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Welcome to the Move Rural Canada podcast, where every week we showcase incredible businesses and real in Northern Canada businesses that are not only growing but are looking to hire. We're here to show you companies and communities outside of the big cities that are building stronger and more inclusive workplaces, workplaces that want and are encouraging newcomers, immigrants and refugees to work with them.

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Let us be your guides to help you find the best places in Canada to not only immigrate, but build a career and settle. I'm your host, Leah Mitchell, and I am your co-host, Lindsay Rubeniuk. Join us as you learn about all of the amazing career opportunities in places that you may not have ever thought of moving. Let's get started.

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You

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Good morning everyone.

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Welcome to the Move Rural Canada podcast. Today we have on Melanie Specula. She is a business owner in Gimli as well as the newcomer program Development Coordinator. Welcome, Melanie.

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Thank you.

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So

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I'm just going to do a quick, summary, Lindsay, on how I know Melanie and why I wanted her here on the podcast. Melanie and I met a few years back.

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They have a great initiative in Gimli in

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encouraging and supporting newcomers into their area, and they've got some really outside of the box ideas that have been very successful. And I really wanted to showcase what they're doing. It also ties in really well because, you know, obviously our last episode we chatted with Veeder, which is an artwork, and Gimli is only 30 minutes from Arbor.

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So it's just another example of, you know, rural communities. You can live in one community and you can drive 30 minutes and go to work. You know, it's not any different than sitting in traffic for 30 minutes, you know, in downtown Winnipeg. And it's probably a lot more relaxing to drive than be stuck in traffic. So,

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Melanie, how about you tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do?

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going to start just from the beginning, because I think it's important to know how I got involved in this. And,

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and it was through the chamber. I was co-chair of of the Chamber of Commerce, along with Cheryl Buehler. And we could see the desperate need for, businesses,

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having locks, major locks and staff,

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including myself in the restaurant industry.

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And I can always,

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use myself in two ways. Like, I knew what the businesses are going through because I went through that. The same thing.

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At the time the war began. We had a an empty dormitory that was previously used by cadets, like training center.

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It was sitting empty. So,

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we had a discussion and decided should we try and,

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you know, we can help these people and they can in turn help us, and we can help them in a big way.

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You know, we can we can give them transitional housing. So, so we went on to, to do that. So my what I do has kind of evolved and changed, actually.

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It was to gain the trust of the people that were interested,

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in coming to Gimli, that we are safe place, a safe place to come, that we're going to help them.

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We, literally started out just,

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with messages and emails responding to people that came, to the dorm. And from there we would, settle them in,

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help them find jobs.

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Help get them doctors, to take them grocery shopping, everything. But it's changed since then. I'm not. Everything is still happening, but I'm doing more of the coordinating, part of it.

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I'm still doing door tours. I still need people at my restaurant. My restaurant is kind of a safe place. I say they're welcome anytime and they come and we sit down. They have questions. So that's always worked out really well for me and for them.

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So why not? What kind of what kind of, positions when you were attracting people to come and live and work in your community?

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Unknown
What kind of positions were there are there currently for people to fill? Well, right now, there's quite a few. We've got, like, as of yesterday, we had there's a job for, an education assistant at the, Evergreen School division.

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Also an administrative assistant. There's, counter workers needed our deals for dollars.

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Is looking for help. We're looking for for employees. Dairy Queen? We've got Lakeview that's looking for a front desk clerk and a cook. Sobeys is looking. Our liquor store is looking for a courtesy cook. Clerk. Sorry.

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we've got a health care aide is needed. And. Landscaper. So that's what's what's available today.

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There's probably more,

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that's that's what I'm aware of today. So you can see there's still quite a few job openings.

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And I think too, it's really important to note, you know, for people coming to Canada or people who have lower level English, you know,

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you might not get that job that you want right off the bat. Right?

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But here's an opportunity to get your foot in the door. Increase your English skills, and then you can get those other positions or get those credentials recognized. But but getting your foot in, you know, networking, meeting people, it's a great opportunity to do that.

