INUVIK
Residents of the town of Inuvik are in shock after town councillor and long-time community member Terry Halifax died suddenly Wednesday night. He was 54.

Terry Halifax, a long-time prominent member of the community in Inuvik, died suddenly Wednesday night. - NNSL file photo

Halifax was leaving town hall after the regular meeting was cancelled, when he fell to the ground in front of the fire hall. Town senior administrative officer Grant Hood said Halifax was talking with deputy mayor Jim McDonald when he just collapsed.

"Up until that moment he was the Terry Halifax I knew," said an upset Hood. "There was no indication something was wrong. It's a tough day for a lot of people."

The fire department was holding its regular Wednesday practice when Halifax collapsed and were able to perform CPR quickly and transport him to the hospital. However, he was pronounced dead after doctors weren't able to save him.

He was a giving and selfless man who would do anything for the causes he believed in, said his partner, Elizabeth Fraser.

"If he believed in it, he'd sacrifice anything to help," she said. "He cared a lot about Inuvik's growth and services for the people and expanding upon things and making it a really great place to live.

"He wanted to see the town in its glory again and he thought it was a place that deserved it."

Fraser said Halifax dedicated his time to the youth in the community because he wanted them to have a better chance at a successful future.

"He'd seen the struggles over the years being a teacher here," she said. "He wanted better opportunities for the children, he wanted them to have better choices.

"He had such pride in himself. I felt proud to call him my significant other because he cared so much and did so much in the community."

Peter Clarkson, a former two-term mayor of Inuvik from 2000 to 2006, said Halifax was an important member of the community who cared deeply about fighting for the vulnerable.

"He always wanted to make sure that the less fortunate had a voice and he was very interested in being that voice," said Clarkson. "He was compassionate and he also had a vision for the community and the region. Whether it was business or the arts or some of the performing arts, he always had an interest."

Halifax first made his mark as a reporter with the Inuvik Drum in the late 1990s and had worked in Fort Smith and Yellowknife before putting down roots in Inuvik in the early 2000s.

The mark Halifax left on the town is great. Not only did Halifax operate a successful commercial and artistic photography business, he was involved in a number of causes that he believed in, said Clarkson.

"Here you have a person who doesn't have kids, but comes in and makes an investment and decides to plant his roots here for 15 years and finds work in the community in several different capacities, and volunteer," he said. "It just helped make life better for all the residents."

Halifax was first elected in 2004 and has sat on council since, a four-term councillor who contributed to the town and its people for the nearly 11 years he represented them, said Denny Rodgers, a close friend of Halifax and a former town mayor.

"He had a great sense of humour and was a great community person," he said. "He's very passionate about the community. Terry was passionate in his beliefs. He never really bowed down to many and he stood by what he believed in. He'd always defend that."

Halifax was involved in starting the Arctic Images Festival in 2013 as a means to showcase the beauty of the North above the Arctic Circle through images, something Halifax was deeply passionate about, said Clarkson. He was also a director-at-large for the Western Arctic Conservative Association for more than five years.

Clarkson said Halifax was drawn to town council after spending years reporting on it for the Drum.

"He wanted to get involved and ran in the fall of 2004 and has been on council ever since," said Clarkson. "He wanted to make a contribution. Terry always wanted to be fair with people, whatever the issue was."

Halifax was rarely seen without a camera. Photography was a life-long passion. He operated his own photography business and held dozens of workshops for youth and inspired many to pick up their cameras and document the world around them.

"His passion was photography and he had a real eye for it," said Clarkson. "When we developed the festival, not only was he a great participate and organizer, he entered some amazing images he's taken.

"You never think you will wake up the next day and someone is going to be gone. It's an incredibly tragic day for Inuvik."

In a statement, the Town of Inuvik had this to say. "During his time on council he was chair of both the community energy planning committee and also the administration committee. He brought the same enthusiasm to those committees as he did to the full council meetings.

"His knowledge and passion for greener energy was well known and he attended a number of Federation of Canadian Communities Sustainability Conferences with an eye out for possible options for making Inuvik a greener community."