Томпсон: Город на Севере Манитобы

the city

Thompson is a city in north central Manitoba, Canada, the largest city and most populated municipality in Northern Manitoba. Situated along the Burntwood River, Thompson is located north of Lake Winnipeg and north of the City of Winnipeg. Originally founded in 1956 as a mining town, it is one of the largest fully planned communities in Canada. It now primarily serves as the "Hub of the North", The largest marina in Manitoba is south in Paint Lake Provincial Park. The lack of light pollution and Thompson's northern latitude allows for occasional viewing of the northern lights, even within the city limits.

The Thompson area, located on the south side of the Burntwood River, was first inhabited by nomadic Paleo Indian hunters around 6000 BC, sometime after the collapse of the Laurentide Ice Sheet.

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.

Paint Lake Provincial Park, located south of Thompson on Highway 6, spans over of Precambrian boreal forest, and houses the largest marina in Manitoba. The park has dozens of campsites and cabins for rent, and features 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. Pisew Falls Provincial Park, located south of Thompson on Highway 6, offers the chance to view Manitoba's 2 highest waterfalls. Pisew falls is viewable after taking a short trail that leads to a viewing platform (for taking pictures) of the , year round falls. Kwasitchewan Falls, Manitoba's highest waterfall, is viewable after hiking an trail; this trail is a difficult back country trail, recommended for experienced hikers only. Sasagiu Rapids Provincial Park, located south of Thompson on Highway 6, is the site of scenic rapids, where visitors can rent off road equipment (e. g., Ski Doo, Sea Doo), as well as campers and sites. Mystery Mountain Winter Park, located north of Thompson on Provincial Road 280, offers downhill skiing, snowboarding, and cross country skiing trails.

Thompson is home to the Norman Northstars hockey team, who play in the Manitoba U 18 'AAA' Hockey League. The city's former minor hockey team was the Thompson King Miners. The high school teams are called the R. D. Parker Collegiate Trojans, whose 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.

In 2016, people with European ancestry (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. + Panethnic groups in the City of Thompson (2001−2021)Panethnic group20212016201120062001Pop. (Population)% (percentage)Pop. (Population)% (percentage)Pop. (Population)% (percentage)Pop. (Population)% (percentage)Pop. (Population)% (percentage) Indigenous 5,865 45.52 5,870 43.56 4,475 35.15 4,915 36.67 4,510 34.10 European 5,065 39.31 5,920 43.93 7,365 57.86 7,795 58.15 8,300 62.76 South Asian 1,195 9.27 1,010 7.50 440 3.46 410 3.06 155 1.17 African 315 2.44 280 2.08 170 1.34 130 0.97 180 1.36 Southeast Asian 195 1.51 145 1.08 145 1.14 60 0.45 25 0.19 East Asian 90 0.70 160 1.19 50 0.39 55 0.41 55 0.42 Latin American 65 0.50 25 0.19 20 0.16 10 0.07 0 0.00 Middle Eastern 35 0.27 35 0.26 40 0.31 15 0.11 0 0.00 Other/multiracial 45 0.35 50 0.37 0 0.00 20 0.15 0 0.00 Total responses 12,885 98.85 13,475 98.52 12,730 97.01 13,405 99.70 13,225 99.77 Total population 13,035 100.00 13,678 100.00 13,123 100.00 13,446 100.00 13,256 100.00

The City of Thompson is governed by a city council consisting of 9 members: a mayor (head of council) and eight councillors; the structure and size of the municipal government is stipulated by The Thompson Charter Act. Elections are held every four years (in October) and members of city council serve four year terms (without term limits). After the 2018 election, the members of city council were: Colleen Smook (Mayor), Les Ellesworth, Kathy Valentino, Jeff Fountain, Brian Lundmark, Earl Colbourne, Duncan Wong, and Judy Kolada. Council candidates Chiew Chong and Andre Proulx tied for the ninth seat in 2018, and Proulx won the final seat following a by election in 2019. As of 2018, the City of Thompson has eight standing committees, each composed of two or three members of the council, private citizens, and business/government representatives.

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.

In both 2018 and 2019, Thompson was second on the Crime Severity Index of Canada. To calculate the actual Crime Severity Index, the number of police reported incidents for each offence is multiplied by the weight for that offence. All weighted offences are then added together and divided by the corresponding population total. Finally, to make the Index easier to interpret, the Index is standardized to "100" for Canada (a system that is similar to the Consumer Price Index), using 2006 as a base year. For hub cities (e. g., Thompson), the Crime Severity Index likely over represents the dangers of crime to the regular citizen. In 2018, the RCMP officer in charge of Thompson, Kevin Lewis, stated, Thompson is the hub of Northern Manitoba, which makes it a desirable place for drug trafficking, and other nefarious activities. This is a common theme for hub cities across Canada. Our proactive drug enforcement also provides an increase in the CSI, as cocaine trafficking is weighted heavily on the CSI. Disturbing the peace is similar to mischief where intoxication occurs in a public place, resulting in many violations due to the downtown core, again weighing heavily on our score. Lewis also stated, " Many of our mischiefs are related to intoxicated persons in a private residence or hotel room, but can also be used to capture damage to property. The mischief rate is high and when the weight is applied, it provides a high ratio for our CSI score.”

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 dated the drummer for 2 years. "Thompson" is a song by Les Surveillantes, found on their album titled La racine carrée du coeur.