The Thompson Community Development Corporation and other interested parties are hoping that the ideas generated during an Oct. 20 winter weather testing workshop will be a springboard for reinvigorating the industry in the city.
The workshop was facilitated by Barrie Kirk, who was contracted by a Thompson Chamber of Commerce committee on winter testing to develop a strategy to increase the number of companies who test how their products stand up to cold and snowy conditions here.
“We issued a report to the Chamber of Commerce earlier this year,” said Kirk, whose company CAVCOE (Canadian Automated Vehicles Centre of Excellence) focuses on helping private businesses and the public sector prepare for the changes and opportunities that increasing use of automated vehicles will bring. “The purpose [of the workshop] was to get a group of stakeholders together … and really do a deeper dive into exactly how this winter weather testing will operate, how it will be governed, the vision and all those things. That will give us … a lot more specific information and feedback from the stakeholders as to how all this will unfold in the future.”
Discussion at the workshop generated 11 topics for Kirk to follow up and report back on.
“The immediate next step is to write up what was discussed and produce something for all of the stakeholders,” he said.
Although Thompson may have lost ground to some other winter weather testing locations over the past decade or so, it still has many advantages when it comes to this economic niche, including an average temperature dipping below freezing for more than 200 days per year, transportation access via road, rail and air, prime and secluded testing locations like isolated roads and frozen lakes, as well as plentiful hotel accommodations and affordable hydroelectric power.
“What’s very encouraging is that Thompson has been consistently popular for winter weather testing,” Kirk said. “Companies have been coming here even when Thompson was not marketing itself.”
Mainstays of the winter weather testing industry include Rolls-Royce and Pratt & Whitney, which test jet engines at the GLACIER centre south of town.
“The most advanced jet engines in the world from Rolls-Royce and Pratt & Whitney are brought to the GLACIER centre for developmental testing and icing certification,” said Kim Olson of MDS AeroTest, which operates and maintains the facility. “The Thompson community has provided tremendous support for fabrication and construction, industrial supplies, building and equipment maintenance, and of course excellent accommodations for the teams of technical analysts.”
A newer arrival for winter testing in Thompson is Swap Robotics, which demonstrated its automated snow removal, grass cutting and sidewalk inspecting vehicle at the workshop and is going to begin testing automated snow removal technology in the city.
“Thompson will be an ideal testing ground for us,” said Swap founder and CEO Tim Lichtl. “The extended cold weather season will enable us to conduct testing in harsh, real-world environments before bringing our snow removal robots to market.”
Key tasks to grow the testing industry include broad-based marketing of what Thompson has to offer, signing agreements between organizations to cooperate regarding winter weather testing, and identifying and developing research projects, Kirk says
“The local universities and colleges are very interested and excited at what we’re doing and we want to work with therm and with the private sector and identify areas of winter weather testing which help put Thompson on the map as the North American centre for winter weather testing,” he said. “What we want to do is build on it and make it even more successful so that more organizations come here and spend money to bring people and equipment here for winter weather testing and it’ll be a lot more than just cars. Cars are certainly a part of it but it will be a lot more in the future and we want to expand the impact and the benefits for the local ecosystem and the local economy.”
Ongoing management and implementation of the development strategy will be overseen by the Thompson Community Development Corporation.
“Thompson is uniquely positioned to offer real-world testing conditions in a pristine environment, making it the best outdoor cold weather test site in the world,” said community development corporation manager Chris Reddy.
There are also plans to hold Thompson’s inaugural North American Cold Weather Testing Conference in 2022.
