Baler to clean up fire debris
Equipment hoped to clear Cape Dorset high school site before freeze-up: GN
Casey Lessard
Northern News Services
Saturday, June 11, 2016
KINNGAIT/CAPE DORSET
The Department of Community and Government Services will trial a metal shear baler to help clean up metal remaining from last year's Peter Pitseolak High School fire.
Peter Pitseolak School in Cape Dorset was destroyed in a September 6, 2015 fire. The cleanup will take place this summer, with help from a special machine called a metal shear baler. Cape Dorset's MLA wonders if the machine will be used to help solve Nunavut's metal waste problem. - photo courtesy of John Corkett
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"What it does is it cuts up or shreds large pieces of metal to make them into more handle-able sizes, compacts and bales it so that it can be stored in a compact manner," Community and Government Services Minister Joe Savikataaq said June 1 in response to a question from South Baffin MLA David Joanasie in the legislative assembly.
"We're not sure when that is coming on sealift, but it is coming on sealift and it will be used as part of the clean-up, but the site will be cleaned up before freeze-up."
Joanasie later asked if the shear baler would be taken to other communities for other metal processing.
Maybe, Savikataaq said.
"If this piece of equipment works then we will definitely be looking at putting it in other communities," he said. "But let's first see how well it works, whether it holds up, whether it's strong enough, whether maintenance is an issue. All of this stuff will be evaluated once it has done all the work its supposed to do in Cape Dorset."
