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This episode is brought to you in partnership with Supply Chain Manitoba and the Manitoba Trucking Association, working together to support workforce development and a stronger future for the industry here in Manitoba.

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

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Unknown
Hey, everyone. Welcome back to Move Rural Canada Podcast. And today we have Dale Fust from McMunn & Yates. And he's going to tell us all about McMunn & Yates what they do and of course a little bit about himself. So Dale, Leah and I would like to thank you to our podcast. And first and foremost, please tell us a little bit about yourself and where you got to and how you got to it today, how you're doing it.

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Unknown
Yeah. Thanks for having me, guys. My story is probably a little unique to the way that I've come to this position. I was a teacher for 18 years, so started off in the background, moved into, an admin role, and, ran a hockey academy for eight years. Was loving, loving just being interacting with people all the time.

00:01:53:15 - 00:02:11:13
Unknown
Got to know, Jason Yates a little bit. And when I saw this job pop up, kind of, reached out to him and asked, you know what? What kind of was and how I saw I could see myself fit into the role, maybe with some more training and onboarding was able to make that work. So I made the jump over here about a year and a half ago, and, it's been awesome ever since.

00:02:11:15 - 00:02:26:15
Unknown
It's just a great way to. So I think those transferable skills, you know, I think a lot of people think once they get training, they have to stay in that. But I mean, so many and especially education degrees, you can it's kind of funny. My first degree is HR. And then I went into teaching and then I went back.

00:02:26:17 - 00:02:46:06
Unknown
So teaching are a great degree to have I think. Yeah I mean it's pretty transferable right? Yeah. You need to have skills and you need to be able to just talk to people. And it's one of those skills that we're losing in this world with, with technology and social media nowadays. Right. That that, one on one conversation with people is, somewhat harder than it used to be, I would say.

00:02:46:08 - 00:03:06:21
Unknown
Yeah, for sure. So can you tell us a bit about, McMullen. Yates? You know, where where are you located? The size of your company. All those types of things here. Yeah. Our, our story again is pretty unique. It was, McBurney Yates was formed in 1971 when, Terry Yates and Stanton Gordon McMullen opened their first store, and and that store is still there today.

00:03:06:23 - 00:03:30:16
Unknown
There is a newer store in front, which is not new by any stretch. But the little shop that they started their company with is still, out on the back property there. And I would say it's not much more than a ten by ten shed type thing, but but that's what it was. And, we had two families that were, had experience in contract work in retail, and they decided, you know, the union of those families would put their faith in each other and build something larger than themselves.

00:03:30:16 - 00:03:54:20
Unknown
And so now we have hundreds of families serving the communities, large and small. And McMurry HS is committed and believes in hometown values and doing business with their friends and neighbors. So, we believe that. And in McMurry, Yates is more than just a conjunction between, because without it, there are no connections and no commitment. So, very community oriented business likes to be involved in all those small town places.

00:03:54:22 - 00:04:19:02
Unknown
And then and then we really expanded. So, we added a timber fab company, which joined us in 1972. That's our transplant that makes the floors and roof, joists and different things like that. We added our Jenkins Flooring company in 2002. Our transportation department and distribution center was in 2008. We, had a concrete plant in 2010 and a furniture store in 2011.

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Unknown
So kind of a jack of all trades company. That we do, and we service lots of different industries. So you would say that your, industry needs, your sector is more building supply? Yes. Building supply. When we go to career fairs and we try and explain our business to people, we say we we provide everything you can to build a house from from the foundation up from the time you dig the hole till the time you put the finishing touches on.

00:04:43:12 - 00:05:06:05
Unknown
That's what our business is. So we don't necessarily build the house for you. Although we do have contractors, salespeople that would help design, design your plan, get everything ready to go. But we don't actually just do the building of the houses ourselves at this point. All right, so with that in mind, where do you see the most demand for positions like such as front line to management, to skilled trades?

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Unknown
Are there more positions that are currently in demand than others? Yeah, we have positions in all factors of the business for sure. I would say our contractors sales, roles are the most the role we find the toughest to fill. And that's because we need experience in those roles. So our company, does a very good job of promoting from within training on its own.

00:05:30:00 - 00:05:44:17
Unknown
We do our own training platform and our own training program. You know, you don't need any post-secondary experience for most of our roles. When you start, again, we'd like to train you from within and make sure you're doing it the way we would like. But that contract, your sales role, you need to have some sort of construction background, right?

