Pride in a job well done
Bruce Proud works hard in Enterprise with goal of retiring to the Philippines
Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Published Monday, April 21 2014
ENTERPRISE
Many people work in the North with the goal of eventually retiring in southern Canada.
Bruce Proud, the head of public works with the Hamlet of Enterprise, stands in front of the municipal garage. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo |
Bruce Proud is one of those with an eye on retirement, but even farther away in the western Pacific Ocean.
Proud, the head of public works with the Hamlet of Enterprise, plans on moving to the Philippines, where he was previously retired for 10 years and where he has a wife and son.
"When I retire, I'm going to go back there. I still have my place, but it would be nicer to retire there with a pension," he said, explaining he would get a full pension after 10 years with the hamlet.
The 60-year-old has so far been working in Enterprise for three years.
As the head of public works in Enterprise, Proud has a wide variety of duties, including snow clearing, equipment and building maintenance, collecting garbage and operating a landfill, snow removal, backup school bus driver, and supervising summer students.
"It's different all the time, which I like, and there is enough variety to keep you interested," he said.
Of all his duties, he particularly enjoys clearing snow with a plow, explaining, "There's something very satisfying about running something so powerful and precise. It's very satisfying to be able to start a job and finish a job, and to look back and say I did that, as opposed to sitting in an office and just typing and typing and typing, and you never finish."
Proud uses his own initiative to get things done.
"I take pride in this town, and so when I see something that needs to be done, I just go ahead and do it," he said, adding he tries to accommodate the concerns of people as much as possible.
"I view that it's part of my job to look after this town," he said, explaining that could mean checking in on elders, volunteering for community activities and even responding to a call to boost a vehicle at 2 a.m. in the morning.
Proud said he will never say 'no' to anybody who asks for help in Enterprise.
Proud has also been trying for three years to sponsor his wife and son to come to Canada.
"Frankly, the only problem is our government bureaucracy," he said. "It just takes a long time to get anything done."
Proud said he first visited the Philippines on vacation, met his wife and enjoyed life in that country, where he lived on a hectare of land about a mile from a beach.
"I liked the situation," he said. "I stayed."
In the three years prior to working for the hamlet, he would return to Canada for two months each summer to work with Klassen Homes, a business in Enterprise.
"I would make enough money to live in a comfortable manner all year in The Philippines," he said. "So I got to know this community and I got to know most of the people here over the summer."
With that connection to Enterprise, he applied when there was a job opening for the head of public works.
"I think the reason I got this job was they asked me what my best skills were and I said I can work unsupervised and I can get along with almost anybody," he recalled. "I don't have any enemies in the whole world, and they said that's perfect for Enterprise."
Proud noted some people in the hamlet were upset the job didn't go to a local person.
"I said, well, I'm not exactly a stranger because I'd lived here for parts of three years already," he noted, adding he knew most of the people in Enterprise before that from visiting the community.
Those visits included when he moved to Yellowknife in 1998 and spent two years as a pastor at the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Prior to that, he was a flooring contractor in Alberta.
Proud grew up on a wheat and cattle farm in southern Alberta, near the community of Foremost. It was on the farm that he learned many of the practical skills, including how to operate heavy equipment, he now uses for his work in Enterprise.
While he plans to retire in the Philippines, he said he also loves living in the North.
"It's a little cold, but the people are special here," he said. "They're an independent breed and, once you get to know them, they're very good friends and we all help each other, and I love that."
