00;00;10;10 - 00;00;31;04
Lindsay Rubeniuk
Okay Lindsay. I want to thank you so much for joining us for life on the prairies. And I want to introduce, Lindsey Alliban and I'm going to actually let her tell you all about where she's from. And we're getting some really good information about her region, her province. But I always think it's really great when the person, tells us about where they're from.

00;00;31;04 - 00;00;44;02
Lindsay Rubeniuk
So let's start off with that. Let's start off, Lindsay, with, you know, your community, your region, where you're from. Tell us a little bit about yourself, your authority on economic development and just. Yeah, tell us all what you think we should know.

00;00;44;05 - 00;01;08;12
Lindsay Alliban
Sounds good. Well, thanks, Lindsay, for having me and for sharing such an awesome name with me. Yes. Well, so my name is Lindsay Alliban. I'm an economic development officer and a self-proclaimed rural enthusiast, so I love, living on in rural communities and on the prairies. So this is a very fitting time and topic to talk to you about.

00;01;08;13 - 00;01;37;06
Lindsay Alliban
So I live in the small town of Hazlet, Saskatchewan, which is population 100 people, and we are in the southwest corner of Saskatchewan. So we're just a little bit of a drive. So about 45 minutes from Swift Current, which is the largest city near to us. And we have a beautiful little region filled with farming and oil and actually, helium is a new industry, growing in this area.

00;01;37;08 - 00;01;53;05
Lindsay Alliban
And I've grown up here and I went away and did schooling, and then I came back here and started my career in economic development. And I really am passionate about all things small town and prairie life. So thanks so much for having me here.

00;01;53;09 - 00;02;16;09
Lindsay Rubeniuk
Oh you're welcome. So when we talk about your, proximity from Vancouver to Toronto, because every time I talk to someone that's not really familiar with Canada, per se, they're like, oh, well, where are you in proximity from? Toronto or Vancouver, or. So I think you've given us a pretty good, direction. But in terms of the prairies, Saskatchewan, where you are is our middle province, right.

00;02;16;09 - 00;02;38;10
Lindsay Alliban
So yeah. And that's that's often what I tell people as well. I've done a little bit of international student recruitment in my, in my career. So that was definitely a line I used a lot. But basically we're about right in the middle of both of those places. So Toronto is about 3000km away and Vancouver is about 1500 kilometers away.

00;02;38;11 - 00;02;41;08
Lindsay Alliban
So pretty smack dab in the middle.

00;02;41;11 - 00;02;52;17
Lindsay Rubeniuk
Okay. But you have you have highways. You have everything that we need in order to, get to your communities. So to your communities is not a problem at all.

00;02;52;20 - 00;03;18;03
Lindsay Alliban
Yeah. It's we we have one highway that runs right to Hazlet, and it actually ends here. So I always say we're the little pot of gold at the end of highway 332. but it's really easy to get around here. And there's many communities surrounding us that I would say are more and more growing into one community. So we're a bit more regional than, just siloed in one each one of our villages or towns.

00;03;18;06 - 00;03;41;15
Lindsay Alliban
And so we have a really good working cooperation with all of our neighbors. And that's makes it great because a lot of people work in the other communities near to us, go to school, take their kids to daycare. and we have those things in our community as well as school and a daycare. But, you know, if if one of the moms or dads is working in the next community over, we all kind of interchange.

00;03;41;15 - 00;03;47;05
Lindsay Alliban
So it's a nice, area of kind of suburban communities.

00;03;47;07 - 00;04;11;10
Lindsay Rubeniuk
Okay. Beautiful, beautiful. so let's jump into it, because the purpose for life on the prairies, this podcast, is to provide people with really solid information on, you know, communities, their jobs, the potential and so on and so forth. Right. So if you're looking for somewhere to relocate or if you're looking to emigrate, the number one question I'm often asked is, what's the labor force like?

00;04;11;10 - 00;04;18;10
Lindsay Rubeniuk
What are the job opportunities in your community or the other communities that you just talked about?

00;04;18;12 - 00;04;50;11
Lindsay Alliban
Yeah, and I'd say there's a lot of different options. There are some high skill options with farming, oil and gas, and lots of trade work. So electricians, plumbing, instrumentation, truck driving, those would all be ones that I would say if you have those skills, there'd be a lot of opportunity across all of those industries. And then as well, and a lot of the surrounding communities, retail and service industry has a lot of opportunities.

00;04;50;13 - 00;05;11;23
Lindsay Alliban
There is as well, a lot of entrepreneurial opportunities. So people who have run businesses for years and years and years are looking to retire, and they need someone to be their successor. So we have quite a few business opportunities. If there are entrepreneurs looking for those opportunities here in small towns, ask.

