State of cemetery frustrates councillors
'I would be devastated ... to bury a loved one in water' - Megan Pizzo-Lyall
Stewart Burnett
Northern News Services
Monday, July 11, 2016
IQALUIT
Flooding and water issues in the new cemetery in Apex have caused councillors to go public with serious concerns about the state of affairs.
Flooding and mud issues in the Apex cemetery have councillors pushing for change. Coun. Megan Pizzo-Lyall wants distressed community members to know they are being heard. - Stewart Burnett/NNSL photo |
"The present situation with that new cemetery is not just a single isolated concern anymore - it is widespread," said Coun. Joanasie Akumalik in Inuktitut at the June 28 council meeting. "People are coming to us. The one that we chose in Apex was also very expensive. We were told that that was the best choice and there was no other option."
The Apex cemetery, chosen by city council in 2013 because new burial space was needed, was also criticized by Coun. Megan Pizzo-Lyall.
She told Nunavut News/North that commonly when a hole is dug to bury someone in the cemetery, it begins to fill with water, and that there is also a problem with mud.
"When people lose their loved ones who prefer to be buried, over cremation for example, in Iqaluit, during the spring and summer they are being buried in water," said Pizzo-Lyall.
"It is bad enough that some people have no choice but to use poorly built caskets, which in one case was reported to me to almost break when the casket was being lowered into the puddle of a burial spot."
Community members are distressed about trying to visit their loved ones, she said, because they get covered in mud in the process.
"It has become a problem to bury anyone there," said Pizzo-Lyall.
"The hole has to be dug, and then the Department of Engineering and Public Works has to have the water pumped out, sometimes multiple times prior to the burial ceremony."
She cited the full cost of the new cemetery as $1.3 million, but wondered whether the feasibility studies ever went as far as to dig a few test holes.
"I just want the people to know they're being heard and that someone is advocating their concerns. I would be devastated, as they have been, to bury a loved one in water. I want us as the city council to come up with solutions together with the director of Engineering and Public Works so that if we have no choice but to continue using that location, that we mitigate those situations," she said.
It is a difficult subject, said Akumalik at the council meeting.
"I do like the location but it hurts so much ... to be hearing all of those negatives about the location," he said in Inuktitut.
The issue was forwarded to the public works committee.