00:05:44:18 - 00:06:00:23
Unknown
For me, I couldn't go into that role. I don't know unnecessarily how to build a house. So those people who come from the industry and want to maybe slow down or get off the tools would be, really important, and we're just not seeing that. I think as much as we used to, either people are working longer or it's a money thing or whatever it is.

00:06:00:23 - 00:06:17:13
Unknown
But, we do find that people are that's a tough role to fill, and we're going to try and create some sort of training platform to work with those people, because it's just a role that's really tough to fill for us. But there are roles in all sorts of, facets in our company that we can, we're looking to fill every day in lots of places.

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Unknown
When you see, contractors sales, can you go a little more in depth just for some people who aren't quite sure what that is? Yeah. So for sure. So that would be a person like me who walks into to a McDonough age store and says, hey, I want to build a deck, and I don't have any idea of how to build a deck, but I don't want to put a deck on my house.

00:06:32:21 - 00:06:51:05
Unknown
So those people have the knowledge to say, okay, where where is your deck? Like what? What is your house space? Are you looking for composite or wood treated or screws? Lots of different things that you can do. And then they can actually design the deck for you, help you price it out, get you in touch with contractors who would even build it for you.

00:06:51:07 - 00:07:13:15
Unknown
They're just a really good kind of touchpoint for, people in our company. Yeah. Oh, and it makes sense. You're going to want to have that kind of, experience, for sure. So for someone who's, let's say, new to Canada, who's interested in getting into that building supply industry, who maybe have experience or don't have experience, how would you recommend they get involved with, say, a company like Make Money needs?

00:07:13:15 - 00:07:31:17
Unknown
If that's an opportunity they'd like to grow in, or somehow they want to know how they can translate their experiences in their home country to to Canada to kind of get in, let's say, with McMann and Yates. Yeah. Well, for someone who's new to Canada has zero experience, I would say begin to learn the basics of home functionality and the whole building envelope.

00:07:31:17 - 00:07:49:19
Unknown
Right. So understanding why you might want your windows facing to the south or while you're at it needs to breathe or you know why you want to plan for a windbreak. If you have a deck that's in a north facing yard, especially in our province, like in Manitoba, right when you have those long, cold winters, you know why you would want some south facing windows and get that natural light and heat that comes from, from the center.

00:07:49:19 - 00:08:05:20
Unknown
Right. So learning those things would help you understand the various products within our building supply industry itself. And I think they would probably want to know is the, you know, be able to understand the mix of metric and imperial units, and make sure they're comfortable with the conversion, especially in rural communities where things are still described by the mile.

00:08:05:20 - 00:08:26:10
Unknown
Right. We haven't necessarily moved over our conversion. So, you might have one down and not the other. So if you're all imperial or all metric and you're you're struggling with those conversions, you would want to be, familiar. Familiarize yourself with that. Of course. And then with experience, sky's the limit. Right. Depending on the experience, you can probably slot right in anywhere in our company.

00:08:26:12 - 00:08:42:07
Unknown
And many of the most knowledgeable staff are those who have retired from the trades or left for better work life balance. Yeah. So, so those qualities and traits to be successful in real settings, you know, you got to be able to speak honestly and be authentic. Small towns word of mouth is really important and reputation is as well.

00:08:42:07 - 00:08:59:19
Unknown
So, a customer wants to trust you and we want to trust your company. Right. So that word is is really important. I think those are big, big steps to, creating that relationship first and having those people want to work with you. And I think a lot of people new to kind of don't realize how important communication and networking and trust is.

00:08:59:19 - 00:09:22:10
Unknown
You know, like you said, a lot of skills can be taught. But the other stuff you need to have first, yeah, I would agree for sure. So speaking about employment and we just talked before we, started recording, you said that you are hiring for numerous jobs right now. Like this is the season to be hiring. So okay, some examples of positions that you'd be hiring for currently.

00:09:22:12 - 00:09:43:04
Unknown
Again, you could name it from our entry level positions. Our, our cashiers and our order pickers are, the backbone of our company. Right? They're the frontline workers that we we need the most. And, we do have people that stay on all year. Most of our jobs are 12 months permanent kind of, jobs. But when we get into the busy construction season, we are always having those seasonal people as well.

