Nunavut housing org wants city discount to remove derelict vehicles
Iqaluit Housing Authority working with city to rid properties of old vehicles
The Iqaluit Housing Authority says it wants to do its part to clean up abandoned cars left on its properties, but the IHA would like the City of Iqaluit to help out.
Chief operating officer for the Nunavut Housing Corp., Stephen Hooey, appeared as a delegate before Iqaluit’s city council, Dec. 14, asking councillors to consider reducing its car disposal costs, which would allow IHA to remove almost 50 abandoned cars from its properties across the city.
“I’m here to ask for some consideration from the city to potentially reduce some of the fees that are within the city’s control and also work in conjunction with the city in terms of a [memoranda of understanding] for a cost for removing vehicles,” he said.
By Hooey’s estimation, it would cost the IHA about $900 each to tow, drain, and deposit its derelict cars into Iqaluit’s landfill—or about $42,000 in total for the proposed project.
In October, councillors increased the city’s car disposal fee from $200 to $500, which itself was a compromise over an earlier proposed “at-cost” charge of $1,000 per vehicle.
“Obviously its important for us to have the community looking nicer,” Acting mayor Romeyn Stevenson said.
Stevenson recommended IHA’s request be included in a future council committee meeting.
Hooey told council that the IHA and municipal bylaw are working together to identify owners of the 47 abandoned cars currently left behind at about 500 IHA units.
“Many have the VIN numbers scraped off of them and the plates removed so we don’t even know who owns them,” he said.
“In some cases, about half of these vehicles we may be able to identify to owner. Whether we can recover the cost for disposal is another matter but at least we can have someone to invoice.”
The city’s director of emergency and protective services, Luc Grandmaison, confirmed to council that bylaw officers were tracking down owners of abandoned cars using the VIN numbers.
He also said many of the 47 vehicles can be towed directly to the city’s landfill, which would save some money for the IHA.
Grandmaison said municipal enforcement would present council with details from its investigation into the owners of the abandoned vehicles at a future meeting.
During the winter sitting of Nunavut’s legislature, territorial MLAs will vote on an amendment to Nunavut’s Motor Vehicle Act allowing the government to levy front-end car disposal fees on new cars entering Nunavut.
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