Coral Harbour

Around the first of December I had the opportunity to spend a couple of days in Coral Harbour. Coral Harbour is a hamlet 730 KMs west of Iqaluit on the southern end of Southhampton Island. The population is about 850 people.

The history of Coral Harbour goes back many centuries when the Island was populated by the Sallirmiut people, who are believed to have been the last of the Thule Inuit in the Arctic. The Sallirmiut were well known for their short stature, unbelievable strength, different hairstyles, and their unique language. Tragically, they died from an epidemic, the deadly typhus disease, carried by the Scottish whalers in 1902.

Contemporay history began in 1925, when the Hudson's Bay Company established a trading post at the present site of Coral Harbour by combining secondary posts from Chesterfield Inlet and Coats Island.

Just outside Coral Harbour, an American military air base was built in 1941 as a staging point for aircraft being ferried to Europe during World War II.

The site later became a military training area, then a weather observation point, before becoming the current municipal airport.

During the 1950's and 1960's, the Government of Canada increased its presence by building a: school in 1955, a nursing station in 1963, and other government buildings and houses ever since.

Coral Harbour Hamlet Office

Coral Harbour is also known for abundant wildlife. The waters in the Harbour attract seals, whales and Walrus.

website photo

I spent 3 days at the local housing office visiting clients. The people I met in Coral Harbour are hard workers and love living in this wonderful little Hamlet.

Local Housing Authority

I enjoyed my 3 days in Coral Harbour and look forward to visiting in the summer and getting to see some of the plentiful wildlife in the area. Thanks Coral Harbour for the hospitality.

Although I saw this sign, my picture didn't turn out - this is a web photo

Matty McNair

While we were at the Robbie Burns night at the legion on Saturday night (January 26, 2013) we had the awesome opportunity to meet Matty McNair. Matty has lived in Iqaluit since 1990 and is both famous and imfamous. She is a wonderful down to earth person that has accomplished so much!

Some of Matty's accomplishments are as follows:
1997 leading the first ever all-female expedition to the Geographic North Pole.
2000 she led an expedition across Ellesmere Island through the Sverdrup Pass.
2003/04 she led two ski-all-the-way expeditions to the South Pole.
2003 crossed the Greenland Ice Cap with her children Sarah and Eric by ski-kites with dog sled support.
2004/2005 completed an unsupported ski expedition to the South Pole, again accompanied by her children Sarah and Eric, who became the youngest persons to ski to the South Pole.
2007 drove a dogsled with Richard Hammond in a race to the North Magnetic Pole as part of Top Gear: Polar Special. This journey was cut short before her party reached the pole because the other competitors reached the destination first.
She is the first American to ski to both the North and South Poles.

In December of 2011 she was invited to Windsor Castle by the Queen and Prince Phillip to discuss her many adventures. She also loves to dance and she invited Jacquie and I to her dance classes held every Thursday night at the Catholic Church Hall. When she was telling us about the dancing she said "I should tell you that I'm here for 2 more weeks and then go to Iceland for 2 months". When we asked her why she was going to Ice land she answered that she was "Pole Training" Now the very first thing that came to my mind was Randy and Liczy and the exercise pole that they have in their dining room (that some affectionately call the stripper pole - Liczy quite often tries to train many of us in the use of that pole, however in the most part, to no avail) The "Pole Training" that Matty is talking about is how to survive trekking to the North and South Pole

The other thing that Matty is passionate about is her dogs. She has about a dozen or so sled dogs in Iqaluit. She has taken a dog team around the perimeter of Baffin Island, about a 4000KM trek.

Below is a link to a Youtube Video about her sled dogs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gS7mdqC6UU



Jacquie and I ejoyed meeting Matty she was so down to earth and very interesting to talk to. While she was regailing us with stories we had to remind ourselves that she is internationally renowned for her accomplishments and a local celebrity.

Website Photo

Robbie Burns Night at the Legion

Last night (January 26th) Jacquie and I went to Robbie Burns night at the Legion. We actually bought tickets for January 25th, however the entertainment Mr. David Francey got delayed in the airport in Ottawa and couldn't make it to Iqaluit until Saturday. Therefore they delayed the evening until Saturday night. The $55.00 tickets bought us a meal and some wonderful entertainment.

Robbie Burns day is traditionally celebrated on January 25th.
Robbie was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He was born on January 25, 1759 in Alloway Scotland and died July 21, 1796 in Dumfries Scotland. He was voted the most influential Scotsman ever born by the people of Scotland. He wrote close to 600 poems and songs in his lifetime. One of the songs that I didn't realize that he had created is Auld Lang Syne.

The event was full of tradition and ceremony. Firstly Scottish Pipers piped in the Haggis

The Pipers that Piped in the Haggis

Haggis is a traditional Scottish dish, considered the national dish of Scotland as a result of the Robert Burns poem "Address to a Haggis of 1787".

Haggis is a savory pudding containing sheep's pluck (heart, liver and lungs) minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices and salt, mixed with stock and traditionally encased in the animal's stomach and simmered for approximately three hours.

This is the Haggis that was piped in during the opening cerimonies.

