Nathan VanderKlippe
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Dec 03/01) - A $250,000 budget surplus sounds pretty good on its own.

But that money won't go a long way in raising the $42 million Iqaluit needs for capital projects during the next five years.

The projected surplus was reported last week as city council received an updated report on its $12 million operating budget. The report did not deal with the $1.2 million taken from reserve funds for retroactive pay owed municipal workers under the new collective agreement signed earlier this year.

Some councillors took issue with increased spending by emergency services and administration, both of which are significantly over budget.

City comptroller John Hussey attributed those additional expenditures to extra financial demands imposed by the three-month municipal workers strike this summer.

Most of the fireworks were aimed at the territorial government. The city puts its surplus into reserves to pay for capital projects. With a small surplus, and little expected from the Government of Nunavut, councillors are worried about how they will pay for critical infrastructure needs.

Provisional territorial budget figures do not include allocations for the city's water treatment facility, which council has labelled a "critical" need.

Council received that budget Nov. 22.

Mayor John Matthews has sent a letter on the subject to Minister of Community Government and Transportation.

"Within the next year or two we could be without water. We're at the very edge of our water capacity," said Rick Butler, the city's senior administrative officer.

capital needs

The city has more than $42 million in critical capital needs over the next five years. The GN has committed approximately $3 million in help.

Critical needs include:

- Water treatment facility upgrade (may run out of water in one or two years): 2002 - $3.34 Million.

- Expansion of raw water storage: 2004 - $2.0 million

- Replace open burning dump (that the Nunavut Water Board has condemned as an environmental and health hazard): 2002 - $500,000; 2003 $10.245 million

- Aged and water and sewer lines that are crumbling Uivvaq Utilidor Upgrade: 2002 - $200,000; 2003 - $1.3 Million; 2004 - $1.3 Million; 2005 - $1.3 million.

- Road paving and upgrading: 2002 - $550,000; 2003 - $550,000; 2004 - $550,000.

- Old dump sites that need to be cleaned up and restored 2003 - $600,000; 2004 - $600,000; 2005 - $600,000.

This list does not include other facilities such as much needed fire hall and City offices or the growing costs of operating all these and other facilities and services.