http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/4651/img0341.jpg
I could’ve gotten a better shot of the bay if I’d walked outside…but it’s cold and I don’t want to. Our windows are tinfoiled.
Could you make the image a tad smaller, instead of 200 miles across?
Cool photo! I looked up Iqaluit on Google Maps and I have lots of questions about your location! What is the town like? What do people who live there do for a living? What do you do? What kind of fun stuff is there to do in the town? Are you originally from there, and if not, how did you end up there? How cold are the winters, and how warm are the summers? What is the largest big city to your town, and how long does it take to get there? Can you drive there or would you have to fly? What is that writing under “STOP” on the stop sign? Why are your windows tinfoiled? Do the roads get plowed? Is there always snow on the ground?
Sorry for so many questions, but your photo got me curious!
ETA: I looked up Iqaluit on Wiki: Iqaluit - Wikipedia That answered some stuff but I am still interested to hear your answers!
What is the town like?
It’s small, but also big (in a way) because it’s the territorial capital. I’ve met the prime minister, Jake Gyllenhal, Selma Hayak and Jason Priestly here. But mostly, it’s small. Lots of social problems, everything’s expensive, it’s cold, etc. In a lot of ways its a third world country slash outfront pioneer town. There’s really nothing like it anywhere I’ve been. People usually love it or hate it. The bureaucracy’s broken, but then again this territory’s only existed for like 10 years. If you’re ambitious, you can really make a difference here, but it’s pretty stressful and definitely not for everyone.
What do people who live there do for a living?
Most people work for the government or for infrastructure type industries. The entire territory relies on federal funding for it’s existence as there’s no way we could be self supporting. There is also mining stuff going on here (diamonds, zinc (?), uranium (?), junk like that) but those are communities unto themselves, not anywhere near here. The territory of Nunavut is about the same size as all of western Europe.
What do you do?
As of June 1st, I run the hospital lab.
What kind of fun stuff is there to do in the town?
Eh, not much. There’s bars & restaurants, a lot of nature stuff like hiking and camping, hunting, skidooing, etc. Most people’s recreational activities are socializing and drinking.
Are you originally from there, and if not, how did you end up there?
No, I moved here out of lab school. My options for jobs were my hometown (ugh! no thanks), small town Alberta (double ugh no thanks) or here. So I chose here, figuring I’d work a year and leave. I’ve been here probably 3.5 years now (non consecutive). The pay is really good, and opportunities for advancement are plentiful if you show the least bit of competence or ambition. That’s the biggest problem up here, attracting qualified people. I’d almost go so far as to say that most imported people here (myself excluded of course :)) end up here because they can’t hack it down south and the north will take them because of they’re qualified to do something, even if badly.
How cold are the winters?
COLD. With windchill, I’ve been out in -70C. My eyeballs were freezing and my vision crazing up. I closed my eyes, and then my lids froze together. It was horrible. The dead of winter probably averages close to -40C. You get used to it, really. We get 3-4 hours of daylight in the winter too.
how warm are the summers?
Mosquitoes. That’s what the weather is like in summer. Really, probably like 15C average for summers. We’ll get maybe a week of 20C, but that feels like 40C because all the houses are super insulated and hold all their heat, so you cook. People actually buy window mounted air conditioners. Also, we have near 24-hr daylight in the summer.
What is the largest big city to your town?
Ottawa, ON. 3 hour plane ride.
Can you drive there or would you have to fly
The only way in or out is by plane.
What is that writing under “STOP” on the stop sign?
That’s inuktitut, the inuit language. The writing was adapted from a cree syllabary in the late 1800’s (?) for the inuit language.
Why are your windows tinfoiled?
Because we have 24hr daylight! That picture I posted was taken at 1230 am, which is about as dark as it gets this time of year.
Do the roads get plowed?
You bet. Otherwise, no one would be able to get anywhere during the winter, unless they had a snow machine.
Is there always snow on the ground?
Nah. It should be gone now. We’re having an unseasonably cold may. June to the end of August is our ‘summer’
Sorry for so many questions, but your photo got me curious!
No problem 
Better you than me. Cold is one of my two least favorite things. (Wet is the other.)
Thanks for the post, BTW. Until I Googled and Wiki-ed it, I had no idea that Nunavut even existed. What was the big push to seperate Nunavut from the Northwest Territories? Sort of a Native homeland?
(Really exposing my ignorance here.)
Ahhh, my mistake. I originally thought it said Iqaluit, NJ – I wasn’t sure where in Jersey this “Iqaluit” town was, and was very surprised to find that it somehow managed to snow there when we’re in the mid-60’s.
