July 28, 2000
SEAN McKIBBON
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT — The Town of Iqaluit’s water licence has the force of law and is not a draft licence, as one Iqaluit town councilor recently termed it, says the Nunavut Water Board’s executive director, Phillipe di Pi o.
"The Town has informed us of the problems they are having with their sewage treatment plant, but no application has been made to obtain a new deadline," di Pi o said.
Last week, Iqaluit town councilor Matthew Spence said the Town did not agree with all of the terms of the water licence the municipality was issued last year by the Nunavut Water Board.
Spence said that he hoped the water board would grant the Town some leeway in meeting some of the conditions because of the problems the Town was having in getting its sewage treatment plant up and running.
The licence stipulates that the Town should have had its sewage treatment plant operational by Feb. 15.
Spence said he viewed the licence as more of a "draft licence."
But di Pi o said the water board issued the licence with the expectation that its conditions would be met by the municipality. However, the board does not have the mandate or legislative power to enforce the licences it issues.
"That is the responsibility of DIAND," said di Pi o. "Our board is quite concerned about the lack of enforcement," di Pi o said.
He said that the board has begun discussions with DIAND about beefing up enforcement. He also said the Nunavut government’s Department of Sustainable Development is interested in having the enforcement function devolved from DIAND.
Doug Sitland, manager of capital programs for the Nunavut Government’s Department of Community Government and Transportation, said last week that the water board issues licences that are "very broad."
Sitland said that he isn’t sure if the licence issued was formally issued and he said he didn’t know what legal status it had.
"It’s scheduled to expire at the end of this year," he said.
Sitland said his department considers the sewage problems the Town’s responsibility to resolve, although it will work with the Town on those problems.
He said the water board is aware of the problems that the Town is having, but said there haven’t been any communications from the board on the Town’s failure to comply with the terms of the licence.
"It’s certainly a point of concern," Sitland said, but he said the department wasn’t too worried about it. He said as long as the board saw that the Town was doing its best to meet the conditions it would probably be okay.
Di Pi o said Iqaluit was issued only a one-year licence because the water board was concerned about the Town’s handling of water and sewage. He said that the only enforcement mechanisms open to the board are revocation or not renewing a water licence.
"But that’s really only a last resort. It would have to be a pretty serious offence," di Pi o said.
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