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RANKIN INLET
After taking a year off to spend with her newborn grandson, Helen Tagalik returned to Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd.'s Meliadine camp this summer and found things had changed.

Helen Tagalik works two-week rotations as a housekeeper at Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd.'s Meliadine camp. - Tim Edwards/NNSL photo

"After my grandson turned a year old, I came back," said Tagalik. "It's changed dramatically - it grew so big and it feels like I can't keep up anymore sometimes, but I eventually finish up what I have to do."

Tagalik has been working at the site since 2008, when it was run by previous owners Comaplex. She does general housekeeping, cleans the sinks and mirrors in the men's and ladies' washrooms, sweeps and mops the floors - she generally keeps the place running and looking nice.

Vice-president of exploration Guy Gosselin said Tagalik is great to work with and "very funny."

Usually coworkers who are great to work with are fun to be around because they love their job, and Tagalik certainly loves hers.

"I prefer work here than anywhere else," she said.

She used to work three weeks in, three out, but now works on two-week rotations. She said she preferred the longer stretches but doesn't mind the change too much. It can be hard to find work in Rankin Inlet, Tagalik said, adding she sees a lot of jobs that are there being given out to family and friends of the employers.

"From my point of view, there's not enough jobs there," Tagalik said. "Anything that's available I'm willing to do, but I just love work here. I don't know what it is. I meet new friends."

The Meliadine site is host to workers from other parts of Canada and other parts of the world. Forty workers of the nearly 300 on site, as of June, are Inuit. This has Tagalik working with many people who are new to the North, and she said that has its ups and downs, the downs being those hard goodbyes.

"Working with them for quite a few years, getting to know them, when they have to say 'bye' it's pretty overwhelming," Tagalik said. "But life goes on."

Heading back home after two weeks, she said the two weeks she has off from work can be as busy as the two she spends at Meliadine.

"You've got to finish all the rest of the work (at home) you've left behind, but sometimes after coming from here it's good to sleep," she said with a laugh.

Waiting for her at home are her spouse, his two kids, her own two kids and her new grandson.

"I'm really, really, really looking forward to going home to see him today," Tagalik said. "Before he was born, it wasn't the same, because he wasn't there then. Now that he's in this world I really look forward to going home."

With a smiling, gurgling baby waiting in Rankin Inlet, maybe the new work schedule isn't so bad.

"So two weeks, I can accept it now," she said with laugh.

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