Need Info about Thompson Manitoba

[pongpong]

Hello Everyone,

I just got here in Canada last year and living in Toronto, Ontario. I got a job offer in Thompson, Manitoba as a Nurse. Can anyone share me about how's life in Thompson, Manitoba? I am married and I have a 4 year old daughter. We are a kind of family that loves nature and doesnt really go in bars and malls. Please advice!

Thank you very much..

[co-joe]

YTH for me had a "small town wanna be big city" feel to it. A lot of locals seemed to try way too hard to be whatever they thought cool was or should be or what their TV's told them cool was. Lots of the "what are you looking at?" or "hey, did you touch my mustang?" kind of BS...

As for the pilots they were a great group of misfits from literally every walk of life all crammed into one small scene with each other. We had tons of fun. One fun thing was the Twilight Water Ski Club. A Ski boat staffed full time with a paid driver and all the equipment you could ever need. Great for an on call medevac person. Just hand the driver your pager (dating myself) and get your skis shined up grab a stick of juicy fruit, the taste is gonna move ya...

Working in the medical profession you will be somewhat insulated from the locals socially I would think and likely will have your own social scene to fit in to. I'd imagine they would be quite welcoming. Probably most of the medical people are from outside or down south. Doctors from South Africa? Most local women either get educated and leave or stay and make babies. Pretty standard small town stuff. The men work in the mine straight out of highschool, make tons of money and spend it on quads, and snow machines.

If you are a flight nurse you will get more than your fair share of pediatric experience. The reserves up there are rough places, many very poor with no income at all except for welfare. Some have commercial fishing, and a hockey rink, like Norway House. Others are like ghettos; Shamattawa, York Landing, Oxford House, Garden Hill, St Theresa, etc... Odds are you'll get to know FAS, domestic violence, obesity and diabetes well in your line of work.

[Rudy]

A truck with a lift kit swerved toward a puddle to soak me on the sidewalk. But I saw it coming and moved out of the way. Thompson.

[AWOS]

As far as Northern "cities" go, Thompson isn't that bad. As a young male with no commitments to relationships or children, I'd be more than happy working and flying there again. However, while a lot of people do raise their children there, I'm not sure if I would want to put my kids through that as Thompson does tend to have its own socio-economic issues. Northern Manitoba can be a bit of a culture shock for those who aren't prepared.

If the company in question allows you to rotate out (I'm not sure of any medevac company in Manitoba that doesn't), you'd probably be best off doing a couple rotations before deciding whether or not it is the place for you. As a nurse, you will get a good sense of what the locale is like.

[seasonaldriver]

Thompson is:

Great food at the Northern, The Hub, and of course, Popeyes.
Pizza at Santa Maria's and Tom's.
Crazy Petes.
Some very nice people (and some not so nice)
"The Walk of the Living Dead" by the TI.
Thompson has all the mod cons such as Walmart, Canadian Tire, Tim Hortons and Safeway to name a few.

[leftoftrack]

Thompson can be best described as what is left on the TP after you wipe your ass. There is no worse place on earth to live. The things you see up there you can't unsee. The natives love to jump infront of cars to try and sue if they don't die, because that's a better option then living there. No amount of money is worth life up there

[JBI]

There are some great things about Thompson and some truly awful things about Thompson. Depending on you, your family and your career aspirations, this may be a great option, simply a place to get some experience or something that you may really dislike.

I moved from Toronto to Thompson 15 years ago to start my flying career. I was ready to leave Toronto so when I first arrived in Thompson, I really enjoyed the small town atmosphere. You can walk or bike lots of places in the summer and it's always just a really short drive everywhere, including the airport which is just out of town. There are lots of outdoors options in the summer with camping at Paint Lake a bit of a drive south of town, fishing at lots of spots nearby, swimming, softball and cycling around the millennium trail.

During the long winter (Thompson has more days under freezing than any other city in Canada) it's important to have activities and items to keep you and your family busy. There was an indoor swimming pool, rec centre with ice rink and racquet ball courts and a fair bit of clubs. One of the great things about Thompson (at the time I was there at least) was that there's a demand for skilled and semi-skilled people. For example, myself and many of the other pilots would substitute teach on our days off. It paid better than being a pilot and it was a pretty cool experience. In Toronto and other urban centres there is a wait-list of people with Education Degrees to substitute teach, but in Thompson, at the time, all you needed to substitute teach grade 12: was to have graduated grade 12! One of my friends was asked if he wanted to go work at the radio station part-time as well.

