Dawn Ostsrem
Northern News Services
Inuvik (Jun 25/01) - There is a new detachment commander in town and rather than a rough, tough and daunting figure, S/Sgt. Mark Wharton is more the approachable, friendly and good-natured type.
Wharton walked into his office at the Inuvik RCMP detachment and spread his arms over his work area.
"I have a big desk," he said with wide-eyed mock delight.
He came from Rae with his wife and a promotion to the 12-person detachment in Inuvik on June 15.
"It doubled the size of the community and establishment," he said. "I'm just so new here that I want to find out from the community what their priorities are ... what it has as far as resources."
Wharton, a Manitoba Metis, had no problem throwing out possibilities of the things he has a personal interest in seeing.
Those include programs related to Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and tougher traffic enforcement.
"I've been to too many accidents," he said, and noted that many involved alcohol.
As far as police trying to make a dent in the social issue of FAS Wharton personally feels it is something the RCMP can handle if if members of the detachment are willing.
"In the past we have said it is someone else's problem," he said. "I would like to present it to the (members) here."
A popular activity among kids in Rae that Wharton said might fly in Inuvik are the trading of cop cards.
They look like hockey cards but Wharton's is decorated with the RCMP emblem and a snapshot of him leaning against a police vehicle. On the back is his name and other information such as duties, detachments worked in and police car number as well as a message to kids.
"Stay in school, it will open up doors later in life," Wharton's read.
The cards are expensive but a hit with kids who flock to officers asking for more to trade with their friends, and help break down barriers.
After working for five years in La Ronge, Sask., Wharton and his physiotherapist wife moved North for the first time in 1993 to Aklavik. Wharton was impressed with the hamlet and said it was a great community to start their Northern experience.
"I guess I just wanted to see what the North was like and ended up adopting it as home," said Wharton from his new detachment office.
After Aklavik, Wharton touched down in Yellowknife and Qikiqtarjuaq before working in Rae and now Inuvik.
"Even though we had hoped to move back to the delta, we did not expect it to happen," Wharton wrote in a letter to the mayor. "We are eagerly looking forward to renewing old acquaintances and forming new friendships."
