Iqaluit (June 23/03) - It's noon on a Monday in Iqaluit and out of nowhere cars and trucks are backed up and pressing at each others bumpers. This is a very unusual sight.

Iqaluit chief bylaw enforcement officer Robert Kavanaugh directs traffic for about 15 minutes every day (weather permitting) on Ring Road in front of the Baffin Regional hospital. - Kathleen Lippa/NNSL photo

Suddenly, there is grid-lock on Ring Road and by-law officer Robert Kavanaugh is trying to move vehicles along in front of the Baffin Regional hospital with the skilful waving of his arms and hands.

Kavanaugh doesn't have to be a traffic cop at the intersection for long each day. The line up of vehicles disappears as quickly as it forms each day.

This is such a new problem that Iqaluit city officials aren't sure if they want to keep a traffic cop there each day or install a traffic light.

"There's well over 300 vehicles that will pass through that intersection in a 15 minute time frame," he says.

Traffic jams like this are a very rare event in the North.

Most of the time you can go where you want, when you want and you will never be impeded by a red stop light.

Marilyn Scott at the visitors centre in Iqaluit has lived in the North for 18 years. She never sat in grid-lock herself before coming North. She is from Nova Scotia.

But for many visitors, she says the lack of waiting in traffic is a pleasant surprise.

"It's such a shock!" she says.

"It's the complete least of our worries," said Marty Kuluguqtuq at the hamlet office in Grise Fiord.

The only line-up of vehicles in his hamlet occurs during the New Year's parade.

"When you want to get from point A to point B you're pretty assured you're going to make it if your vehicle is working alright. There's no such thing as a traffic jam here. When you have one vehicle behind another, that's a traffic jam!" he said.