00:09:43:04 - 00:10:00:21
Unknown
So, anything from the entry level position, for sure. Contractor sales like we just talked about, we need people to help our customers at our service desk, and those are just getting those people directed in the right direction of the questions they ask, or even if they're just looking for products in the store all the way up to our delivery drivers.

00:10:00:23 - 00:10:23:03
Unknown
We're looking for hiring managers, yard managers, you name it. We were probably looking for it. But, it's a very fast paced industry. Some of our jobs are labor intensive. And, you work in the climate in our in our provinces. Right? So we're in northern Ontario, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, you know, hot and dusty in the summer, cold and windy in the winter and every, season in between.

00:10:23:03 - 00:10:40:01
Unknown
So, it takes a special person to, to want to do that job. And we appreciate them so much. And, they're the people that make our company. Right. For sure. And just to confirm, you're not are you? In larger cities, let's say, like Winnipeg or is it more the smaller towns? There's a good mix of both.

00:10:40:01 - 00:10:59:18
Unknown
We're in some, bigger locations. We do have, three locations in Winnipeg as well as our, our commercial division, which, services most of, Winnipeg in the surrounding area. And that's with, the new builds and the high rises and all those things that are happening. And then we have our rural stores in our small towns like Grandview, Russell, Rob and Duffy, you name it.

00:10:59:18 - 00:11:19:15
Unknown
Right. We're all across, I think there's 22 stores in Manitoba, retail locations, and then, two in Saskatchewan, two in northern Ontario, in Canada and Fort Francis. So, yeah, we're all over the place, kind of in the prairies and, always looking for people. Right. There's some of the small towns don't have as as many people to choose from, I guess you would say.

00:11:19:17 - 00:11:36:17
Unknown
And that's why we're always looking for new people. But I think it's important to note two right? Smaller towns, more affordability. So if someone's trying to get their foot in the door, let's say in the construction realm, in this, in the supply build, it's a great opportunity. Kind of it's a way in. Right? I always tell people the numbers are smaller in the small towns.

00:11:36:17 - 00:11:56:01
Unknown
You're going to get way further ahead in a smaller town than you will in Winnipeg to start out anyway. Absolutely. And again, I think personally, again, I mean, this is a wonderful company to work for. They take the time they train you themselves and it is it is family run. It was started by families and it is still family run today, even though we're we're quite a bit bigger.

00:11:56:03 - 00:12:10:18
Unknown
And as soon as you again, I'm fairly new in the company and I feel like part of the family, they, they always make me feel like, you know, the decisions we're making are together, and the reasons we're doing them are for the betterment of all of us. And it's just something you want to be a part of, for sure.

00:12:10:20 - 00:12:34:18
Unknown
All right. Deal. So if somebody want to apply to McMurry. Yates, where do you guys typically post your jobs and what do you look for in a resume to make it stand out? Right now we're using, I would say, the standard things we do post some jobs on LinkedIn. We predominantly use, indeed in local job shops where we can, we have some good success with those in some of our locations.

00:12:34:20 - 00:13:01:14
Unknown
And for some not so great at this point. Just, I'm not sure what, why some are better than others, but, you know, we seem to have some good, good, success with some local job. Job stuff. We still are doing some local newspaper ads as well. So those kind of the places that we look for, you can go to our careers page on our website, as well that they have all of our jobs posted that are available in all of our locations, and it has all of our locations as well.

00:13:01:14 - 00:13:21:18
Unknown
So when you click on those locations, you can see a phone number and the store managers email for each location. If you wanted to reach out directly to them to see if there are jobs available that might fit your skill set, or if you're just looking in general. That's what I was going to ask next. Are you guys still that type of is where someone could walk in and ask to speak to the manager of the local McMullen Yates to introduce themself?

00:13:21:18 - 00:13:43:13
Unknown
Or is it more, you know, my, my son's 17 and he was applying at, a grocery store and they said, oh no, no, just go do it online. And I thought, that's I think it's so sad. I told him, go in, introduce yourself. And they wouldn't let him. I would say, we're still those people. And it makes me really happy to say that because we want the word of mouth, we want our workers to tell their friends that this is the place you want to work.

