Yukon producer Arthur ‘Tookie’ Mercredi doesn’t mind Canada’s cold. His latest project, a coproduction with Toronto-based Real to Reel Productions, is a $1.3-million, six-part documentary series on the world’s coldest jobs.

Two half-hour episodes of Out in the Cold will debut back-to-back on Jan. 5 on Discovery Channel Canada, with subsequent episodes appearing every week.

‘I love the cold and can’t wait to do more episodes,’ says Mercredi, adding that Discovery execs are waiting to see audience response before commissioning more.

The completed episodes feature bush pilots in Canada’s North, legendary dog musher Frank Turner, the maker of an ice hotel, cold-weather car testers, buffalo biologists and iceberg cowboys – men who spear icebergs to sell chunks to the Japanese.

One of Mercredi’s favorite episodes is the one about Turner, who has raced the grueling 1,600-kilometer Yukon Quest dog sled race between Whitehorse, Yukon and Fairbanks, Alaska every year but one since it was founded in 1984.

‘We slept out in the night on Lake Laberge with Frank and the stars were out. I woke up with our cameraman at 5 a.m. and waited for the sunrise. It was beautiful watching everyone wake up and unexpectedly finding a camera in their face,’ says Mercredi, who has spent 25 years filming in the North, including as a CBC cameraman.

The series’ host is Barry Kennedy, a writer who is the son of actor Gordon Pinsent. Mike Boland is director of photography and Herrie ten Cate is director and writer. Funding for the project comes from Discovery and the Yukon Film and Sound Commission.