The Pembina Valley Local Immigration Partnership (PVLIP) showcased the region’s increasing diversity at its annual Connecting Cultures & Communities event last week.
This was the first time Altona hosted the celebration, which took place Feb. 22 at The Community Exchange.
The full house of attendees was treated to a vibrant musical performance by musical group Alter Limitz, which is made up of newcomers who have benefitted from local immigration services.
Guests also enjoyed a Filipino buffet supper prepared by Potpourri of Flavours followed by presentations by members of the PVLIP team.
“Really, this celebration is about looking at the wonderful work that is happening in the communities and the people that live here, and celebrating the cultures that we get to enjoy,” program coordinator Elaine Burton Saindon told the crowd.
She shared the organization’s highlights from the past year, emphasizing the success of diversity workshops centered around the recently developed Connecting Cultures & Communities Guide and Toolkit.
“These workshops—totaling almost 70 with nearly 700 participants—exceeded expectations, reflecting the community’s eagerness to engage in cross-cultural dialogue.”
In 2023, PVLIP established a permanent office in Altona at The Community Exchange, with part-time staff now available there three days a week.
Burton Saindon highlighted the office’s role in connecting people to resources, understanding their stories, and exploring potential volunteer opportunities.
“When we get all those voices together, we can implement change,” she explained.
She also shared some of the history of the organization and described the work that they do.
“We’re a non-profit. We don’t get a lot of visibility. A lot of our work is behind the scenes. Across Canada, we have approximately 87 programs like ours. We’re established to work with communities, to help them prepare for an increase of newcomers through immigration or develop solutions to address the impact of immigration. The main objective of a local immigration partnership is to strive to engage a wide variety of stakeholders in a focused planned session to create goals that will strengthen welcoming communities for newcomers, which will promote their success in Canada.”
PVLIP has a variety of community services that collaborate in this process.
“One of the main ones is Regional Connections Immigration Services. They are our host organization, so we work with them, and that partnership is very strong.”
Burton Saindon noted that when it comes to immigration, there’s a growing attraction to rural communities throughout Canada, and the Pembina Valley is one of them.
“One of the values that this region is known for is its ability for communities and businesses to respond to the needs of others. To be willing to find a way to host, help and accommodate people, whether it’s in a crisis, or whether it’s by assisting new residents from around the world.”
Burton Saindon said the numbers reflect the need for an organization like theirs. Over the past 25 years, the population of the Pembina Valley has grown. According to census data from 2021, that increase has been almost 32 per cent. During those years, the Pembina Valley Canadian-born population increased by 19 per cent, while the foreign-born population increased by 149 per cent.
“We now have 147 countries calling the Pembina Valley home, representing 64 mother tongues that are not English or French,” Burton Saindon noted.
According to the Permanent Resident Landing numbers, in 2022 and 2023 combined, 3,435 permanent residents have moved into the region.
“The language diversity in our region is quite high,” shared Burton Saindon. “One-third of our residents do not speak English or French as their first language. The national average of non-English or French speaking immigrants in any community or town is approximately 13 per cent. In the Pembina Valley, it’s 33 per cent.”
The role of PVLIP, Burton Saindon explained, is not to provide direct service to newcomers, or to solve immigration related issues by themselves.
“Our role is to bring a variety of voices together and through that collective community response, create solutions to ‘do welcome better.’ Our goal is to create welcoming communities, ensuring our new residents feel at home and have a sense of belonging in their settlement journey. So, when we bring all these voices together, we end up coming up with a tool or resource.”
Last week’s celebration also marked the unveiling of PVLIP’s new set of five-year priorities. One of those priorities includes the formation of action teams, incorporating PVLIP members as well as local people, striving for ways to help their communities become even more welcoming.
“We will be creating more intentional awareness of this over the next year,” said Burton Saindon. “Our goal is to see at least one action team in every community we work with in the Pembina Valley.”
The teams will meet four times a year while also interacting with community members to gain exposure, or raise awareness of goals in their town.
“They’ll be giving feedback and facilitating their own ideas,” Burton Saindon said. “We have some broad, attainable goals, but they can also make it specific for what they feel would work the best. It’s super exciting.”
