Nunavut couple grow their business on the road

Baker Lake’s SLIM Taxi launched in January 2014 and is the only taxi service currently operating in the Kivalliq community of 2,000.

Sherri Lee Mouqtassid with two-year-old Adam and her husband Abdel Mouqtassid in front of one of their taxis Jan. 25. (PHOTO BY MIGUEL UKPAGA)

The first thing Abderrahmane Mouqtassid does when he gets up every morning is start his vehicle. If there’s one thing the Baker Lake taxi driver needs to get through the day, it’s a warm car.

Mouqtassid, who goes by Abdel, then goes back inside to make a coffee and spends a moment with his wife and young son, before heading out to get his first customers of the day to the airport.

“I’m always working,” Mouqtassid says over the phone from the Kivalliq community, his voice echoing from the poor cellular service.

Mouqtassid and his wife Sherri Lee launched SLIM Taxi about three years ago. Mouqtassid works every day of the week, starting just before 8 a.m. and often finishing about 10 p.m.

While taxi companies have come and gone in Baker Lake, SLIM is the only one currently in service. Mouqtassid’s phone is always ringing.

“It’s mostly the same customers,” he said. “That’s what’s great about it, we’re like a big family.”

Everyone in Baker Lake uses SLIM Taxi, from travellers getting to and from the airport to students on their way to school and parents out shopping for groceries at the Northern store. As for fares, customers pay $5 in town and $10 to go to the airport.

“I’m always having a conversation with people. Down south, the problem with taxi [drivers] is that they pick you up and then don’t talk,” Mouqtassid said. “We try to make it like its their company.”

SLIM’s name comes from the initials of his wife’s full name: Sherri Lee Ikuutaq Mouqtassid.

The couple first met in Montreal in the early 2000s while Sherri Lee was studying education at McGill University. Sherri Lee stopped him in the Metro to ask for directions “and we just kept in touch,” she said.

Moroccan-born Mouqtassid was studying mechanical engineering. In 2012, the couple decided to return to Sherri Lee’s hometown.

“Both of us experienced poverty in our lives, and believed [coming home] would open doors for our future,” she said.

In 2013, Mouqtassid opened Abdel’s Internet Café, but shortly after SLIM launched in 2014, the café closed as the taxi business grew.

SLIM Taxi currently has two vehicles and drivers; Abdel and Victor. Sherri Lee works from home as a dispatcher and translator, while taking care of the couple’s two-year-old son Adam.

Recently, SLIM Taxi started taking requests on Facebook, which has added to her workload. The taxi service has also started doing some delivery for business and government organizations.

Baker Lake resident David Ford, who works at the Jessie Oonark Arts and Crafts Centre, will sometimes use SLIM Taxi up to five times a day, to get to and from work and to run errands around town.

“It’s reliable,” Ford said. “[Abdel] is a very nice fellow and a hard worker.”

Ford said Abdel gets out to open the door for all his customers—if only because the inside door handles have broken with time—but Ford sees it as a courtesy.

The Mouqtassids are grateful to their customer base, and they express it often from the SLIM Taxi Facebook page.

But their days can be long and exhausting, they admit, especially as parents of a toddler.

Anyone who’s driven a taxi in Nunavut will tell you about the damage an Arctic winter inflicts on vehicles. The biggest challenge is always maintaining the cars, Mouqtassid said.

Baker Lake is fortunate to have some mechanics but Mouqtassid said the wait for service can be so long so it’s easier for him to do the job himself—and this is where his background in mechanical engineering comes in handy.

“We have to be out on the road every day,” he said.

The couple has a few goals: Abdel would like to build a more durable vehicle better suited to Arctic driving, one with sensors to help prevent drivers from getting stuck in the snow.

The couple also hopes to build and expand their business, possibly launching SLIM Taxi in other Nunavut communities.

“We hope to have this business for many years to come,” said Sherri Lee, “and for it to be our son’s business one day.”