00;05;11;26 - 00;05;47;27
Lindsay Rubeniuk
Oh that's awesome. Okay, so let's go back to talking about the labor force opportunities in terms of the trades. Everybody that listens to my podcast knows I am a huge fan of trades people and and so when you become a trades person, or if you're looking at becoming a trades person that you have to do an apprenticeship, is there is there the opportunity if you are going to relocate or immigrate, to your communities, do you think that there's opportunities for, people, newcomers to maybe train or have apprenticeships under tradespeople?

00;05;47;29 - 00;06;14;03
Lindsay Alliban
Yes. And when I would say is a lot of times when I'm talking to people as well who want to immigrate or to come relocate to our communities is either their certifications aren't authenticated yet or they're having trouble like building that trust with employers. And so I think there's lots of opportunity to come with and get a job with an entry level position.

00;06;14;05 - 00;06;42;14
Lindsay Alliban
So maybe being a laborer or, working underneath some of the tradespeople here. And once you build that trust and show your ability, a lot of opportunity to grow within companies. So I definitely think that people should look for those entry level jobs to get connections and build trust, to move into those higher, higher level skilled positions that they might already have training in.

00;06;42;17 - 00;07;07;29
Lindsay Rubeniuk
Yeah, no, definitely. And they could do trade qualifiers and so on and so forth. And I think the funny thing is, is that, when I do talk to people, you know, be it from larger centers or, people not from Canada, and they don't realize how much trades people make in our communities. Right? So we often think that lawyers and doctors and teachers and like you know, oh, those are like the jobs that make the most money.

00;07;07;29 - 00;07;27;04
Lindsay Rubeniuk
But, you know, in my home town of only 700 people, we have our plumber, and he charges me over 100 bucks an hour, not, not including materials. Right. So I think the potential in rural communities for people to become tradespeople is just really, is. Yeah. Great.

00;07;27;06 - 00;07;55;29
Lindsay Alliban
There's there's a lot of potential, whether you want to be an employee of someone within trades or if you wanted to run your own business. There are ten small towns in the in our little hundred kilometer radius area that are just begging to have local plumbers, local electricians, local mechanics. So I think if someone has those skills and wants to start their own business, that opportunity is definitely there.

00;07;56;01 - 00;08;14;26
Lindsay Rubeniuk
Yeah, because you get paid while you're an apprentice, right? So you get hired by someone to learn the trade, and you're getting paid to learn and, really? So you're going to know that being a tradesperson, even while you're apprenticing, and then when you become a red or get your ticket, you can still work for that company, or you can choose to go on your own.

00;08;14;26 - 00;08;28;18
Lindsay Rubeniuk
Right? So it's, Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, and speaking of that, I was going to jump to that later, but you just talked about the 100 kilometer radius. So in terms of commuting, that wouldn't be very far at all then. Like what's the average commute time.

00;08;28;21 - 00;08;51;19
Lindsay Alliban
Yeah, I would say 30 to 45 minutes is most people's commute. either direction from us, there's three communities that are 25, 30 minutes. the city of Swift Current is 45 minutes by highway and the city of Medicine Hat, which is in the province over. It's about an hour 45, so it's a bit larger, but it's not too far away either.

00;08;51;21 - 00;09;23;10
Lindsay Alliban
And so it's it and it's a peaceful commute. There isn't traffic. The worst you're probably going to find is deer on the road, or maybe a cow. But there it's a peaceful drive. And and I think that's people especially who live from or move from larger cities and come here. The commute is always like a relaxing part of their day because they can listen to a podcast, they can listen to music or talk on the phone while they're making their commute, and that not deal with red lights or backed up traffic.

00;09;23;10 - 00;09;42;05
Lindsay Rubeniuk
So yeah, that's brilliant. I really like that view because it's so true, because I drive a lot and people are like, how do you drive a lot? And I was like, well, because I can listen to podcasts, I'm not and I'm not having to worry about all these different, you know, like changing lanes or being caught in traffic for an hour, hour and a half, right issue to get in your car.

00;09;42;06 - 00;09;44;23
Lindsay Rubeniuk
You go, you're there.

00;09;44;25 - 00;10;18;23
Lindsay Alliban
So yeah, it's actually a lot of some of the teachers that live in my community. a couple of them drive 30 or 40 minutes to come, teach here, and they say they love their morning drive because they can unwind. They can kind of plan their teaching process in the morning. And make mental notes for themselves. And then in the afternoon, when they're driving home after school, they can kind of unwind before they get to the home, to their family and, and not be disturbing their home life with the maybe that energy they've been getting from school.