00:13:43:13 - 00:14:02:08
Unknown
And, we're always looking for, you know, feedback from other people and trying to get better. So, I would say absolutely. Go to that, hand up your resume, introduce yourself. That's, that's really important. And again, that family run the people. We want to know who you are. Sometimes looking at a resume online doesn't give us the full, the full version of you.

00:14:02:08 - 00:14:24:05
Unknown
Right. So we want to we want to meet you. We want to have those in-person interviews and different things like that. So, I would say that's really important if and I would recommend it if you're looking to, find a job. Yeah, absolutely. What are those qualities and traits that you would, you say make someone successful to get hired and even to grow within the company, especially in rural areas.

00:14:24:05 - 00:14:52:02
Unknown
Right. Because we know a lot of times people live in rural and it's different than working in a city. So what are the things that you think are important for people to work, who want to work with Mcmenamins or just in general in in the industry that you work in? I think some of those intangible things that we're losing as a generation, unfortunately, are, you know, these like a strong work ethic we need in a rural town when you have less employees, so more people are tasked with maybe taking on 2 or 3 roles in some of our stores because we don't have 50 employees in some of our locations.

00:14:52:02 - 00:15:13:02
Unknown
So you might be the cashier and also the delivery driver one day. So we need those people to be dependable. We need them to show up. We need them to work hard and trust that we can, you know, leave them in the store. If we had to go do our own delivery type thing. So, those are really important aspects for us as we want people to be be trustworthy, dependable, honest, and just hardworking.

00:15:13:04 - 00:15:30:17
Unknown
And I feel like, in our experiences, we maybe are lacking that, with our, with our younger people who are coming into the workforce. So, work life balance is obviously important, but we still want them to show up and be able to work when, when it's time to do so. So there's not too much spin.

00:15:30:17 - 00:15:45:23
Unknown
His eyes are dependable, and you work hard. You can really get where you want to go. Those are too big. Yeah, yeah. Anybody who anybody who wants to learn it makes the job easy, right? When we want to teach somebody or change somebody a new position, and they. And they're willing to work with us and work hard, the sky's the limit.

00:15:46:00 - 00:16:02:06
Unknown
We we joke about it, but, we have some banners are a company where we go to career fairs. It's called our story. And, actually just did a presentation on this in our manager meeting. A couple of weeks ago. And I made people stand up in our company that have been in a different role that are in our that are now managers.

00:16:02:06 - 00:16:21:23
Unknown
And almost everybody stands up, you know, we have 5 or 6 people and I won't say their names, but they know who they are. And it's the same story. They started in the lumber yard when they were 17 hour time after school. They got into the store aisles and they became a hardware manager. Then they became the store manager, and now they're working in our head office, or they're running a different part of our company.

00:16:22:01 - 00:16:46:05
Unknown
We want those people who are lifers. We want those people to buy into our company and want to stay with us. So, those are we have numerous people in our company that I could talk about that have kind of gone the same route. Right? Started as a cashier, started in the store, head of the marketing department. Now they're all just successful people who have worked their their tails off and now are are here in a different capacity helping our company grow.

00:16:46:07 - 00:17:06:11
Unknown
And I think as well it's cool for the simple fact that you could work in Yorktown, Saskatchewan, let's say. Right. And then you want to maybe move to Brandon or, you know, Winnipeg. So your stores and your team allows people to, you know, not only move up, but they can move around from different communities if they, you know, if they sell stuff.

00:17:06:12 - 00:17:24:08
Unknown
Yeah, we want good people. And we would do, do anything to keep them. Right. So if it means, they're looking to move on to greener pastures or, or they're relocated, whether it's a spouse is moving or whatever, we always try and keep them in our company. And sometimes it might mean they have to take a different role in a store, but most times they're willing to do that because they like working for us.

00:17:24:08 - 00:17:49:00
Unknown
So again, we appreciate them as much as we need them as well. Well, and I think too, what's nice about, McMullen Yates is that you're in a position where, you know, you're not a 20,000 person company, so people who start now, they're you're in that, you know, you're growing. And so there's real opportunity for people, like you said to, to get in some of those higher positions where if you start with a company with, you know, thousands and thousands of people, it's a lot harder to get to the top or it takes a lot longer.

