Malcolm Gorrill
Northern News Services

Iqaluit ( Jun 05/00) - Finding one's way through Iqaluit can be a challenge.

Just ask fire Chief Neville Wheaton, who's spearheading efforts to name the town's streets to speed up response times.

"It's really difficult for emergency services to find locations," Wheaton said. "That's why I took an interest in it."

Wheaton came to Iqaluit in 1996 and got involved in street-naming efforts the next year. He helped put on two poorly-attended public meetings on the issue.

The chief said for a time the issue got pushed aside but that this year, with the amount of growth Iqaluit is experiencing, he decided to bring it "back to the forefront."

Wheaton has been updating town council on a monthly basis and expects to present a report to council at its regular meeting in June.

"We'll have a street map posted up in the town office with some suggested street names on it," he said.

"There's also a report going to council on standards involved in street naming and numbering. These are international standards.

"And from that we have to find out how many signs are needed, if council's OK with what we suggested," Wheaton explained.

"In my report I've suggested that, even with budget considerations, there's no reason why we couldn't have street signs up by the end of 2001, the summer of 2001.

"Now we could have them up this summer, but it wasn't a budgeted item this year."

Wheaton said if council goes ahead with the process, the public will have a chance to express their views via a committee or public meetings.

He said some streets with well-established names, such as Ring Road and the Road to Nowhere, will stay as is.

"Everything else, we're going to attempt to have all Inuktitut street names," Wheaton said.

"We're also trying to make sure these street names aren't too difficult to pronounce," he said.

"We're also trying to do some theme sequencing, so that certain neighbourhoods will have a theme."