00;10;18;25 - 00;10;36;13
Lindsay Rubeniuk
Well, yeah. No. And so I think and oftentimes people don't realize the importance of a commute and they are trying to capture that time back. Right. So if you're currently, in a community or a larger center where you're having to spend two, three hours, which is realistic, like it's unheard of for us that we're here on the prairies.

00;10;36;20 - 00;10;54;23
Lindsay Rubeniuk
But I know that people do spend a lot of time commuting, so they're trying to get their time back to spend with their families. so I think, you know, touching on that, speaking about commuting and rural areas is also very important because I think it's actually a very positive thing for us. Okay. So we talked about, jobs.

00;10;54;23 - 00;11;00;14
Lindsay Rubeniuk
Is there anything else you want to add in terms of, the labor market or anything like that?

00;11;00;17 - 00;11;14;25
Lindsay Alliban
I would just say that one point with that, that there is a commute. It is really important to have a vehicle and a license for living in these locations, because that is one downfall for rural Saskatchewan, is we don't have a lot of public transit.

00;11;14;27 - 00;11;33;02
Lindsay Rubeniuk
Yeah for sure. So if you come, they have to make sure that you are you have the ability to access transportation and like but there's carpooling. I know, like a lot of people, you know, want to save money and, you know, even kilometers on their car. So they'll often like, do carpooling. And, so there's alternate ways to do it as well.

00;11;33;04 - 00;11;36;12
Lindsay Alliban
Yeah. And there's definitely those options.

00;11;36;14 - 00;11;57;14
Lindsay Rubeniuk
Okay. So that's awesome then. Okay. So after labor after employment. So I often get asked that. So what are the jobs out there. What can I do. Then they're like then we have to talk about housing. And I know this is a national, you know, it's a it's epidemic basically. And that housing is a hot issue nationally.

00;11;57;17 - 00;12;21;00
Lindsay Rubeniuk
And a lot of people are very concerned about the cost of living, and most of it goes with housing. Where are they? In a land. So that's the exact same question I get all the time is okay, so now that I know there's really great jobs out there, which we have and we often ask about housing. So if you want to talk to us a little bit about housing affordability and so on and so forth, whatever you want to tell us about your housing situation in your region, that'd be great.

00;12;21;02 - 00;12;55;10
Lindsay Alliban
Yeah. And like like you mentioned, it is a problem across Canada, with growing population and Saskatchewan's having a significant growth in population. So housing is a bit of a challenge at the moment. Luckily, something smaller communities offer is the affordable living. So my favorite thing that I love about my community, besides it being really welcoming and great and having all the things that I like to do here, my favorite piece of living in a small community is that it is affordable.

00;12;55;16 - 00;13;27;13
Lindsay Alliban
I can work less amount of time. I can not stress as much with debt or bills, because I can live for $600 a month or $800 a month, and that is the best part of small town living. That being said, we do have some opportunities in these communities with larger houses that are often for sale or rent. but I would say I looked up the real estate listings a couple weeks ago in this region.

00;13;27;13 - 00;14;00;03
Lindsay Alliban
So I'm talking about, you know, 100, 125 kilometer radius. And the most expensive house was 250,000. but that was probably out on its own. Most houses were under 200,000 and the lowest being 40,000 to purchase a house. So not just kidding of gives you an example of how easy and attainable it is to buy a home. And I would say rent runs from about 600 to 1500, depending how large of a home.

00;14;00;06 - 00;14;23;07
Lindsay Alliban
But there's definitely opportunities for housing. but I would say 2 to 5 homes in each community is kind of available. So it is a lower amount right now than our usual, vacancy rates, but still opportunity for people to find homes if they do find jobs in this area.

00;14;23;09 - 00;14;27;17
Lindsay Rubeniuk
So what size of homes are we talking about? Like three bed, two bath or.

00;14;27;18 - 00;14;56;16
Lindsay Alliban
Yeah, I would say definitely. well, in my community specifically, we don't have any apartments or one bedrooms. We have, on the market right now. There's one home that's a two bedroom, one bath with a full basement. Then there's another home with five bedrooms, two baths, and it's for sale for 160,000. Wow. So, yeah, really good options.

00;14;56;16 - 00;15;19;24
Lindsay Alliban
And and right now. And we're starting to see a little bit of the retirement age kind of shifting in the homes they want. So some of them are bringing in smaller homes and selling their larger homes that they raise their families in. So that's kind of a trend we're starting to see, as well as a lot of the communities in this area are doing some housing initiatives.

00;15;19;27 - 00;15;30;21
Lindsay Alliban
So we're trying to bring in duplex SES and multi unit homes to to help people who are trying to get started in a community and, and find a job here.

