A residential property in Apex will be cleared of derelict vehicles and mounds of flammable debris after a tenant’s appeal was unanimously rejected by Iqaluit city councillors on Tuesday night.

The residence at 3266 Jack Anawak St. is surrounded by 14 cars in various states of disrepair, more than 70 tires, oil drums, propane tanks and miscellaneous trash.

“The vehicles lined around the house do pose a significant risk to the occupant, the neighbours, as well as fire department personnel,” Iqaluit fire Chief Solomon Tagak said in an email to Steven Allen, Iqaluit’s chief municipal enforcement officer, in late May.

The email was included in a city document package released ahead of the hearing.

City staff reached the home’s owner, Christos Paulidis, on May 29 by cellphone and email, advising of the clean-up order for violations of the Unsightly Land Bylaw.

“I have no idea what they’re doing. I am 83 years old. What are they trying to do — kill me?” Paulidis said, during a phone interview shortly before the hearing.

Paulidis is in hospital in Ottawa, since falling while on vacation two months ago.

Paulidis said he contacted his tenant, Keven Brouillette, and instructed him to clean up the yard before the city’s June 12 deadline.

“I told him to throw all the cars in the garbage and to clean my house,” Paulidis said.

Instead, Brouillette submitted a letter of appeal asking the city for a 90-day extension on the clean-up order, which would have pushed the deadline to Sept. 10.

Low cash flow and lingering ice prevented him from clearing the yard, he told the city.

“I am seeking a reasonable opportunity to address the situation responsibly and effectively while managing the financial and logistical challenges I currently face,” he said in his written appeal.

But then Brouillette was medevaced to Ottawa on July 23 after being stabbed in the head at a residence in Iqaluit’s Joamie Court neighbourhood. A 28-year-old man is charged with attempted murder in the attack.

Reached by phone from his hospital bed Tuesday, Brouillette said he sent a formal request to postpone Tuesday’s appeal hearing and that he was offered the option to attend remotely. This was not possible, Brouillette said, as he was scheduled to be in surgery during the hearing.

He said he is disappointed the city chose to proceed with the hearing without him.

“I don’t understand why they can’t just postpone for me to go defend my point,” he said. “What I was trying to do there is actually just help out the community.”

Brouillette said the vehicles on the property are part of his home-based mobile-mechanic business, Northern Auto Solutions.

The business “wasn’t officially on paper,” he said.

The city considers Brouillette’s business as “an unlicensed mechanic repair shop” located in “an unpermitted constructed garage structure” that straddles the property line, according to city documents. 

Nunatsiaq News contacted the City of Iqaluit to ask why the meeting was not postponed but did not hear back in time for publication. No members of the public attended the meeting and councillors voted after an in-camera discussion.

Bylaw officers have contacted the last known owners of all the cars on the property, based on their vehicle identification numbers.

All costs associated with the cleanup will be incurred by the property owner, as per the bylaw.