Nickel Belt News
Volume 58 Number 11
Friday, March 16, 2018
Thompson, Manitoba
Serving the Norman Region since 1961
Wednesday, February 16, 2022
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Serving the Hub of the North since 1960
Volume 62 • Issue 07
Thompson’s population dropped 4.7 per cent from 2016 to 2021: Stats Can
Book a way to preserve and pass on memories of growing up in Churchill
BY IAN GRAHAM
EDITOR@THOMPSONCITIZEN.NET
2021 census data released by Statistics Canada Feb. 9 shows that Thompson is the fastest-shrinking Manitoba municipality. The Hub of the North is also among the top 25 communities in Canada of 5,000 or more residents when it comes to decreasing population. Census numbers for Thompson showed that it lost 643 residents since the 2016 census and had a population of 13,035 last year, down from 13,678 five years earlier. That translates into a 4.7 per cent population decline, 13th-worst in all of Canada, in percentage terms. Only two of the communities that lost a higher percentage of their population
over that time period lost more total residents than Thompson, which has the fourth-highest population of the 25 fastest-declining municipalities and is the only Manitoba community on the list. 18 of the 25 fastest-shrinking municipalities of over 5,000 people have populations below 10,000. The population percentage drop in Thompson is more than twice as high as in the second-fastest-declining municipality in the province – Rhineland – which shrank 2.1 per cent. No other Manitoba community saw its population decline by more than two per cent from 2016 to 2021. St. Andrews shrank 1.6 per cent, the Rural Municipality of Portage la Prairie by 1.2 per cent and the city of Portage
la Prairie by 0.3 per cent. Thompson ticks many of the boxes that characterize the fastest-shrinking municipalities, as it is far from a census metropolitan area, in Western Canada and heavily dependent on a specific industry tied to natural resources. “Population growth in such areas is closely linked to structural changes affecting those industries, such as price changes or shifts in the supply and demand for primary goods,” said Statistics Canada’s report on the fastest-growing and most quickly declining municipalities. Eighteen percent of Canada’s 737 municipalities with more than 5,000 residents saw their populations decline from 2016 to 2021.
Thompson Citizen file photo Thompson’s population dropped 4.7 per cent from 2016 to 2021, Statistics Canada data released Feb. 9 shows.
Manitoba will eliminate proof of vaccine requirements March 1 and mandatory mask use March 15 federal Quarantine Act. in Manitoba,” he said. “At Manitobans more freedom to see the province moving Travel orders restricting this point we are starting that in their lives.” forward with loosened reManitoba’s premier laid travel to Northern Manitoba path to public health advice She also said the move strictions when the health out the province’s timelines remain in place. rather than restrictions.” wasn’t influenced by the care system is still under for the removal of pan“It’s our responsibility to The decision to start removal of restrictions in tremendous strain and said demic-related public health ease those restrictions on loosening restrictions is not Saskatchewan and Alberta. the government was caving orders at a press conference Manitobans,” said Premier related to protests in Winni“Every province makes in to people with extreme Feb. 11. Heather Stefanson. peg, at the Emerson border their own decisions based on views. Beginning Feb. 15, occuThe decision to accelerate crossing, near the Bound- the data they have,” Stefan“So far this week, the propancy limits at private resithe lifting of public health ary Trails Health Centre in son said. “What we have test movement camped outdences and in public places orders only one week after the southern health region seen is a fairly significant side the legislative building like restaurants are eliminthe latest changes came into and at a school in Steinbach decrease in COVID-related has blocked access to health ated. The first day of March effect Feb. 8 was based on that have been taking place, ICU as well as COVID-re- facilities, schools and the will see the end of proof of modelling and data, said Stefanson said. Emerson border crossing lated hospitalizations.” Manitoba Premier vaccine requirements and the chief provincial public health “This is not a decision that Total intensive care unit to the United States,” said Heather Stefanson requirement to wear mask officer Dr. Brent Roussin. was made because of what’s occupancy remains above health coalition provincial indoors at public places will the cohort requirement in That data was not yet public- going on and the protests. the maximum capacity in the director Thomas Linner. schools for kindergarten ly available but could be by We have been having the province prior to the start Nickel Newsisphoto Ian Graham be lifted two weeks later. of Belt “This not abymovement to Grade 6 students and of Addictions Foundation of Manitoba northern director Gisele deMeulles has written a book about her experiences growing up, mostly in Churchill. Close contacts of people the middle of this week, he discussions for quite some the COVID-19 pandemic that deserves to be catered who test positive for self-isolation requirements said in response to a question time,” said the premier. The Manitoba Health Co- to with political victories BY IAN GRAHAM For allhurt the harsh weather things that you have ‘Oh, just as bad, right?’ was very safe thing when people say that forwrite people entering ManiCOVID-19 no longer have to fromI’m a reporter. “Nownot it’sa time, I think, to swallow alition, a non-profit organizwill families, overEDITOR@THOMPSONCITIZEN.NET I have all these stories and to fi gure out. It’s pretty clear to do but I jumped at it. I that Churchill residents and the dangers of polar toba from other provinces, to self-isolate as of Feb. “Based on our data, on safely move forward with ation that advocates for the worked and understaffed now written get through.”arrivals Iour need to capture for thought that was exciting just find deMeulles said if it thoughI international 15.Though Othershe’s changes that when modelling wethem can see the reduction of these re- should frontline health care workpreservation andsomewhere expansion bears, a book about her experienDeMeulles said she wrote my grandchildren really until the plane landed and easier to live. had been viable she would came into effect this week will continue to be subject that omicron has peaked strictions. Easing some of of the healthcare system, ers and the most vulnerable ces growing up removal in Churchill, book, titled Whispers in because they willtobesubside lost if they throwing the said “Toit say, people have moved back to Churchto the requirements of the included the of her and is beginning these started restrictions is giving was ‘Those disheartening Manitobans.” BY IAN GRAHAM
EDITOR@THOMPSONCITIZEN.NET
Addictions Foundation of Manitoba northern director Gisele deMeulles said writing wasn’t something she always thought she would do. “In my youth I never felt good at writing,” she said. “But when I moved to Thompson to get into the school of social work, at that point I had to write for university and realized, ‘Holy, I’m not bad at this, right?’ I certainly developed a lot of skill in university and came out of there with a very strong skill in my writing and confidence in my writing. I write very clear and that’s it. It’s there. Some people say it’s kind of blunt or direct. I don’t tend
the Wind: Stories from the North - Life in Churchill for a couple of reasons. “I just sort of thought, you know what, this history, this stuff that’s in my head, it’s going to be gone if I don’t write it down,” she said. “My kids are not going to get it if I don’t do it and it’s something I’ve always wanted my mom to do. My mom’s an elder and she’s an artist, she’s got so many wonderful stories because she always tells her stories at Parks Canada in Churchill and I’ve always hounded her, ‘Please, just put it on tape, I will write it for you because your story is going to be lost,’ and she’s never done it and I thought,
I don’t.” She also has a reputation as a storyteller herself. “I had such a varied history and I would tell people stories and they would go, ‘That’s not true, is it?’ I’d go, ‘Yeah it’s true.’ They’d go, ‘You didn’t do all that, did you? You’ve got to be really old.’ I was like, ‘No, actually I did all that before I was 27,’ and they went ‘What?’” Looking back, some of those experiences are things she might not do again. “I did some pretty bizarre stuff like fuel hauls into the high Arctic at -35,” said deMeulles. “It didn’t dawn on me until after. That was a very dangerous thing to do. Being on a plane full of fuel
fuel off and I realized, ‘Holy cats, I was probably sitting on a bomb.’” Another thing that spurred her on was the hard times facing Churchill since the Hudson Bay Railway suspended operations north of Gillam last spring. “It used to be a really thriving large community and it’s just dwindled down to such a small population now,” deMeulles says. Though she’s not there any longer, her parents and her sister and other family members still are. “My cousin owns the hardware store there,” she says. Because of that, deMeulles finds it hard to
choose to live there. They should just leave,’ is quite simplistic. It’s quite disrespectful. If we were in the same boat in another area I think we would scream about that so why don’t they have the option to do that? I think right now they’re feeling like they’re pawns in a political game and that’s really sad for them because I think the people of Churchill really want to thrive. They’ve built their worlds there. How would we feel if someone came to you and said, ‘I’m sorry, you have to leave your home community and we’re going to displace you somewhere else and all your loved ones and your history is gone?’”
ill in a heartbeat. “I miss the shoreline, I miss the rock, I miss the polar bears even though they’re very dangerous and I really miss the Hudson Bay,” she says. “When I go back home, standing on the Hudson Bay looking out on the bay, it just gives you an incredible sense. You feel so small and you feel great.” Now that she’s got one book under her belt, deMeulles says she may try to produce another. “I have another book in me,” she says. “It’s a darker story, more about personal growth and struggles. Maybe in the next five years it’s something I’ll focus on doing.”