00;15;30;21 - 00;15;50;12
Lindsay Rubeniuk
So, you know, safety initiatives, it's important to touch on something you're just talking about. And so the price of housing right. But then you look at the employment opportunities that we have and there's lots of employment opportunities. I looked up in your area as well where you are getting paid just as well as if you were in the city.

00;15;50;15 - 00;15;51;15
Lindsay Rubeniuk
You know, there are.

00;15;51;21 - 00;16;16;07
Lindsay Alliban
Lots of I would say the income level is quite high in these rural communities, and the cost of living is quite low. So it's it's the data shows it and it's just making people understand that their quality of life can be just as good in these outsides of the cities, that they could get in the city.

00;16;16;09 - 00;16;38;24
Lindsay Rubeniuk
And if not better. Right. Because you're looking at it because you have high income and you have low cost of housing, and also I think where we talk about schools are occurring a bit. But, you know, what I often say to people is that if you have a family, your children are probably have a better chance of being on the volleyball team or the curling or whatever it is.

00;16;38;24 - 00;16;59;25
Lindsay Rubeniuk
Right. So and you can get to that to, and gets that practice within a couple minutes instead of having to, you know, like get in the car and doors for an hour and traffic and then be at practice and then have to, you know, come back or, you know, having to take your, your child all the way across the city because they unfortunately just didn't make this team.

00;16;59;25 - 00;17;11;19
Lindsay Rubeniuk
Right. And so you have no other options but to do that. But er rural town, your children actually have more opportunity to participate and different, you know, in different sports as well.

00;17;11;22 - 00;17;35;26
Lindsay Alliban
Yeah. I would agree. There is no tryouts. Everybody gets to participate if they want and get that opportunity to be in drama, volleyball, curling, Hamilton. You know, all of those options are there. And and often the kids are encouraged to join even if it's not their number one interest. And it just gives them that opportunity to be more social and participate in team sports.

00;17;35;28 - 00;17;38;02
Lindsay Alliban
So we which I think is very important.

00;17;38;05 - 00;17;58;23
Lindsay Rubeniuk
Yeah, we got high income, we got housing is very affordable and we have our children participating in extracurricular activities. Right. And your commute is not really long at all. So so far I think we're making a good case for for where you live, especially well.

00;17;58;23 - 00;18;28;13
Lindsay Alliban
And I think there's a lot of opportunity for extracurricular for adults as well. That's a big part of my life. I love sports, I love taking part in educational opportunities. And and we have weekly fitness classes here of all different fitness levels, you know, from yoga to high intensity fitness to weightlifting. We have, educational classes around entrepreneurship, accounting, agriculture and cooking classes.

00;18;28;13 - 00;18;44;07
Lindsay Alliban
We have all sorts of classes that that families can take part in of all ages. So that is a really important thing. I think as well, that there's a lot of different ways that adults can be social here, as well as their kids.

00;18;44;09 - 00;18;56;13
Lindsay Rubeniuk
So what's your average participation fee? So like for adults, if you're going to go and or and participate and you know, weightlifting or something like that, what's your drop in fee or is it. Yeah.

00;18;56;13 - 00;19;11;27
Lindsay Alliban
Know right now we're running some programing for fitness which is only $5 to drop in. So we have some great funding options here where we access funding to offer affordable classes to adults.

00;19;11;29 - 00;19;12;18
Lindsay Rubeniuk
Wow. That's great.

00;19;12;18 - 00;19;22;28
Lindsay Alliban
So so that's been really excellent. Yeah. And we're running some sour dough cooking classes or sourdough baking classes at the end of the month. And that's going to be $25. So all this.

00;19;22;28 - 00;19;43;15
Lindsay Rubeniuk
Fun stuff that you guys have going on. So great. Okay. So and I know I'll mention this on on future episodes, but often times as well, people being like, oh, I'm going to live in the city because, you know, when my child goes to university or college, I want to be able to save that money.

00;19;43;18 - 00;20;03;06
Lindsay Rubeniuk
you know, so I'm not paying, rent or whatever for them. Right. But if you look at if you're buying a house for $200,000 with the same house, you have to buy for $850,000 somewhere else. So you're really telling me that you want to in the long run, pay? You're going to be paying $600,000 in rent for your child, right?

00;20;03;06 - 00;20;33;08
Lindsay Rubeniuk
So these split, you know, like people need to think of that as well. Is that the cost of housing? And then saying, you know, you can always move, you know, you can always move if there's a university or college, that you, that your child wants to go to and you want to go there with them to save on cost of living, but during those during those 18 years or those 15 years that your child is going to be with you, I think that, you know, choosing, a community where it's affordable to live, that housing is, you know, cost effective over somewhere.

