Yellowknife, Northwest Territories

I have accepted the job of Branch manager with Matco Transportation at their Yellowknife Branch and flew up on June 10. Yellowknife, a city of 20,000 and the capital of the Northwest Territories, is 1,000 km North of Edmonton. It is a very cosmopolitan city having attracted people from all over the world to work in jobs dominated by diamond mining, government departments (federal and territorial), air lines, trucking and tourism and all the related services for the community. It is situated on the north shore of Great Slave Lake which is the ninth largest lake in the world.

I had been to Yellowknife several times when I worked for Matco before so I knew what I was coming to. It is a very friendly and casual place and still has a feel of being on the frontier. It is relatively compact so doesn’t take long to get around and you don’t have to go very far to be out in the wilderness.

The townhouse that Matco rented for me to stay in with another member of staff is in good shape but not in a very good location - on a rocky slope right next to the main road into town so pretty noisy at night especially with sirens from emergency vehicles passing by ! Also I am having trouble sleeping because of the light. This time of the year – mid-summer - the sun rises at 3:30 am and only sets at 11:30 pm but even between those hours it is not completely dark as there is a heavy twilight.

I was lucky enough in the very first week here to get on a helicopter ride over the city and surrounding area so it was good to get that perspective from the air.

More photos of my time in Yellowknife can be seen in the Facebook album Yellowknife 2010