Northern News Services
The barrels were stored 15 metres away from the centre's playground by the Department of Sustainable Development.
Parents at the Cambridge Bay Childcare Centre can breathe a little easier, now that 39 barrels of aviation fuel have been moved.
"I felt very relieved when I found out the barrels were gone," said Lynda Johnston, executive director of the centre.
"I know the parents will also be relieved and ecstatic, too."
Johnston and others have been pushing Sustainable Development for more than a year to move the barrels away from the playground.
More than a month ago, Cambridge Bay Mayor Keith Peterson took the community's concerns to Steve Hannah, the department's regional director in Qurluqtuq.
Peterson said he was told plans were in the works to move the barrels, but nothing happened.
"The red tape here, it boggles the mind," he said.
After returning from a trip and still seeing the barrels there, Peterson told Elwood Johnston, the hamlet's senior administrative officer, to give the department an ultimatum: either remove the barrels, or the hamlet would.
"Ellwood and I were doing a little walkaround Wednesday morning, and the barrels were still there," said Peterson.
However, the barrels were removed by lunchtime, before Johnston could deliver the ultimatum.
It is unclear where the barrels have been put, although a Sustainable Development official had indicated that a place might be found for them at the nearby Distant Early Warning Line site.
Steve Hannah was travelling and could not be reached at press time.