00;20;33;08 - 00;20;53;15
Lindsay Rubeniuk
Where are you going to have to drive two hours to get to your job? You're going to be paying nearly $1 million for the same house you would have got. You have the exact same income if you would have been living in your region. Right. So I think there's a lot to be said to, to kind of, provide that education or awareness that we do have a lot of great stuff going on.

00;20;53;17 - 00;21;27;25
Lindsay Alliban
Yeah. And one point around the cost of living as well as that, a few people have relocated to various communities in this area that we're living in more in larger centers, larger cities and had really high stress corporate jobs and just decided that that wasn't serving them and realized that they could work a high paying job, whether it was remote or in this area, live in a more affordable home, travel for half time of the year, and still have the same amount in their bank account.

00;21;27;28 - 00;21;57;18
Lindsay Alliban
So that is something I think is important as well to everyone's stress level. And mental health is, that you have more time with your family, you have more time for vacations and socializing. If you live more affordably and don't have to work as hard or as often. And that's, I think, a big asset to to living somewhere that has, a more affordable, more affordable options for housing.

00;21;57;21 - 00;22;22;18
Lindsay Rubeniuk
Okay, awesome. So I kind of want to jump ahead because we talked about the basics of what everybody usually asks me when they're when they're looking to relocate or immigrate somewhere, but you actually have a lot of good projects going on in your region. And, you know, so when you when you go to a city, people are like, oh, they're, you know, they have all these great projects, but when they go to a rural area, they're thinking, oh, they really have nothing going on.

00;22;22;18 - 00;22;40;21
Lindsay Rubeniuk
You know, really what's innovative and about, you know, this rural town. Right. So I want to jump in to your, your international school that you guys have there. And I want you just to tell us, like, how it started. you know, like, why it started, how it started. How's it going? What's your future goals for it?

00;22;40;21 - 00;22;44;11
Lindsay Rubeniuk
So tell us everything that you want about this project.

00;22;44;13 - 00;23;12;09
Lindsay Alliban
Yeah, I could talk all day about it because I live and breathe, that's all. I love it a lot. Excellent. So basically, in around 2006, we, had a declining population locally, so which in turn dropped our enrollment within our school. And our and our school is a kindergarten to grade 12 school. So I spent ten years of my education life in that school, and I wouldn't change it for anything.

00;23;12;09 - 00;23;33;17
Lindsay Alliban
I had all the opportunities that any person in the city had. And when I was in grade 12, there was only 30 students in that school. So is it. It was a little bit dismal. It was like we only had a couple people in our classes, you know, you didn't have as much, you know, opportunity for teams. You kind of had to travel away.

00;23;33;17 - 00;23;56;25
Lindsay Alliban
And and so one of our returning teachers, who was just coming back from maternity leave thought, hey, wouldn't there be an option to bring in international students to this, to our school, which would maybe make our school stand out a little bit, as well as put more kids in our classrooms for our kids to socialize and learn more about and bring some diversity to the community.

00;23;56;28 - 00;24;27;09
Lindsay Alliban
So that's what she did for you initiated this international program, which ended up bringing since 2006. It's now 2024, so we've probably had 200 plus students come through this program to our school. These students come for 5 or 10 months. They come from all over the world Brazil, Mexico, Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand, all over Europe and Saudi Arabia.

00;24;27;09 - 00;25;04;16
Lindsay Alliban
We've had people from all over and what it did to our community is it brought diversity and culture. We have, annual international celebration where people can highlight their their cultures, food, games, show videos of where they're from, etc.. it's brought life to our school, a lot of rural communities surrounding us who might have lost their schools, recognize that we were doing something different and a different opportunity for their kids to learn right from organic interactions in their classrooms.

00;25;04;18 - 00;25;31;28
Lindsay Alliban
And so those families chose to bring their kids here because of what we were doing. These students are living with host families locally, so they're getting a chance to experience life on a farm, on a ranch, living in a smaller community, walking to school and not being worried about anything. The safety is a really big feature of our program to families that are sending their students from larger cities, and we just can't.

00;25;32;01 - 00;26;04;28
Lindsay Alliban
We could have never imagined what that was that program was going to do to our school. I myself have 4 or 5 international siblings that lived with our family as we, started the program. I also have 3 or 4 now kids that I have hosted myself as an adult now. So I have a vast family of international kids living across the world that I've gone to visit and, get to experience their communities as well.

00;26;05;01 - 00;26;25;20
Lindsay Alliban
And then I think the other part of it is lots of these kids have came back to visit, increasing the tourism in this area. And some of them have even immigrated to Canada to live because of their experience here. So I just think it's been the most magnificent thing that could have happened to our school, let alone our community.

