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EMERGENCY MEDICAL CONSULTANTS AND TRAINING
Real Training from Real Experience
Professional training, emergency planning and simulation -- serving Durham Region and beyond with experience and quality
Teaching in Nunavut
In 2025, we were asked if we would be willing to travel to Nunavut, specifically Arctic Bay. This is the 3rd most northern village in Canada. This is the story of that trip.
Arctic where?
Early in 2025, we were working the Outdoor Adventure Show in Toronto. We were providing first aid for the show.
One of our staff members, Linda Watson, came back from patrol and asked if we would be interested in going to Arctic Bay. I looked at her and asked, "Arctic where?
Arctic Bay, Nunavut, is 3365 km north of my house.
This is where I met Chris Sullivan. Chris is the General Manager of Arctic Bay Adventures. Chris needed someone to come up and teach Advanced Wilderness First Aid to the guides and staff.
Chris and I sat down and started to discuss his needs and how we could help him get his staff trained. What I really liked about Chris was that this was done on a handshake.
Who went
Strangely, there was no shortage of people who wanted to go.
Douglas Bird
Andre Robichaud
Erica Shaw
Linda Watson
Advanced Wilderness First Aid
Advanced Wilderness First Aid is all about doing everything with nothing. We use no modern equipment. We show you how to improvise everything. Everything from making bandages out of a sheet to improvised stretchers and traction splints.
The Problem
As you can see from the picture to the left, we use wood and trees in our courses. The trouble is, Arctic Bay is above the tree line. There are no trees, and wood has to be shipped in by boat once a year. We had to rethink our whole approach to the course.
The other part was that we teach a few survival skills, including land navigation by map and compass. We did not tnhink that we could teach Inuit anything about survival (and we were right, they taught us), also a compass is useless that far north. So, we spent the next year rewriting the course.
Let me set the stage for this. Arctic Bay is 3 hours north of Iqaluit.
It is a village of around 1,000 people. Over 400 are children. There are no roads to the south.
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