Iqaluit debates derelict vehicles
Councillor proposes temporarily reducing disposal fee to get rid of abandoned cars
Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services
Monday, August 29, 2016
IQALUIT
The perennial problem plaguing every Nunavut community caused a heated debate at an Iqaluit city council meeting Aug. 23 - what to do with derelict vehicles littering the streets and waterfront.
Coun. Terry Dobbin tabled a motion, seconded by Coun. Joanasie Akumalik, in an attempt to bring back a 2013 idea which he said was successful: reduce the city's disposal fee to $100 from $200 until the end of September, provided people arranged to drain their own vehicles of dangerous fluids.
Coun. Romeyn Stevenson - despite having his name attached to the 2013 motion as Dobbin frequently pointed out - objected to the idea on various grounds, noting the city has a contract for the removal of metal waste currently at the dump.
"The scope of work is already there," Stevenson said, later noting the contractor has already picked up an additional 100 vehicles beyond the 167 vehicles that was part of the scope of work.
Mayor Madeleine Redfern said that, along with the estimated 167 vehicles in the city landfill, the number of additional vehicles in the city, including at garages, on Iqaluit Housing Authority land, on Inuit-owned land and on personal property, is now estimated at up to 400 vehicles.
Another issue for Stevenson is that the city is already planning to increase the car-tipping fee to $1,000. Raising the fee is intended to cover the city's actual cost for processing end-of-life vehicles.
Redfern did the math. For example, the 167 cars planned for removal brought the city $33,400 - which amounts to a subsidy of $133,600 when ostensibly the city should be collecting $167,000 in fees.
Stevenson went on to list all the costs for an average person, including draining the vehicle's fluids, and the disposal fee, etc. All this, he said, could actually cost an individual as much as $700 per car if Dobbin's motion went forward.
Stevenson noted it was likely only the city's garages who would be able to take advantage of Dobbin's proposed deal, as they could drain vehicles' fluids on their own dime. Dobbin, meanwhile, doubled down on his motion, insisting that businesses taking advantage of the lowered fee would mean many less derelict cars in the city.
"I find it ironic that Coun. Stevenson seconded the motion in 2013. I'm curious. What changed between 2013 and now," Dobbin asked. "Would you rather see them in the landfill or would you rather see them on the streets? We have a hard time convincing people at $200. It ($100 for a short period) is an incentive to get some of these eyesores off the street. And we're talking about charging a $1,000 disposal fee? That's ludicrous, in my opinion."
Dobbin found support in one fellow councilor.
Coun. Kuthula Matshazi noted that while Dobbin's idea would not solve the problem, it would help beautify the city by beginning the process, a step in the right direction, not to mention deal with health and safety issues associated with derelict vehicles.
The motion was defeated, with the matter of fees to be revisited in the future.
Dobbin then presented a second motion - to deal with the problem at its root - targeting the hundreds of cars that are imported into the city each year. He wants to see a levy charged for bringing vehicles into Iqaluit, which, unfortunately, falls under the Government of Nunavut's jurisdiction. He proposed the city agree to support and work with the GN towards integrating a point-of-entry levy.
Redfern said the problem is "live" with the GN, however territorial legislation takes a long time to change and, with an election scheduled for the fall of 2017, it's unlikely progress would be made.
Regardless, Dobbin's motion was carried, with the city agreeing to work with the GN on point-of-entry levies.
