EDITOR’S NOTE: Manitoulin is being transformed with the influx of new residents and business owners who bring with them fresh ideas, experiences and perspectives that are enriching the area. Some individuals and families are still unpacking boxes, having only moved in the past month or two, while others made the move over the last few years and are now comfortably established in their new communities. Here is one of their stories.
by Heather Marshall
The biggest hurdle Dr. Reed Gillanders had to overcome when moving to Manitoulin was simply finding a place to live. The newly recruited physician arrived at the height of the pandemic in July 2021, along with hundreds of other newcomers leaving urban life behind to make a new home in the countryside. Any and all apartments, houses or cottages for rent or sale were quickly snapped up during those days, making it difficult for Reed to secure a spot. In all, he moved eight times before finally settling into his current home in Kagawong.
The nomadic experience wasn’t without its advantages. “I learned about a lot about the Island and its different communities in a hurry as a result,” observes Dr. Reed Gillanders, “and I met a wide range of people in the process.”
Among his many stops, he stayed at the Mindemoya Motel for several months in early 2022 to be close to the Manitoulin Health Centre, Mindemoya site, where he was employed. While living there, he became a frequent (nearly every night, he confesses) dinner guest of the motel owners, Nick and Ana Parmar, to whom he is grateful for their kindness and generosity.
Their hospitality mirrored the enthusiastic and equally warm welcome Dr. Gillanders encountered when he applied for a job with the Manitoulin Central Family Health Team in Mindemoya. “I had emailed all the clinics within a few hours’ drive of Sudbury in my job search. The first person who responded was Dr. Stadnyk, who replied right away and soon after made me an offer. We connected quickly because he’s from Saskatchewan, where I had gone to university, and he also had worked briefly in Prince Albert, where I had done my residency.”
Dr. Gillanders is originally from Alberta, born and raised in Calgary, where he grew up in a family involved in the oil and gas business. Influenced by that, the self-professed bookworm says he had considered engineering as a potential career while still in high school, but medicine won out. He did, however, work as a roughneck on drilling rigs in oil country as a summer job during his many years attending university. Dr. Gillanders has an undergraduate degree in microbiology at the University of Saskatchewan (U of S) in Saskatoon, which was followed by four years in the university’s medical school. He graduated with a Doctor of Medicine degree in 2018.
Eight years of university is not enough in itself to become a physician, which requires an additional two-year residency in a hospital or clinic to qualify to be licenced as a family doctor. Dr. Gillanders moved to Prince Albert in Northern Saskatchewan to complete his residency work and, while there, met his now girlfriend of four years, Sophie McBean. She was in medical school at the Prince Albert campus of U of S at the time, being a little younger and several years behind Dr. Gillanders.
Following his residency, Dr. Gillanders moved to the small town of Meadow Lake, roughly 250 km further north of Prince Albert, and maintained a long-distance relationship commuting to Saskatoon where Sophie was by then finishing her fourth year of medical school. He worked in the community for a year as a family doctor. Small town life suited him well although it meant a change of lifestyles, including his fitness regime. As an example, he switched from playing soccer, which he did as a kid and teen living in Calgary, to joining a local hockey league as well as doing a lot more hiking.
Given his western connections, Manitoulin might seem an unusual choice for a professional move. Dr. Gillanders’ motivation had everything to do with his partner Sophie being matched to a residency program in Sudbury to pursue her medical career specializing in pediatrics. The opportunity sees her dividing her time between the Northern Ontario School of Medicine in Sudbury and the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa. And that means lots more commuting, between Manitoulin and Sudbury or Manitoulin and Ottawa, on a regular basis for Dr. Gillanders.
Thankfully, Dr. Gillanders’ rescue dog, Finn, a Newfoundland dog mix, helps to fill lonely hours in between, and Finn loves living on the Island as much as his master. The duo regularly spends their free time hiking and especially enjoy exploring Misery Bay. Dr. Gillanders also has joined an Island recreational hockey league and plays whenever he can in Mindemoya and, occasionally, in Providence Bay.
Not that there’s a whole lot of downtime to be filled! With the health system constantly facing shortages, there’s always a job to be done. Dr. Gillanders splits his time between clinic hours with the Manitoulin Central Family Health Team and working in the emergency department as well as caring for in-patients at the Mindemoya hospital. He also helps to deliver babies at the hospital in Little Current, sharing on-call duties with Drs. Barss and Quackenbush. “Delivering babies is a highlight of my work. It’s one of the happiest things you can do in medicine.”
Working at the clinic and two hospitals has been a very positive experience for Dr. Gillanders. “People have been so nice here. All my medical colleagues and the nursing staff in all the facilities I work in are very skilled, welcoming and friendly, so they’ve made it very easy. Manitoulin is a great place to work and live.”
Heather Marshall and her husband worked as journalists and consultants in the National Capital Region for more decades than they care to admit before making their Sandfield cottage their permanent home. A lifelong learner, Heather loves discovering new things and people and relishes the opportunity to write about newcomers to the Manitoulin. If you would like to share your story or know of recent arrivals we should meet, send a message to HAMarshall@proton.me
