Dump fire smokes out Iqaluit’s annual city cleanup

Iqaluit’s annual city cleanup, planned for this Friday, has been postponed until June 20 because of smoke from the dump that’s been on fire for three weeks.

The forecast calls for winds to blow the smoke right over town.

Jamessee Moulton and Patricia Peyton coordinate the event with Nunavut’s Department of the Environment.

“In accordance with health and social service messaging around the dump fire, we don't want to expose the public to any more smoke than necessary,” Moulton says.

Every spring in Iqaluit, office workers and volunteers put on gloves, pick up garbage bags and spend a day picking up the garbage that's revealed as the snow melts. ​Moulton says the cleanup is an important way for people to show they care about Iqaluit.

"The positive feeling that comes just from having a clean community and knowing that you contributed to that cleanup, I think it really fosters a good sense of community and brings the community closer as a whole."

While he can't say for sure that the cleanup is changing habits in Iqaluit, Moulton says he likes to think that the city is getting cleaner every year.