There can be some great experiences and opportunities if you look for them and get involved. However, it takes a lot of effort to get involved and look for all the positives during the dismal winter and while being surrounded by some really depressing social issues. There are lots of different cultural differences even from bigger cities such as Winnipeg that those from other places caught ourselves wondering about on a regular basis (What? I can't believe they do that here!). i.e. The customer service can be lacking and you learn when "(welfare) cheque day" is an avoid going to the grocery store that day.

The biggest overwhelming difference is the massive amounts of poverty and substance abuse issues that you encounter in Thompson. It is most visual with the First Nations population, but is certainly not only a First Nations issue. Many of the reserves around Thompson are dry (no alcohol) reserves. I don't care what your ethnicity is, if someone is living in a town with no alcohol and they go to a place that allows drinking, one of the first things they're going to do is go get a drink! I know I would, and I'm not that big a drinker. That being said, alcohol abuse in Thompson is a huge problem. At the time, there were thousands of discarded Westminster Sherry bottles strewn about the 'downtown' area; the mouthwash cabinet at Walmart was locked to prevent theft and there would usually be dozens of intoxicated folks sitting on the ledge by the post office everyday. There would usually be one or two people each winter who would die of hypothermia after passing out drunk outside. It was difficult to walk to the grocery store without being asked for change or a smoke.

Associated with the substance abuse issues are many social issues including violence, domestic violence (not condoning it, but I did see a much larger wife knock out her skinny husband after he was giving her a hard time), lack of supervision of children, litter and safety. The non-First Nations community definitely have their social issues as well. It may have changed, but when I was up there, there was a very significant divide between First Nations and non-First Nations in the town. It seemed that often, people would hang out with there own. I remember a group of us non-First Nation pilots went to the T.I. a predominately First Nations bar and after looking at us suspiciously, one First Nations fellow asked us if we were the cops. No, I replied just here to get a drink. He paused and then gave me a knowing nod: "Ah, you're undercover!"

I was really disappointed with this divide as the First Nations folks that I was friends with and worked with were awesome. It also gave me a much better understanding of the history and relationships between First Nations people and the government throughout Canada's history. Nonetheless, being surrounded by such significant social issues, poverty and violence (I did medevacs as well) can become very depressing.

I'm not sure how it would be raising a family in Thompson. I think in some respects it has some great resources, quite good schools including a french immersion school, recreational facilities and a good hospital. The challenge will be once the kids are older, I think as a teenager it would be tough to make smart choices in that environment (not saying that I made the smartest of choices growing up either).

And I have to disagree with the above poster about "great food" - the restaurants in Thompson were horrendous!

I'm glad I spent time in Thompson, but I'm very glad I no longer live there.

[pongpong]

YTH for me had a "small town wanna be big city" feel to it. A lot of locals seemed to try way too hard to be whatever they thought cool was or should be or what their TV's told them cool was. Lots of the "what are you looking at?" or "hey, did you touch my mustang?" kind of BS...

As for the pilots they were a great group of misfits from literally every walk of life all crammed into one small scene with each other. We had tons of fun. One fun thing was the Twilight Water Ski Club. A Ski boat staffed full time with a paid driver and all the equipment you could ever need. Great for an on call medevac person. Just hand the driver your pager (dating myself) and get your skis shined up grab a stick of juicy fruit, the taste is gonna move ya...

Working in the medical profession you will be somewhat insulated from the locals socially I would think and likely will have your own social scene to fit in to. I'd imagine they would be quite welcoming. Probably most of the medical people are from outside or down south. Doctors from South Africa? Most local women either get educated and leave or stay and make babies. Pretty standard small town stuff. The men work in the mine straight out of highschool, make tons of money and spend it on quads, and snow machines.

If you are a flight nurse you will get more than your fair share of pediatric experience. The reserves up there are rough places, many very poor with no income at all except for welfare. Some have commercial fishing, and a hockey rink, like Norway House. Others are like ghettos; Shamattawa, York Landing, Oxford House, Garden Hill, St Theresa, etc... Odds are you'll get to know FAS, domestic violence, obesity and diabetes well in your line of work.

Thank you very much for the information....

[pongpong]

There are some great things about Thompson and some truly awful things about Thompson. Depending on you, your family and your career aspirations, this may be a great option, simply a place to get some experience or something that you may really dislike.

