Arctic Winter Games arena may be to move it, according to the city’s chief administrative officer.

“It could actually come to moving the building,” Fremantle said during budget meetings this week.

Currently water sloshes beneath the ground under the arena, eroding the foundations of about one-third of the building, Fremantle said. Consultants suggest that part of the building could be supported by sinking posts into bedrock, but Fremantle said another solution could be to move the building, or build an extension at one end of it.

“Either way, it’s not going to come cheap.”

Fence to Nowhere delayed

Residents living on the Road to Nowhere still don’t have snow fencing to protect their homes from snowdrifts, because the wrong kind of orange plastic netting was shipped.

“We got stuff that looks like fishing net,” said Mark Hall, director of public works.

In late 2005, city council agreed to spend up to $300,000 on installing a snow fence around the snowbound neighbourhood, where residents fear being trapped in their homes by drifts. City staff planned to have the fence up by Christmas, but were delayed by the mix-up.

The fence should be installed by the end of this week, Hall said, or early next week at the latest. The more narrow netting accidentally shipped up will be used to fence off dig sites.

GN wants city to redraw fiscal calendar

The Government of Nunavut wants the City of Iqaluit to change the end of its fiscal year.

If done, this would change the time of year when Iqalummiut receive tax bills from the city. It would also likely cause a year of havoc as city accountants and administration staff sort out overlaps between the two systems in 2007, the year the plan would be adopted.

But councillors and city staff expressed skepticism about whether the shift would be worth the hassle, during a council meeting on Tuesday, Jan 10.

“They tend to dictate things to make things easier for them,” said Coun. Teresa Rodrigue. “They’re asking us to turn ourselves upside down.”

“I think we need to go through the process of justifying it, whether we do or not,” said deputy mayor Glenn Williams.

The change would shift the end of year from Dec. 31 to March 31, which is the end of the financial year for many organizations, including the hamlets of Nunavut, and the Government of Nunavut.

The proposed change would also mean new Iqaluit councilors elected in the fall 2006 would be more involved in the budget-making process. In the past, new councillors have had to adopt a budget process already partly underway.

The city plans to write a letter to the GN, asking what funding they would receive to help with the change-over.

City plans job vacancy ad blitz

After seeing nearly one-third of its employees leave over the last year, the city of Iqaluit plans to increase spending on advertising and recruitment.

“It was a year of transition. It was a year of change,” said finance director John Hussey, during budget discussions this week.

In 2005 the city saw a 30 per cent turnover in city staff. That’s 33 employees, including four department heads, who left in one year. The bylaw department, finance department and city’s translators are among those who took big hits.

“It was quite drastic,” said the city’s chief administrative officer, Ian Fremantle. “It was a bad year, turnover-wise... but we survived it.”

The draft budget includes $50,000 on advertising for the human resource department, to advertise city job vacancies across the country.

Iqaluit this week

Budget meetings at City Hall

Monday, Jan. 9 and Tuesday, Jan. 10, in the City Hall council chambers.

City staff will present departmental budgets to council in two all-day sessions, both of which are open to the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Finance Director John Hussey will also make a public presentation of the 2006 budget next week, on Monday, Jan. 16, at 6 p.m.

Election candidates’ forum

Tuesday, Jan 10, 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., Parish Hall. Federal election candidates will discuss the issues.

The forum will be broadcast live on CBC Radio. The first hour and 15 minutes will be mainly in English, while the second hour and 15 minutes will be mainly in Inuktitut.

Translation will be available in both languages.

The incumbent Liberal candidate, Nancy Karetak-Lindell, Conservative candidate David Aglugark Sr., NDP candidate Bill Riddell, Green Party candidate Feliks Kappi and Marijuana Party candidate Ed deVries all plan to be present.

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