Around Town
Whale Cove is designated as a "hamlet" which is what people say when
referring to the local government, as well as the actual building it's located
in.
Inuglak School, the employer of 75% of our household, has a surprisingly large
student population. Despite there being only three-hundred residents in total,
there are over one-hundred K through 12 students to teach.
The town's not exactly located in the middle of a major North American
power grid, so it has to keep itself going. The electricity is produced by the
towns own station run on fuel, which is also used for everything from snowmobiles to furnaces.
The massive reserve tanks are topped off once each year by ship.
Anyone who's seen that stupid Canadian Heritage Moment with "Now the people
will know we were here." guy will recognize the Inukshuk. It's basically
rocks put up at strategic points on the land to guide travelers to various
destinations.
This community's landmark is a large sculpture of a whale's tail. It was built
in commemoration of Canada's centennial, so the story goes.
Believe it or not, these two buildings are actually churches. The first is the
Roman Catholic, and the second is the Anglican. It's nice to know that religious
divisiveness isn't monopolized by our urban centres.
The big blue structure in the background is the arena. I was too lazy to walk up
the hill to take the picture.
Ah, the shopping district. At the Co-op shoppers will find a variety of chips,
pop, dusty canned goods, snow-mobile parts, rubber boots, materials for making parkas, packages of
pre-cooked KFC of all things, several
different styles of sweaters and hats saying Whale Cove, Nunavut on them, ammunition and
smokes, of course.
Sporadically, though, there are semi-fresh vegetables and dairy products that haven't
expired by much to choose from. As for prices, the general rule is that they are
high, averages probably around three-times those of "the south."
However, because the stock is so inconsistent, staff sometimes has trouble
pricing items correctly so there are random accidental super bargains to be had.
In addition to being the mall, the Co-op also serves as the post office, gas
station, and Sears catalogue store.
This ingeniously named structure is the "5 Bay Garage" where the
loaders, trucks, and other vehicles necessary to keep the town from being buried
are stored.
The Health Centre is where to go for all your medical needs. There's one
full-time nurse who remains there, and the rest of the staff is comprised of a
doctor, mental health nurse, a dentist, a physiotherapist and some other medical
types who rotate around on scheduled visits through different northern communities.
If you're planning a trip to Whale Cove sometime soon, this is the local inn,
usually home to whatever construction workers, phone company technicians, or
visiting heads of state who are in town. Like everything else up here, the price
is about three times as much as it's equivalent "down south" would be.
Here's our shiny new RCMP detachment and their next door housing. When they arrived in
town, Constable Peck and Corporal Willis brought with them cases of Tim Horton's
coffee and a really big coffee maker. This turned the place into a hang out for the
local Hamlet workers taking extended coffee breaks, and for other local men who
are just looking to get out of the house and/or hide from their wives for a while.
