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Unknown
No.

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Unknown
Welcome to the Move Royal Canada podcast, where every week we showcase incredible businesses in rural and 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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Unknown
Let us be your guides to help you find the best places in Canada to not only immigrate, but build a career in Seattle. I'm your host, Leah Mitchell, and I am your co-host, Lindsey Rene. 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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Unknown
I'm.

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Unknown
Well. Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the move. We'll try to take care about our guest today. We have Lakisha Curry. She is the labor force development coordinator for the City of Sioux Sainte Marie. She's also the economic development officer for the R sip pilot, which is the rural community immigration program. Lakisha, welcome so much. We're happy to have you.

00:01:20:10 - 00:01:43:08
Unknown
Oh, thank you so much. I'm happy to be here. I'm excited for what you guys are doing. And, just always love to hear about, rural. All right, so we'll get right into the questions. First off, tell us a little bit, about yourself and how you came to be living in Sioux Sainte Marie. Okay. Awesome. All right.

00:01:43:08 - 00:02:22:15
Unknown
So, like Leah mentioned, my name is Lakisha Curry, and I moved to the Sioux, about, four years ago before I moved to the Sioux. I was in, the GTA, so the Greater Toronto Area and I had lived in so many different communities. I've moved at the time. I moved so many times. But, I had moved from, the UK to Toronto and just really was trying to, you know, settle myself and, then my family grew and, you know, every time your family grows a little bit more, you have to move and then, you know.

00:02:22:15 - 00:02:51:12
Unknown
So we kept moving and I really, really wanted to be, settled. And I just didn't know how to, but I kept trying to figure it out. So, at the time, I was working as, career specialist, so assisting newcomers to find employment and, job developer of mine was scheduled to go to this particular event, and it was an event with this organization called Newcomer Center of Peel.

00:02:51:14 - 00:03:13:12
Unknown
And they have a program called the Rural Employment Initiative. And there were actually the only one doing it at the time. And, he mentioned that to some, some people in our office and they're like, the event was being put on for employers coming from the South and really presenting it to newcomers as an option to come to Suzette marine.

00:03:13:14 - 00:03:32:16
Unknown
And I looked at the flier and the flier had really good rules, like the rules were, you know, roles. And I wasn't really seeing in, in the GTA at the time. He asked, is there anyone in the office that would, you know, could go on my behalf? And everyone go, do you know how far that is? My clients are not going down there like that.

00:03:32:17 - 00:03:54:23
Unknown
Seven hours. And I thought to myself at the time, I want to go because to me, when you come as a newcomer, you haven't really set roots as yet. So I what I wanted to do is not make a decision for a newcomer. I wanted to go find out what it is, bring it back to them, and then expose them to whatever else was there.

00:03:54:23 - 00:04:16:18
Unknown
So I said, okay, I'll go. I went to the event and the event was being put on by, newcomer Center of Peel, like I mentioned. And there was like a bunch of employers from Saint Mary. And then the mayor went on stage. There was the, previous mayor, Christian Provenzano. He went on stage and he said, newcomers, we will welcome you to Sue Sainte Marie.

00:04:16:23 - 00:04:35:18
Unknown
And I thought to myself, oh my gosh, like, this is amazing. So I started talking with all of the employers. And then one of the employers said to me, it takes her seven minutes to get to work. And I'm like, oh my God. She's so like, like, that's such a lie. It takes me ten minutes from my 10th floor to get downstairs with my kids.

00:04:35:18 - 00:05:00:01
Unknown
Like it takes me ten minutes just to get downstairs. How is it that you're saying it takes you seven minutes to get to work? And I'm like, that cannot be, you know? So, I, knew sorry. Newcomers. And I feel now they used to do, like, bus tours. So they were going to this community called Sarnia. And at the time, again, the only time I knew anything about these communities was Cp24 when they showed you the weather report.

00:05:00:03 - 00:05:24:10
Unknown
So I'm like, okay, let me go. So, I went, to when I went back in after, you know, going to that event, I just started really talking about rural and, you know, just sharing it with everyone. So much so that I became like a spokesperson for anyone that wanted to relocate. So all of these other colleague that I was working with, anytime someone talked about relocating, they would come.

00:05:24:10 - 00:05:45:21
Unknown
They'll call me and I'll be like, so there's this, right? And I will really go in. And then I went on this, tour with them to Sarnia and driving up there, you know, everything was new. And I still today, to this day. I can't believe that I didn't know anything about Roro. This was 2018, so it's not that long ago.

00:05:45:22 - 00:06:15:12
Unknown
Just 2018. Right. And I'm driving there now. I've invited a a client of a colleague and where they're sitting on the bus coming to explore this new place that, you know, it's been established for so long, but, you know, so we're on this bus, we're going down, and then they pass this, this, Walmart and and different plazas, and then we stop off at, this town, I guess it was a hotel at the time.

00:06:15:14 - 00:06:41:14
Unknown
And I was sitting beside, a realtor, and she was sharing of the different homes and, $200,000, $250,000. And I'm like, oh, my gosh, this cannot be real. Like, this really is not real. And as much as I was getting excited, I was so much more excited for my clients. At the time, I had 70 clients that I was supporting to find employment, and that was a rolling number.

00:06:41:14 - 00:07:03:01
Unknown
So I would get 14 off and another 14. So one month it went to 90 and I'm like, oh my gosh, I really need to figure this out to support others, right? So as I'm there, you know, October, I'm just really sucking in all of this information because I can already see clients that I'm already, you know, saying, hey, I know you just came two months ago.

00:07:03:02 - 00:07:26:13
Unknown
Three months ago. Start looking into things like that. So we we go to this event and, we start off at this, career center. And then they started showcasing all of the different employment opportunities that go to myself. What? It was all I said that there's no jobs in rural. Right. And that's the reason why people say they don't move to rural is that there's no jobs in rural communities.

00:07:26:15 - 00:07:45:12
Unknown
And here she is showing me all of these employment opportunities. And then they kind of split us up. So we were at the the community center, employment center, and then a bunch of, the others went to, job sites to really see the landscape of where, you know, they could be. So it was kind of like around the engineering and manufacturing.

00:07:45:14 - 00:08:13:17
Unknown
And I like they brought back, you know, what they learned. And we all kind of just shared I'm like, oh my gosh, there's life out here. That's literally what I said to myself, oh my, there's life out here. Oh my gosh. So a little bit after that obviously Covid hit and then I moved to to Africa. I moved back I got ill and I moved back and then started working as the job developer for the RBI program.

00:08:13:20 - 00:08:42:20
Unknown
And now I'm helping Timmins, I'm helping, Sudbury and all of the smaller rural communities. And again, I, I'm in my head going, oh my gosh, I'm helping all of these people. What about helping myself? Right. So then I see this home for 185,000 2020, 185,000 was a semi-detached. And, you know, I was like, oh my gosh, just like I need to figure this out.

00:08:42:20 - 00:09:01:06
Unknown
Like how how can I be a part of this? Now? I'm going to be able to get settled. Right? I got that was the the little thing in my head. I need to get settled. I need to get settled. I have three boys, so I wanted to really start moving around as much, and, you know, be able to settle with them.

00:09:01:06 - 00:09:25:22
Unknown
So then I said to myself, I'm helping all these people. I want to help myself. So that's how I moved. This is Avery. That is very cool. And I love the things that you brought up. That misconception number one, that there's no jobs in rural. There's a million jobs in rural, you know, and and housing like you, you've listed everything that I think a lot of newcomers don't, don't realize in county.

00:09:26:00 - 00:09:43:13
Unknown
Yeah. Yes. Very true. I think, just even the communication it's far. So when they said that to me, I said, you know, like even now people will still say to me, oh my gosh, that's far. And I, you know, I'll say to them, I'm like, did you walk from let's say I'm talking to someone from the Caribbean.

00:09:43:15 - 00:10:00:18
Unknown
Did you walk from the Caribbean to get here right? Or did you walk from your country to get here so far from really? What right? Far from what? Right. Because you do walk to get. You took four hour flight to get here to Canada. Here is just a seven hour drive or an hour flight to get to opportunity.

