Christine Kay
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Oct 07/02) - The Queen travelled in style while she was in Iqaluit. The $70,000 black Suburban Z71 which took her and Prince Philip around the city was fully loaded. It even had a DVD player in it.

But one thing it didn't have was bulletproof windows -- most of them weren't even tinted.

"She wanted to be able to be seen so the ones on the side aren't," said Rick Gauthier, sales and lease representative for Driving Force Nunavut.

For security, a 14-vehicle motorcade accompanied the Queen and her entourage around the city.

RCMP also increased their numbers for the event by bringing in officers from around Nunavut and across the rest of Canada. No member of the RCMP in Nunavut was permitted to take a leave or vacation on the day of the visit.

Police rented 20 vehicles from Driving Force Nunavut just for the event.

Iqaluit's fire department also helped with crowd control. Some of the newest volunteers at the department were put in charge of the various roadblocks. Roads were blocked as the Queen's motorcade passed by.

"A volunteer engine crew was in the station while she was in town. I also had two ambulance crews in the station, too," said Fire Chief Cory Chegwyn.

With the extra traffic and crowds, Chegwyn wanted to make sure emergency workers could easily get to a fire truck or an ambulance.

There were also two uniformed firefighters inside the legislative assembly while the qulliq was lit.