Norman Wells has a waste problem, and Imperial Oil wants to leave more behind

George Couturier has been dead for more than a decade — but his legacy in Norman Wells, N.W.T., lives on. 

He's remembered as an avid crib player, a taxi driver, and someone who could rig up almost anything to be towed down the road. But residents say he also had a penchant for collecting clutter — and his collection has outlasted him in the small Sahtu oil town. 

"He tended to accumulate junk including car bodies, truck bodies, old equipment from all over," explained Norman Wells Mayor Frank Pope, as he showed off one of the lots Couturier used to lease from the town.

The land is across the road from the Mackenzie River. One half of it has been cleared, but there is an assortment of scrap on the other half: construction equipment, oil silos and rows upon rows of battered old vehicles — even a Gran Torino that Pope himself remembers driving to the community ages ago. 

One metal structure on the property, which Couturier built himself according to one of his friends, is so big there are more vehicles tucked away in the darkness, amid tools and jerry cans scattered on the ground inside.

The town of Norman Wells says it's spent two million dollars over two years cleaning the lot of what it calls legacy waste. But Pope said they need more funding — and a place to haul Couturier's stuff — to finish the job. 

And therein lies the problem.

"No scrap dealer in his right mind wants this, I don't think," said Pope. "You have to drain every liquid out of these vehicles before they can even be accepted anywhere and who is going to want them? They're just a bunch of junk."

Even with the liquids drained, bringing what's left to the dump isn't a long-term solution. It's running low on space, and Pope said the town has only recently managed to extend its lifespan from four or five years to 20. 

Legacy waste is a problem in communities across the North. 

Earlier this year, the N.W.T. government was looking for a contractor to divert waste from dumps in the Sahtu and Beaufort Delta regions. A pair of proposal requests identified 2,411 tonnes of hazardous waste and scrap metal for diversion in the five Sahtu communities and 2,850 tonnes in six Beaufort Delta region communities.

As of July 26, the contracts had not been awarded. 

Pope said he's been waiting more than three years for the territorial government to fill the contract for the Sahtu region — which is worth $850,000. And once a contractor is hired, it will still be nothing more than a "drop in the bucket," he said.

"It's not even a Band-Aid. It's just stupid. They need $1-billion, not $1-million, if they want to do it properly."