00:10:00:18 - 00:10:27:00
Unknown
You're not just leaving. You're leaving for an opportunity. Which really, isn't that what you told yourself? That you're moving to Canada for, right? So when you're tying it back to that opportunity, it's like far from what? Right. That's brilliant. You just. Yeah. Well, that's a wrap. You get everything, you know, let's go back to, you talked about, as I said, you talked about everything, you know, kind of in a nutshell.

00:10:27:00 - 00:10:45:19
Unknown
But let's expand that in terms of you talked about time, in terms of commute, you talked about housing prices and so on and so forth. So can you go into further detail about your community? You know, just like, yeah, look at this population, you know, what services it has. And so what do you find very positive about your community where you currently live?

00:10:45:21 - 00:11:11:12
Unknown
Okay, so what I find super positive about my community is you can choose to be a big fish in a small pond in the urban communities, or you can decide to be a small fish, get the support to grow and to be as big. What kind of whatever kind of fish you want to be in our small community, I love the support that you're able to get in a rural community.

00:11:11:14 - 00:11:45:05
Unknown
I have grown as an individual through career development from people who are, you know, in the community that's been in the community for a while. So right now our population is 78,000 and growing. I think there's another some, 800. So 78,800 or so. But we continue to grow. So what I feel like has been the push in our growth is really working with employers to, to, you know, talk about how they're able to understand what immigration is.

00:11:45:08 - 00:12:11:21
Unknown
When I moved here, I realized that was the missing piece. It was what is immigration? And it's too complex for me to even get involved. So then I thought, okay, I'll bring federal since I'm not an immigration consultant, but I'm knowledgeable. I'll bring federal to talk directly with the employers to add additional layer of support if needed. And then it just exploded and it exploded because yes, it for me right now.

00:12:11:21 - 00:12:33:12
Unknown
Okay. So I have three boys. And it takes me I leave out around 830 or so and I can drop them off and be at work before 9:00. Right. So it really the commute is almost non-existent and the reason why it takes me a little bit more time is because I get to come out and say good morning to his teachers.

00:12:33:12 - 00:12:54:16
Unknown
And, you know, those things help with the growth of, my sons. But not even just that. As a community, you realize, oh, there's a little bit more support. I want to be here. I want to be here long term. So really, right now we're moving away from just that attraction piece to that retention piece and the retention.

00:12:54:16 - 00:13:14:07
Unknown
What I'm seeing is that now we are having more families move into the community, and they're able to purchase homes, homes that you could still get something really decent. I start a family home for 200 to 250. You can even get something a good, decent 300 that you don't have to do any work on, right? So those are some of the pulling factors.

00:13:14:13 - 00:13:41:18
Unknown
Those are some of the the retention factors that, you know, I continue to so about Sioux Saint Marie and you know, addition to that, you're getting that community, I think ask how they permit is the community hug. Right. So you're also getting that community hug. So even when I'm working with employers, I'm also including the Sioux Career Center.

00:13:41:18 - 00:14:11:15
Unknown
So we have a, community center here. It supports, the wrap program. So, refugees that are coming in, it supports language. So at all different language levels. So you're doing link classes from 1 to 6, I believe. Most of the, the, their information is posted on their website, but they are also getting supports for newcomers that are coming in not, you know, may not know how to you know, revamp their resumes and stuff like that.

00:14:11:17 - 00:14:41:17
Unknown
In the past there was no funding for that. Right. You're really left time to your school and your school to develop that. But now you are able to, you know, get additional resources. As a newcomer. What does that do after you become PR, you're now even more knowledgeable of the services that the Newcomer Center provide, right now you can say, okay, my family, you know, if my family is here, they can do this, they can do that, they can access this service, they can access that service and get support, get more support.

00:14:41:19 - 00:14:57:20
Unknown
That only leads to a longer retention in the community. And I think that's what is so important in a lot of rural communities. And I want to add to that, you said, yeah, around 70,000. I mean, you know, coming from us in Manitoba, that's a big that that's you got lots of supports in a in a large city like that.

