Iqaluit council passes city budget

Iqaluit city council passed the Nunavut capital's latest budget this week, despite objections from one councillor who did not support an increase in property taxes.

The city will be raising taxes by half a mil as part of the budget, which passed Tuesday. (A mil is an amount of tax paid per dollar of assessed property value.)

As a result, taxes would go up by about $50 on a home valued at $120,000.

Water and garbage pickup rates are also rising, as part of the budget.

"I just can't, in good conscience, support an increase in our taxes," Coun. Jim Little said at Tuesday's meeting.

'Time of restraint'

While city officials said the tax increase is small, Little said there are ways to avoid it altogether by cutting back on spending. He pointed to more than $700,000 budgeted for overtime and more than $400,000 going into reserves.

"This is a time of restraint, economically, throughout the country. The budget is loaded in ways that we could reduce our expenditures," Little said.

"There's lots of ways that we could reduce our expenditures, so that there would be absolutely no tax increase. And if we were really diligent about it, we could actually reduce our taxes slightly. I don't see any reason why we couldn't do that."

Finance committee chairman Al Hayward disagreed, saying city staff have delivered the smallest mil rate increase in the past eight years, in the face of its own financial pressures.

"Our contracts with our employees have gone up, as per our collective agreements. Heating costs and electrical costs have increased astronomically," Hayward said.

"I think that the citizens of Iqaluit should be very happy and pleased with this balanced budget, with a very small increase."

In the end, Little was the only councillor who voted against the budget.

Seek funding opportunities: councillor

Councillors at Tuesday's meeting also discussed the federal government's decision to grant $17 million to speed up construction of a small-craft harbour in Pangnirtung.

Some councillors have earlier expressed dismay that Iqaluit received no money in the federal budget for a proposed deep-sea port.

But Hayward said the federal government is open to the possibility of a port in the capital city.

"From my understanding, the budget announcement with regards to Pangnirtung is for a small-craft harbour, not a port," he said.

"There is an opportunity to engage in discussions with the federal government on a potential deep-sea port for Iqaluit."

Hayward said more clarification will come on the port issue in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, he suggested the city explore opportunities to obtain funding for potential recreational infrastructure projects, such as building a pool or fixing the Arctic Winter Games complex.