Little Shredder That Could: equipment to help clean up Cape Dorset school site

A $1.5-million specialized piece of equipment that will be used to clean up what's left of Peter Pitseolak School in Cape Dorset could help other Nunavut communities clean up their growing metal dumps.

The Cape Dorset high school burned to the ground in early September. Since then, students have had to share space with the elementary school. Three youths have been charged with arson in relation to the fire.

David Joanasie, the MLA for South Baffin, looked for an update Wednesday about equipment the Government of Nunavut promised to sealift this year to clean up what remains of the school.

"There's a piece of equipment that CGS is bringing into Cape Dorset," said Joe Savikataaq, the minister of Community and Government Services. "It's called a metal shredder-baler. What it does is it cuts up or shreds large pieces of metal to make them into more handleable sizes, compacts and bales it so that it can be stored in a compact manner."

'Kids could play on it and get hurt'

Savikataaq says he doesn't know exactly when the metal shredder baler will arrive by boat this summer, but when it does the metal debris from the school will already be moved to the metal dump location.

"We would like to make sure that the site is cleaned up as quickly as possible for many reasons," said Savikataaq.

"The aesthetic part of the reason is it is a danger to have big scraps of metal all over the place. Kids could play on it and get hurt. At first, it will be hauled away and then it will be shredded, baled, and put away for storage until it can be disposed of."

A trial run

Joanasie wondered about the shredder-baler being moved to other communities (after it's done in Cape Dorset) to help metal dump sites, which he says are building up each year.

Savikataaq said Cape Dorset is a trial run.

"CGS is committed to dealing with all the excess metals and old vehicles that are piling up in Nunavut, and this is just one of the options," said Savikataaq.

"If this piece of equipment works then we will definitely be looking at putting it in other communities, but let's first see how well it works, whether it holds up, whether it's strong enough, whether maintenance is an issue," he said.

"All of this stuff will be evaluated once it has done all the work it's supposed to do in Cape Dorset."

Savikataaq says before his department make any promise to move it, or buy another piece of equipment, it will look at how the clean up goes in Cape Dorset.