I moved from Toronto to Thompson 15 years ago to start my flying career. I was ready to leave Toronto so when I first arrived in Thompson, I really enjoyed the small town atmosphere. You can walk or bike lots of places in the summer and it's always just a really short drive everywhere, including the airport which is just out of town. There are lots of outdoors options in the summer with camping at Paint Lake a bit of a drive south of town, fishing at lots of spots nearby, swimming, softball and cycling around the millennium trail.

During the long winter (Thompson has more days under freezing than any other city in Canada) it's important to have activities and items to keep you and your family busy. There was an indoor swimming pool, rec centre with ice rink and racquet ball courts and a fair bit of clubs. One of the great things about Thompson (at the time I was there at least) was that there's a demand for skilled and semi-skilled people. For example, myself and many of the other pilots would substitute teach on our days off. It paid better than being a pilot and it was a pretty cool experience. In Toronto and other urban centres there is a wait-list of people with Education Degrees to substitute teach, but in Thompson, at the time, all you needed to substitute teach grade 12: was to have graduated grade 12! One of my friends was asked if he wanted to go work at the radio station part-time as well.

There can be some great experiences and opportunities if you look for them and get involved. However, it takes a lot of effort to get involved and look for all the positives during the dismal winter and while being surrounded by some really depressing social issues. There are lots of different cultural differences even from bigger cities such as Winnipeg that those from other places caught ourselves wondering about on a regular basis (What? I can't believe they do that here!). i.e. The customer service can be lacking and you learn when "(welfare) cheque day" is an avoid going to the grocery store that day.

The biggest overwhelming difference is the massive amounts of poverty and substance abuse issues that you encounter in Thompson. It is most visual with the First Nations population, but is certainly not only a First Nations issue. Many of the reserves around Thompson are dry (no alcohol) reserves. I don't care what your ethnicity is, if someone is living in a town with no alcohol and they go to a place that allows drinking, one of the first things they're going to do is go get a drink! I know I would, and I'm not that big a drinker. That being said, alcohol abuse in Thompson is a huge problem. At the time, there were thousands of discarded Westminster Sherry bottles strewn about the 'downtown' area; the mouthwash cabinet at Walmart was locked to prevent theft and there would usually be dozens of intoxicated folks sitting on the ledge by the post office everyday. There would usually be one or two people each winter who would die of hypothermia after passing out drunk outside. It was difficult to walk to the grocery store without being asked for change or a smoke.

Associated with the substance abuse issues are many social issues including violence, domestic violence (not condoning it, but I did see a much larger wife knock out her skinny husband after he was giving her a hard time), lack of supervision of children, litter and safety. The non-First Nations community definitely have their social issues as well. It may have changed, but when I was up there, there was a very significant divide between First Nations and non-First Nations in the town. It seemed that often, people would hang out with there own. I remember a group of us non-First Nation pilots went to the T.I. a predominately First Nations bar and after looking at us suspiciously, one First Nations fellow asked us if we were the cops. No, I replied just here to get a drink. He paused and then gave me a knowing nod: "Ah, you're undercover!"

I was really disappointed with this divide as the First Nations folks that I was friends with and worked with were awesome. It also gave me a much better understanding of the history and relationships between First Nations people and the government throughout Canada's history. Nonetheless, being surrounded by such significant social issues, poverty and violence (I did medevacs as well) can become very depressing.

I'm not sure how it would be raising a family in Thompson. I think in some respects it has some great resources, quite good schools including a french immersion school, recreational facilities and a good hospital. The challenge will be once the kids are older, I think as a teenager it would be tough to make smart choices in that environment (not saying that I made the smartest of choices growing up either).

And I have to disagree with the above poster about "great food" - the restaurants in Thompson were horrendous!

I'm glad I spent time in Thompson, but I'm very glad I no longer live there.

Thank you very much for the information. I am just hoping that we can adjust and cope with the life in Thompson.

[Kabloona]

+1 for JBI, I think that was a good and fair description of Thompson. We have lived here for many years and for the most part our children were raised here. They are adults now, my wife and I still live and work here as well as two of our children and none of us work for the mine. Life is what you make of it and there are certainly more opportunities for a good life here than there are challenges. I would encourage you to come north, be a part of our community and experience life that is certainly different from the big city.

[CID]

I had the pleasure to spend some time there years ago at it was awesome if you can put up with the long winters.

A year ago I had the DISpleasure of visiting again and found it to be be a horrendous shithole. There certainly are still good people there but they are alarmingly overshadowed by absolute scum. Crime is rampant, public facilities and stores are crumbling and filthy and it's become dangerous to attend high school. The saving grace for some is that anyone in town can get a job at a higher wage than you'll find down south but in the end you'll simply be a well paid shit-hole dweller.

