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When adventure means business

Karen Mackenzie
Northern News Services
Monday, July 2, 2007

IQALUIT - Guy Vachon moved to Iqaluit in 1980 for "the adventure and new horizons," and stayed.

With his company Qairrulik Outfitting - named for the "abundance of harp seals around" - he's seen a good chunk of the land surrounding this town, and taken a lot of people with him.

"I've met all kinds of people from all over the world. We've taken out royalty, we've had millionaires," he said. "The big boss from Ferrari, Canadian generals, and British dignitaries."

However, when pressed for some gossip about his high profile clients, he laughed and sealed his lips. "It's my job not to say. I'm sworn to secrecy!" he joked.

"Some of them were adaptable, some of them were just beyond hope," he remembered. "Some of them were overwhelmed by the lack of what they think of as scenery, because they're so used to skyscrapers and sidewalks - and they were like, 'Ah! we're lost!'"

Vachon, who speaks French, English, and "enough Inuktitut to get by," originally came to Nunavut to work for one of the Northern airlines.

"When I first came up there were no privately owned houses, one or two, that's it," he said over a coffee at one of the local cafes. "Back then there was just over a thousand people."

He took a guide course in Iqaluit before opening his outfitting company in 1987.

"It was all in Inuktitut, but I did pass," he said. "I've got a good sense of where I'm going and where I'm coming from, I guess."

Vachon lives here with his wife and three children, the oldest of whom is 25.

This time of the year he focuses on preparations for the summer season, when he shuttles tourists and locals alike around the bay for camping, fishing and sightseeing.