It could have happened on May 5, when the roof of Samuel Hearne secondary school (SHSS) collapsed under the weight of snow 20 minutes before students were to arrive for class.
School principal Peter Hough, who heard a loud cracking noise and then witnessed the foyer ceiling cave in, had to run for his life.
The foyer, which separates the school's gymnasium from the two-storey building where 380 students attend classes, is usually crowded with teenagers when classes are not in session. Luckily, there were no early birds that morning.
Luck should have had nothing to do with it.
The day before the accident, employees at the Department of Public Works, responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of SHSS, were called in to investigate when students and staff noticed a crack and water leakage where the roof eventually caved in.
Despite the obvious structural damage, public works decided the snow build up, 1.5 metres deep in some places, was not an immediate concern and decided to remove the snow the following day.
Well, tomorrow never came.
Public works, school and education department officials should have recognized the safety threat, immediately closed the school, removed the snow and ordered an engineering review of the structure.
The regional superintendent for public works, Brian Lemax, said snow removal from the roof of the school is "not scheduled on a regular basis," and there is no departmental policy in place, either.
This is unacceptable. Whoever decided that it was okay to wait until the following day to remove the snow should be held accountable for their lack of action.
It's time the public works and education departments established procedures for snow removal from schools. It's also necessary to order regular engineering reviews of public buildings, especially those structures as old as SHSS, which was built in 1967.
While Education Minister Charles Dent and Public Works Minister Floyd Roland were quick to get on the scene, they must follow through with a complete report on what went wrong, who was responsible and what's going to be done to ensure such a catastrophic failure of a public building never happens again in the NWT.
So it wasn't kids playing under Joamie school who caused the fire after all, like so many people last July 4 suspected out loud.
"There are always kids playing under that school," one bystander told Nunavut News/North that day.
But it turns out the cause of the fire that destroyed Joamie was electrical: the result of localized overheating, failure of an electric heat tape causing the combustible insulation that was there (styrofoam and plywood in this case) to catch fire.
So, the youth are off the hook. However, Iqaluit's fire chief, his crew, the City of Iqaluit, plus anyone who inspected and replaced heat tapes under the school are not. They are under fire now over the loss.
In his report, Fire Marshal Gerald Pickett says the firefighting team that fought the blaze could have saved the school. The Joamie fire overwhelmed them. As it happened, the school burned to the ground in a spectacular blaze that went from smoke to out-of-control flames before our eyes.
It is surprising so many people involved say they have not read the fire marshal's report yet.
Large buildings, of which there are so few to begin with in Nunavut, do not burn to the ground very often. All involved in the Joamie blaze, from school officials, to city administration and politicians to the Iqaluit fire department should have been calling every week to find out what Pickett had to say.
The report clearly outlines what happened almost like a story, detailing the inner workings of the building, and using eyewitness accounts to present a picture.
Iqaluit's fire department and city officials are taking criticisms in the report personally.
That's not surprising. Firefighters -- volunteer and full-time alike -- are proud, hard-working people who put their lives on the line to protect people and property.
But instead of hand-wringing over how the report was made public, the fire chief and the City must work through the report and prepare an action plan to address concerns.
Most importantly, all this must happen in public, not behind closed doors.
Joamie school will cost taxpayers $10 million to rebuild. Hundreds of students have been uprooted and placed in schools all over town. The parents and general public wonder if their buildings are safe.
Iqaluit fire department should come out of this tragedy stronger, better able to do the job.
That's what everyone wants.
Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News
It was almost painful to sit in the gallery during Rankin Inlet's regular council meeting earlier this month and watch new senior administrative officer John Hodgson try to get a motion passed to conduct a feasibility study on Rankin becoming a tax-based community.
If Hodgson was worried as to how the vote on the motion would go, he needn't have bothered.
Council wouldn't even make the motion, let alone vote on it.
Most disturbing about what unfolded in the council chambers was that the topic wasn't addressed by a group of elected municipal officials whose first duty is, supposedly, to look at what may be best for the community.
Although each had a plaque in front of them firmly establishing the fact they were hamlet councillors, the group spoke to the matter as a collective group of homeowners, nothing more.
You always have to give Coun. Justin Merritt credit for having the wherewithal to speak his mind in council and this time was no exception.
Merritt wasted no time in making it quite clear he wanted nothing to do with the concept.
He informed council he pays about $225 a year in property taxes to the Nunavut government, and both he and the government are happy with that. Case closed.
Just not listening
Hodgson was met with the same attitudes that Community Government Services ran into about a year ago, when it offered to pay for the feasibility study.
In fact, a number of councillors made the same fact-deprived statements this time around as they had a year ago.
Once again, the contention came from council that in a tax-based system, only private homeowners and the private business person pay.
Hodgson tried to set them straight on grants in lieu of taxes, just as Shawn Maley had tried the year previous, but to no avail.
A chance at independence
There is much, much more to becoming a tax-based community than a rate increase in property taxes.
Taxed-based municipalities have the ability to make their own decisions in capital planning and infrastructure projects, and are far less dependent on government handouts for their very survival.
Under the current system, there is precious little, if any, room for Rankin to grow as a community.
Sure, there's the chance a mine will go into operation and the company involved will put infrastructure money into the hamlet during its lifespan.