The Mayor of Iqaluit John Graham, originally from Scotland was the master of Ceremonies for the event.

The Mayor of Iqaluit, John Graham, doing the Celebratory carving of the Haggis

Another interesting presentation during the evening was a recounting of Robert Burns life and some reading of his poetry by a very Gaelic Scottsman as shown below.

Admittedly, I only understood about every third word the gentleman said, however the presentation was interesting anyway with a certain amount of dramatic presentation to the reading.

We then had the awesome opportunity to eat the traditional "Robert Burns" day meal, which was haggis, turnup, potatoes, Scotch Egg (which is a hard boiled egg with pork around it in a breaded batter) and sherry filled trifle.

This was the second time I have had Haggis and although it seemed a little better than the first time, its not a dish I would go a long way out of my way to eat. Overall the meal was good. The Scotch eggs were amazing and the trifle excellent. ( I don't think it had anything to do with the fact that January is Jacquie an my non-drinking month and you could definetly taste the sherry)

The evening finished off with the fantastic music of David Francey. He is a Scottish Canadian that moved to Canada from Scotland in 1964. He currently resides in Perth Ontario. He played a mixture of his own music and Robbie Burns tunes. He has a beautiful voice and was accomanied by an acoustic guitar and mandolin.

Jacquie and I very much enjoyed the evening. It was only slightly dampened by the disco music and loud banging base coming from the main room in the legion. I really don't know why they couldn't turn the music down? Anyway, Jacquie and I had a wonderful time. The ceremonies were interesting, the food good and the entertainment exceptional.

Baker Lake

While I was travelling from Repulse Bay to Rankin Inlet before Christmas, I had a stop over in Baker Lake.

Baker Lake, is a hamlet of about 1800 located 320 km inland from Hudson Bay, it is near the nation's geographical centre, and is notable for being the Canadian Arctic's sole inland community.

In 1762, Captain Christopher of the Hudson's Bay Company sailed up Chesterfield Inlet and named the Lake for Sir William Baker, one of the Governors of the Company.

The Hudson's Bay Company established the first trading post in the region on the island called Ookpiktuyuk, southeast of the present community. In 1924, a post was built at the present site, and both the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches built missions nearby in 1927. In 1936, the HBC moved their post to a site near the current airport. They operated the post out of the building that is now the Vera Akumalik Visitor Centre. People began to congregate around the missions.

During the 1950's, when caribou were scarce and starvation threatened, the government moved people from their inland camps to Baker Lake. Six traditional groups of people now live in Baker Lake. They remember and have preserved many of their traditions of the past. Currently 91% of the population are aboriginal.

Also, Baker Lake is well known for its arts and craft community. Distinguished artists and studios promoting arts and crafts, such as the Inuit Heritage Centre, the Jessie Oonark Centre, and well-established independent art galleries are assets to the community's arts and craft industry.

Baker Lake also has a huge natural resource industry, which has a significant impact on the economic development of Baker Lake. The development of the Meadowbank gold deposit, has already created numerous local jobs. In fact, many workers are flown in on a two week cycle from Arviat, Rankin Inlet and yellowkniffe indicating that even more opportunities are available in town and at the mine site, approximately 70 kms from Baker Lake.

Although my stay in Baker Lake was only a few hours I very much enjoyed it. The community and people are friendly and welcoming.

The only other thing that I did notice about Baker Lake is that it was very cold. The temperature while I was there was -55C with the wind chll.

Thank you Baker Lake for your hospitality. :-)

Giving up our Storage Locker

Prior to moving to Iqaluit, Jacquie and I rented a storage locker. This allowed us to store a lot of the furniture, books, and miscellaneous stuff from our property at 30 Broadway.

When we purchased our new property at 7 Broadway (see previous blog) we had a place to store all of our stuff

So a bunch of our wonderful friends helped us remove all the stuff from the storage locker put it on Dean's Trailer, in the back of Scott's and our car and take it to 7 Broadway. Thanks to all of those who helped us on moving day!

We then took all of the stuff that was stored in the storage unit and placed it in the crawl space at the new house. A lot of work that was made easier by the many hands that helped.

The other wonderful advantage of having the new house is that our little RIO is also stored there.

Thanks again for all of your help; Dean, Bonnie, Scott and Donald. You guys rock!

Our New Home

On November 17th, 2012 Jacquie and I purchased the above home in Brockville that we are thinking will be our retirement home.

Since we took our jobs in Iqaluit, it has always been our plan to stay here for a period of time and then move back to Brockville to (semi) retire. Our goal was that sometime while we were in Iqaluit we would find our dream retirement home and purchase it.

There were a number of things that we wanted to see in our dream home. Such as a nicely sized fenced backyard for our dogs, a large kitchen, an office, at least 2 bedrooms, 2 bath and a garage. Ideally we would like a bit of a separate area for family and guests when they came to visit.