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Can you tell us a little bit about, Gimli and the the community?

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Yes. So Gimli, it's community has been amazing.

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helping these people of,

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really for this program, they were really excited to have them coming. And a lot of the people in Gimli have reached out and help. Help them in their own way.

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So it's been great as far as the community's concerned.

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And of course, the businesses are very, very happy with, that they were able to fill a lot of their positions. How large is Gimli?

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Unknown
It sort of changes, I guess, in the summer and winter. Right. It's a very much a tourist. I should add. It's on a lake as well. So that's really in Cedar Fall. I you, by the way.

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Unknown
Yeah. It's a beautiful little town. We have about 6500 people, in the, the winter months, but we go up to 15,000, in the spring, summer and weekends in the fall. So it's,

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quite

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an adverse town, that's for sure. And I should note as well, you're only about an hour from Winnipeg. So while you are, you are still very close to the city, you know, like I know.

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My husband had a coworker who used to live in Gimli, and he commuted to Winnipeg for work. You know, so, I mean, people do do it. Yeah. Or Selkirk. There's people, that are living here that are working in Arbor and Riverton right now.

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Unknown
And I, I also want to add to that we do have, a driver that drives people to and from their jobs in our area.

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So he's he's like a bus driver. He's got a schedule and, works with their schedules to get them to work if they don't have a car when they first arrive.

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Unknown
That's brilliant, because actually, that was on our list of questions. And now you just addressed it is in terms of transportation. Oftentimes people that live in rural areas don't have access to transportation if they're newcomers.

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So how did you guys, you know, to do that? How did you arrive at that to say, okay, you know what? We need to actually have someone to assist our newcomers in getting from work to home.

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Unknown
Yeah. So initially we had volunteers helping, drive people. But that was super difficult to coordinate people's schedules, with, our newcomers work schedules.

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And we just realized that we had to do something. And there's really no transportation in Gimli. Other than taxis at the time, there wasn't a taxi, though. So we actually hired, a Ukrainian man to, manage our dorm and, like, look after people if they, lose their key or they need anything. He does our intake process now, and he also will drive people back and forth to work.

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Unknown
We got we we were able to get an older van and it's been working for, for us for I guess we've been doing that for about close to two years.

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So in terms of the dormitory, what are all the supports? I mean, work, you know, maybe we should start ready at the beginning, sort of if someone's interested, they hear about this opportunity in Gimli. What would be the first step? You walk us through that. How to connect. You know, learn more about the dormitory. How do they view it?

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You know, how do they, let's say, register, get a spot, and then what are the supports that come with that? You know, are there opportunities for people to help them for work? You mentioned you have the drivers. Can you sort of take us through? If someone was coming, what that whole process would look like?

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Unknown
Sure. They usually contact me through phone or messenger, email?

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Ask some questions, and we always offer a tour of the dorm. Yeah. If they can get here.

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One of the great things we have in our dorm is it is a big indoor gymnasium.

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In the summer, it's nice because there's a really nice courtyard area. We have barbecues that were donated and picnic tables.

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So, you know, it's at that point that they decide if they want to stay there.

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And if they do, then the next step is we move in, we,

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take them looking for jobs. That's another thing we've found is that,

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a lot of people came to Winnipeg first and they couldn't find a job there.

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I guess there was just so many resumes pouring into so many businesses. So what we did, what I did at the time was I took them directly to,

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businesses, and I introduced them to the owners, and I said that this person is looking for a job. And that worked amazingly well. They almost always got hired that way.

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and we continue to do that if they want, you know, if they want us to go with them and we will do that.

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So,

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they sort of have their, their intake, they can move it. And it's for anyone, right? It can be families, it can be single people.

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Right. And and there's a certain minimum amount of months they have to stay or what is sort of the expectation in terms of the dormitory.

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So it's month to month, and that way nobody ever had to has to feel any pressure if they decide they don't like it, they want to leave. They can leave. And that's perfectly fine.

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Unknown
Most of them don't, though,

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we do charge $375 a month a room. And that is all. And there's no extra charges on that. Some people with family will take two rooms. And that would be 595 for two rooms. So, it's it's a good way to help them, be able to save a little bit of money.

