The Arctic Post

In April, Etienne received an email asking if he would be interested in a transfer to Nunavut. Later that evening, I received a text from him telling me of the offer. After a couple minutes when the nausea from the shock subsided, I called him.

Believe it or not, we really didn’t discuss it for long before we knew that we wanted to do it. We looked at it as an opportunity of a lifetime and wanted to take advantage of it. Of course, the fact that after we spent the next 2 years up there, we are 99.9% guaranteed to transfer the posting of our choice, helped a little in the decision making. So in a nutshell, it is a small term pain for long term gain.

Once he returned the email with his acceptance, he requested a list of the communities that were currently vacant. We agreed that if there were no communities on that list he wanted to work in, we would not go. There were two communities available and out of the two, we decided we would move to Chesterfield Inlet.

During our trip to Montreal in April/May, Etienne received an email with the “official offer of transfer” paperwork. This was very exciting and scary all at the same time. With this offer came conditions. These included a dental, medical and psychological portion. We both had to have a dental assessment to ensure that we had no outstanding issues. I was required to have my family doctor sign off a medical clearance form stating that I was medically well enough to live in an isolated community. Etienne was required to do a more in-depth medical with the RCMPs physician. We then went together to the RCMP Psychologist to ensure we were emotionally/psychologically stable enough to live in such an isolated environment. Obviously we passed all with flying colors!

In the beginning of June we received the “Official transfer” paperwork. We are currently waiting at this stage. Once we get the “go ahead” we will be able to list/sell our house. Then come the movers to pack and load our belongings. We will then officially say Good-Bye to Valleyview and Hello to Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, June 28th, 2009 at 22:46 and is filed under The Process. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.