The Pas is a town in Manitoba, Canada, at the confluence of the Pasquia River and the Saskatchewan River and surrounded by the unorganized Northern Region of the province. It is approximately 520 kilometres (320 mi) northwest of the provincial capital, Winnipeg, and 35 kilometres (22 mi) from the border of Saskatchewan. It is sometimes still called Paskoyac by locals after the first trading post, called Fort Paskoya, constructed in the 1740s by French and Canadian traders. The Pasquia River begins in the Pasquia Hills in east central Saskatchewan. The French in 1795 knew the river as Basquiau.