Gimli entices Ukrainian refugees

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This article was published 30/05/2022 (940 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Ukrainian refugees in Manitoba who are seeking a place to stay and a job are being wooed by Gimli.

The Interlake town has already booked 56 people to stay at the Gimli Training Centre for up to two months.

The local chamber of commerce and development corporation are working together on the project.

Chamber co-president Melanie Specula had reached out to refugees to find workers for her restaurant, and the response was overwhelming.

“All of them were desperate to come here, and I had to pick four,” she said, later adding: “It was heart-wrenching.”

“The rest of them kept contacting me, ‘Are there any other jobs in Gimli? Can we still come to Gimli?’ So I started to think, you know what, they could. Gimli has a 100-room dormitory sitting empty: maybe we could make this work.”

The facility has 71 rooms, some of which have bunkbeds, while others have single beds.

Specula had put information about living and working in Gimli into a package of material given to the refugees at the provincially run reception centre near the Winnipeg airport. After more than 300 of them arrived this month, she was told many had expressed an interest in living in Gimli.

Last Friday, 60 people were bused to Gimli and given a tour of the town.

The chamber reached out to its members to ask if the businesses needed workers and there is demand for about 100 people, Specula said.

“We’re trying to match them up with jobs as well, and also housing,” she said.

“Hopefully, some will stay… and make their home here.”

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca