Reid shares perspective of employer of immigrants

Before he was the MLA for Livingstone-Macleod, Roger Reid and his wife Darleen owned the Tim Horton’s in Claresholm where they employed a lot of foreign workers. Reid shared that experience, and much more, as part of an open house on immigration hosted by the Town of Claresholm at the Claresholm Community Centre on Nov. 9. Reid described Claresholm as a community that provides the environment to succeed. He observed when the first wave of foreign workers came to him, he and his wife realized how fortunate they were to be born in Canada. They looked at all these newcomers who chose Canada and it re-acquainted the Reids with all the blessings of home. Reid then turned to his own history, which dates back to the founding of the town. Local pioneer O.J. Amundsen travelled to North Dakota in the early 1900s and brought people back to settle this area. Reid’s ancestor was part of that. One of his ancestors also had a demonstration farm and kept detailed records. Reid was able to look at those records, and he discovered something all too familiar – a shortage of labour. There were regular notations about good workers being hard to find. “It’s been a struggle in this community for generations,” Reid said. So, when he decided to fill that shortage with foreign workers, he met many challenges. There was all sorts of misinformation, as stories went around town about wages being subsidized and much more. Those were not true, Reid said. Instead, bringing in foreign workers became what amounted to a timely, costly, exhausting third job. In the end though, it was necessary and worth it. The business grew from 25 to 55 employees. “It grew our business because we had steady labour,” Reid said. He pointed out the upside of having foreign workers. They help grow the community. They have bought homes, raise families and send their children to school here. “They have enriched our lives in many, many ways,” Reid said, and the community should be proud. He pointed it is not just front-line workers in fast food that are needed, but welders, doctors, truck drivers and more. With development happening at the Claresholm Industrial Airport, labour will be needed there too. Now, with the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot, the town has an opportunity to show the whole country about Claresholm. When Reid left Claresholm in 1985, the population on the sign on the highway said 3,700. It is the same today. “We need to find avenues to draw people into our community,” he said, adding more people will allow Claresholm to flourish.

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