Iqaluit (May 09/05) - The Iqaluit Community Greenhouse Society's lot has been approved and the group is getting ready to make use of it this summer.

Architects and engineers are working on the final drawings for a $5 million greenhouse, which is expected to double as a community centre.

Construction is not expected to begin until the summer of 2006 at the earliest, but the group plans to erect what are known as cold frames on the lot this summer.

"It's like a mini-greenhouse," said society president John Lamb. "It's a getting started process to get the community involved."

The Keewatin Gardens, a project run in Rankin Inlet by the University of Toronto between 1979-1984, used cold frames to grow a variety of vegetables.

Community members are collecting wood and dirt to build and fill the frames with. Construction will begin when the snow melts.

About 20 of the four-foot by nine-foot boxes will be built this year, and an equal number next year, Lamb said.

Land proposal approved

The city approved the group's proposal for a piece of land in the northeast corner of Iqaluit's new sustainable subdivision - adjacent to the Nunavut Power Corp. plant - in late March.

"The project is a good concept. Council doesn't see anything wrong with it," said Coun. Nancy Gillis.

A 26-year lease should be signed this month. The lot will be exempt from property taxes, and leased by the group for a dollar per year.

One of the lease conditions requires the society to raise the $5 million for the project within three years.

"If we can't raise the money in three years, then there's a problem," said Lamb.

No substantial funding dollars for the construction phase of the project have yet been approved, Lamb said.

Lamb has said the project could garner funding interest from a number of sources - including the Government of Nunavut - because it is has a number of uses.

Inspired by an Inuvik group which turned an arena into a garden, the society was formed in 2001 and now has about 90 members.