00:17:49:02 - 00:18:07:20
Unknown
It does. I again, I can only speak for myself. I've been here just under 18 months and, you just see the growth rate. We do hire some of those managerial positions we posted just because we haven't had a chance to fill from within. But there's always that opportunity. And, you know, we've had lots of staff members approach and be interested in different roles.

00:18:07:22 - 00:18:23:02
Unknown
Lots of times in those sales position roles, we do have flooring specialists and window and door specialists and kitchen specialists and all those people you want to have experts in. If I if you're that person off the street who's looking to renovate the kitchen, you don't want Dale foods, showing you a kitchen at this point, right?

00:18:23:02 - 00:18:48:10
Unknown
I know that's not my role, and that's that's okay. But we have those people in our stores, and, that's really important. So some people are willing to take on those roles and do the training and familiarize themselves with all of our products and be able to help those customers. And that's really neat that they're kind of self-driven and motivated to to want to do different things and help out in different ways when it comes to, newcomers, because, you know, Canada has a very multicultural society.

00:18:48:10 - 00:19:10:10
Unknown
We have a lot of newcomers here looking for opportunities. What do you feel that, people who are new to Canada should maybe in terms of, let's say you would recommend them knowing before working with maybe a Canadian company or there are certain expectations that you think are, I would say, sort of embedded into Canadian culture, the workplace culture in construction.

00:19:10:10 - 00:19:24:05
Unknown
I would say it's still a little bit of an old boys club, kind of built from the ground up on the backs of those families that they do so, but it is changing and they're bringing on new and younger workers in the field. So I would say there's a number of factors. It can be incredibly welcoming or it might not be.

00:19:24:05 - 00:19:40:12
Unknown
And so depending on your country of origin, there also needs to be a reminder that, you know, you can't be hurt on the job or fired if you're hurt at work. Right. So we have protections in Canada for these people, who are working. And I think that's really important because, we've noticed some people are very nervous about reporting workplace injuries.

00:19:40:14 - 00:19:57:06
Unknown
And, you know, it's able we're able to to work through those, obviously, but making sure people know their workers rights that they can't be hurt, that can't be dismissed if they are hurt. And for some different people who have some cultural beliefs, you know, we want to make sure, you know, the use of our PPE when you, you know, physical, religious expression.

00:19:57:06 - 00:20:19:14
Unknown
Right? So if you were a turban or a kirpan or anything like that, and it would affect you wearing a hard hat or different things, so do prayer to have those conversations ahead of time and what you're what you're looking for, right. Do your research on on your company and what their expectations are for PPE. And if it doesn't work within your religious expression, maybe you're looking for other different opportunities on the job site or different roles in the company that might, allow you to do different things.

00:20:19:14 - 00:20:37:17
Unknown
Right? So hopefully I explain that. Well, I think that's important for people to know. Right. These are things you need to think about depending on the companies that you're applying to. What is your on in terms of language level? I don't expect you to to I'm not going to ask you about like Canadian language benchmarks, but how important is communication?

00:20:37:17 - 00:20:59:01
Unknown
I mean that's that's huge. I'm going to assume. Right. Or do you have roles where that people can have a lower level of language? Yeah. We and we're working on that even in our training platforms to find, you know, closed captions and different things, for able to, for people who, who don't have any language, obviously there when there are language barriers that then that slows the process down.

00:20:59:01 - 00:21:18:01
Unknown
But but people do seem to kind of learn the role as they're moving. We have people who have worked, in our, in our construction, in our lumber yards, on forklifts and different things, who are deaf or hard of hearing. So just, you know, we're able to work with, with constraints and make sure we accommodate all those people appropriately.

00:21:18:03 - 00:21:41:05
Unknown
For sure. And so, you know, we we can teach them the role as long as they can do the role satisfactory that then the language barrier is what it is. So we have lots of I would say, Ukrainian, immigrants who have come to us in the last few years. Lots of them are drivers for us. So, you know, as long as they know where deliveries are going and they can read the maps and they can follow directions, then it's not such a big deal.

00:21:41:05 - 00:22:00:17
Unknown
But is it a perfect scenario? No. We would love to be able to communicate like this with everyone. But those people are also working very hard to try and acclimatize themselves to, to Canada and our culture. Right. So I think, the onus still becomes on the employee to try and do it as much as we can, and hopefully we can work within those parameters as well.

