HAY RIVER - Getting dressed for work is going to be a bit more difficult for Jamie Chambers in coming weeks.

For 17 years, Chambers of Hay River has been wearing a uniform - first as a renewable resources officer and most recently as an environmental protection officer.

Jamie Chambers is moving to a new position with Environment and Natural Resources in Yellowknife. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

Now, he is moving to Yellowknife to take a job with the headquarters of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (ENR).

"I'll be taking off the uniform and working in more of an office setting," he said. "We'll see how that goes."

As of Oct. 12, Chambers will be the hazardous substance specialist with ENR.

"It's more of a territorial role now," he said, explaining he will offer advice to environmental protection officers around the NWT and travel to the regions when necessary. "I'll be kind of like a go-to guy in Yellowknife to help officers."

Chambers said he set goal for the last five to 10 years of his career to move to ENR headquarters in Yellowknife.

"It's a little sooner than I expected," said the 43-year-old. "But the opportunity came up and, if I pass it up now, it might not be there in five or six years."

Born in Ottawa, Chambers has lived in the North since his family moved to Iqaluit where he was starting Grade 1 in 1973.

Three years later, the family moved to Yellowknife, where he grew up and graduated high school.

"Home is Yellowknife," he said. "Even after I retire, I have no intention of leaving the Northwest Territories."

Chambers said he wanted to work as a renewable resources officer since he was about 12 years old. One day, he was fishing on the East Arm of Great Slave Lake with his father when a boat with two renewable resources officers pulled alongside. After checking for fishing licences, the officers chatted with Chambers and his father about the fishing and the great weather.

"As they drove away, I remember thinking, 'Boy, those guys have a great job,'" he said. "And I kind of filed that away in the back of my mind."

After graduating high school, he worked for almost three years as a diesel plant operator in Yellowknife with the Northwest Territories Power Corporation.

Then he took what was then called the Renewable Resources Technology Program at Aurora College in Fort Smith.

After graduation in 1993, he worked as a renewable resources officer in Coral Harbour, Norman Wells and Fort Smith before arriving in Hay River just over three years ago.

Interviewed on one of his last days of work in Hay River, Chambers said he is going to miss the community and being an environmental protection officer.

In particular, he said he will miss being outside, and travelling around in the outdoors by boat, ATV and snowmobile.

"That will be tough," he said. "And trying to figure out what I'm going to wear to work every day will be tough."

However, he said he is looking forward to a new challenge.

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