00:14:57:20 - 00:15:12:12
Unknown
Right? So I know people think, you know, oh, you know, you move rural. There's not like you guys have amazing supports, but, you know, a population of 70,000. It's not as if it's, you know, a 1000 population town, which is nothing wrong with. But, you know, I think a lot of times newcomers, they don't think that's a large city.

00:15:12:12 - 00:15:41:07
Unknown
But honestly, in Canada, that's still considered a pretty large, you know, which is great. So you're still rural. All the opportunities are there, but you still have everything you need that a larger city would have as well. Yeah. And some people who are moving don't necessarily want the urban cities either. I think when they move, when they hear the word rural, like even in my country, when you hear rural, you're, you're really, you know, back in the, you know, there's there's no transportation, there's logging of different services.

00:15:41:09 - 00:15:59:06
Unknown
You know, you got to walk miles to get to anything. You don't necessarily have that here. You know. It's it's it's the rural based on the different countries that you're from that's making the misconception. Like, I've had people here that moved here just to explore the city and go, this is not rural. Like, what do you mean?

00:15:59:06 - 00:16:18:05
Unknown
This is rural, right? Like I expected, you know, even just the so when I just moved, I don't know why I'm talking quieter. So it's almost like, okay, let me not let anybody hear me. But when I just moved here, right, I said, oh my gosh, I walked into the Canadian taiga. Oh my gosh, you guys have a Canadian Tire again?

00:16:18:05 - 00:16:46:13
Unknown
I just didn't know. Right. And and then after a while I was like, oh my gosh, I need to stop saying this because. Right. They're so used to their rural being equipped with the same things as the urban cities are, but us from the outside, we didn't know all of that. I've done presentations with groups where I've plugged into the camera and I just show them the amount because you have there's some birds I camera around Sunset Marine.

00:16:46:15 - 00:17:15:23
Unknown
You can see the traffic that's moving there. Like, what if you're in a rural community, there's so there's there's there's a lot more cars that I'm thinking. I'm not expecting that the amount of people moving through the city when you say rural. So I think there's so much misconception of what that rural is. And it's really just coming from, you know, persons and their different countries that they're coming from and what the rural means to each person coming in.

00:17:15:23 - 00:17:39:22
Unknown
But we're far from what would be considered rural in the sense of, you know, less transportation, less services. Not we have all of that. You have everything yet, you know, the key said, that's really interesting because by trade, I'm a rural developer, and I've never actually heard someone put it that way in terms of what is rural and one country is different to another country.

00:17:39:22 - 00:18:00:23
Unknown
And he said it really well. So we take that away and you keep referring to jobs. So let's let's talk a little bit further about that. And you guys are involved or you've been awarded the rural, community immigration pathway. And so based on that, what are the top industries, jobs that people could be looking at if they were to move to your community.

00:18:01:00 - 00:18:29:01
Unknown
Do you have some specific examples that you could give? Yeah. So right now we are definitely pushing Allied Health. We are super in need of allied health. So the pharmacies, the Oct occupational therapists, we, you know, we're still we're not heavily in need of nurses as it was before, but that's only, the, the only reason for that is because we are an IP.

00:18:29:05 - 00:18:58:05
Unknown
Right. So we've had multiple nurses come through that. And I think if I really put it on in terms of numbers, we've probably had 50 nurses come through that. We yeah. So we've grown so much through our own IP, but we're continuing to grow. So we still we're still very much in need of WS, which we're seeing a lot more come through the, you know, what do you mean by just so far, personal support workers.

00:18:58:07 - 00:19:23:15
Unknown
Yeah. So we're still in need of that. However, we're seeing the colleges really start to tap into going into the schools and letting them do their placements in the in, in the hospital or the different group homes and then hiring them after that. So we've we've seen that that shift of they're still fully staffed but still continuing to need, you know, as the years go, the year goes by, trades.

00:19:23:15 - 00:19:44:02
Unknown
We still need trades. But at the same time, because of what's happening on the back end with tariffs and stuff like that, we've kind of, you know, we're still talking about the trades, but we're, we're we're, you know, watching that area and then what elsewhere in need of is we're still growing in, in the. Yeah. Let's stick to the health care.