Interestingly, we had driven by 7 Broadway many times, as we lived just up the street. We had even,at one time made some inquiries as to the asking price. The property did have many of the features that we were looking for however, seemed a little out of our affordability range so we forgot about it. Then, one of the people I work with at the Nunavut Housing Corporation met the son of the real estate agent, that was trying to sell 7 Broadway, in Montreal. She said that her friends mom said to say hi.
So, Monica (the real estate agent) Jacquie and I started to chat a little on facebook. She asked if we were still interested in 7 Broadway. We let her know that we liked the house, from what we saw of it from the outside and from the listing pictures of the inside, however felt it was a little out of our price range. After much discussion, Monica, the vendor, Jacquie and I were able to craft an offer that satisfied everyone and we soon became proud owners of a new home. Interestingly, we purchased the home without actually touring it. We did infringe on the good nature of our friends, Randy and Dean having both of them go through the property on our behalf and give a report. The feedback was positive, so on with the purchase we went.

Jacquie and I flew back to Brockville from November 12 - 15 to sign all of the paperwork and finalize the financing. And low and behold on November 17th, we became proud owners of a new home in Brockville.

The other advantage of the home is the vendor needed a place to stay and since her husband designed and built the home, she was very interested in remaining in the home. Part of the overall purchase arrangement was that she would lease the home for 2 years with an option for a 3rd year. This fits into our plans perfectly and allows someone who has pride in the home to look after it for us while we are up north.

Since we have owned the home, we turned the 2 piece bathroom and separate laundry room in the lower level into a large laundry-room, three pice bath with a shower. Also we are having a kitchentte installed in the lower rec-room, which has been turned into a bachelor's apartment so Jacquie and I have a place to stay when we are visiting Brockville. We enjoyed the wonderful hospitality of our many friends and want to thank Randy and Liczy, Dean and Bonnie and Joe and Veena for giving us a place to stay while we did visit during our first year up north - your kindness is very much appreciated. We are happy to have our little apartment and actually have a little extra bedroom for guests. Harry and Flavio were our first guests in our new digs.

Our goal is to get out of Iqaluit back to Brockville 3 or 4 times per year. We expect and hope that family and friends will come to visit us in our new home.

Below are a few pictures of the new home:

Kitchen/Diningroom

Kitchen

Upstairs bath with Jacuzzi Tub

Living room, Gas firplace on the right

Lower Rec-room (now Larry's and Jacquie's apartment)

Jacquie and her Bosses

Before Christmas we had the opportunity to go to the Christmas Party for the Department of the Environment. 

Interestingly, Jacquie and I only get invited to 3 or 4 Christmas parties per year in Iqaluit and coincidentally the Rotary Christmas party and the Department of Environment were both on the same evening.  We had scheduled in the Rotary Club party first and purchased the tickets so decided to make that our primary event and had dinner there.  We promised to stop in and visit the Department of the Environment Christmas party too.

So,  after dinner we stopped at the Arctic Hotel, where the Department of the Environment Christmas party was taking place and joined in the fun.  We got there in time to play a couple of games and chat with many of the department staff.

At one point in the evening, Jacquie managed to pose between the Deputy Minister and Assistant Deputy Minister as shown below.

The gentleman on the left is Mr. David Akeeagok, Deputy Minister for the Department of the Environment and Mr. Steve Pinksen is the gentleman on the right who has become the new Assistant Deputy Minister. (Congratulations Steve)

A fun time was had by all!

Repulse Bay

In early December I had the opportunity to go to Repulse Bay. 

Its a small hamlet of approximately 750 people located exactly on the Arctic Circle, on the north shore of Repulse Bay. Transport to the community is provided primarily by air and by an annual sealift. Repulse Bay (Naujaat) is home to a wide variety of animals including polar bears, caribou, seals, whales, and walrus. There are also approximately one hundred species of birds in the area, including gyrfalcons and peregrine falcons.

The Naujaat community continues to rely on traditional sealing, fishing, hunting, trapping, and carving for their livelihood, together with tourism. Naujaat is known for its Inuit artists, especially carvers (typically creating small realist animal sculptures of ivory, soapstone, marble and antler), as well as jewellery and crafts.

I had the opportunity to meet a number of the community residents.  The residents are very friendly and inviting.  While I was there the finishing touches were being done on a new multi-million dollar health centre.  It has brought many tradesman and construction workers to the community for almost 2 years.  It has had an amazing boost to the community.  Also, many of the local's had the opportunity to get labour jobs at the job site. 

In the Hamlet there is the Artic Circle Arch, which when walking through it signifies entering the Arctic Circle.

On the Friday that I was to fly out, the temperature was -55C with the wind chill and there was some blowing snow.  I assumed that the chances of us getting out that day were slim.  We were to leave at 9:30AM.  Interestingly the flight crew was staying in the hotel I was staying at and at breakfast I had an opportunity to talk to the pilot.  He told me that chances were actually pretty good that we would get out.  Since the plane did an overnight in Repulse Bay it was already on the ground.  He said its actually much easier to take off than to land, so as long as he can see the run way and its clear, we'd be OK.  I wasn't sure if the conversation with the pilot was reasurring or scared the crap out of me but it was interesting information.

Anyway, we did get off the ground and I went from there to Baker Lake, then to Rankin Inlet and finally home to Iqaluit.  Just another fun day on the job.  :-)