The last remaining fur auction of its type in North America - the 34th annual Thompson Fur Table - returns to St. Joseph's Ukrainian Catholic Hall on Juniper Drive Dec. 20-21 and is expected be a $1 million-plus "economic generator" for trappers, but also Thompson businesses. Last year was a record year for trappers, who pocketed $683,559 in payouts from fur buyers for their raw pelts.
Since 1979, mainly - although not exclusively - aboriginal trappers from small primarily First Nations communities scattered all around Thompson having been coming into the Hub of the North to the annual pre-Christmas December two-day event where trappers meet buyers from fur houses such as North American Fur Auctions, the continent's largest fur auction house in Toronto, Fur Harvester's Auction from North Bay, Ont. and the North West Company in Winnipeg, along with independent buyers.
The event is organized by the Lac du Bonnet-based Manitoba Trappers Association. The Manitoba Trappers Association represents about 10 per cent of the total number of trappers in the province on its membership roll. There are an estimated 6,000 trappers in Manitoba and the industry generates between $10 and $15 million annually.
The fur buyers count and examine the pelts as each trapper comes through the line, providing a quote for the lot and the trapper selects the best price. In this way the trapper benefits from the on-site competitive demand for their furs with the basic premise being to concentrate buyers in one area to promote the spirit of competition, Manitoba Trappers Association administrator Cherry White says.
The number of trappers who show up fluctuates from year-to-year: there were 207 in 2012; 179 in 201; 122 in 2010; 168 in 2009; 219 in 2008; 201 in 2007; 198 in 2006; 176 in 2005; and 232 in 2004.
The Thompson Fur Table was one of several such events initiated in 1979 by the Province of Manitoba, under Progressive Conservative Premier Sterling Lyon, and Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, during Prime Minister Joe Clark's Progressive Conservative government, to help Northern trappers get better prices for their raw pelts. Today, it is the only one of the events to have survived 34 years later.
Lane Boles, a retired Manitoba Conservation and Water Stewardship officer from here in Thompson, who sits as director-at-large on the board of the Manitoba Trappers Association, told a Thompson Chamber of Commerce lunch meeting Nov. 6 the market price paid by licensed fur dealers at last December's Thompson Fur Table "skyrocketed" over previous years.
In 2012 the 207 trappers at the fur tables realized $683,559 in payouts for their furs - the highest dollar value in history of the event.
There were 6,875 marten or sable pelts sold at "excellent prices," the association said, with the top North American Fur Auctions price being $650 for a marten pelt, Boles said. The top-grade marten pelt is "select," which means the "best possible quality, fully winter prime pelts. Full bodied, fully covered skins, silky in appearance. Evenly covered with guard hair and heavy underwool. Fur and leather free of imperfections," according to the North American Fur Auctions TechManual.
In 2011, more than $345,000 worth of fur pelts changed hands at the event, with the majority of that value coming from marten, which accounted for about $303,000 in fur sales.
Boles estimated the Thompson Fur Table, including the $683,559 in payouts for to trappers for their furs, generated over $1 million in the city over the two-day December weekend last year.
It's eye-popping numbers like those that have The Pas and Flin Flon vying behind the scenes to poach the fur tables from Thompson and have the annual event in one of their communities.
"Thousands of dollars are spent annually in Thompson during this weekend," said Thompson Chamber of Commerce president Oswald Sawh, who is also the chief executive officer of the Communities Economic Development Fund (CEDF), a provincial Crown corporation headquartered in Thompson, in an Oct. 22 e-mail to all chamber members.
"By showing your support to the fur tables, we are sending a message to the trappers, their families and their home communities, that the merchants and people of Thompson appreciate their business and that we want to make them feel welcome. Last year, total revenue received by trappers for the sale of their fur was over $680,000! Both The Pas and Flin Flon have approached the Manitoba Trappers Association to have the fur tables moved to their communities. Can we afford to lose this business?
"Please consider ways that you can support the fur tables. Can you provide specials/discounts/coupons for meals, hotels, sales? Can you donate a door prize? A major item to be raffled? Small items to be put into goodie bags? Would you attend the fur table to view the process and possibly purchase craft items?"
Boles hammered home Sawh's point his Nov. 6 talk at the chamber. "That's what we need; the town, the businesses to take ownership of the fur table. It's Thompson's Fur Table. That's what it's known as."
As well as Sawh, Boles also singled out Keith MacDonald, manager of City Centre Mall and a former Thompson Chamber of Commerce president, chamber office manager Paula Yanko, who formerly worked for Sunlife Financial, and Coun. Penny Byer, who retired April 12 as corporate affairs co-ordinator for Vale's Manitoba Operations here in Thompson, as notable chamber supporters of the Thompson Fur Table. Boles also said Volker Beckmann's work as volunteer co-ordinator for Spirit Way Inc. in establishing a wolf centre is a good complement to the annual trapping event.
Last year, Margo Pfeiff, a contributing editor at UpHere magazine in Yellowknife, came to Thompson for the fur tables. Her feature story," Fur & Fortune" appears in the October issue of the magazine. Pfeiff is a veteran travel writer and one of the most distinguished Arctic travel writers in Canada. She lives in Montreal but travels to the Canadian North regularly. Her work has appeared in numerous major magazine and newspapers, including also the Walrus, the Globe and Mail, the San Francisco Chronicle and Los Angeles Times, Popular Mechanics, Reader's Digest, Explore and Canadian Geographic magazines.
Boles said he suggested to Pfeiff that she sit north of the Miles Hart Bridge late on the Sunday morning after the fur tables had ended on the Saturday to observe the economic spinoffs.
Pfeiff closes her article by writing, "Over at the malls, where goods are being snapped up so fast that managers are helping restock the shelves, crowds of shoppers are pushing heaped carts across the packed parking lots. In the darkness, truck beds are piled high with furniture, appliances, toys and construction material. Snowmobiles are roped down on trailers. Then, one by one, the laden trucks join a line of traffic disappearing in a shroud of steam down the road, headed for far flung trapping outposts with names like York Landing, Cross Lake and Thicket Portage."
Boles said trappers might make $8,000 to $10,000 for the first part of the trapping season "but they probably spend double or triple that amount at Christmas."
The weather is one of the major factors that affects when trappers in Northern Manitoba can get out on their traplines and start harvesting, but the actual price they get for those furs is often decided half a world away, with consumer demand in China and the weather in Russia often being a key determinant driving annual fur prices.
Boles said cold weather last February in Russia and Asia and a shortage of pelts meant buyers bought all the quality furs they could get their hands on - in many cases two year's worth. Because so many buyers bought a two-year supply for furs just nine months ago, Boles said regardless of weather this year, it's unlikely fur prices will reach or surpass the record-setting highs of last year's fur tables for that reason alone, but he's still hoping for a good, if not banner year, at the December Thompson Fur Table.
