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DENINU KU'E/FORT RESOLUTION - Darin McKay is a jack of all trades.

But instead of moving from job to job, McKay must know how to do a little bit of everything for just one job. That's because he is a facility maintainer with Deninoo Community Council's recreation department in Fort Resolution.

Darin McKay is the facility maintainer with Deninoo Community Council's recreation department in Fort Resolution. Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

McKay learned how to do the work by training with the previous facility maintainer.

In the job, he ensures recreation facilities are always ready for when the public wants to use them, including Lakeview Arena, Antoine Beaulieu Memorial Hall, the ball field and the beach.

"I'm really happy with this job," he said. "I'm doing my best to keep things running and everything up to par."

McKay, 37, said he feels his job is important to the community.

"It's a little bit stressful at times," he added, noting he works full-time and is on call evenings and weekends.

He has been the facility maintainer for almost three years and was a trainee for a year-and-a-half before that.

Among his duties are cleaning the facilities, making sure furnaces are running properly, checking fuel, changing lights and more.

"I'm mechanically inclined for working on stuff and figuring out things," he said, adding that a person has to be able to think fast to do the work.

At the beach on the shore of Great Slave Lake, he paints structures, cuts grass, puts up the volleyball nets and cleans up.

"I'm hands-on," he said.

Aside from his daily or weekly work, McKay has also undertaken some special projects.

About three years ago, he and a few other workers rebuilt the community's ball field.

"It will be good for 50 years," he said, noting the work included installing a new backstop.

About a year ago, McKay also set up the fitness centre in the basement of Lakeview Arena.

"They had all the equipment, but no one to put it together," he said, adding that the work also involved putting mirrors on the walls.

Occasionally, he even does small repairs at Deninu school or the nursing station, if employees of the Department of Public Works and Services are not immediately available.

"It's usually minor, but it's got to be fixed right away," he said, noting he recently replaced a broken window at the nursing station.

Before becoming a facility maintainer, McKay worked at a number of jobs in Fort Resolution – as a water truck driver, loader operator, wood cutter at a sawmill and more.

In the future, he said he would like to take courses that will help with his current work, including an upcoming course on heavy equipment operation.

"I'd like to better myself so I can do a good job," he said.

Recently, he completed a course on ventilation and heating in Yellowknife.

McKay said he is happy to have a job Fort Resolution.

"It's close to my family," said the father of five children.

Many of his friends, however, have to travel to work in the diamond mining industry, he said.

McKay, a member of Deninu Ku'e First Nation who grew up in Fort Resolution, said he would rather work in Fort Resolution than at the diamond mines.