Rankin Inlet (Sep 29/04) - The wait is on to see whether the contract for Rankin Inlet's new solid waste disposal facility will be completed by the latest deadline.

The municipality of Rankin Inlet and the Department of Community and Government Services are confident that Ferguson Lake Lodge will get the work done by the latest schedule.

Keith Sharp, the contractor, promised the dump site would be ready by the end of September during the hamlet council's Sept. 20 meeting, if all goes well.

The $1.3 million project was supposed to be done a year ago and has been plagued with equipment breakdowns and delays.

Concerns over the completion of the project have come up at both council meetings in September.

A recently revised schedule put that completion at Sept. 29, give or take a few days.

"If he's going to follow his schedule as he said he would, I'll take his word for it," says Rankin Mayor Lorne Kusugak, before council voted unanimously to accept the schedule.

Right now, the priority is to get the dump finished and open for use, he says.

Shawn Maley, assistant deputy minister at the department, says gravel work is 95 per cent done, leaving the surrounding fence to complete, something that needs to be done before the ground freezes for the winter.

That gives Ferguson Lake Lodge until mid-October at the latest.

"We're confident he'll get it completed by freeze-up," says Maley.

While the project has faced delays from its inception, its construction has had a positive effect on the community, says Maley.

"The upside of it is that it's a local contractor and a lot of Inuit labour has been used and we're under budget," he says.

Penalties possible

In a memorandum to the mayor and hamlet council Sept. 7, several options were laid out in the event of any further delay.

One option is to remove the contractor and have the hamlet complete the work. Another was to enforce maximum penalties and hold back provisions for the contract.