But that too can be filed under the dependency heading.
At least take a look
Other than the comforting caress of the GN's apron string, we don't understand why council is so scared of a feasibility study.
Council should have the study completed, analyzed by experts, broken down and fully explained.
Only then can it make an informed decision on whether the system is in Rankin's best interests.
Even if the answer is still no, at least council members would have taken the time to look over their own private fences at the rest of the community.
Simply maintaining the status quo can be a hard habit to break, but nobody has ever moved forward simply by treading water.
Editorial Comment
Jason Unrau
Inuvik Drum
As word got out of the collapse of the foyer roof at Samuel Hearne secondary school, just prior to classes starting Wednesday morning, news of the event was soon scrolling across the bottom of the television screen on CNN's broadcast as well as CBC's 24-hour news network.
Though nobody was injured or killed in the falling debris, when the combination of the words 'school,' 'roof' and 'collapse' goes out on the wire, it attracts the media's attention.
On Thursday, reaction from students was mixed. Understandably, the younger ones were pleased with the unexpected holiday yet grimaced in horror at the possibility of an extended school year to make up for lost time. Also understandable.
On the other hand, senior students -- especially those hoping to graduate this year -- were very concerned that the event would hamper their efforts. However, quick action by the Beaufort Delta Education Council and SHSS staff got the Grade 12s back into class, using the shop buildings behind the school as temporary digs.
As for reaction from parents, words such as 'incompetence' were frequently uttered and several people thought that somebody should lose their job for neglecting the snow pile-up on the school roof to the point of its collapse. Again, a very understandable reaction.
However, what was mystifying is that few parents were willing to go on record with their completely warranted disgust for what could have been a tragedy.
"It's a small town and I don't want to rock the boat," was the general sentiment of those who'd rather keep their comments to themselves.
At this point, it is important to remember that this is not an issue of the school team not raising enough money at the bake sale to get to Super Soccer. It is an issue of lack of foresight on the part of officials charged with the maintenance of a public facility used by our community's children.
Fortunately, this apparent shortfall did not result in any injury or death.
Were this to have happened in any other community in the country, you can bet your bottom dollar that its Parent Teacher Organization would be screaming bloody murder for answers.
But, it seems, when this kind of thing happens here many are satisfied with blessing their lucky stars that nobody was hurt, filing a forensic report and, well, moving on.
In this situation, what has to be asked is if it was important enough for the Deputy Premier and Minister of Education Culture and Employment to visit the disaster site promptly and meet with local officials on the matter, isn't it equally important enough for parents to make known their dissatisfaction, as well?
Certainly this does not mean you have go on the record in the Drum. But why not write a letter to your MLA, ECE Ministry or the Department of Public Works?
Just a quick note to let them know that the collapse of your son or daughter's school roof is totally unacceptable.
Because the last thing Inuvik wants is to be headline news for a disaster that was preventable.
Editorial Comment
Derek Neary
Deh Cho Drum
For anyone who was under the illusion that housing isn't a hot issue in Fort Simpson, that illusion was shattered earlier this week.
It's not uncommon for a community meeting to draw anywhere from nobody to 10 people. To have close to 30 residents show up to vent their concerns, as happened on Monday night, was quite a statement in itself.
There are numerous reasons why home owners and tenants are upset, and some of their concerns have inexplicably persisted for years.
In some cases policy is the problem. For example, the Housing Corporation sets clients' mortgage payments by household income. That could be applied fairly, but the way the policy is currently written if there are two teenagers in the home and they both work then the mortgage payment is going to climb. Even though Johnny and Susie aren't pulling in $65,000 a year, their combined minimum wage jobs are going to force Mom and Dad to have to fork over extra money every month. That's ludicrous. There are other such policies that need to be examined and amended.
On the other hand, sometimes clients' expectations are too lofty. Although mortgages are generally undesirable -- at the end of a 20 or 25 year mortgage most home owners will have paid twice the value of their home or more -- the Housing Corporation offers subsidies that can't be found elsewhere and it's more lenient on collections than any bank.
Better money management on the part of some clients is necessary.
When one person at Monday night's meeting complained of the complications arising from being in arrears to the Housing Corporation, Larry Campbell quickly pointed out that if he didn't make his mortgage payment his house would be repossessed. Touche!
Then there's the matter of proper construction by qualified carpenters. Standards, it seems, may have slipped a little on some occasions, and contractors aren't always held accountable. That has to change.
At the same time, home owners must be held responsible for routine maintenance and upkeep. While there's no substitute for quality construction, some problems that creep up are due to neglect over the years.
Another thing that became apparent during the meeting was a breakdown in communication.
There were quite a few members of the public who blamed Housing Corporation officials for misleading them, followed by denials from the Housing Corporation officials. In the absence of a polygraph or truth serum (neither of which is 100 per cent accurate anyway), we're never going to know for sure who said what.
The important thing is that the lines of communication be improved. A housing committee, proposed at Monday's meeting, would be one means of accomplishing that.
Housing Minister Michael McLeod needs to visit Fort Simpson soon.
Nobody in his right mind would want to trade places with McLeod at this point in time. The minister must come armed with answers, and the angry home owners and tenants ought to show up with some realistic suggestions or alternatives to existing problems.