00:19:44:03 - 00:20:08:14
Unknown
Health care is definitely a still a huge need for us and more. And those like like you said the allied roles, the support roles. Right. Yeah. Correct. Correct. And of course we need doctors. Yeah. And if you're familiar, we do have doctor some family doctor, as one of our knocks on our CIP. So that's a huge, huge, plus, we've supported two doctors through the CIP program recently.

00:20:08:16 - 00:20:32:07
Unknown
Your community. One, or I should say, was awarded their role to the immigration pilot. And I just want if you want to tell us a little bit more about that. And in this case, you're focusing on. Okay. Yes. For sure. So, yeah, we were chosen as one of the communities to administer the new pilot called Rural Community Immigration Pilot.

00:20:32:09 - 00:21:07:00
Unknown
Because we did so well with our an IP, which is rural northern immigration pilot, and some of the areas that we're focusing on for RCP, will still be the trades, health care, education and an a bit of hospitality, just because of the fact that we are, you know, a community that attracts a lot or looks a lot for tourism or tourists to be around in our community, the trades were still very much in need of, as well as health care.

00:21:07:05 - 00:21:37:03
Unknown
And to add to that, is there a lot of, programs in the same area, like in terms of, let's say colleges, things like that. If people want to move there and take that training there. Yeah, actually there is, a wide range of new, trades program that Su College now has. And I was walking the other day and just, met someone on the road, and he moved here because of one of the, the trades program.

00:21:37:05 - 00:21:59:19
Unknown
And then he was able to do his placement, to one of our local companies called Tenaris. And then now his family has moved here. So his mom and dad and sisters have moved here to join him because of the fact that he loves he loved the community so much they visited up here. So yes, there's a lot more training programs.

00:21:59:21 - 00:22:19:09
Unknown
The, the, the dedicated learning institution here. Yeah. So it's pulling a lot of people here, but even organically pulling families. Well, I think that's nice to for a lot of people, especially newcomers, you know, in terms of credential recognition or even if you have low level English, you might start off in those entry level positions.

00:22:19:09 - 00:22:59:21
Unknown
But now you have opportunities. You know, you don't have to go away for training. You can get that training and move into those higher paid positions as well. Yeah. And one of well, not probably not just one, but some of the employers are actually professors at the college. So you're getting a, you know, a front seat for persons who have brought over their skill sets from their home country that are just, topping up on what it is that they want to get into in Canada, and then you're able to see, oh my gosh, there's this person who has ten years of experience teaching in his home country that just came here for a refresher.

00:22:59:21 - 00:23:27:18
Unknown
I need him in my establishment to continue the growth of my business. Yeah, I'm going to employ him as soon as he graduates. Yeah. So it's a great networking opportunity even. Right. Filling labor gap because you're able to kind of work with them as employers from the school system here in Canada. Like in terms of the language piece, do you find a lot of newcomers struggle because obviously you have to work to live.

00:23:27:20 - 00:24:03:23
Unknown
Do you find there's challenges with people working and then finding ways to get that English? Sometimes. Sometimes it's a challenge to inject the learning aspect, to get them up to the speed of what they need to be at for conversational in the workplace. And so, yes, they may know English to get into Canada, to studying in Canada, even to pass to, you know, get their PR however, the conversational, work is still some challenge.

00:24:04:00 - 00:24:31:07
Unknown
There's still some challenges there. I spoke with an employer recently that shared, you know, because of the fact that, you know, you're you're moving to a new country, what tends to happen is that in the workplace, you kind of group with who comes from your country. Is you still talking about that language amongst each other? So, you know, improving your English language skills for the workplace is still a challenge.

00:24:31:09 - 00:24:47:23
Unknown
And yeah, we're definitely still seeing that. Yeah. No. And you make a great point. I mean, I tell people that all the time, obviously, you know, it's comfortable to stay with people who speak your language, but to get that growth piece, you've got to you've got to speak the English. You know, to get those higher positions, you need higher English.