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Unknown
Okay. So when they're settled and you have connected them with, a job, let's jump to the employers for just a minute. How is the communication been between the employers and let's say someone from Ukraine. Because the difference with newcomers that plan to arrive in Canada,

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most of them have studied basic English, whereas the people from Ukraine were, you know, they didn't know they were coming.

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Unknown
Right? It's the best way I can point out. So how has that been? How do you guys have a strategy in place, or how did you deal with the communication and English?

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Unknown
Well, initially we did not have a strategy in place, to be honest, because it was all very sudden,

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I can speak for myself and I think,

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a lot of other businesses because I hired, several, Ukrainian people and people of other nationalities as well.

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Unknown
And it it was it's it's stressful, there's no doubt about it. But I thought of it like, you think this is stressful for you. Can you just imagine what they're going through? So through various like we had actually Leah, that's how we that's how we met. Actually, initially I had language classes and Gimli. Yes. So Leah did, language classes and so, like,

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as the employer actually paid for those classes and it made a huge difference for, for two of the, of the people that went to her classes.

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Unknown
So it's it's not easy. There's no question. It's not easy, but I see no, it's not easy for us, but it's way, way more difficult for them. So just we just do it, you know? And they do now, all of my staff that I've hired, four of them spoke no English. Now, the we're down to one that's still, I think she understands a lot, but she's just not quite speaking it yet.

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Unknown
But the others are speaking to her in Ukrainian, so that's part of why she's not really learning your English and what she will.

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Unknown
But yeah. So it's all I think it's done. Worked out very well for all of us.

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Unknown
And and it's a balance. I know, you know, having, you know, in a lot of times there's, you know, online supports to, you know, we did some in-person for a while there.

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Unknown
And it really just depends, I think, on exactly like set on employer, employer support,

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on where, you know, newcomers are feeling they're at, you know, if you're working two jobs, it's hard to commit to language right now. So it's it's really helping people find that balance and, and really understanding that you do need the English. If you want to, you know, get a better paying position, move up, you know, get a house and things like that.

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Unknown
So yeah, it can be it can be tough sometimes in rural getting, getting all those supports and and with the government cutting language, it's getting harder and harder for, you know, groups to even offer that stuff.

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Unknown
Yeah. So like we had Iryna from Online Learning come out to the dorm and as well that had come and assessed, their language skills.

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Unknown
And some of them had definitely signed up for online learning. But then of course, it was cut off their.

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So

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it's always a struggle getting English classes. But that's what we're really focused on right now. Yeah. Absolutely.

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Unknown
So let's talk about let's talk about retention. So you have the people come. So it doesn't matter if they were from Ukraine or you know wherever they are from and how what is the strategy in terms of retention.

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Unknown
Is there lots of employer support, for immigration to the community? And what what are your thoughts on that?

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Unknown
I would say that there is a lot of support, again, from the business people. And I are retention is quite high. People love Gimli. They feel safe here. They they walk. They can walk anywhere they want, you know, in Gimli.

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Unknown
And people don't lock their doors like we're just a very safe community. And I think that that is

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their first priority, to be honest with you, to be in a place that's safe. Lately we've had other,

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people from that that have been in other provinces. I'll just say Toronto, B.C.. Yeah. Even Winnipeg, where they're they can't afford the rent.

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Unknown
It's too expensive.

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Unknown
Or in some cases, they do not feel safe where they're living. So we've had quite a few people come that way as well. So our retention rate is very high. We've had very few people leave, which is great. So from a couple of years ago, how many

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people or families would you say have stayed in that in the area since this initiative started?

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Unknown
We have 350, including like the children and parents that come to look after the children. So yeah. Wow. That's a that's a lot. That's great. Yeah, yeah.

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Unknown
That's really excellent. So given that, how do you feel the kids are adjusting like, so there's, there's an increase to the school population. So obviously it's a benefit for the community.

