Eight northerners now have their Class 1 driver’s licences thanks to a partnership between Thompson 2020, the province of Manitoba, Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO, First Nations sponsors like Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation (NCN) and First Class Training Centre, which sent four tractor-trailer driving instructors up to Thompson in the dead of winter to deliver the course.
Harlan Cordell, 49, who’s lived in Thompson for 12 years and is originally from Pikwitonei, said he had an opportunity years ago to get his Class 1 licence but it didn’t pan out and he’s glad to have achieved that goal now.
“I got sent out to Wuskwatim and I started making good money so I put this off,” said Cordell, who feels like he’s now got a passport to more job opportunities. “There’s so much opportunity for trucking. It seemed like a good choice.”
First Class has offered Class 1 licence instruction in Thompson before but never starting in January, says Jamie Franklin, one of the instructors.
“When I got up here it was -50, that was a shock to the system but it’s been a great time being up here,” he said.
And despite trucking’s blue-collar reputation, passing a Class 1 driver’s test takes a lot of classroom study.
“Most of the students that come to the program, they think, ‘Ah, it’s truck driving, it’s an easy course, this is going to be a simple thing,’ and they soon realize, once you get in the classroom, that there’s so much information we have to teach them,” said Franklin. “It’s really a tough course to do and hats off to these guys. They stepped up, they did a very good job, they were a pleasure to teach.”
Vince Linklater, 39, from NCN almost didn’t get to take the course.
“I contacted my sponsors from Nelson House and they contacted me back saying that due to unforeseen timing we’re not able to get you a spot in but then at the dead end of the process they called me and they managed to get me in on a sponsorship and here I am today, fully licensed with a Class 1,” said Linklater, who’s driven rock trucks at Keeyask where’s he’s worked since 2012, but had never driven a standard transmission vehicle before beginning this course.
A rock truck’s “something similar but it’s heavier, but it doesn’t have a clutch or a shifter, it’s automatic. Getting into the truck I was nervous at the beginning.”
Soon, however, he got the hang of things.
“The instructor asked me if I’d ever driven before,” said Linklater. “I said, ‘No.’ ‘We’ll you’re driving this like you already know what you’re doing.’”
Cordell said he’s definitely not too old to learn new skills.
“I went through with fairly good marks right up near the top of the class,” he said. “I’ve been running equipment and driving various kinds of trucks all along so it was kind of a natural fit. Now I can move on and either drive truck or operate equipment. I’m covered both ways.”
Support for most of the students came from the provincial government, as well as from their families, said Freda Lepine of MKO, noting that it can sometimes be hard for people from outlying communities coming to Thompson to find a place to stay because many apartments want renters to sign one-year leases.
“We can’t find a place for them so thank you to the families that support families,” she said. “That’s what we need.”
Tim Gibson, project manager for Thompson 2020, said initiatives like this are what that organization is set up to do to help the local economy weather the effects of a shrinking mining economy.
“Thompson 2020 was set up to do exactly that,” he said. “It’s a great model. We can do it again. We can do it better and faster.”
With a Class 1 licence, you can drive almost anything, says Franklin.
“Not only are they able to operate the tractor trailer, they can also operate buses and dump trucks and cement trucks, everything except a motorcycle basically.”
