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Iqaluit City Council: Who’s running?

Nine candidates vie for eight seats in Oct. 16 vote

NUNATSIAQ NEWS

David Alexander

Mark Boudreau

Alan Hayward

Grant Hipfner

Jimmy Kilabuk

Jim Little

Claude Martel

Simon Nattaq

Glenn Williams

Nine people – all men – will contest eight vacant council seats.

On voting day, Oct. 16, Iqaluit residents may vote at the cadet hall, while Apex residents may vote at the Abe Okpik Hall, between 10:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m.

You must vote for at least one, but not more than eight candidates. An advance poll is being held today at the cadet hall, between 11:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.

An energetic man of few words, David Alexander says he’s running because “he’s been an Iqalummiut for his whole life” and believes there should be more original Iqalummiut sitting on city council.

He says that seeing newcomers dominate city council has a “big effect” on the original people of Iqaluit, but as of this point, he hasn’t given much thought to what his priorities would be if he were elected to council.

Now an employee of the Baffin Fisheries Coalition, Alexander used to work as a mechanic.

Mark Boudreau

If Mark Boudreau’s platform can be summed up in one phrase, it’s this: “quality of life.”

“I think it’s especially important that we make this city more livable. My focus is to make this a better place to live in,” Boudreau says.

Boudreau has resided in Iqaluit for only three years, working at the Government of Nunavut’s Department of Finance. But in that short time, Boudreau watched large numbers of people arrive in Iqaluit, then leave soon after.

To fix that high turnover, and help create the stable workforce that’s needed to build Iqaluit’s economy, he says he would start by getting a “decent recreation centre,” and encourage more cultural activities.

A recreation centre for youth would reduce Iqaluit’s high rates of petty crime, a factor that diminishes the quality of life all by itself, Boudreau says.

He’s not against the idea of the city borrowing money to pay for a new rec centre, he thinks there might be other ways of raising revenue, such as a room tax on hotel guests.

Boudreau also says the municipality should do more to clean up garbage on the streets, and get serious about waste management. He says, for example, that Iqaluit could emulate Prince Edward Island, which bans the use of plastic pop bottles and only allows recyclable glass bottles.

“We’re the first stop for tourists who spend a day or two hear before going on to other places for hiking and so on,” Boudreau says.

Alan Hayward

Alan Hayward, a five-year resident of Iqaluit, says that if elected he’ll focus on ways of stimulating economic development in the community — and removing barriers to the growth of small- and medium-sized businesses.

“Council should make it easier to run a business in Iqaluit,” Hayward says.

Referring to council’s treatment of small, mostly one-person home-based businesses over the past two or three years, Hayward says the city should be moving instead towards the reduction of red tape.

Another issue that concerns him is the lack of long-term planning,

“What drives me to be there is that there is no vision, something you can go for,” Hayward says, saying that even a “vision” that he disagrees with would be better than no vision at all.

He also says he’s opposed to the practice of appointing people to fill vacant council seats and that the city should instead hold by-elections when a sitting councillor resigns before the end of a term.

Another reform that he favours is the creation of a ward system, which he thinks would strengthen the relationship between councillors and voters, and make councillors more accountable.

Grant Hipfner

Grant Hipfner works as a policy advisor in the Government of Nunavut’s finance department.

Because he was getting married in Arizona this week, he was unavailable for interview.

He’s said to be a proponent of building a new recreational facility in Iqaluit - not only to provide kids with a positive outlet for their energy, but also to provide government employees with more social activities.

Organizing more cultural events is another improvement to Iqaluit he’s floated to colleagues who work with him.

As well, Hipfner has listed the rise in petty crime in Iqaluit as a concern. And he’d like to see something done about abandoned vehicles around town, which were banned from the dump as of this summer.

Jimmy Kilabuk

Jimmy “Flash” Kilabuk has served Iqaluit in the past as a volunteer firefighter, taxi driver, businessman, snowmobile racing champion (“Flash”) and mayor from 1997 to 2000.

“As an Inuk, I think Iqaluit needs Inuit councilors,” he told Nunatsiaq News.