00;26;25;20 - 00;26;37;07
Lindsay Alliban
So, it's pretty rare to have a rural Saskatchewan community with as much diversity as we have experienced here. So that it's been amazing. And like I said, I could talk all day about it.

00;26;37;09 - 00;26;39;17
Lindsay Rubeniuk
So what's the project called?

00;26;39;19 - 00;27;05;04
Lindsay Alliban
The Chinook International Program. So it's operated out of our entire school division, but there's only two schools Hazlet was the only school that was taking international students for about 15 years. but another school has reached out and they are now doing it as well. So now we have two schools within our division that are hosting students. And currently we have a student from Germany.

00;27;05;10 - 00;27;15;04
Lindsay Alliban
We had two students from France earlier this year, and a student from Hong Kong and a student from Taiwan. And we also had a student from Chile.

00;27;15;07 - 00;27;30;20
Lindsay Rubeniuk
Oh yeah. So it truly is diverse. So you would think that, you had mentioned that now you feel you're community is is a lot more welcoming and that would you consider your community and your region like a welcoming community?

00;27;30;23 - 00;28;01;18
Lindsay Alliban
Yeah, I would say we have way more experience with cultural diversity now than we maybe would have if this program didn't exist. we've had to experience many different cultures, many different religions, many, many different, men like food beads, tastes and, traditions. And so I think it's brought our community to a new level because of that.

00;28;01;21 - 00;28;35;12
Lindsay Alliban
And I think it's interesting to watch, you know, some people who are of the older generation interact with new cultures and getting to learn from that. And I would say my education improved a lot about geography. world history, all of those different things that have come from from knowing people from international, countries. So I'd say yes, we are definitely welcoming and more accustomed to different cultures than we would have been 20 years ago.

00;28;35;15 - 00;28;39;21
Lindsay Rubeniuk
Okay, that's great because I think people really want to know that communities are very welcoming.

00;28;39;23 - 00;29;02;20
Lindsay Alliban
So wow. And I just, I, I would add that one thing that's interesting about our international student program is that just as it would be for a newcomer from anywhere coming to a community the size of ours, and, you know, like I said, at the end of a highway, but often we pick these students up in Regina or Saskatoon, which are international airports close to us.

00;29;02;22 - 00;29;23;04
Lindsay Alliban
It's about two and a half, three hours drive. We pick these students up often in a night, drive them for hours and hours in the dark, and they'd wake up in this small town, maybe on a farm, maybe with only 4 or 5 houses around them. And, and they would think, oh my gosh, what have I done?

00;29;23;06 - 00;29;52;09
Lindsay Alliban
And within a week's time, they're perspective of that experience is completely changed. They've acclimatized, they've they've come to understand how a small community works. They they feel like a celebrity because they're this new person in this small community that everyone's excited to meet and get to know. And so.

00;29;52;11 - 00;30;11;27
Lindsay Alliban
Five that left because they didn't enjoy it. So that just kind of is an attestation to how easy it is to get to, to know, the life of a smaller community and how you can adjust. and it's not as scary as it might seem. So I thought that I think a good message for.

00;30;11;27 - 00;30;32;20
Lindsay Rubeniuk
Oh, yeah, I know it's a fabulous initiative, and I really, I'm really happy that we could connect and talk about this. So. Okay, so I'm going to actually have that link. I think you sent it to me. So everything you're talking about I'm basically going to have links under my show notes. Right. Am I show notes so people can still get that.

00;30;32;22 - 00;30;52;05
Lindsay Rubeniuk
and further with employment, do you have, do you have like local employment boards or do you have people to help somebody? Like they won't necessarily go get them the job and not but you know, I mean like job boards and so on and so forth. So somebody relocates or immigrates to your area, they'll have those, that assistance available settlement offices.

00;30;52;08 - 00;30;54;17
Lindsay Rubeniuk
So there's lots of reasons there.

00;30;54;20 - 00;31;22;21
Lindsay Alliban
So a recent initiative, which was only a couple of years old is our Three Points Economic Partnership, which I'll also provide you the link for that. And so that is a regional cooperation with three communities in this area. And so what we've done is we as economic development officers, there's three of us in this region, and we want to be a liaison to employers for anyone who's interested in jobs or housing in this area.

00;31;22;23 - 00;31;52;13
Lindsay Alliban
So you can access information on jobs, housing and what our communities are like on that website. So three points. Yep. Okay. And we also have a settlement office in Swift Current, which is about 45 minutes away. and they work regionally. So it's the South West newcomer Welcome Center. And they help with settlement employment.

