My husband is applying for a really great job that will pay well and possibly make his career. The only catch is that it’s in Thompson, Manitoba.
I did a quick search of the SDMB and found a thread referring to the temperature being -42. Yikes! I have a pretty open mind, and I’d love to see more of my own country. I have a background in the construction industry (more of the admin end of things), does anybody know what the employment situation might be like up there?
We’re heading out on the job interview road trip in few days- wish us luck!
It’s one of the few places where seeing polar bears wandering around is almost gauranteed. Also, the last time I checked, it’s only accessable by air for at least part of the year.
As to the job situation, I’m not too sure. If you’re a polar bear researcher, your golden. Anything else - I’m not so sure.
Do polar bears really come into Thompson? I’d expect it in Churchill, but I thought that polar bears spent more time near the sea and not that far inland?
Oops - I just realized I thinking of Churchill, not Thompson. DOH!!:smack:
Sorry 'bout that.
Humm - I don’t know too much about Thompson. Some general reading on the Wiki page suggests to me that it’s probably very similar to Fort Mac. i.e. Jobs are plentful, housing is not, not much of a social life; however, I’ll wait for a more knowledgeable doper to chime in. 
No worries, alice!
I initially had Thompson confused with Brandon, Manitoba so I can’t really blame you for not having an instant mental picture. I thought "Hey, that’s not so bad, in between Winnipeg and Regina isn’t too remote. Then I looked at a map:eek:
Jimmy Flair, BSc - Geography!
I know nothing about Thompson, Manitoba, but I just found it on Google Maps and jesus that place is in the middle of nowhere. What do people do there? alice mentions “lots of jobs”, but really? What are the lots of jobs available in a remote small town like that?
It looks to be a mining town. I know that they do truck supplies north in the winter on the two major lakes south of there, but not sure if it makes it up the far north to Thompson.
Here’s an official town you tube video.
My dad used to go out on test runs with cars up there. (He retired as a mechanic from Chrysler this year).
Yep, there’s mines, and not a whole lot else up there, and it gets DAMN cold. Like, if you don’t have an engine block heater, your car will not start up in the morning type of cold. It’s so cold, that when you have a fire in your fireplace, the smoke goes up out of the chimney, but only makes it maybe 25 feet or so before it turns right back around and tries to get back into your house
To be fair, that’s true of everywhere in Manitoba in the winter, not just Thompson.
To the OP, good luck!
I worked at the INCO nickel mine/mill in Thompson about thirty years ago (laborour/assistant mill operator), and until recently had a collegue who was raised there. That mine was the reason for Thompson’s existence then, and remains its reason for existence now, although the town has grown significantly, and has expanded to become a regional centre. Get your name in with Vale INCO. There’s also a hydro project going in – Wuskwatim. If you are into construction/administration, you might find a niche in aboriginal economic development in the region – remote reserves often require infrastructure construstion, for example water treatment plants.
The town is small (about 14,000), and was built on a circular plan. It is essentially a small urban core surrounded by ring roads of mid 1960’s modest homes – a planned community like thousands of suburban developments throughout North America. There is a trailer park, but given the present boom in mining, you might have difficulty lining up affordable housing (in my day it was simple – just check in to the bunkhouse). If you like fishing, it is a great place. (I recall dropping a line and immediately pulling out a fish, dropping a line and immediately pulling out a fish, dropping a line and immediately pulling out a large pike which chased me to the bow of the boat . . .).
For a small town, it is nice, but remember that it is a long day’s drive or train ride from Winnipeg. Once you are there, there is nowhere to go but further into the bush, so if you prefer a very quiet life and like the wilderness, you will very much enjoy it. If you are an urban type, you will probably shoot yourself.
I had an aunt and uncle who lived there for years. He worked for INCO and she as a school teacher. It’s a small town. They stayed there for 20+ years until they took early retirement at 50. The benefit of living up that far is the extra pay, and no place to spend it. They retired to the sprawling sunny metropolis of Medicine Hat.
I think you have to have a certain mindset to be able to stay there…one that doesn’t mind isolation. It seems that to keep their sanity a lot of people had cottages/cabins away from the city where you expect to be alone.
My wife would last about 3 days before, well, I’m not sure how she would snap.
I last visited in the mid-eighties, so I can’t comment on the current state of the town.
Where are you moving from?
My first thought was polar bears also. My second thought was Thompson Girl by The Tragically Hip. In which both Churchill and polar bears are mentioned, which probably explains that.
Two of my University friends grew up in Thompson, MB. Their descriptions match those of the preivious posters. Very cold and isolated in the winter, hot and isolated in the summer. Learn to love the smell of deet. The mosquitoes in northern Manitoba (or anywhere in Manitoba) are huge and swarm in the billions.
I am not sure if it is still true, but the locals tended to be a bit xenophobic. They don’t like outsiders moving up there for the good salaries paid by Inco, Highways, and Manitoba Hydro.
I spend a summer and a winter in The Pas, MB (similar kind of isolation, but not quite as far north). It was a great experience, but yeah, if you like the urban life, it won’t be much fun. Beautiful, beautiful country - more trees and pristine lakes than you can imagine. Cold in winter (yeah, it was -40ºC for awhile in The Pas while I was there), hot in summer (we had lots of forest fires the summer I was there - we could see the glow on the horizon, it got so close to town), and the summer has very short nights - that weirds you out more than you’d expect. You get up, it’s light, you go to bed, it’s light, you drink all night (there isn’t much else to do there), and it gets dimmer but not really dark. Weird.
Going from Oakland or Calgary, you might find some culture shock. I didn’t know that I could miss Big Macs and seeing airplanes in the sky (they don’t go over that part of the world). Living’s expensive up there, too (hence the northern living allowance, I guess). I think you should try it, though, unless you know you’ll miss the urban life - it’s like nowhere I’ve ever lived before or since. I think you’ll love it or hate it, and if you hate it, come on back to civilization.
In Manitoba, it gets down to -40ºC. At least in Northern Minnesota it only gets down to -40ºF!
Try to get to Lake Winnipeg in June before the black flies. It is beautiful. And buy a canoe! Look at all those lakes!
OK,I wasn’t trying to “post and run”- I’ve been on the road from Calgary for the last few days. We’re in The Pas right now, and I have to say that moving from California to Canada in Novemberwas a terrible move!
So far everyone in The Pas seems really nice. Hubby’s interview is tomorrow,so we’ll see how that goes. Right now I’m about 70% “Hey! let’s live the northern life adventure!” and about 30% “What the hell are we thinking?”.
Thanks for all of the replies so far, it kind of confirms what I thought Thompson might be like. My only other experience with the north was visiting my brother in Fort St John, BC and so far northern Manitoba seems quite different.
How are you guys going to do with really cold? You’re not going to go and die in a snowbank, are you (like someone does in The Pas every winter)? We’ll help you if you need it.
I appreciate the offer of assistance!However, I have spent all of my life in Calgary (except the last 18 months) so I’m not totally unfamiliar with the cold.
It’s like riding a bike, really. Sucking in that first lungful of -29 degree air brings back all the memories of why it was so worth it to live in California, expensiveness and earthquakes and all.
Hooray for heavy duty snow tires and puffy parkas!
Okay then - that’s good to know. I’d hate to see someone go right from California to Northern Manitoba and not know about things like antifreeze and block heaters.
I was in Thompson once, back in 78, for about two hours, to eat a pizza, and it wasn’t very good.
Took me a several hours driving to get there from Snow Lake.
When you plan your budget based on your expected income up there you better factor in enough plane trips in a year to escape the isolation and deprivation feeling that is likely to envelop you.
Hope you both like pickerel fishing.