Thompson, Manitoba

Thompson is located on the border of plant hardiness zones 1a and 1b, making outdoor commercial agriculture impossible; for comparison, Winnipeg is located within zone 4a.

The dominant coniferous species are white spruce (Picea glauca), black spruce (Picea mariana), jack pine (Pinuus banksiana), tamarack (Larix laricina) and balsam fir (Abies balsamea). White birch (Betula papyrifera) is the most common deciduous species.

A large raven sitting on a shopping-cart-return-rack. Taken in Thompson, Manitoba, near the City Centre Mall (containing a Wal-Mart and a Safeway), where a large number of ravens gather every day.

Hundreds of ravens (Corvus corax), known locally as "Thompson Turkeys", reside in Thompson year-round. Many bird species visit Thompson and area in the summer to breed, such as herring gulls (Larus smithsonianus), bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos), sandhill cranes (Antigone canadensis), and common terns (Sterna hirundo).

Beavers (Castor canadensis) are ubiquitous around Thompson, with a few residing in the city limits. Red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) can also be found in Thompson. Black bears (Ursus americanus), and less commonly, wolves (Canis lupus), are occasionally spotted on the fringes of town. Moose (Alces alces) and herds of boreal woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) can also occasionally be seen near Thompson. Rarely seen predators outside of Thompson include the marten (Martes americana), the wolverine (Gulo gulo), and the lynx (Lynx canadensis).

Thompson is marked by a subarctic climate (Köppen Dfc), with long cold winters and short warm summers.

Monthly means range from −23.9 °C (−11.0 °F) in January to 16.2 °C (61.2 °F) in July, and the annual mean is −2.9 °C (26.8 °F).[4] A majority of the annual precipitation of 509 millimetres (20.0 in) falls from June to September.[4] Snowfall totals 1.87 metres (74 in) per year, falling mainly from October to May.[4]

Start of the downtown section of Spirit Way, with 4 of the 56 Spirit Way Wolf statues.

Spirit Way is a 2 km (1.25 mi) walking and biking pathway with 16 points of interest that highlight Thompson's art, heritage, culture, industry, geology, and scenery; the pathway includes the largest photo-real mural in Canada and 56 painted wolf statues.

The Heritage North Museum offers the opportunity to see animals native to the area, a boreal forest diorama, First Nation and fur trade artifacts (including an authentic caribou hide tipi), fossils, and mining artifacts. The Museum consists of two log structures, an open-air blacksmith shop, Institutional Archives, and visitor information booth.

The Millennium Trail is a 15 km (9.3 mi) hike and bike loop around the city with sections that pass through the boreal forest. The crushed rock trail is open year-round to non-motorized travel. Walking, hiking and mountain biking are popular in the summer while walking and cross country skiing are winter favourites.

View of Grass River while hiking the Pisew Falls to Kwasitchewan Falls Trail

Paint Lake Provincial Park, located 32 km (20 mi) south of Thompson on Highway 6, spans over 23,000 hectares (56,000 acres) of Precambrian boreal forest.[14] Parks Manitoba offers dozens of campsites for rent, while Paint Lake Lodge runs the largest marina in Manitoba and offers cabin, boat, and canoe rentals, a restaurant, and a convenience store. Some features of the park include boat launches, beaches, playgrounds, a volleyball court, baseball diamond and fitness trail. In the winter there are groomed snowmobile trails, ice skating, toboggan runs, ice fishing and ice fishing derbies.[15]

Pisew Falls Provincial Park, located 74 km (46 mi) south of Thompson on Highway 6, offers the chance to view Manitoba's 2 highest waterfalls. Pisew falls is viewable after taking a short 0.5 km (0.31 mi) trail that leads to a viewing platform (for taking pictures) of the 13-metre-high (43 ft), year-round falls. Kwasitchewan Falls, Manitoba's highest waterfall, is viewable after hiking an 11 km (6.8 mi) trail (The Pisew Falls to Kwasitchewan Falls Trail); this trail is a difficult back-country trail, recommended for experienced hikers only.[16]

Sasagiu Rapids Provincial Park, located 79 km (49 mi) south of Thompson on Highway 6, is the site of scenic rapids and Sasagiu Rapids Lodge, which provides off-road rentals (e.g., Skidoo, Seadoo), camper/site rentals, dining, and suites/rooms.

