Kent Driscoll
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Sep 19/05) - After many evenings pressed to the books and many years of effort, Victor Tootoo is the newest certified general accountant in Nunavut.

The 40-year-old was born in Edmonton, but calls Rankin Inlet home. He now lives in Iqaluit and has been labouring toward his certified general accountant designation for eight long years.

He works as the assistant deputy minister in the corporate services division of health and social services. Once his day job was done, it was time for him to hit the books.

"The course work is supposed to take 20 to 30 hours a week, but it was more like 30 to 40. It was one of the most difficult things I have ever done," said Tootoo.

There were times he thought he wouldn't complete the course work, and hard work was needed. "It takes more than being bright and quick. There is a lot of hard work," said Tootoo.

Every term, there were assignments to be done, one every week for 10 weeks, that kept him from spending as much time with his four children as he would have liked.

"They congratulated me when I finished, but the benefit of being done is that I'm going to be spending more time with them,' said Tootoo.

His children are 19-year-old Anthony Mercredi, 13-year-old Savannah Pilakapsi, 10-year-old Christine Tootoo and nine-year-old Donovan Gordon Tootoo.

The government paid for his education, and it will be seeing a return on their dollar for the time being. Tootoo will be staying with the government for "the immediate future anyway." He sees financial management as a skill needed in the territory.

"So many businesses have the right idea here, but they sink themselves through management or cash flow. It is an area of expertise that is lacking," said Tootoo.

Before he makes his next move, Tootoo is just going to enjoy the free time. "It's nice to not have to spend all that time studying," said Tootoo.