IKALUKTUTIAK/CAMBRIDGE BAY - Although travelling home will now be easier, Mitzi Wall left her position as manager of the North Warning System Radar Site in Cambridge Bay with a heavy heart.

The 52-year-old spent three years in Cambridge Bay, working four weeks on, typically eight weeks off during the winter and working the whole summer, managing the team of workers there. She left late last month to head back to Labrador before transferring to the NWS radar site in Hall Beach later this month.

"It was very hard to leave. I really enjoyed working there and the community is wonderful. I made a lot of life-long friends there as well," she said. "The crew that I had in Cambridge Bay were wonderful to work with. Most of them are long-time employees and know their jobs very well."

The job is more hectic in the summer because of the small window of opportunity to work outside and do projects. In the summer, as many as 64 people worked at the NWS site in Cambridge Bay whereas in the winter, they average 20 people on site.

She said she took the transfer because working in Hall Beach will mean less flying going to and from Labrador, not to mention the schedule of six weeks on, six weeks off. Travelling is the hardest part, she added, and the extreme cold temperatures are something she never quite got used to.

"I love the job. It's challenging because of weather and your isolation," she said. "I love the life where you can work half of the year and be off to do as you please for the other half."

Wall started working at Nassituq Corporation, a joint venture between ATCO Structures and Logistics Ltd. and Pan Arctic Inuit Logistics Corporation which has the contract to maintain Canada's NWS, when a manager's assistant position opened up at the NWS radar in Iqaluit. After living three years in Iqaluit and obtaining her manager's certification, she transferred back to Labrador before eventually ending up in Cambridge Bay.

The native of Happy-Valley-Goose Bay, N.L., said the people make the job special.

"I have worked with this company for over eight years and I have met people from all over the world and have learned a lot about other people's ways of life and learned to sit and compare notes and laugh with people," she said. "The job in itself, it's unique in its own right. To be able to travel the North, to hop aboard a chopper and go out in the middle of nowhere and see the wilderness and the rough land across the North was and will continue to be highlights I remember. "

The north warning system replaced the distant early warning system in 1985. Today, 47 radar sites exist, supported by five logistics support centres located in Inuvik, N.W.T., Cambridge Bay, Hall Beach, Iqaluit and Goose Bay, N.L.

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