Mystery Mountain Winter Park, located 23 km (14 mi) north of Thompson on Provincial Road 280, offers downhill skiing, snowboarding, and cross-country skiing trails.

Nickel Days is a large weekend festival held in June every year; the festival includes concerts, family games, a parade, and more.

National Indigenous Peoples Day celebrations are held on June 21 each year.

Winterfest is an annual multi-day celebration of northern culture and activities that is held in February.

Thompson is home to the Norman Northstars hockey team, who play in the Manitoba U-18 'AAA' Hockey League. Thompson's minor hockey teams are known as the King Miners. The high school teams are called the RD Parker Collegiate Trojans. The Trojans' rivals are the Hapnot Kopper Kings from Flin Flon and the MBCI Spartans from The Pas.

Every year in April, students from the six elementary schools in grades 3-8 compete in the Knights of Columbus Track Meet. Juniper School dominated KoC in the 1990s, and Westwood School has had a winning streak during the 2000s (decade).

The Thompson Citizen (covering Thompson) and the Nickel Belt News (covering the area around Thompson) are the only local newspapers.

There are five radio stations: AM 610: CHTM (adult contemporary), FM 102.9: CHTM (adult contemporary), FM 96.3: CINC-FM (NCI), FM 99.9: CKSB-5 (Première Chaîne; repeats CKSB Winnipeg), and FM 100.9: CBWK (CBC Radio One).

Shaw Communications is the local cable television provider serving Thompson, and operates the local Shaw TV channel on cable channel 11.

City of Thompson, looking West. The Burntwood River is visible at the edge of town.

The economy of Thompson is centered around nickel mining and providing goods and services to the surrounding communities in both Census Division No. 22 (in which Thompson is located) and Census Division No. 23; these two Census Divisions have a combined population of 51,136, which includes over 38,000 First Nations people.[17] Thompson is by far the largest community in either of these Census Divisions, with the next largest community being Norway House Cree Nation (population 4927).

As is common in resource-based communities, Thompson has experienced above-average employment income and significant swings in mining-sector employment throughout its history.

The median employment income in 2015 for full-year full-time workers in Thompson was $65,262; this was 22% higher than the Canadian median of $53,431.[17]

Thompson's unemployment rate in 2016 was 7.6%, slightly below the Canadian average of 7.7%.[17]

As of the 2016 Census, Thompson had 7065 employed persons, with the five largest sectors of the economy being:[18]

• mining (1255 employees)
• health care and social assistance (1100 employees)
• accommodation and food services (710 employees)
• educational services (710 employees)
• retail trade (670 employees)

Between the 2016 Census and 2018, approximately 400 job losses have occurred in the mining industry.[13]

View of Thompson's mining operations. The (now decommissioned) smelter and refinery is visible in the middle of the image.

Vale Limited is the owner and operator of Thompson's mining operations, which involves the mining, milling, and concentrating of nickel; the concentrated nickel slurry is then shipped (for final processing) to Vale Limited's operations in Long Harbour and Sudbury.

Founded on a large and high-grade deposit of nickel, Thompson accounted for 11% of the world's finished nickel production in 1962, having produced over 40,800 metric tonnes of nickel that year; Thompson's nickel production peaked in 1970 and 1971 at over 60,000 metric tonnes (per year) and has since declined to 23,000 metric tonnes in 2017.[19][20][21]

Despite the fact that Vale Limited's placed their nearby Birchtree Mine on care and maintenance (suspending nickel extraction at the mine for the time being), Thompson may be particularly well positioned for future growth in nickel mining industry: Vale recently invested over $100 million in the concentrate load out facility and Vale's North Atlantic mining operations director recently stated that, "If you were to look across the world for an area that had nickel that could be invested in on a standalone nickel basis, there isn’t a better place [than Thompson]".[22]

The Northern Regional Health Authority (Eastern Campus) provides health care services to most of the communities in Census Division No. 22 and Census Division No. 23; Thompson-based facilities include the Thompson General Hospital, Northern Spirit Manor (personal care home), the Thompson Clinic, and Hope North (centre for youth in crisis).

