Pas, the

Town in western Manitoba, Canada, at the junction of the Saskatchewan and Pasquia rivers, 515 km/320 mi northwest of Winnipeg; population (1991) 6,200. It is a distribution centre for timber, furs, fish, and minerals, with some local farming and a community college. A Trappers Festival is held here every winter.

The town grew up around Fort-Paskoyac, a fur trading post established in 1750 by the sons of the French-Canadian explorer La Vérendrye. Modern development was spurred by the opening in 1929 of the grain-transporting railway to Churchill and the 1960s creation of a huge wood and pulp producing complex.

The name may come from the Cree opasquaow, ‘narrows between wooded banks’. There are several Indian reserves nearby, and the Clearwater Lake Provincial Park is just to the north.