Or, as Robert Service put it:
The western part of the old NWT was primarily Cree and other Indian populations, while the eastern part was primarily Inuit. Made sense to re-draw the boundaries to reflect the populations and culture of the inhabitants, instead of just relying on the colonial era “lump them all into one” approach.
Was this initiated at the federal level, or was it a local one? And why did Nunavut get a native name, but the rump of the Northwest Territories kept its English one? Do the Cree and other tribes just not care as much?
So you decide you want out of there. Is it affordable to just pick up and leave via plane? Are there times of year that you can’t fly out safely?
What percentage are native vs. transplants?
Is there any possibility for a love life?
Do you eat local food or is most of it flown in?
It was a grass-roots initiative that started in the 70s, if I remember correctly, from the Inuit of the eastern Arctic. It took a long time of political activity, both within the former NWT and at the federal level. The actual creation of Nunavut was done by a statute passed by the federal Parliament, the Nunavut Act, passed in 1993 and brought into force on April 1, 1999.
As for the name of the NWT, as I recall there is more diversity in aboriginal languages in that territory, so it would be more difficult to find a common name. “Nunavut” is common to all the Inuit dialects, if I remember correctly, and means “Our Land.”
How are things like cars and building materials gotten in? Cargo plane? or is there some ship traffic?
What level of medical treatment would people be able to get in Nunavut? I know you work in a lab so obviously there are medical facilities (something us Yanks might not realize) but at what point do people have to go to other provinces for treatment? can they receive, say, chemo for cancer? open heart surgery?
You have a prime minister named Jake Gyllenhal?
Is it affordable to just pick up and leave via plane?
Not really. Most people sell off everything they don’t need before they move because sending dishes and furniture back down on cargo would cost a bloody fortune. A round trip ticket from Iqaluit to Ottawa is ~$1700.
Are there times of year that you can’t fly out safely?
Not specific times of the year; just blizzard/fog/poor visibility days. Sometimes the plane from Ottawa gets all the way here, circles the runway a few times and then has to go back to Ottawa. I’m glad I’ve never been on one of those flights!
Is there any possibility for a love life?
Ahh…Iqaluit is pretty slutty. I think it stems from not having enough to do. A large minority of the population is transient and a lot of random hookups go on. I actually met my GF at the legion here. She’s from Ottawa and used to come up summers to pay for school. Also, our gonorrhea and chlamydia rates are 14x national average! Those are almost Banff numbers!
Do you eat local food or is most of it flown in?
Everything is flown in. You can buy pretty much anything you would buy at a regular grocery store here, it’s just more expensive. I’m a picky eater and although I’ve tried country foods (inuit food) it’s just not for me. Raw fish, seal, boiled polar bear, whale blubber…yecch.
How are things like cars and building materials gotten in?
you can fly cars and building stuff up if you want to pay a lot. However, we do get sealift in the summers so most of that stuff waits until summer.
What level of medical treatment would people be able to get in Nunavut?
Pretty basic, but also pretty good for where we are. We’re the regional hub, so all medevacs from the territory come here first before going to Ottawa or Mtl (if needed). We have an ER, a 30 bed ward, xray, ultrasound, lab, and ORs. The ORs tend to be used for emergency type things, appendicits, resectioning bowel, elective sterilization, etc. We don’t have any MRIs or CAT scanners. It costs the government something like $40000 per medevac. Chemo would be done down south, as would heart surgery. Aside from our 1 surgeon, we have 2-3 GP anesthetists and maybe 15 other GPs. Doctor pay is insane here so we often get yahoos up for 2 weeks then they leave, which pisses me off.
You have a prime minister named Jake Gyllenhal?
I just want to say thanks for giving us this insight! I think it’s safe to say that none of us will ever get to experience Iqaluit. It’s a very unique place to live. So cool, or errr COLD!
Do they need any IT people there? Would they be willing to hire foreigners? I have some Inuit ancestry but I was raised in Michigan solely by mom who’s mostly white. Working up there for a couple years after college seems like a good way to learn about it! Even with the risk of frozen eyeballs…
We need everybody here. The Nunavut job site does state “All candidates must be eligible to work in Canada.” So there’s that. job site. They are implementing a new territorial electronic health record program in the next year and are supposed to be hiring a shitload of IT people for that pretty soon.
This is really interesting. I have lived in the “the north”, but sure as snow, not that far north!
Do you get wondrous aurora in the winter? Even if you do, how hard is it to view?, given that
With windchill, I’ve been out in -70C. My eyeballs were freezing and my vision crazing up. I closed my eyes, and then my lids froze together. It was horrible.
…which truly made me mutter: “oh, my fucking god, that’s gruesome cold.”
Thanks for the link! I’ll save it and see what’s open when I’m done with school. Looking at the Canadian work permit rules seems to say the main hurdle is getting a job offer.