00;31;52;15 - 00;32;13;04
Lindsay Alliban
Things working with your your, your children who are starting school. They offer English classes and so they are a partner of ours as well that we work with closely to help make sure that anyone who is relocating here and might need a little bit of extra help, we work together to make sure we can do them.

00;32;13;06 - 00;32;31;12
Lindsay Rubeniuk
Okay, great. So definitely let's let's link all that because I think it's really important for communities to have those resources readily available. And even before people show up in your community, they can reach out to you guys and say, hey, this is what we're looking at. You know, if you like, you know, and they can contact, make contact with you or your two colleagues.

00;32;31;12 - 00;32;38;22
Lindsay Rubeniuk
So very important, that we share that resource for or, everybody. Okay.

00;32;38;23 - 00;32;59;14
Lindsay Alliban
So and we want. Yeah. Oh, I was just going to say we, we as the economic development and community development people, we want to just be that community connection so you can find your way within a community. So, you know, maybe you won't know where the rank is or how the skating rink works. Or maybe you are interested in starting a test club.

00;32;59;14 - 00;33;11;16
Lindsay Alliban
And we are the people that are connected with the community on multiple levels. And so we are here to be that person for you to help find what you need from within a community. If you really relocate here.

00;33;11;18 - 00;33;32;11
Lindsay Rubeniuk
Oh that's excellent. Okay. So before we close up, I think we the one other thing I would like to touch on really briefly is, health care. So what's your health care like there? So we know you have a good education system. We know employment's good. We know, everything else. But we haven't really asked you about health care.

00;33;32;14 - 00;34;01;08
Lindsay Alliban
Yeah. So we have some great clinics in surrounding communities. So about 30 minutes in either direction. There is doctors and health nurse nurse practitioners. so those are kind of clinics that we access from our community. and it's as easy as making an appointment. Often the wait time is usually a day. And you can also get into an emergency in in both of those places if necessary.

00;34;01;10 - 00;34;26;18
Lindsay Alliban
We have ambulance service in both of those communities as well, and Swift Current, which is the 40 minute drive or 30 minutes from some of our surrounding communities. They have a full hospital and array of emergency services, medical services, doc, doctors, dentists, eye doctors, the whole gamut. So it's definitely, in reach from where we live.

00;34;26;25 - 00;34;37;02
Lindsay Rubeniuk
Yeah, sure. And then, when you're living in the city and takes you 30 to 45 minutes to get to your appointments anyways, right? So it's basically the similar like similar commute. Yeah.

00;34;37;02 - 00;34;51;26
Lindsay Alliban
And often, often in the larger cities I'm finding the waiting rooms are long, long waits. so luckily we can just call and hopefully make an appointment and we don't have to wait in those walk in clinics.

00;34;51;29 - 00;34;54;24
Lindsay Rubeniuk
It's just we just have so many great things going online. So don't wait.

00;34;54;26 - 00;34;55;13
Lindsay Alliban
Yeah.

00;34;55;15 - 00;35;16;02
Lindsay Rubeniuk
Okay. Well, I have a closing question for you, and I really think this, really defines, you know, a community or region. So I'm just going to I'm just going to ask you if someone had one day only in your town, where would you tell them to eat out? What would you tell them to do to, you know, to go see?

00;35;16;07 - 00;35;20;20
Lindsay Rubeniuk
How would you tell them to spend their day in your community?

00;35;20;23 - 00;35;46;20
Lindsay Alliban
Well, I would say that they should go for a quick morning walk in our regional park, which is just a short distance drive from from our town. And it has a beautiful body of water, a golf course, campground, kids playground. So that's where I like to do my morning walks. Is is out there and you can see lots of great different kinds of wildlife there too.

00;35;46;20 - 00;36;17;14
Lindsay Alliban
So that is a fun little recreation activity that's available. Then I would suggest for either breakfast or lunch you could go to our local cafe, which has an unique atmosphere. It's it's fairly small and we have a great soup and sandwich option or a great breakfast option as well as fresh baking. But it's an interesting environment in there because it has one long table where a lot of people usually sit, whether you're from the community or not.

00;36;17;17 - 00;36;37;25
Lindsay Alliban
It also has separate tables in the in there, but, everyone who comes there often sits at this one long table and they all catch up on their day and they have coffee and visit about what's going on in the community, and often try and get asked 20 questions to the new people who show up there. We ask.