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Unknown
And do you have much opportunity to interact with the youth that had to immigrate to Gimli or have the opportunity to. Yes, I, I do,

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Unknown
definitely have conversations with the youth when I go to the, to the dorm. There's one when, 12 year old boy, it gives me all the information that I want all the time.

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Unknown
And,

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he's he loves school, but he gets frustrated because he really likes science, for example. But some of the words the teacher says he does not understand, and he wants to be able to understand what the teacher's saying. So, it's there's some of them, some of the kids schools has been a problem. We we did have a Swiss worker and I see have because I here just recently we don't have one anymore.

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Unknown
But that Swiss worker would make sure that, you know, they, they were being looked after.

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Unknown
So the Swiss worker is, somebody that goes to the schools. So it's somebody that like, so they have an individual that goes to the schools and makes sure that the students are, you know, getting what they need. They're, liaison with the staff and so on and so forth.

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Unknown
So that's what it so those people that are listening may not know what the Swiss worker is, but that's really what they are. Okay. We'll see. Hopefully you, can get that back. Or we can advocate to the provincial government, for funding in rural areas because, Swiss workers are really critical. And I, I know from my personal experience working with them is like, yeah, I just think they're a huge help, especially with our young people, because we so often focus on adult and employment and we kind of, you know, let the you slip to the background where in all reality, they actually are one of the roots that will pull a family to

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stay where they are. And if the child's not having, the best experience in the community, then the newcomer family has the ability to get up and leave, right? So I think it's really, really important that, we have Swiss workers and the supports in rural areas to help our youth as well.

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Unknown
Yeah. And I agree. And I should mention that we have just recently had a big change here.

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Unknown
Not one I shouldn't say a big change, but easement into like, was always is. I had a settlement server in our built in our dormitory. So we do have an on site settlement service worker. Now, Regional Connections has just taken over, so. But nothing's really changed. We still have the same settlement worker. So, you know, perhaps another Swiss worker will be put in place.

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Unknown
We just don't know that right now at this time, but I you're right. It's extremely important for the children

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Unknown
and not to get political here, but I guess I will. I'm a big believer in the Interlake, so I hope that as we grow the Interlake, we'll be able to make more decisions for ourselves in what we need. You know, I think sometimes our little region gets forgotten about, and as we grow, you know, we're the people you know as well.

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Unknown
You know, we're the ones living here. And I think, it would be great for us to have more of a say on on what we need. So hopefully going forward, that will happen. Yes. Well, actually, you know, here's my thought, ladies, you just said and here I'm going to just say is that we often rely on provincial and federal governments to send us the directions for immigration or whatever or whatever we're looking at.

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Unknown
And I think it's really cool that it was the community's and it is the community's taking the lead on such things as immigration. And so I think the provincial governments and, federal government are finding it a little different because we're now, you know, we're now telling them what we want to do and where. And the newcomers are showing the, the provincial and federal governments of where they want to live.

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Unknown
So I think places like Gimli, like Dauphin, we have set of precedents where we're like, okay, you know what? We're going to do this with or without provincial support, just like Emily did. Right? So I think that's really important to say,

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Unknown
that we need the provincial funding. And I think it's it's very needed. And but I think it's really profound.

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Unknown
We're at a moment where the communities have taken ownership and we are leading the way, and we are doing things the way how we think they should be done. And we are not having the provincial government tell us how it should be done.

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Unknown
It's good point. It's. Yeah. And it's not a one size fits all either. Right? I think that's why it's so important to have local people making those decisions.

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Unknown
What's happening in one region might be very different than what's needed in another region. And and you won't know that unless you're living in that region. Right? You won't know the little ins and outs and what's really available and what's not. Just because it looks like it's available on paper might not actually be or might not be as good as you think it is, you know?

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Unknown
Yes, exactly.

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Unknown
So what is the feedback when, you know, I'm a little bit curious, like you had mentioned, about people coming from Vancouver or Toronto or some of those larger cities. What is the feedback been from them moving here? Are they are they enjoying it? You know, obviously it's much more affordable. They're feeling more comfortable.

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Unknown
People from larger cities staying as well.

