SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Earlier this month, Reg Croizier wrapped up his working life, and began looking forward to a new life in retirement.

After 43 years, Reg Croizier of Yellowknife is retiring from the Northwest Territories Power Corporation. - photo courtesy of Northwest Territories Power Corporation

His career spanned over a half-century and a number of jobs, but was highlighted by 43 years with the Northwest Territories Power Corporation (NTPC) that concluded as a hydro operator.

Croizier always had the sense that he was helping to deliver a vital service while working for NTPC.

"You're helping people and you're providing a service, and the service of electricity here in the North is very, very important," he said.

It's not like Croizier retired early since he is 73 years old, and he said he worked so long for financial reasons.

But when the time arrived, it was not a difficult decision to retire, he said. "What I was kind of finding was that my physicality was not up to the job. I figured that if I'm going to be a little off the mark here, it's better for me to step away if I can, and that's the way I felt safer doing it."

Croizier was born in 1941 in the mountains of B.C. at a place called Premier Mine, near the small community of Stewart.

As a teenager, he began his career with NTPC in the Yukon as a summer student in 1958 and 1959, helping to build distribution lines. The following year, he worked as a warehouse manager at a mine in the Yukon.

From 1961 to 1967, he served in the Royal Canadian Air Force as a radar technician.

At the time, he thought he was going to be in the armed forces for life.

"But unfortunately I got racked up in an accident in 1966 and that led to my release," he said, explaining he was seriously injured in Ontario as a passenger on a motorcycle, and he had to learn how to speak and walk again.

From 1968 onwards, he worked with NTPC at various locations in the Yukon and the NWT, except for four years in the early-1980s as a hydro operator with Alcan in Kemano, B.C.

With NTPC, he worked as a systems and hydro operator in Mayo, Yukon, and at the Taltson River hydroelectric site, Fort Smith, and finally Yellowknife and the Snare hydro system from 1985 to his retirement.

"Overall, working with the power corporation was like any place else. You have your ups and downs, and you have your problems and all that kind of stuff, which is normal for a life," he said. "But about my years with the power corporation, I've enjoyed myself. I didn't get into too many tiffs with anybody."

One of the unique experiences of his time with NTPC was working at the Taltson Dam in the 1970s, and actually living on site with his family.

"We lived there by ourselves for three years," he recalled.

Croizier said he had no career plans while in high school that led to power generation.

"I guess my philosophy is you take what life gives you. You take one day to the next," he explained, adding sometimes things were good and sometimes things were bad. "But that's all part and parcel of being alive."

Now, he said he can laugh about all the things that happened or didn't happen during his years with NTPC.

"It was a great run," he said.

While his last day of work was in early May, he is now on leave and will officially be employed until July 14.

Looking back on his time with NTPC, he has no explanation of why he stayed with the corporation for so long.

"I look at it this way," he said. "I did my best at all times and I tried to work with everybody and not be unfriendly, and I think over the years I've made a lot of friends. I've probably made an enemy or two, but that's all by the boards. That happens and I don't ponder on that. But I enjoyed my time because it was interesting. I mean you go to work and every day can be different."

Croizier is not sure what he will do with his time during retirement, but he does plan to stay in the North.

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