00;36;37;25 - 00;37;19;08
Lindsay Alliban
We have also a large map in there that shows where a lot of international visitors have been from. So you can put your Pin where you're from and where you're visiting from, and for the rest of the afternoon. I would suggest, if it's farming season, the opportunity to go see, a farming operation. So go for a ride in a tractor or a combine, or visit a ranch where you can and see well, this time of year, new baby calves being born and experience what beauty we have in these smaller communities with, you know, rolling hills, long, vast areas of farmland.

00;37;19;08 - 00;37;43;09
Lindsay Alliban
And I just think it's unheard of for people who live in larger cities. And then if you make it into the evening here, you can't go without looking at the sky and seeing all the stars. So many international students have came here from, especially some of the larger cities in South America. And in, in Asia. And they see stars for the first time in their life.

00;37;43;11 - 00;37;50;19
Lindsay Alliban
So if you haven't seen stars before, I really encourage you to come out here and see those.

00;37;50;19 - 00;38;05;24
Lindsay Rubeniuk
So so I want to ask you this closing question. And so if someone had to spend one day in your town, what would you tell them to do? Where would you tell them to eat? just tell us what you would tell them to do for one day in your community.

00;38;05;26 - 00;38;25;23
Lindsay Alliban
Yeah. So to get to know the community of Hazlet, I think, I can just share kind of what I like to do on a day that I don't have to work. So I love visiting our Hazlet Regional Park, which is just a short five, seven minute drive from here. And it's in a little valley and has a body of water.

00;38;25;23 - 00;38;48;07
Lindsay Alliban
So we have a campground and a golf course there, but it's great for going on walks and there's often a lot of wildlife there. And if you have a pet, it's a good spot to take your pets for a walk. And then I would say, if you want to catch coffee or lunch, we have a local cafe that has some really great soup and sandwiches and specials, as well as fresh baking.

00;38;48;10 - 00;39;11;00
Lindsay Alliban
So something unique about this cafe is that it has one long table in the middle. There are small tables, surrounding that, but so you can have a more private lunch or, or breakfast, but you also have the opportunity if you want to meet locals. There's one long table where everyone sits together and they have coffee and visit and talk about what's going on.

00;39;11;02 - 00;39;42;17
Lindsay Alliban
Most often they're talking about the weather, and there is one large map in this cafe where we have pins from all sorts of people who have visited our community or live in our community. So if you are from a different part of the country or the world, you can leave your mark and say that you visited. And for the afternoon, I would say there are if there, depending on what season it is, it would be great to visit some of our agricultural operations.

00;39;42;17 - 00;40;13;15
Lindsay Alliban
So maybe a ranch where you could see ride a horse or see some cows, and this time of year you can see some baby calves, which is always adorable, or experience of branding, which is when the farmers tag or mark all of their baby cows. So that's a really unique experience for people who have never done that before or or go for a visit to a farm where you can ride some large equipment and see how those operations are, and see where a lot of the world's food comes from.

00;40;13;18 - 00;40;42;16
Lindsay Alliban
And I would suggest, taking in some of the quiet evening activities, which would especially be something seeing the night sky here. even though we're in southern parts of Canada, you can see the northern lights as well as seeing the stars. A lot of our international students have visited, from major cities in South America or in Asia, and they saw stars for the first time when they got to our community.

00;40;42;16 - 00;40;56;02
Lindsay Alliban
So that's a really unique thing that, people who aren't used to such dark skies or less light pollution get to experience being in one of our communities.

00;40;56;04 - 00;41;14;10
Lindsay Rubeniuk
Excellent. Well, Lindsay, I want to thank you so much for taking the time to come on, to life on the prairies podcast and just, you know, create better awareness about living in rural Saskatchewan. And I think you set the bar pretty high for, for future guests and communities in terms of what you all have to offer.

00;41;14;10 - 00;41;38;13
Lindsay Rubeniuk
I mean, you have great employment opportunities, well paid. You're affordable housing, your commutes are, you know, really very comparable to, you know, smaller commutes in the city. you have an international school program. You have lots of fun activities. You have lots of things for adults to do in the evening. So, wow, it's just a really, really great place to live and work, I think.

00;41;38;17 - 00;41;40;04
Lindsay Rubeniuk
And so.

00;41;40;06 - 00;41;41;15
Lindsay Alliban
is a really great place.

00;41;41;21 - 00;42;05;16
Lindsay Rubeniuk
Yeah. So thank you so much for your time. And definitely, we will be posting, all the links that Lindsay sends us. And I'm also going to ensure that I have her email address and all of her contact information. So if you are someone that's thinking of relocating or immigrating to the prairies, then definitely you need to get in touch with Lindsay and she will provide you with all the information you need.

00;42;05;23 - 00;42;09;01
Lindsay Rubeniuk
So thank you so much.

00;42;09;04 - 00;42;19;03
Lindsay Alliban