No magic formula for weather closures

Rankin Inlet council discusses hamlet’s decision making on bad-weather policy

By Stewart Burnett Northern

Record cold February days in the Kivalliq spurred controversy online as Government of Nunavut offices shut down but Rankin Inlet’s hamlet didn’t.

Darren Flynn, senior administrative officer at the Hamlet of Rankin Inlet, said safety is paramount.

“That’s the one thing I always strive for, is to make sure we’re keeping our employees safe at all times,” he said. “We’re not going to put them out into an unsafe situation.”

The hamlet didn’t close during the bad weather in late February, which sparked some debate online. Flynn said the hamlet has three outside workers – two on the garbage truck and one on the water and sewer truck – for whom he follows safety guidelines from the Workers Safety and Compensation Commission. But the big responsibility, he said, is that if the hamlet shuts down, that shuts down the airport as well and airlines automatically start cancelling flights.

“The first people that are calling on us to close because of wind chill will be the first people to criticize us when jets can no longer land here,” he said at council Feb. 28.

Flynn also responded to criticism the hamlet had received online for its decision-making during the cold weather.

“To be honest with you, I’m merely pointing out the fact that some of the actions taken and comments by people on Facebook, in my opinion, were to try to coerce an outcome,” he said. “I’m a public servant, my staff are public servants, and we take our jobs very seriously. We try to do our duties diligently. But just because we’re public servants, it’s never acceptable for us to be made public targets.”

When the GN closed down, Flynn said he had two complaints. “One of which was a person also vocal on Facebook, calling up to the office complaining that their garbage hadn’t been picked up,” he said. “Again, too cold for you to work, but yet you still expect the service.”

Coun. Michael Shouldice said at council he never remembers closing down purely because it was too cold.

“This is a new group of people working for the government,” he said. “They have trucks. As much as people were saying on Facebook, ‘Oh this is about the poor little old lady who’s pulling her children on the sled’ and stuff, I think 95 per cent of them are GN workers.”

He added that he fully supports safety measures and bad-weather closures for school children, though.

Coun. Chris Eccles, the newest member of Rankin Inlet’s council, tapped into his experiences working in the school system.

“There is no magic formula,” he said. “No matter what you do, you’re going to get people upset when it comes to closures.” Eccles added that stipulating certain temperatures to trigger a closure can “back you into a corner” and there’s a big difference between a school child waiting for a bus and a 40-year-old with vehicle difficulties.

“You’re sitting at home and it’s too cold and you’re afraid to walk from Area 6 to the hamlet to come to work, then stay home,” said Eccles, explaining that people need to judge situations for themselves and assume some responsibility in these instances.