While rumours spread around Thompson over coffee about house prices plummeting and business owners being loathe to keep their money in town, Thompson's actual business community has a much different read on the situation.
"There isn't the clarity right now to understand what exactly is going to be happening here," says Mark Matiasek, general manager of Thompson Unlimited. "We need to be patient and calm, and see what's happening, and adjust accordingly. Thompson is still going to be continuing and moving forward."
"The main thing is that you don't make an immediate reaction," agrees Stella Locker, owner of Locker's Real Estate. "We haven't had anybody list and say 'I'll sell my house at half-price'," says Locker, though in the days immediately following the Vale announcement, she did receive some calls from homeowners wanting to drop their asking price by anywhere from $10,000 to $30,000.
Locker also points out that one home dropping its asking price is not the same as all homes in Thompson losing their value. "If you want to have an appraisal today, I'll have to only go on the figures where things have sold in the past six months," she says.
"It has made it a little bit more challenging to attract private sector investors into the community now, with the uncertainty of the future of Thompson and what-if scenarios," says Matiasek of the announcement. This is exactly the sort of situation Thompson Unlimited was designed for - created in 2003, funded by Vale, then known as Inco, to diversify Thompson's economy so that the city could thrive and survive in a post-mining state. "Thompson Unlimited was created at a time where the future was uncertain - back then, perhaps it was even a little bit more doom and gloom because they were talking more of a mine closure," says Matiasek.
"It's now 2010, about eight years into our mandate," he continues. "We were created to help diversify this economy, period. That is our sole focus." Matiasek points to the GLACIER jet engine testing facility as well as the Suburban Extended Stay hotel being erected on Moak Crescent as recent examples of successful economic diversification.
"We'll always be a service centre," agrees Keith MacDonald, president of the Thompson Chamber of Commerce, adding that with the smelter and refinery closure five years off, Vale is still looking at hiring new employees to get them through to that point, though he also suggests it might become more difficult for Vale to attract those needed new employees. "If I was a young fellow, it'd be hard for me to come up here knowing I wouldn't have a job in five years," he says.
"I've been involved in negotiations with potential investors for a while now, different ones for different opportunities," says Matiasek, adding that Thompson Unlimited was "making great strides" before the announcement of the closure of Vale's Thompson smelter and refinery gave those investors some cause for concern.
On the subject of funding for Thompson Unlimited continuing past the initial 10-year mandate, Matiasek says he is "confident that there's going to be continued funding given the greater need for economic diversification. Vale has made it clear that they don't want to do harm to this community as a result of their business plans."
MacDonald, who is also the general manager of the Thompson Inn and Burntwood Hotel, notes that the closure could have a major impact on the makeup of his staff. "What we rely on is people like Vale bringing in the workers and their family, and the family works for us," he explains. However, says MacDonald, if enough people leave Thompson that landlords are forced to lower their rent prices, people from outlying communities could flock to Thompson to take the positions vacated by the families of Vale employees.
"Five years is a long time in the mining industry," says Matiasek, noting that the global and Norman mining landscapes might look very different in 2015 than they do today. Matiasek, who previously spent five years working in Lynn Lake, notes that Thompson's diverse economy means it will almost certainly be able to survive a post-mining experience in much better shape than that community did.
As of Nov. 20, three days after Vale made their announcement, there were 82 single-family homes publicly listed for sale in Thompson between the city's three real estate brokers, a slight dip from earlier in the year - on May 6, for example, that number stood at 88 - which seems to signify a lack of panicky hordes who immediately threw their house on the market. The real number of homes up for sale in Thompson is likely higher in both counts, as those numbers do not take private sales into account.
"Let's give ourselves at least three, four, six months to figure out what really is happening," says Locker. "Right now, there aren't any buyers ready to jump on it." Locker also notes that a couple of homes have sold since Vale's announcement - one on Pike Crescent as well as a cottage on Setting Lake - and in neither case did the buyer pull out, thinking they might get a better deal if they waited.
