Glossary

Fly-in community

A remote community where the main transportation in and out of the community is by airplane. A fly-in community airport usually has a gravel runway and a small terminal building. Sometimes there are seasonal transportation alternatives such as a summer ferry or winter road but the only year round access to the community for cargo and passengers is by airplane.

Teacherage

Any form of residential housing specifically reserved for the use of teachers in a small northern community. Whenever a new school or school extension is built in a small northern community some teacherages are also built for the accommodation of the teachers. A teacherage may be a house, a duplex, a triplex or a multiplex. A First Nations band or a school division may purchase some mobile house trailers to use as teacherages.

Duplex

A house or mobile house trailer that is divided into two self contained apartments.

Triplex

A house or building that is divided into three self contained apartments.

Multiplex

A building that is divided into four or more self contained apartments. In the small northern Canadian communities where I have lived the multiplexes were long, single story, row houses.

Toggle

A switch that can be turned on and off like a light switch. On the computer keyboard the CAPS LOCK key acts as a toggle between using UPPER CASE (CAPITAL) LETTERS or lower case (small) letters.

Winter road

A road built across the frozen lakes in the winter time. Sections of the road may cross the land to get from one lake to another lake. The road consists of a thick layer of ice from which the snow has been scraped off. Snowmobiles, cars, pickup trucks, school buses and transport trucks may drive on a winter road if the ice is thick enough to support their weight. Usually construction of the road will begin in early January. The road will be used for a few weeks in February. The road will be closed for the remainder of the year when the ice and snow begin to melt in March.

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