Christine Kay
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (July 08/02) - Elders were consulted last week on the names collected for the streets of Iqaluit.

At the meeting, Mayor John Matthews suggested the naming project is nearing completion, but that some fine tuning still needed.

"We've been working on the street names for almost three years and we want some input," said Mayor Matthews.

Although the mayor had to leave the meeting early, he certainly got the discussion started off.

One of the big concerns elders had with the map outlining possible street names was that traditional names of streets had not been taken into consideration.

"That's already got a name," said Elisapi Davidee, referring to streets currently bearing names.

The road labelled number 12 or "Road to Nowhere" on the map distributed by the city was a concern.

The elders came to an agreement that the road leads to something -- it leads to Crazy Lake. And so the suggestion of Tasilugiariaq, meaning on the way to Crazy Lake, was noted.

Another road discussed was number 34, or the road leading to Sylvia Grinnell River Park. The elders want this road to be called Iqaluit because the area around the road is the original location Inuit called Iqaluit.

The revisions are a result of city council postponing a street-naming bylaw in April because they felt work still needed to be done.

The original project was started by the Department of Emergency and Protective Services in an effort to reduce response times within the expanding city.

Names for the Happy Valley area have yet to be established. The suggested names of explorers were rejected by many people in the city. A new theme of important pioneers in the building of Iqaluit is being contemplated.