Due North: Life in the Grise Fiord RCMP

Grise Fiord is home to several northernmosts.

The Nunavut hamlet of about 140 people, roughly 1,500 kilometres south of the North Pole, is Canada’s northernmost civilian community. Kids there attend Umimmak School, which is Canada’s northernmost school.

And for the RCMP, the community’s two-member office is its northernmost detachment.

Const. Ted Turgeon, the acting detachment commander, describes living in Grise Fiord as a positive, and unique, experience.

He came to Nunavut for the first time last June, after a decade of policing in Alberta and British Columbia.

“It was the light season, so we were able to meet people here in the summer and get introduced very kindly to the community and folks here,” Turgeon said in an interview, speaking of the seasons there that include periods of 24-hour sunshine and 24 hours of darkness.

“My wife works here in the community and we very much enjoy our time here and have felt very welcomed by the community.”

The Grise Fiord detachment gets “the same type of calls that happen everywhere,” he said, including reports involving violence and concerns about dangerous drivers.

Being a small community, though, those calls are less frequent than in other places.

In 2024, Grise Fiord RCMP responded to just over 100 calls in the community, Turgeon said, meaning there was a call about once every three or four days.

The detachment operates Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., but officers are on call around the clock. Three-quarters of the calls that come in are between midnight and 4 a.m., Turgeon said, and officers are expected to respond in less than eight minutes.

Beyond policing, the RCMP assists with local search and rescue efforts and plays a role in Arctic security.

“We have heard of submarines out in the bay in front of the community in years past,” Turgeon said.

“Especially with heightened political tensions right now, it’s something that we’re aware of and monitoring in terms of Canadian safety and our response.”

The RCMP’s Grise Fiord site is its northernmost detachment. (Photo by Jeff Pelletier)

The Grise Fiord detachment building opened in 2002. But the RCMP’s presence in the High Arctic goes back decades, including its involvement in the High Arctic relocations in the 1950s and earlier.

Turgeon said he is well aware of the history of the relocations, and he spends time listening to elders in the community share their stories.

In addition to that, the RCMP gives back to the community in different ways.

For example, Turgeon said, they cook a weekly school breakfast, drink tea with elders, read storybooks to kids and participate in community gatherings on occasions like Canada Day, Nunavut Day and Easter games.

The relationships they’ve built go a long way, he said.

“I think being a member of the community and being part of community events is vital, both as a person living in this community and as an RCMP officer working here,” Turgeon said.

“Community policing is relationships-based policing, and in small communities — whether in Nunavut or elsewhere — it’s the relationships that will help things go as smooth as they can.”