Toni Blois, PCP
Whitehorse General Hospital – Whitehorse, YT
Toni Blois is a payroll professional, but she is not a traveler — though her life has certainly been a journey.
Eighteen years ago, she spent 18 hours flying on three separate planes to move 6,802 kilometres from Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia to Whitehorse, Yukon. She didn’t have a place to live and had never even been to Whitehorse before.
What possessed a non-traveler to answer the call of the wild? Since childhood, the north had intrigued her. The vast, remote expanses and untamed wilderness danced in Toni’s imagination.
Then opportunity knocked. She saw an ad from the National Payroll Institute (then the Canadian Payroll Association) — Whitehorse General Hospital was looking for someone to run their payroll department. Within days, she was interviewed and hired. Mere weeks later, she found herself in the Yukon. “I just packed up, took my two dogs and went.”
Arriving in April, she was eager for summer long weekends, especially the fireworks she was used to in her home province. But the locals explained that northern summers don’t accommodate pyrotechnics — night is only three hours long and starts at 3 a.m. In winter, however, Whitehorse has its own illuminations — the shimmering, incandescent Northern Lights.
Toni fell in love with Whitehorse, and with payroll. Like many others, the more she was exposed to payroll, the more she loved it. Prior to her move to Whitehorse, she spent 15 years working for Nova Scotia hospital and then the province’s health authority, starting as a payroll clerk and working her way up the ranks.
Today, she still works for Whitehorse General, now as the HR Business Partner overseeing payroll for the entire hospital. Her responsibilities include monitoring the hospital’s new payroll system, while helping administrators confidently navigate the system.
Toni loves the intimacy of payroll. “You are dealing with something that really impacts a person’s life — their money. You have to nurture trust. I work directly with our employees to answer their questions and concerns surrounding their pay. They see me as a source of trust.”
And she believes this contributes to the hospital’s overall wellness too. “The hospital’s business is patient care. As payroll providers, we have a responsibility for staff care. Reducing staff’s stress — so they don’t have to be worrying about making a mortgage payment or having enough for school supplies for their kids — is critical to providing a dependable and reliable service to ultimately support the care the hospital provides to Yukoners.”
Toni’s journey has fulfilled her childhood dreams and her professional goals. She will retire in this small northern city tucked into the wilderness, graced by the Aurora Borealis.
“The mountains have replaced the sea. They’re different, but every bit as spectacular.”