00:24:48:01 - 00:25:10:08
Unknown
Right? And, you know, you kind of say the same thing over and over again. Just put the radio on at home. I think I remember someone saying, you know, if you grew up in that country and up to the age of seven years old, you'll never lose your language, right? So in the fear of losing my language or losing your language, it's not really that much of a fear.

00:25:10:08 - 00:25:37:18
Unknown
Especially if you, you know, been there for 20, 30 years. But also if you're wanting to, you know, grow your career. It's definitely important for you to try to continue to build on that English language skills, not even just for, you know, social, but career wise. Yeah, absolutely. Totally. And like you said, I mean, employers notice they're going to notice who has the English, you know, communication in Canada.

00:25:37:19 - 00:26:02:01
Unknown
It's you know, I always feel like it's like the number one thing, you know, we like to communicate, we like to talk. And, and so that's a huge, huge piece of that. What are some challenges you've noticed that newcomers are facing as they move to, to Sioux Sainte Marie? You know, you are a larger, you know, a larger rural community, but but it's still, you know, hours away, maybe from Toronto, let's say, for example.

00:26:02:01 - 00:26:30:05
Unknown
Right. Which is what what people think of do you find people are facing challenges or but but I think being a large city, you have everything. Yeah. I think as soon as you think that there's a challenge, there's some other person to reach out to, to, you know, get the answer for said challenge. And I think though are, you know, a bigger smaller community.

00:26:30:07 - 00:26:51:12
Unknown
That's yeah. True. We're still small enough to be able to support each other as well as to learn from each other of what those challenges would look like. Right. So, you know, you may be talking with someone else that talks about their challenges and they know someone that could support you to to to answer said challenge.

00:26:51:18 - 00:27:14:21
Unknown
And it just continues to trickle down like that. So though there's challenges and I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm always the one that's going to look for what are the challenges and who do I need to talk to. Who do I need to advocate to. Who do I need to? You know, I'm in a, an amazing position to bring some of the challenges that I'm hearing to the tables that newcomers aren't necessarily invited to.

00:27:14:23 - 00:27:38:17
Unknown
So, as you you know, I hear those challenges. Case in point, we had, persons that, you know, had to travel out to Sudbury or to Toronto, to take the English language test for either, you know, the DLI or for PR and I've, I've spoken with support multiple, you know, multiple years trying to get that into community.

00:27:38:18 - 00:28:11:08
Unknown
You know, looking for a different organization for them to have that, that landing pad, to be able to administer, scoop it. And after three years, we, they recently was able to do that. So now they offer that here in our community and that's huge. So that's amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's actually it's so good. And slowly, slowly sharing that with others in the community for others that are, you know, having that challenge, it goes back to exactly what I said.

00:28:11:08 - 00:28:37:14
Unknown
As soon as the challenges arise, there's others that are knowledgeable of what I've shared or what I've, who I've pulled into the community are what what we're doing as a community at large to answer that to those challenges. You know, even when it comes to newcomers opening up businesses, then we have the local immigration partnership team that's able to work with the Entrepreneur Center.

00:28:37:14 - 00:29:03:23
Unknown
The mill works here to support them and put on a session. You know, you're trying to do business with food. Then we have so innovation center with the rain. So there's so many resources. As soon as a challenge arrives, then there's someone that's in place to be able to support, to at least try and get that challenge. That's amazing in terms of, yeah, just to be so responsive to all that stuff.

00:29:04:01 - 00:29:20:16
Unknown
You know, that that's super important to me. You have to adapt, right, and pivot where needed and add because like you said, I mean, if you grew up there, you don't think of those things because you just know everything's. But if you're a newcomer, well, there's a lot of things, you know, you know, just even things like licenses, is there transportation like busses and things like that in town?

00:29:20:16 - 00:29:46:11
Unknown
Do people need licenses or so? I would say, you know, there's transportation that are here and, it's grown over the years. So, you know, because of the fact that this is this program's, you know, located within the city, we're able to quickly see those needs to meet there is transportation, here in the city. It's definitely bumped up.

00:29:46:13 - 00:30:12:06
Unknown
We have had persons who needed to apply for any precip that has applied to become bus drivers and are able to yeah, that are able to use the program because of the need of the increase of drivers. Yeah. Which is very cool. Yeah. Yeah. So there is transportation. We also have you ride but I think I moved when I recently moved into the community.

