Maria Canton
Northern News Services

IQALUIT (Sep 27/99) - In the name of student safety, Iqaluit's district education authority asked for and received two new stop sign controlled intersections last week.

New stops signs were erected last Tuesday in front of Aqsarniit middle school and Joamie school, creating a four-way and three-way stop respectively.

The motion for the new controlled intersections was passed at the town council's Sept. 13 meeting after receiving a letter from the DEA requesting the signage as a "precaution for safety."

But not all groups in the community are happy with the decision to add a sixth four-way stop to the community.

"The line-ups at the intersections are already so long," says the manager at Nanook Polar Taxi, Stephane Monttetit.

"More (four-way stops) will make the lines longer. Maybe what they need are street lights."

A seventh four-way stop intersection, that would slow down traffic in front of the Northern store, remains under discussion while the store completes its massive renovations.

"Cars stopped at the Kamotiq intersection are already lined up to Northern. What's going to happen if they put another stop in there?" questioned Monttetit.

Over the lunch hour, traffic is at its worst, says a cabbie from Nunavut Taxi.

"The other day cars were lined from the hospital stop to the arena, I counted 28 cars," said Alain Langlois.

Langlois does agree that slowing traffic in front of the schools is a good idea, but he says the biggest problem is pedestrian traffic in front of the Northern.

"There are always so many people and kids crossing there, it's hard to drive," he said.

The town says street lights may be in the future, given the growth of Iqaluit and the increased number of cars on the roads, but for now four-way stops are the only solution.

Iqaluit has four-way stops at the hospital, the Kamotiq, Ventures, the bottom of the one-way road, the bottom of the by-pass road, at the middle school and Joamie school.