Yellowknife (Jan 17/07) - Sgt. Mike Wendehorst sits in front of his computer in his office at the 1 Canadian Ranger Patrol Group headquarters in Yellowknife Monday afternoon.

He's hard at work, because it's budget time for the military group that watches over some 1,500 part-time reservists.

These reservists are known as "the eyes of the North," and are scattered across 20 small communities throughout Nunavut, Yukon and the Northwest Territories.

"My job is to supervise all administrative and finance decisions for the group," he said.

This is no small job considering that each month officers from the headquarters are shipped to many of the areas where the Rangers have reservists.

The officers train these members and supervise patrols for suspicious activity along the Northwest Passage and other areas across the North.

Wendehorst is going through the budget to plan for the year ahead. He has $8.5 million to work with.

A form of the Ranger Patrol Group was first introduced in 1942, during the Second World War.

These original Rangers, called Pacific Coast Militia Rangers, were in charge of coastal surveillance and were the first-line in local defence.

In 1947 they were renamed the Canadian Rangers.

Their main role was to conduct surveillance of the coastlines in sparsely settled areas in Canada. In 1970, government interest in protecting Canada's sovereignty brought an increased presence of the Rangers to the North.

Before a sergeant is sent to a Ranger patrol area, Wendehorst and his clerks must book travel and hotels and work out other needs.

"It costs money to send someone on a patrol," he said. "We have to pay for gas, hotel, food and rental of classrooms for the training."

Patrols are not all Wendehorst oversees. He also must budget for headquarters' staff to go to conferences across Canada and pay for all of the reservists' salaries.

He explained that all purchases go through him, even a purchase of a kit, which is military jargon for "anything that doesn't have a heart-beat, such as a shovel."

"All spending decisions have to go through the commanding officer," Wendehorst said. "And any spending over $5,000 will go through other channels within the Forces."