00:30:12:08 - 00:30:32:21
Unknown
I remember, I was sharing with someone at the time and she talked to she said to me, you know what? I my phone died. And I said to this individual, can I please just check when the bus is coming? And she's like, oh, where do you live? I'll drop you. Right. So you also have that community that will say, you know, I'll drop you here, there.

00:30:32:23 - 00:31:03:16
Unknown
We have one of the local, churches that a lot of newcomers, tend to attend, and they have, you have a car. You are responsible for picking up 1 or 2 people to get to church, right? So there's again, like, like I even mention community that big, you know, community feel. So even though there's you're going to need a car later on because, you know, if you are family, you're going to want to have that accessibility to transport, constant transportation.

00:31:03:18 - 00:31:24:09
Unknown
There's still enough transportation to get you around, once you're in that transitioning period to get your license. And so there's multiple companies now that will teach you and train you up to get the license here in Canada as well. So yeah. So what's the climate like there then in terms of you know, like because we have everybody has summer fall, spring winter.

00:31:24:09 - 00:31:58:21
Unknown
So how is your winter. Let's talk about that for a little bit. You talked about time. The newcomers are very hesitant about driving in the winter, which I totally get. But if you want to speak to that a little bit more about what the climate is like. Yeah. So we we get on for, so yeah, you're going to have, newcomers coming in and going, I don't know how to navigate this just yet, but because of the fact that, you know, it's not the same amount of traffic as an urban community would get, you can slow down a little bit more, you know, you can take the time to get to work,

00:31:58:23 - 00:32:29:15
Unknown
a little bit easier, as well as you're not because of the you don't have that long commute. You don't have the need of rush, rush to get to work. So, yeah, we do have winters where, you know, you're wanting to jump on that, jump in the car and get to work. But again, like I mentioned, you don't have that same challenge as you would have in the in the urban communities where it's just so much traffic that before, you know, you get in an accident, you can really take your time here.

00:32:29:17 - 00:32:49:05
Unknown
That's good. And how cold would you say winters get? Because that's always, I think, another concern, a misconception people have about kind of I mean, it's not -50 everywhere in Canada, you know, what would you say? Like how cool does it get in the winters around Sioux Saint Marie? So we we can we can get up to that that -21.

00:32:49:07 - 00:33:09:04
Unknown
On some days, some days a little bit more. But it's never, ever going to be like, you know, five days. Yeah, I'm on this stretch where you're just like, minus putting on -21, -21. But yeah, we do get between those minus 21. But there's days when I've looked and we're warmer than Toronto right. Yeah.

00:33:09:06 - 00:33:24:08
Unknown
So people don't think about that as well. So yeah. And I think too I mean, you just dress for the weather, you know what I mean? Like, you just get a good job, you get your mitts, your neck warm everything. And honestly, like, it's fine, you know, my boys say, mummy, the car is where you stay.

00:33:24:08 - 00:33:42:11
Unknown
It's fine if you're cold, go in the car. We want to be, We want to be, you know, sliding down. We want to be outside doing winter activities. So if you have kids, like, you're going to have to figure out what you need to do because they're not. I don't know what it is, but they don't feel the cold as much as we do.

00:33:42:12 - 00:34:05:21
Unknown
So, you know, they've already told me this year, you've got to snow pants if you need, you get a. But we're going to be outside. Yes. That's awesome. Yeah, well, I think we're almost at and listening. Did you have any other questions you wanted to ask? No. I just think, you know, if we haven't asked this already because we've had a really good conversation with you is just is somebody is going to be relocating or immigrating to your community.

00:34:05:21 - 00:34:25:17
Unknown
What are like what are the top three things you would tell them? To be prepared for? You know, be a positive are some things that, you know, they might think are there but might not be there. What would you say to people arriving in your community? I would definitely say to someone moving here, come and experience it for yourself.