Addictions Foundation of Manitoba also has a facility located in Thompson.

Thompson has eight hotels, including Best Western, Days Inn, and Quality Inn, which have over 600 beds (total).

There are over 20 restaurants in Thompson including Boston Pizza, Pizza Hut, KFC, and McDonald's.

The School District of Mystery Lake, based in Thompson, provides K-12 education through six primary schools and one secondary school; the Franco-Manitoban School Division also operates one school for K-8.

The University College of the North and the University of Manitoba's "Northern Social Work Program" provides post-secondary education centered around nursing, social work, and the trades.

The Northern Manitoba Sector Council provides essential skills and employment skills training to Northern Manitobans.

The Frontier School Division, the largest school division in Canada by geographical area, has an Area Office in Thompson.

Thompson's retail trade is centered mostly in several malls, such as:

• City Centre Mall, which includes a Wal-Mart, Safeway, TD Canada, and Tim Hortons.
• Burntwood Plaza, which includes Shoppers Drug Mart and RBC Financial.
• Plaza Shopping Centre, which includes a Canadian Tire and Family Foods.
• Westwood Mall, which includes a Giant Tiger.

The city is served by Thompson Airport, which is the 3rd busiest airport in Manitoba and provides Thompson with several hundred jobs.

Thompson has several advocacy, non-profit, and administrative organizations focused around First Nations people, including Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Inc. (MKO), Awasis Agency of Northern Manitoba, Keewatin Tribal Council, and Ma-Mow-We-Tak Friendship Centre.

Twenty-four governments, businesses, and non-profit organizations are partners to the Thompson Aboriginal Accord, originally signed in 2009, outlining a common understanding towards equitable economic development and reconciliation. Thompson Aboriginal Accord

MDS Aerotest currently operates a cold weather testing centre just south of Thompson, as part of a joint venture between Pratt & Whitney Canada and Rolls-Royce. Thompson was selected from an initial list of 150 candidate communities due to the area's ideal testing conditions and urban amenities.[23]

In 2016, Europeans (43.9%) made up a plurality of the population, followed closely by Aboriginals (43.5%), composed of First Nations (32.2%) and Metis (10.8%); the remainder of the population is made up of visible minorities (12.5%), with the largest two visible minorities being South Asian (7.5%) and Black (2.1%).

In 2016, Thompson has the highest percentage of its population as Aboriginal (43.5%) out of all 152 cities (census metropolitan areas and census agglomerations) in Canada.[24]

The most common mother tongues are English (81.3%), followed by Cree (5.2%), Punjabi (2.6%), and Gujarati (2.0%).

The median age in Thompson is 30.8 years old, significantly below Canada's median age of 41.0.

For Thompson residents ages 25 to 34, 17.5% have not obtained a high-school diploma or equivalent, compared to 8.7% for Canada.

Thompson is unique in being the judicial centre for a huge geographic area - ranging from Norway House in the South to Churchill in the North. The Thompson Judicial district covers 15 circuits and offers both Judicial Justice of the Peace Court as well as Provincial Court sittings. Judges, Judicial Justices of the Peace, Clerks, Crown Attorneys and defence lawyers based in Thompson and Winnipeg regularly travel by small plane on circuit court to various remote communities and First Nation Communities to hold Provincial court.

• The city was used in the Tragically Hip song "Thompson Girl". The song is both set in, and around Thompson, Manitoba, and is about the title character, a girl who married one of the band members.
• "Thompson" is a song by Les Surveillantes, found on their album titled La racine carrée du coeur.

• Niki Ashton, politician
• Steve Ashton, politician
• Rod Bruinooge, politician
• Deven Green, performer
• Kaitlyn Jones, curler
• Tina Keeper, actress
• Thompson is the birthplace of NHL players, Curtis Leschyshyn, Cameron Mann and Jody Shelley.
• Jennifer Saunders, the current Canadian Women's Racquetball Champion, was born and grew up in Thompson, graduating from R.D. Parker Collegiate in 1994.
• Corey Redekop, writer
• Diana Swain, journalist