Iqaluit (Aug 21/06) - Composting in Iqaluit took a wobbly step forward at city council Aug. 15.

Councillors approved a new site outside the city's landfill for a composting project run by the Bill MacKenzie Humanitarian Society, but did so over the objections of staff concerned about legal liability and territorial regulations.

Jim Little and Jackie Bourgeois, of the Bill Mackenzie Humanitarian Society, stand in front of the compost pile at the Iqaluit landfill site. They want to expand the area designated to compost in the city. - Derek Neary/NNSL photo

The new site gets the compost project out of the city's landfill, but it still falls within a 450-metre setback from the dump.

Geoff Baker, the city's director of engineering services, said staff phoned around to territorial government departments to find out what regulations the compost site will have to observe.

City staff said Health and Social Services will require a concrete barrier between the compost and the ground.

Baker also told councillors the city should ensure the society assumes legal liability for the site.

The staffers' extra legwork angered Coun. Nancy Gillis, who countered that following the regulations will be the society's responsibility.

"I just don't understand what the problem is," she said. She wouldn't answer media questions after the meeting and couldn't later be reached by telephone.

Baker also deferred comment to assistant chief administrator John Hussey, who didn't return a phone call by deadline.

In a previous presentation to council, Bourgeois pointed out that Iqaluit's residents produce an estimated 6,500 tonnes of waste annually and 8,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases over 10 years.

The composting group hopes to divert 35 per cent of the waste. Compost can be used in landscaping, making the land more fertile, and can stabilize erosion, she noted.

The existing landfill has a projected lifespan of no more than five years. The city will lease the site to the society for 30 years for the price of one dollar. There's a wealth of funding sources for composting, but the Iqaluit organization needs city council's support to access many of them, she said. Bourgeois and Little agreed that the city should incur little to no cost.