00:34:25:19 - 00:34:52:06
Unknown
That's the first thing, your friends and your family have different goals than you do, so they'll have different conversations of what your experience will be like. Yeah. Before you even come here. So, you know, just like how you wouldn't take, a review from every single person before you go to a restaurant. You know, sometimes it is that you need to come and experience it for yourself.

00:34:52:08 - 00:35:14:20
Unknown
I also add that rural to you in your home country might be different. Here in a rural community. Associate. Mary. I, originally Caribbean, I'm from the island of Jamaica, and I've lived in multiple different countries. There's nothing that I miss here. I still get my my herbal teas that my grandma makes for me.

00:35:14:22 - 00:35:37:20
Unknown
You know, I still, I'm able to connect and and find food that are from my country, which I think sometimes those are the things that, you know, newcomers think about. I gotta find my food. But you can still find your food. You can adapt as well to what's here and figure out how to make your own.

00:35:37:22 - 00:36:03:07
Unknown
I remember actually just talking with someone a couple days ago, and he said. And he's from, another rural community. Said, when I just moved here, there was this little section for international food. Now there's four different aisles and Walmart with international food. So, I would definitely say really come and check it out for yourself. Just like how someone would say to you, go to England, go to Canada, go to us.

00:36:03:07 - 00:36:25:19
Unknown
Right. And you sat down and thought to yourself, what do I want from my family? Yeah, use that as your pilot and come and experience rural for yourself. Make your own assumption and also come and create the life that you have promised your family that you want to create. I think yeah, you said it all. There it is.

00:36:25:19 - 00:36:48:04
Unknown
It's keeping your own culture, adapting a little bit and having that goal in mind of what you want and not worry about what other people think or say or, oh, this will happen. Like you can figure it out, right? And we're we're we're resilient. We're resilient. We will figure it out. Plus, by the time you come here, you will find others that are going through similar things that you are also going through.

00:36:48:09 - 00:37:07:04
Unknown
And before you know it, you've created a tribe, right? I mean, once you create that tribe, that's, you move on, you you learn and then you're like, oh my gosh, I really don't want to go to an urban community because I like it here so much. Yeah. No. Exactly. And also as well, everyone who's listening, we're going to have all the connections and information in the show notes as well.

00:37:07:04 - 00:37:24:12
Unknown
So you'll know who, if you need to reach out or even the places that you recommend people connect with even to, to come out there to check it out and things like that. One more question to close out because we always like to highlight. Is there anything special that you enjoy doing around Sioux Sainte Marie or a certain restaurants you really like?

00:37:24:12 - 00:37:44:13
Unknown
Or we always kind of like to highlight something fun as well in the community. Yeah. What do I like to do? I have three boys, so I'm all, I always say, like I'm never home because I'm always doing something. They love playing basketball. So we have, we sometimes go to the YMCA to play basketball with some restaurants.

00:37:44:13 - 00:38:09:17
Unknown
We're really loving, this breakfast restaurant called stocked. It's new, and it's just got all these fun pancakes, that are local. And we love. There's this this, what is it called? This? Oh, my gosh, they make the best sirups. For us. We we love that sirup. It's Hogan homestead. They make the best maple sirup.

00:38:09:19 - 00:38:29:14
Unknown
And the experience. I don't my regular sirup anymore because I love there's so much. And then to tie that in, you know, we know the owner. Like, how do you, you know, how do you say, okay, I live in the community. I love the sirup. And I know the owner, like, come on. Yeah, yeah. So there's nothing around now.

00:38:29:16 - 00:38:52:19
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah. Oh. Awesome. Oh. That's awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming on today. Really appreciate it. You've you've given everyone some great information about Suzy Marie and just about the opportunities. And like you said, with, you know, our sip on right now, now is really the time to really look at Sioux Sainte Marie and how they can go through that process to get there.

00:38:52:21 - 00:39:17:05
Unknown
Yeah, yeah. Welcome. When you come reach out, we'll we'll touch base with you. So thank you once again for coming on. Thank you everyone for listening. And until next time live rural. Live well. If you feel this crisis other people like yourself please like and share a podcast as well. We will leave links below to the topics we spoke about today.

00:39:17:07 - 00:39:23:14
Unknown
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.