July 20, 2001

The water board mess: what happened when

JIM BELL
Nunatsiaq News

• Jan. 1, 2001: The Nunavut Water Board renews Iqaluit’s water licence for three years.The licence says the city must stop the open burning of toxic substances by June 1 and get its new sewage treatment plant operating by Aug. 1.

• Feb. 15, 2001: Iqaluit Mayor John Matthews writes to Indian Affairs Minister Bob Nault, saying the city doesn’t have enough money or time to comply with its new water licence.

• April 17: The city locks out its unionized workers.

• May 31: The city makes an application to the water board to have its licence amended. They want the garbage-burning and sewage plant deadlines extended, and to have other licence conditions eased.

• June 22: DIAND tells the water board that Iqaluit’s licence isn’t valid because Bob Nault hasn’t signed it yet.

• June 29: Nunavut’s chief medical health officer, Ann Roberts, orders the city to start burning at its overflowing dump because of the health hazard posed by huge piles of rotting garbage lying around the city. Two weeks before, Roberts had ordered that the city deliver garbage into the dump past a union picket line.

• July 9: NTI’s acting president, James Eetoolook, writes to Bob Nault, telling him that DIAND’s failure to recognize the validity of Iqaluit’s water licence "makes a mockery of water licencing in Nunavut."

• July 10: Iqaluit Mayor John Matthews tells the water board that its dispute with DIAND must be resolved before the board can conduct any more discussion of water issues in Iqaluit.

July 11: The water board’s executive director, Philippe di Pi o, circulates a memo stating that the water board’s licence is valid, unless it is set aside by a federal court judge. He then says the board will call a public meeting in Iqaluit after Nault has had time to respond to NTI.

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