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Unknown
Yeah. Like this is something that's just started to happen in the last like 4 or 5 months.

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Unknown
We're, we're, we're, we're getting up and, and just I think it's really important to say

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is that that's who we are actually wanting to help right now.

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are the people that are in other provinces that, are, are paying astronomical rents?

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Unknown
Especially in BC and Toronto,

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Unknown
to, you know, to come here and, you know, here you, you can actually save money and, and there's been people that have bought houses already, really great stories there. So because it's, it's relatively cheap to live here.

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Unknown
Oh, I have a great example actually, if someone not not in Gimli, but in, Fisher Branch, which is obviously in the into like, you know, he talked about the home that he bought, huge backyard forest, river, everything.

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Unknown
And I said, you know, what would that have cost in Ukraine? He's like, oh, unless you were a millionaire. There's no way, no way you would have gotten a house like that with that kind of yard for his family. So yes, great opportunities in terms of in rural areas, what what you can afford.

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Unknown
in Vancouver, Vancouver and Toronto, it's just, you know, even even outside of, there certain regions, even outside there where housing has become so unaffordable.

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Unknown
So in our own country, we're facing such a huge problem. Yes. Yeah.

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Unknown
what are things that you would suggest? When people are coming to Gimli, what are things you would recommend? Maybe questions they ask, you know, things they prepare for? Or are there common struggles that you've noticed when people first come and you think, oh yeah, I should have told them that, or as you've done this for the last couple of years,

00;24;20;06 - 00;24;36;02
Unknown
Can you be more specific? Oh, well, I would say like, I would say, I mean, you don't need a license right away, but probably at one point you're going to want to get a license, you know, or, or save up for a vehicle. Right. Because you might, let's say, start in that entry level position in Gimli. But maybe you get an opportunity in Selkirk, right.

00;24;36;02 - 00;24;50;11
Unknown
That's, you know, more often with what they did say in their home country. So they're going to have to drive. But they love Gimli, so they want to stay there, right. Are there things that you sort of recommend to people to start looking at or doing or, you know, be even be prepared for, I guess, that

00;24;50;12 - 00;24;53;14
Unknown
know, someone's offer or have for sure.

00;24;53;14 - 00;25;26;09
Unknown
Well, for one thing, I do all their MPI letters. So for example, if somebody comes here and wants to get a license really fast, yeah, I can. I do the letter the same day and they can walk a block away to auto practice and you know, so, so it's, it's easy to, you know, that's the other thing about small towns, you can get things done way more quickly than you can in if you're trying to do the same thing in a city or even getting someone to write you an MPI letter, you know, you might wait a month.

00;25;26;11 - 00;25;27;05
Unknown
So

00;25;27;06 - 00;25;49;19
Unknown
yeah, that that's that's good too. I find it, in the last, I'm going to say six months to a year, everybody's like kind of looking after themselves, so to speak, is kind of like, okay, we're settled. We've got a job offer. Some of them have got cars and they're not using our driving, system anymore.

00;25;49;21 - 00;26;11;07
Unknown
Which is great. And and they just they, they've, they've got a plan, you know, and actually a car is probably the first, one of the first things that they want to get. And then from there they're, they try to find housing and, and you know, we were, very in the beginning again, a lot of we helped a lot of people get housing.

00;26;11;08 - 00;26;15;29
Unknown
I had people calling me. We've got we've got this place to rent. We have that place to rent.

00;26;15;29 - 00;26;31;02
Unknown
And now they're they're doing that on their own, too. Like, they they know all the systems. They know where to look. So they they're they're pretty independent. But they, they know that if they ever need anything, any questions, any help, they know where my restaurant is.

00;26;31;02 - 00;26;35;11
Unknown
and, you know, I'm at the dorm, they see me there, you know,

00;26;35;11 - 00;26;46;20
Unknown
so if there's someone that's already in Canada that's looking to move from their area wherever they live or they're a newcomer within Canada,

00;26;46;20 - 00;27;05;29
Unknown
if somebody wants to move to Gimli, you know, be it if they're newcomers or that they're somebody that's looking, you know, to move out of the city and they're already in Canada because I think that's a that's critical to say because your community's not in the business of, you know, getting international people to their town.

