Inuvik keeps Carmichael Drive street names after resident pushback

After residents raised concerns about cost, inconvenience and historical significance, Inuvik’s town council has voted to keep Carmichael Drive’s east and west designations.

The municipality’s proposal to consolidate Carmichael Drive East and Carmichael Drive West into a single Carmichael Drive was discussed at a public hearing in Inuvik on Monday.

Councillors officially voted down that proposal, which would have required amending Inuvik’s Street Naming Bylaw, at a meeting on Wednesday.

Beyond establishing a single name for Carmichael Drive, the town also planned to change civic addresses along the street to eliminate duplicate numbers and create a clearer and more consistent numbering sequence.

A briefing note prepared by the town for the public hearing stated the proposed changes were intended to improve navigation, mapping and emergency response.

Residents who weighed in on the idea were largely in opposition.

The town received 14 written submissions on the Carmichael Drive proposal with eight opposed, five in favour, and one expressing no preference.

A Carmichael Drive resident named Peggy spoke at the public hearing against the proposal.

“There’s an inconvenience of changing. There’s also a cost involved,” she told councillors. “But there’s also a historical cost of that as well too.”

Peggy pointed to the history of the Co-op Hill area, where she said some homes date back to the late 1960s.

“There’s some pride and some history to our division,” she said.

While the town’s proposed changes would not have affected property ownership, legal property descriptions or the physical location of homes, affected residents would have been required to update their address information with government agencies, financial institutions and service providers.

Street signs ‘need work’

Former Inuvik mayor Jim McDonald said he has lived on Carmichael West for 36 years and has never experienced the confusion the town’s proposal intended to address.

Instead of changing residents’ addresses, McDonald said the town should improve signage.

“I think the street signs and stuff need work,” McDonald said. “If the street signs are well laid out and they indicate the streets clearly, there’s no confusion.”

Councillor Mario Lemieux also argued that signage could address the town’s concerns without requiring residents to change their addresses.

“Everybody in town knows Carmichael East and West,” Lemieux said. “People have established addresses for like 40 years.”

Lemieux suggested adding clear signs at the entrances to Carmichael Drive East and Carmichael Drive West, along with another sign where the two sections of the road meet.

“No one has to do anything, and we just got to put in one signpost,” Lemieux said.

Alongside changes to Carmichael Drive, the town had also proposed renaming a section of Bompas Street – between Centennial Street and Stringer Road – to Ptarmigan Way.

Some residents and councillors suggested during the public hearing to include Stringer Road in the change, which would create one continuous road.

At Wednesday’s council meeting, Cynthia Pihlaja, senior administrative officer for the Town of Inuvik, said council’s decision to vote down amending the Street Naming Bylaw sends the proposal to rename Bompas Street back to a committee to conduct public consultation on including Stringer Road.