Kilabuk says he was urged — after two unsuccessful campaigns for the mayor’s job — to run again for a position on city council.

If elected, Kilabuk said his main concern would be to reduce the amount of garbage around Iqaluit.

He said the city needs to delegate some employees who could devote some time every week to city clean-up.

He’s said he’s also concerned about the impact of new development near the city’s water reservoir, which he says could lead to contamination problems in the water.

Jim Little

Jim Little is probably more comfortable shoveling steaming heaps of compost than sitting in the council chambers.

Still, he’s found himself attending his share of council meetings in order to advance the interests of Bill Mackenzie Humanitarian Society, a group he founded to encourage residents to compost their rotting vegetables, rather than toss them out in the trash.

In this role, he’s also often found himself at odds with councillors and city staff. Now he wants to join their ranks to push for stronger environmental initiatives, such as the composting of sewage sludge.

He also says he’d like to see a more independent council that stands up to the city’s administration.

“This council should not be a rubber stamp,” he said. “Our future, our debt, our tax base, and the environment... it’s being decided by our administration.”

He says civic pride and the environment are connected, and that it’s no wonder people aren’t proud of a place that’s all sand, dirt and gravel. “A little compost could help,” he said.

He points to the derelict boats and burned-out shacks by Iqaluit’s waterfront as a good place to start cleaning the community up.

And he’d rather see $6 million spent on beautification projects than a new city hall.

“We can do a lot to clean Iqaluit up,” he says.

Claude Martel

Claude Martel says he is seeking re-election to city council because he’s eager to keep on contributing to life in Iqaluit.

Martel says he’s been living in Iqaluit for more than 30 years and plans on staying for another 30 years “if I live that long.”

“The decisions we take today, I will be living here in the future,” he told Nunatsiaq News.

Martel says he isn’t campaigning on a precise platform of promises because his experience on council has shown him that the city’s priorities are more important than any one individual’s personal agenda.

However, he’s interested in supporting the development of recreation in Iqaluit and making sure he sees the new arena completely functional. Another area that interests Martel, who works in construction, is public works.

As a councillor, Martel served on three city council committees — recreation, the environment and appeals — making for a busy schedule.

That doesn’t bother Martel who says he is on city council “for the people, instead of for the privilege.”

Simon Nattaq

A veteran city councillor who served between 1994 and 2002, and at various times as deputy mayor, Nattaq, last re-elected to council in 2003, wants to serve for another three years.

If re-elected this year, Nattaq says that he will push for better planning in Iqaluit.

Nattaq, a former janitor at Inuksuk High School, has always performed well in municipal elections.

In the October 2000 election, Nattaq finished first among council candidates, with 673 votes.

But not long after that, Nattaq was beset by a series of problems. In February 2001, while on a seal-hunting trip down the bay, he was soaked to the skin after his snowmobile and qamutik were thrown into open water.

He was rescued more than 48 hours later, but not until after his feet froze. His legs were later amputated below the knee.

Glenn Williams

Glenn Williams, a wildlife advisor at Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., is seeking re-election to his third term on city council.

At the top of his list of unfinished business is a deep-sea port for Iqaluit. He says that he’ll continue to lobby the federal government for it.

He also wants to see the city continue to make headway on improving its aging infrastructure. For example, he wants to see the city develop plans to open a new dump, and decommission the current one, which is nearly full.

He has some new ideas, too.

Currently, Iqaluit is Nunavut’s only tax-based community – elsewhere rates are paid directly to the Government of Nunavut, which then doles out money to each hamlet.

“I’m finding there’s an incredible discrepancy in the mill rates between the communities which are tax based and non-tax based,” Williams says.

If re-elected, Williams says he will push the Government of Nunavut for a better funding formula, which would provide Iqaluit with more money.

“There’s such a huge inequity between the two,” he says. “Why is the GN holding back from us?”

Williams also has ideas on how to improve social housing. He says he wants to work with the GN to ensure new social housing — such as the 10-plex currently under construction near Iqaluit’s museum — is developed to fit better with the community.

For example, he says each building needs to have ample space to park snowmobiles and qamutiks.

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