00;27;05;29 - 00;27;19;27
Unknown
It's it takes a lot of work. So those who are already here with work permits and study permits or those looking to move outside the city who they connect with, where would they go? Like how would they even start to, to investigate the possibility of living in Gimli?

00;27;19;28 - 00;27;20;14
Unknown
we

00;27;20;14 - 00;27;31;10
Unknown
have a Facebook page, which we have just or just literally yesterday kind of reconstructed it and, but it's been up there for a while.

00;27;31;10 - 00;27;34;10
Unknown
We just, it's been, it's been dormant because we were

00;27;34;10 - 00;27;47;18
Unknown
you know, regrouping. But we do have a Facebook page and, an email address and a phone number so they can get in touch with us in any one of those ways.

00;27;47;24 - 00;27;52;20
Unknown
A lot messaged me. I got a lot on my messenger through the Facebook page.

00;27;52;19 - 00;28;01;21
Unknown
And they seem to like that the best. And mostly I guess because it happens quickly, someone messages me, I respond rather than an email. This,

00;28;01;21 - 00;28;04;10
Unknown
you know, may sit there for a day or two

00;28;04;09 - 00;28;10;08
Unknown
and we'll have that. Everyone, underneath the show notes as well, those links that want to contact you, they can.

00;28;10;11 - 00;28;11;04
Unknown
Yeah.

00;28;11;04 - 00;28;30;02
Unknown
And we should be really clear too. It's not just people from Ukraine. This is for everyone. You know, it just happened. It just sort of happened, you know, because of the war that that sort of how it started. But, you know, anyone and everyone looking to move, you know, drool. That's in Canada, connect with Melanie and and find out because it might be a great opportunity for you.

00;28;30;05 - 00;28;31;06
Unknown
Absolutely.

00;28;31;06 - 00;28;51;04
Unknown
And I think that's really cool. And you mentioned about, you know, everyone's sort of it's getting easier and easier. And because you've got those structures and supports in place now. Right. So people, you know, the people that initially came here, they're probably telling the newer people and it's just getting easier and easier for people to, to get what they need because they've got a safe place to live that's cheap.

00;28;51;04 - 00;29;02;04
Unknown
They're not stressing about, you know, paying thousands and thousands and rent. They can sort of get entry level job to start off with just so they can figure things out. And, you know, it gives them time, which I think is really important.

00;29;02;03 - 00;29;09;09
Unknown
Yes. And and the next thing that we really are working on too is, is our next step was to

00;29;09;10 - 00;29;16;01
Unknown
I've got those classrooms, the I believe you you take part in them at one point just a half blocks from the dormitory.

00;29;16;08 - 00;29;34;28
Unknown
And we really want to try and introduce the psych home care courses. We're we're sort of working with somebody just again, everything was paused for a while there, but we're going to pick all this up again. And just so that people have other options, like there's a very big shortage of home care here,

00;29;34;27 - 00;29;47;10
Unknown
or in even to be, a teacher's aide, you know, like, someone that can go in and work with the kids that are from other countries and, you know, and help them out that way.

00;29;47;10 - 00;29;48;03
Unknown
So,

00;29;48;03 - 00;29;51;26
Unknown
we're just working on, on that kind of next phase.

00;29;51;27 - 00;30;10;20
Unknown
That's really great. That's an amazing opportunity. So now they can live next door. They can be getting yeah. Training credentials recognize getting those skills. You know that's that's huge for that next step. Yes. Yeah. And that does and that does literally happen because I have a number examples of where teachers have started.

00;30;10;22 - 00;30;20;10
Unknown
You know they're they're from other countries. And they became educational assistants. And then they got their teaching designation, you know, slowly but surely. And now they're teachers.

00;30;20;10 - 00;30;30;03
Unknown
you know, if you start off as a health care aid and maybe you are a nurse in another country, I you know, it kind of it gives you that foot in the door and you could do credential recognition.

