On Jan. 21, Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation (NCN) added another business to its portfolio by joining forces with Thompson Bus.
The transportation company’s co-founders Jimmy Pelk and Siddhartha Varma announced this new partnership at their terminal onThompson Drive alongside NCN Chief Marcel Moody and the First Nation’s council.
“Stakeholders from both sides have been working tirelessly to get this together for months now,” said Varma, with talks going on since September. “Jimmy and myself, from the very start, we had one big goal of making a company that will be here for generations to come. And when we talk about this kind of mission there can’t be a better partner than NCN.”
Varma said they are even changing the company’s name to NCN Thompson Bus and Freight to set this new partnership in stone.
“It’s a tremendous opportunity for NCN and I’m really excited about expanding our economic development portfolio,” said Moody. “We see this as another value that we can provide to this company and I think we can achieve greater things for the benefit of everybody.”
Pelk told the Nickel Belt News that NCN will provide Thompson Bus with a wealth of resources, training and employment opportunities and a general knowledge of the northern business landscape that will ensure their success for years to come.
“Before the business was just two individual entrepreneurs,” he said. “And today, moving forward, it’s still two individual entrepreneurs plus a nation that’s been here from the beginning, that operates very well-run businesses throughout Northern Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan.”
NCN already owns and operates several businesses in Thompson, including Family Foods, the Mystery Lake Hotel and a forthcoming gas station.
While Thompson Bus doesn’t currently have routes to Nelson House, Pelk said they are planning to add this community − as well as Lynn Lake, Snow Lake, Flin Flon and The Pas − to their destinations in the second quarter of 2019.
Thompson Bus’s fleet of six 53-passenger highway coaches has made 180 trips from Thompson to Winnipeg since they began operating in October 2018.
Last summer, Thompson Bus was the first local transportation company to pop up and try to fill the void left by Greyhound following its July 9 announcement that it would be shutting down all but one of its routes in Western Canada.