00:22:00:19 - 00:22:25:05
Unknown
Yeah. So they're thinking of newcomers as well as people that maybe look, looking to move out of large urban centers like Toronto. Vancouver, there's there seems to be an exodus of those types of people. And what do people often misunderstand about rural living that you think they be pleasantly surprised by? It's just I mean, rural living is great.

00:22:25:07 - 00:22:41:10
Unknown
I have to admit, when we moved out of the city Winnipeg, I felt like I was going to move to a cow pasture. And, you know, there would be no amenities whatsoever. And I might be able to go to the store once a week. And it's not like that, right? I know there are some really remote locations, but I would say typical rural living is great.

00:22:41:10 - 00:23:01:17
Unknown
You get to know your neighbors. We're very lucky with the people we, we have in our in our in our, our area for itself. You know, we've met good friends, they've looked after our kids. It's like a family, right? It's it's really important. And the community builds together and they support one another. It's just it's so nice to to know everyone.

00:23:01:17 - 00:23:16:12
Unknown
Right? I go to the local store and you have 20 conversations before you end up, checking out just because that's where you meet and, you know, our local community center. And, for me, you know, my my daughters are active in hockey and baseball. So when you're, when you're around the community, you just get to know those people.

00:23:16:17 - 00:23:35:00
Unknown
I think it's great. I think it's, it's like an extended family. And so exactly what we're talking about in our business, we want we want those people. Right? We want new people in our country to to come over and feel welcome and feel like they're part of our community and get involved and, you know, volunteering with different things, all those things make such a big difference for us, right?

00:23:35:00 - 00:23:55:14
Unknown
In the small town, people support people over and over. Right? You know, I'll use an example. My, my my in-laws are from Mathare, Manitoba. It's a town of about seven people, and I, I'm exaggerating. There's probably 50 or 60, but, you know, they had a steak fry the other day and there was 5 or 600 people there because all the local communities from around come and go and join it.

00:23:55:14 - 00:24:14:07
Unknown
It's just that way to get together with your community and feel like part of it. And, you know, have a drink, have a good meal. And, you know, remember, remember the good days and, and all those different types of connections that you have, right? The local coffee shop where everybody goes every morning. It's just it's such a unique experience, compared to what you would have in a big urban city.

00:24:14:07 - 00:24:31:02
Unknown
Right. You're kind of on your own. You do your own thing, you go from point A to point B, and then you go home again. So I, I find it's, it's a much more relaxed environment and you just feel just so much more supported from, from people who might be strangers. Do you find us someone like you said, you moved from a larger city to a smaller city.

00:24:31:02 - 00:24:51:00
Unknown
You know, there's a lot of people who feel like, well, I might miss this or that, or this certain store or what are things, I guess, that you do. You know, like I said, you mentioned you have children in sports, things like that. Do you just find you do a lot of driving or how do you sort of make those other things work that you still, I guess because let's be real, you do miss out on a few things if you like it.

00:24:51:01 - 00:25:15:06
Unknown
It is. But I mean, but there's lots of ways to make it work. Still, we do a ton of driving and we put a ton of miles on our vehicles, and it's, you know, the trade off that that we have. But we're also not not ridiculously far from a major center. So, I mean, again, depending on where you move in, in remote or rural, you know, in the, in the province of Manitoba, you're never that far from from Winnipeg.

00:25:15:06 - 00:25:34:01
Unknown
Brandon Steinbach, all these major cities now. Right? You're you're 20, 30, maybe an hour away for the most part. You know, Dawson is is still a rural area, but it's a big enough city that has all the amenities you would need. So I would say you're never you're never too far in a province like ours. Yeah. It's just it's the sacrifice I guess you make.

00:25:34:01 - 00:25:51:02
Unknown
But we we're very lucky and fortunate and we're close enough. If I ever had to, to make the 40 minute drive into the city for something because I needed, you know, meds for my kids, or there was an emergency. We can do that, you know, on those snowy days when the highways are closed, you're you're at home.

00:25:51:02 - 00:26:09:05
Unknown
You're stuck at home, you're not really commuting. And for us, again, we're kind of lucky. In rural Manitoba, the schools are closed and we don't have to put our kids out on the highways anymore. Whereas the city might still have school on that day and different things like that. So I don't know, everybody has has their own take on it, but it's, it's been a godsend for us.

