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Norman W. Byrne was born in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario on February 17, 1912. Although he had first travelled to the NWT with his father, who was a prospector, and his brother Jerry in 1932, he returned to McGill to complete his studies. In 1936 after graduating from McGill University with a degree in Mining Engineering, he moved to Gold Fields (Uranium City) and later to Outpost Island where he worked as a Mine Engineer. In 1940, with the closure of the mine at Outpost Island, Byrne moved to Whitehorse where he worked on the Canol Pipeline. In 1945 Byrne moved to Yellowknife and was asked to survey the Discovery claims. Byrne was so impressed with the claim that he, along with his father and brother, purchased it. Mining work then began at the Discovery Mines Limited property and on February 10, 1950 the first gold brick was poured. After the first 17 years of operation, over $35 million had been extracted from the Discovery Mines Limited claim.

Despite Byrne's involvement with the Discovery claims, he continued to work as a consultant
Mining Engineer. He was also involved in developing Rayrock Mines Limited, Northland Mines Limited and Tundra Mines Limited. In 1964 Byrne began a second career as a real estate developer in Yellowknife and his company constructed many houses and apartment buildings in the town. He was a strong supporter of the lobby group working to have the capital city of the NWT established at Yellowknife rather than at Fort Smith. He was also actively involved in many community organisations in Yellowknife and was a vocal advocate of the establishment of a separate Catholic school system in the community.
He was the chairman of the Separate School Board from its inception in 1951 until his death on November 14, 1973.

John Reid Day was born in Dealy, Saskatchewan on April 19, 1912. In 1937, he was hired by Cominco to assist in the construction of the camp at Yellowknife. In 1938, he worked as an independent contractor in Yellowknife and employed by various companies, including Cominco. In 1939, he worked for Cominco and Thompson-Lundmark in Goldfields, Saskatchewan. He left the north in 1940 but returned in 1945 to supervise construction at Negus mine until 1948, when he again left the north. From 1959 to 1960, he worked at a Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line site in the eastern arctic. In 1970, he retired to Anglemont, British Columbia.

E.T. “Ted” Lonergan and his wife Vera arrived in Yellowknife from Box Mine in Goldfields, Saskatchewan. Prior to working at Box Mine, Ted worked in the oil sands. He was a carpenter by trade and had his own construction company. In Yellowknife, he was a miner and shift worker at Con Mine.

The Lonergans remained in Yellowknife until 1943, when Ted joined the Royal Canadian Navy. After the war, he returned to Yellowknife and went to work at Giant Mine. He left Yellowknife in the early 1950s.

In the mid-1980s, he was living in Vancouver and working as a Project Supervisor and Coordinator at Placer Development Limited.

Construction of the Mackenzie Highway system began in 1946. Work on the highway from the Alberta boundary to Hay River was completed in 1948.

Jean Milne grew up in Magog, Quebec. Her father’s interest in sports meant that she learned to ski, skate, and icefish. Her mother taught her to knit, embroider, and smock at a young age and her grandmother taught her crochet and needlepoint. She later branched into a variety of related handcrafts, including macrame, tie-dyeing, batik, and resist dyeing eggs. While in Inuvik, Jean became a founding member of the NWT Crafts Council.

Jean attended school in Magog, followed by McGill University in Montreal, studying primarily botany and microbiology, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1969. After graduation, she worked for McGill in a single-employee virology laboratory at the Montreal Children's Hospital.

On the lookout for other employment, she visited Indian and Northern Affairs in Ottawa, where she met and was hired by Dick Hill for a summer project. Dick, who just happened to be in Ottawa as well, was head of the Inuvik Research Lab and Mayor of Inuvik. Moving to Inuvik in 1970, Jean worked at the Research Lab and was housed in the very basic accommodation of “Wanigan A,” located behind the Lab. Finding the project parameters unclear and herself unprepared to approach the environmental issues in the Mackenzie Delta, Jean resigned in June 1970 and went to work as a waitress at the Eskimo Inn for the rest of the summer, returning to Montreal and another hospital lab job that fall.

Jean spent her summer holiday in Inuvik in 1971 and returned to Inuvik in spring of 1972, finding work at the CN telephone exchange as a Single Side Band radio and long distance telephone operator.

Leaving again in fall 1972, Jean returned in spring 1976, and lived with Ted Curtis, often with his mother Peggy, who worked for the TEST Ski Program. Jean worked one summer in the office at NTCL, most of 1978 at the Inuvik Sewing Centre, and fall/winter 1978-79 for the Inuvik Ski Club under the auspices of the TEST ski program grooming trails and instructing students. In between, she also worked as a casual clerk for the GNWT and labourer for Otto Binder doing housing repairs. She left Inuvik (and Ted) in the fall of 1979. Jean worked as a cook for Milan Carnogursky and Carn Construction on a couple of jobs over the next year: the ferry landing project in Arctic Red River (Tsiigehtchic) (October-November 1979) and the airport runway project in Sachs Harbour (May-September 1980).

After doing some travelling, Jean finally settled in Vancouver in late 1981 and remains living there. Her partner, John Crawford, passed away May 18, 2020.

The Department of Infrastructure was established April 1, 2017 with the amalgamation of the Department of Public Works and Services and the Department of Transportation. Infrastructure is responsible for strategic planning of public transportation infrastructure (including roads, bridges, ferries, and airports) and energy production and distribution systems; the disposal of surplus government property and goods; environmental impact assessment/regulatory review and approval; information management and technology; Marine Transportation Services; mechanical/electrical regulatory services; motor and vehicle services; planning, design, construction, acquisition, operation and maintenance of public buildings and transportation infrastructure and systems; energy conservation and efficiency programs; property management; and remediation of public infrastructure.

Ferdinand Regier is an architect (OAA) who lived in Yellowknife from 1996 to 2000. During his time in the city, he worked on projects throughout the NWT. Mr. Regier currently works for the Government of Canada.