IKALUKTUTIAK/CAMBRIDGE BAY
The Ehaloak clan in Cambridge Bay has a tradition of conquering massive vehicles through massive determination.

Carley Ehaloak, holding her daughter, Andrea, is the most recent member of the Ehaloak family to get her heavy equipment operator's licence. She is now working as a haul truck driver. - photo courtesy of Junna Ehaloak

Three generations of the family have become heavy equipment operators, starting with Mathew Ehaloak, who spent more than 30 years working at the DEW Line. In his footsteps, his son Sammy Ehaloak also entered the same occupation, toiling at Lupin mine. Now, Sammy Jr. and Carley, Sammy and Junna Ehaloak's children, are both licensed heavy equipment operators as well.

This comes as a source of great pride to Junna. She says Carley was inspired by her grandfather as a young girl and she also viewed her father as a role model.

"She is now 22 and has lived up to her dream," Junna says.

"I was always drawn to it," says Carley, who completed her training and received her heavy equipment operator's licence in March. "I always wanted to do that."

Now employed as a haul truck driver, she says she is mindful of her surroundings while inside the massive machine because safety is a priority.

She added that she seeks advice from her father due to his many years of heavy equipment experience.

Family sacrifice

Mathew's work on the DEW Line from the 1950s into the early 1990s was a rare opportunity because heavy equipment operator positions were uncommon in the North back then, Junna recalls. However, it entailed significant sacrifice because Mathew, who died almost 10 years ago, had to leave his family, including eight children, for months at a time.

Sammy later found himself in a similar situation, working two weeks driving haul trucks on site at Lupin gold mine, followed by two weeks off.

Although she's been surrounded by heavy equipment operators most of her life, don't ask Junna, a community liaison officer with the Kitikmeot Inuit Association, to climb into one of those gigantic rigs.

"I'm too chicken," she says, laughing. "They're too big."

Junna says she hopes her family's story will "encourage young people to follow your dreams, as anything is possible."

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