00:26:09:05 - 00:26:24:20
Unknown
And we absolutely love, love where we are and and love, what we do. So, yeah, I think honestly, driving that's just the big thing, right? You've just got to be willing to drive if you live in rural. And I mean, I think to most of us, you grew up in Manitoba, that's just normal. You don't even think twice about it, right?

00:26:24:20 - 00:26:41:02
Unknown
Like, I mean, I can I'm a half hour away from the city. I might drive in twice a day, sometimes right in and out, just with kids and activities or other things and just, I don't know, it is what it is. And plus driving within the city, right. Like a lot of people don't take the time to realize how long it takes to get from point A to point B within the city itself.

00:26:41:02 - 00:26:57:15
Unknown
Right? Because you could be at the end of Winnipeg and have to drive all the way to the other end and should take 40, 45 minutes to get there. So, you know, and if you compare it that way, I think lots of times it does, you know, even that cell phone. Yeah, yeah, I would mention that's one of the things we noticed with our with our newcomers.

00:26:57:20 - 00:27:17:03
Unknown
Lots of people who are applying our commercial division is just outside the city limits of Winnipeg. And our distribution center as well, is is in Headingley and it's just outside the city limits. So public transportation doesn't go to those two locations. And sometimes we'll have, you know, even though we have them, that regular job posting, some people don't do that in time.

00:27:17:03 - 00:27:35:12
Unknown
And a lot of our newcomers, I would say, don't have either a driver's license yet or access to a car. And so that does create a bit of a barrier for them. And then and then location becomes different, right? So again, if you move to a small town, you're probably within walking distance or riding a bike or a snowmobile or whatever you would like to do to get there.

00:27:35:14 - 00:27:56:22
Unknown
But in the city of Winnipeg, that's, that makes it a little bit trickier for us to fill those two roles, those locations, just because of transportation. Yeah. For sure. Of course, we always want to highlight great things in Manitoba. So, you know, in the area where you live and work, are there any hidden gems, like a favorite restaurant or a place you recommend people visit?

00:27:57:00 - 00:28:19:09
Unknown
I was thinking about this and I was actually talking with Kristen Smith, who's my health and safety, person here needs. And we went to a little restaurant called the Flavors of Mexico, which is in Winkler, Manitoba, and not a place I thought a Mexican restaurant would be, and it was absolutely fantastic. So if you are ever in Wayne clarifying the flavors of Mexico, okay, I'm writing this one down.

00:28:19:09 - 00:28:41:01
Unknown
Yeah, yeah, it was I it was it was amazing. We, it was. So we definitely have to make a trip back. We're excited for that. Yeah. I don't think you realize how large that area is. There's lots of opportunities in southern Manitoba. There's lots of opportunities everywhere in Manitoba. But I think a lot of times people don't realize how many, how large the cities are in the southern Manitoba again.

00:28:41:03 - 00:29:00:07
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah. No. And when we acquired a, we acquired, the Canadian Lumber Stores, I think it was in 2018, I want to say obviously before my time. So I apologize if I get the date wrong. But Winkler, Morton and Altona were purchased at the same time. And, I mean, Winkler is blowing up. It's got to be close to, if not the third largest city in the province.

00:29:00:07 - 00:29:20:19
Unknown
Now, Steinbach and Winkler would be huge. Morden is ten minutes from there. Altona is 15, right. Like it's they're close enough together still where you could live in one and work at the other. Or vice versa. Right. So lots of opportunities in rural Manitoba. I would say the same thing around our Dawson area. We have Rosalind Russell, Dawson, York and Grandview.

00:29:20:19 - 00:29:41:05
Unknown
There's just so many stores within probably a 50 mile radius, that you could work at. So, you know, if you had to commute to one or the other and it's still doable to make it worth your while. Yeah. Exactly. Awesome. Well, thank you so much Dale for coming on today. Really appreciate it. Anyone who's listening we're going to have all this information in the show notes.

00:29:41:05 - 00:30:03:06
Unknown
So make sure to check that out and and definitely apply their hiring. Yeah come on down anytime and let us know. And we would be glad to set up an interview for sure. Thanks, Dale. Until next time everyone. Liberal live well. If you feel this could assist other people like yourself, please like and share a podcast as well.

00:30:03:11 - 00:30:13:01
Unknown
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.