[co-joe]

I half expected to come back to being flamed for being honest. Glad I wasn't too far off the money.

Just to add to what I said, as a nurse, if you go on flights I think the money is good, and the experience is second to none. I flew medevacs for almost 10 years only a very short stint in YTH and the stuff we saw was off the charts crazy.

Deadevacs: A recently deceased person just wrapped in a few blankets or in a wooden box.

Obeisity: all the flights had seat belt extension straps for the huge people for whom a normal seat belt just wouldnt reach. Babies being fed coca cola in the bottle instead of breastmilk or formula and then of course diabetes. There's a story of the one elder who was so fat, they had to dismante the wall of his house and use a forklift to get him out of bed because he literally wouldn't fit through the door and hadn't for years. Then they had to bring in a metro with a cargo door because the then standard King Air, and 421 weren’t big enough.

Crazy traffic lady: There was a lady who was nuts that would stand in the middle of one of the highway intersections waving her arms at cars like she was directing traffic. People just went about their drive like it was nothing. Pretty sure it wasn't a happy story, but the attitude was "yeah she's crazy, but she's our crazy".

He paused and then gave me a knowing nod: "Ah, you're undercover!"

LOL that's the funniest thing I've heard in a while. Thanks for that.


Look if you're going, you will get crazy good experience as a nurse. Go on medevac flights, your scope of practice will be so much larger than down south. Nurses intubate, push drugs, give cpr, I mean you are "it" up there. No help. The nurses and medical staff are special people that do a job I could never do, see shit I would never be able to see, and they do it day in day out often all alone in pretty hostile environments. Adversity like that brings you close to the people you are with. It builds character...or causes breakdowns and you leave. If you go and hate it, you tried it.

YTH? If your daughter has a year before she goes to kindergarten then you have some time to assess if you want to stay and raise he there or not. It's a very multicultural experience. Maybe after a year you pull the rip cord. Maybe you find you love the challenges.

[54321]

Thompson can be best described as what is left on the TP after you wipe your ass. There is no worse place on earth to live. The things you see up there you can't unsee. The natives love to jump infront of cars to try and sue if they don't die, because that's a better option then living there. No amount of money is worth life up there

Agreed. It blows. Stay away.

[planett]

17 years ago I described it like this. "Twelve thousand people and no bookstore." Customer service is often lacking. Lots of snow machines, ATV's etc. I've seen superb Aroura Borealis, almost like Churchill. I had a love/hate relationship with Thomson when I lived there, but there are far worse places to be.

When I visit now, it's amazing to see the improvements to the "City". I look forward to the slow but friendly service at Tim Horton's, a relative newcomer. I remember the pre McDonald's days.

I think the dealerships there must set a record for the number of new trucks per capita.

[vstrom]

...can be best described as what is left on the TP after you wipe your ass. There is no worse place on earth to live... No amount of money is worth life up there..

This is exactly how I feel..

about Toronto.

[pongpong]

...can be best described as what is left on the TP after you wipe your ass. There is no worse place on earth to live... No amount of money is worth life up there..

This is exactly how I feel..

about Toronto.

Same here. I live in Toronto right now. That's why I want to move out.

[longjon]

+ 1 on the Toronto, centre of the universe, comment.

[CID]

Comparing Thompson to Toronto? Really? Well they both start with "T" but the comparisons end there. Toronto is an entire roll of toilet paper with some shit on a few squares. Thompson is a single one ply sheet in a frat house after a beer bash.

[BE82]

Great place, great people lived there for a few years and loved it...

[bobcaygeon]

In addition to the other negatives.
Thompson isn't a great place to raise kids. Lots of kids with special needs, learning disabilities, etc and not the resources to look after them.
They end up in regular class rooms without TA's. The teachers end up focusing on them and the rest of the students get short changed.
They say the same in southern suburbia but it is not even close.

Like most of the north and rural areas drinking and driving is still socially acceptable and solvent abuse is a problem (which isn't the case generally in TO).

The biggest difference between Thompson and Toronto is access. It's a 7-8hr drive one way to get to civilization (Winnipeg) or an expensive airline ticket. In Toronto you can be halfway to Florida in that time.

Biggest warning.... Ignore/disregard CBC's version of life in YTH or the North. "The Minions" movie is more realistic.