00;30;30;03 - 00;30;51;03
Unknown
We haven't made it easy, but, hopefully we will have strides soon. But I love that because you're, you're inviting people to a community where there's job openings where, you don't have to have a ton of education or training to fill those positions. Just a great work ethic. So that's awesome.

00;30;51;03 - 00;31;02;28
Unknown
Do you have any examples of someone who maybe came a few years ago like a, like a real success story, you know, maybe they got their credentials recognized or they're working in a position now that they had worked in, in their home country.

00;31;02;28 - 00;31;07;23
Unknown
Or maybe they said they they've bought a house and, something like that.

00;31;07;23 - 00;31;14;13
Unknown
Yes. Well, we have one family, with a

00;31;14;13 - 00;31;31;24
Unknown
four year old child now, and she was two when she came here. But, they stayed in the dorm for a while, a long time, almost over a year, to save the money, to be able to put a down payment on, on a house or apartment.

00;31;31;27 - 00;31;48;20
Unknown
And it turned out, an apartment came up, that they purchased and, I think, that it's fantastic. The they had been looking around about where they wanted to live and I mean, kind of which, you know, where what province, you know,

00;31;48;20 - 00;31;55;08
Unknown
and, that they, they decided to settle in Manitoba and I'm, I'm ecstatically happy for them and.

00;31;55;10 - 00;32;10;11
Unknown
Yeah. So and actually, we just recently had another family, purchase a house. So, and these families have children, and their children are going to grow up here and, they're going to be a part of our community.

00;32;10;11 - 00;32;18;11
Unknown
Well, in not that there aren't, you know, the dormitories giving them that opportunity to really save a lot of money fast, you know, exactly.

00;32;18;12 - 00;32;25;29
Unknown
Pretty rare to find places like that in Canada to do that. Yeah. That was brilliant idea. Brilliant. Yeah.

00;32;25;29 - 00;32;41;01
Unknown
Well, is there anything else you want to add now that we may have forgot to ask you? Because, like, you know, it's just such a great initiative that we want to make sure that we've covered everything in terms of employment, supports everything that you guys have done for the newcomers of riding.

00;32;41;04 - 00;32;42;01
Unknown
Emily.

00;32;42;01 - 00;32;47;15
Unknown
Yeah. You know what? I'll just add I will add a couple of things that I did miss. This is really important.

00;32;47;14 - 00;33;02;14
Unknown
A Manitoba harvest has been a great support for us. So, once a month, we get massive harvest. And, divide everything up equally, and everybody, get gets to, you know, have something to eat there.

00;33;03;21 - 00;33;10;25
Unknown
We also did we did put on Independence Day. We we do try we, you know, as much as we can to put on different,

00;33;10;26 - 00;33;13;13
Unknown
functions where people can get together,

00;33;13;13 - 00;33;24;19
Unknown
Yeah, we also hosted an informational session, which was fantastic because that's where you get the real questions that they want answered. Me. So that was interesting.

00;33;24;21 - 00;33;25;28
Unknown
And,

00;33;25;28 - 00;33;47;10
Unknown
Yeah. I was just going to say, setting up. I think this is really important. We're setting up a, a summit at the Gimli dormitory and our cafeteria, inviting a bunch of people that are directly involved with immigration integration, to kind of get together and work together to see that we all have the supports that we need.

00;33;47;10 - 00;34;08;10
Unknown
Well Melanie, thank you so much for coming today and sharing what's happening in Gimli. The amazing opportunities. If you are a newcomer listening in Canada and you're looking for to move rule for a different way of life, this is an amazing opportunity. So definitely reach out. We will have all the information underneath in the show notes.

00;34;08;10 - 00;34;13;25
Unknown
Okay everyone, thanks for listening to Real Canada. And until next time, Liberal Live. Well

00;34;18;01 - 00;34;33;16
Unknown
If you feel this could assist other people like yourself. Please like and share our podcast as well. We will leave links below to the topics we spoke about today. Thank you for listening and join us next time to learn about another great company and community that is a great place to work and settle.