"I wouldn't have moved here if my base salary wasn't more. It wouldn't have been worth it," says Harriet. "I make significantly more money in the North, $10,000-20,000 more, with a northern allowance on top of that."

Harriet says that both times she's moved North (she also worked in Iqaluit for a while) she's paid off her debts "just like that."

Nevertheless, Harriet is about to give up her job. So making a home here in Yellowknife clearly isn't about money.

She and Hank were recently married and are expecting their first child.

'Our initial assessment is that we can live on one salary," says Hank.

"We'd really like to align ourselves not to be forced to go back to work because of financial reasons," adds Harriet.

Harriet plans on staying home with the baby for at least 10 months -- longer if they choose to have another baby. Longer, perhaps, even if they choose not to have another baby.

"We know of people who will go back to work much sooner than 10 months, or can't even afford to have a child," she says about friends down south in so-called more affordable centres.

Hank feels prices are not that bad in Yellowknife, though he admits that the condo he bought in 1997 for $135,000 would have cost $30,000 less in Edmonton.

When they do go south, which they have done frequently for work, Harriet says they binge shop. But shopping in the south isn't so much about price as it is about selection.

Prior to joining her husband here last fall, Harriet lived in one of Canada's major cities, where, she says, there were many more spending temptations than there are here.

They still plan on travelling, but not as much as they did.

Hank says that with a baby coming, he isn't thinking only of himself anymore. "I did before."

A frequent traveller, Hank's most recent vacations include trips to South America and Asia. The typical Christmas involved travel, either for a vacation or to spend time with family in the south. This year the couple is staying in Yellowknife, beginning their own family traditions.

As single people they ate out all the time. Now they eat in. And rather than blow $60 on lunch, they eat at home, something Harriet never did in the south.

The concept of commuting is now alien to them.

Their high Northern salaries means they can have a child and not worry too much about finances.

"We're lucky that (Hank) does make that income. We have friends in B.C. and Ontario who are not in the same situation. We have friends for whom it's been tough," says Harriet.

Quality of life in Yellowknife keeps the couple here. Hank figures he's 15 years ahead career-wise than he would be in the south.

"There are so many more strengths than limitations," he says about living in the NWT capital.

Harriet agrees. "And there's a greater sense of community. It took me six years to build up the kind of friendships (in Ontario) that I almost have here in less than a year."

Escaping from Edmonton

Larissa and George (not their real names) pull in a combined income of $160,000 a year.

In 1997 they bought their five bedroom home for $180,000. It's now worth $240,000, while an equivalent home in Edmonton would fetch about $150,000.

Edmonton as a place to shop or a place to live simply doesn't figure into the family's world-view. Cost of living, says Larissa, just isn't a factor.

"My house, that's the saving grace," she says, adding that the furniture doesn't match. "We don't have a skidoo, we don't have a boat, but we have no debts."

Besides a mortgage, groceries and other bills, they spend their money on entertaining friends at home. "We spend a lot having people over," says Larissa.

One of Larissa's dreams is to vacation in Europe with her children. That means they won't be going anywhere for the next year and a half. Going to "that mall" in Edmonton once in a while doesn't count.

"Driving to Edmonton is not a holiday," she emphasizes. "We've done it three or four times."

Larissa prefers the intimacy of small Yellowknife shops. "And I'd rather take my kids to a fishing lodge, like four or five days at Blatchford."

Yellowknife offers this family an ideal lifestyle. "You know your neighbours. It's stupid, but it's true," says Larissa, who has lived downtown as well as in the suburbs of other major Canadian cities.

She finds the art world is "way OK." And sports organizations are outstanding for her children.

"You have time to live here. If something bad happens to someone, everyone comes through. You know where your kids are, and you're able to have quality time with them."

In fact, the close proximity of her children pops up in the conversation several times. Larissa notes that she can leave work in the afternoon to visit her child's science fair. Or her kids can drop in at work.

"Do you think if you were living in downtown Winnipeg you could say the same thing?"

She doesn't consider moving. "In Iqaluit I was alone with three kids making $40,000 a year. Cost of living was nuts. I would never have moved because of the quality of life there. I was poor but happy."

Friends are here

As a single mom, Emelie (not her real name) doesn't quite have the same kind of money coming into her household as the other two families.

She holds down full-time employment and a part-time job to supplement her income. "Years ago I was on welfare and lived in low income housing, but I managed to come out of that," she says, adding that she continues to live paycheque to paycheque.

"But I'm holding my head above water."

She rents, but hopes to qualify for a government subsidized downpayment program so she can buy her own home.

Emelie doesn't consider moving south. "Yellowknife is my home. It's the kids' home."

But she and her children did discuss moving after a family reunion in the south.

"We have no family up here. Would we be better off close to relatives? We talked. Only one was keen. The other two said our friends are here. I agreed with them."

What's life about? asks Emelie. "You manage -- one day at a time. One minute at a time."

She adds that sometimes she doesn't want to go home.

"My kids are eating me out of my home. That's the most unnerving part of it, feeding the kids."

Paying the bills can be like playing roulette. Who gets paid first. Emelie says she's experienced anxiety attacks relating to money.

"It's almost like an asthma attack. I couldn't catch my breath. But I worked through it," Emelie says.

"I'm having a hell of a time figuring out what to do for Christmas, but I know it will turn around," she says. "I have faith in my capabilities and in a higher power."

When her two older children graduate, she'd like to live in Europe for a year with the youngest.

But Emelie reiterates that home is here.

"You overcome the drawbacks -- the cold, the darkness, the lack of cheap flights and shopping," she says. "I have space. I can leave my home and instantly I'm in the bush. It's the best of both worlds.

"Even though we have economical struggles, we're in the best environment."

Money's great, says Emelie, but not the ultimate thing in life.

This reporter's story

Speaking to families about why they stay in Yellowknife despite the high cost of living was a great assignment.

I asked myself the same questions I asked of others and came up with very similar answers.

I wailed at length about my first few grocery trips here just after I'd arrived. The bottom line at the checkout was substantially more than I'd been accustomed to.

Everything, really, cost more than it did in Winnipeg, my hometown. But I experienced a jarring moment in downtown Winnipeg two years after I moved here. I was waiting for a bus at Portage and Main. Nobody smiled. If I smiled, people seemed frightened.

When I walk around in Yellowknife, I'm guaranteed a smile. In the mall, at the grocery store -- wherever -- someone (or several someones) greets me.

Larissa confided to me that Yellowknife can sometimes be cliquish.

Yes, small-town mentality sometimes holds sway. But we agreed that it's a small price to pay for community.

Community for me is someone seeing my child do something he shouldn't and I hear about it. He doesn't like it, but I do.

He measures his actions in a way that he just wouldn't in a big city, where he'd be invisible as an individual.

Also, if he were to get into trouble, serious trouble that teenagers seem to get into, my presence is almost guaranteed. Someone will tell me. Community for me also entails feeling safe. And I feel safe here. Barring a few violent acts, which are rare, Yellowknife remains intimate and unmolested.

Yes, rent is exorbitant. My sister, a single mom with two children like me, pays $525 a month for a three-bedroom townhouse in Winnipeg. When she informed me of this recently, I just about vomited. A three-bedroom townhouse here goes for at least $1,200.

Like Emelie, I live paycheque to paycheque. But do I want to go back to the big city, where the cost of living is drastically lower? No.

Despite the fact that, after four years, family and friends still ask me when I'll get over my "Northern thing."

I continue to insist that something pretty spectacular will have to draw me away. So far, nothing rivals living in Yellowknife.