Ukrainian hopes to stay in rural Newfoundland but work is hard to find

Stanislav Vasylchuk is more than 6,000kilometres from home, and he's the only Ukrainian in the remoteNewfoundland mining town of Baie Verte, a community of about 1,300people surrounded by scrubby northern woods and towering rockyslopes.

There are no hip cafes where the 29-year-old engineer mightmeet people. There isn't even a set of stoplights.

But he loves it. He hikes, he goes to barbecues, he does yoga atthe gym and he lives next to the ocean.

"I don't know how toexplain it," he said. "It'sbeautiful. It's just beautiful."

Vasylchuk arrived in Newfoundland a year ago Tuesday, part of aprovincial government-led effort to bring Ukrainians fleeing the warto a province with a dwindling rural population. But after thecompany running the Baie Verte gold and copper mine where he workeddeclared insolvency last month, he's in the same boat as so manyrural Newfoundlanders who've had to leave: he needs a job.

Vasylchuk was aboard the first of four planes chartered by theprovincial government to transport displaced Ukrainians. It landedin St. John'slate in the evening on May 9, 2022, itspassengers greeted by a welcoming local crowd.

Newfoundland and Labrador is home to the country's oldest andmost rapidly aging population, driven by decades of out-migration inrural parts of the province. Young people leave in search of jobswhen they can't find one at home, and they leave their aging parentsbehind.

The provincial government is counting on immigration to fillthose gaps, and it established a satellite office in Warsaw, Poland,shortly after Russia launched its first attacks on Ukraine.

Government employees there worked with citizens, staff andimmigration organizations back in Newfoundland and Labrador to helpthe Ukrainians find jobs and places to stay before they arrived.

More than 2,400 Ukrainians have since settled in more than 30different communities in the province, according to the Associationfor New Canadians.

Vasylchuk, who goes by Stan, stepped off the plane with a job asan engineering technologist lined up at the Baie Verte mine owned byRambler Metals and Mining. For the first few months, he stayed at ahotel in St. John's with dozens of other newly arrived Ukrainianswhile resettlement workers helped him get a driver's licence andinsurance and set up a bank account.

He then hopped on the bus for a six-hour journey acrossNewfoundland to the Baie Verte Peninsula. When he showed up forwork, there were signs welcoming him in Ukrainian, he said.

People in Baie Verte are still supporting him, he said. Theyhelped him find a cheaper place to rent when he lost his job, andpeople in the mining industry helped him attend a conference inGander in late April so he could meet more peers andemployers, he said. They're also helping him get set up to obtaincertification as an engineer in training.

"I would say I'm quite lucky," he said. "A lot of people havehelped me."

The smallness of his new community, Vasylchuk said, "is nothingI need to get used to." He grew up in the village of Dubiivka, incentral Ukraine, which is much smaller than Baie Verte, though theland looks completely different. The woods in Ukraine are thicker,with taller trees, he said, and the central region is full of wheatfields.

"You know, the flag of Ukraine? If you see it, it is yellow onthe bottom and blue on the top," he said. "The place where Ilived, that's what it looks like."

Canadian dream

In Newfoundland, where the blue skies are a little rarer, he saidhe loves to climb to the 335-metre summit of a popular local hikingtrail and look out over the hills.

Vasylchuk has a graduate degree and he's qualified to work inseveral countries. He's lived in big cities in Germany and the CzechRepublic, but he said he prefers small communities.

He had long dreamed of emigrating to Canada, and he'd been livingin Prague before he came to Newfoundland, earning money to make themove. When the war broke out in Ukraine, his father urged him togo to Canada rather than return home, he said, but the decisionstill weighs on him sometimes.

His mother and father are also engineers and they're still inUkraine, he said. When he worked at the mine, he sent them money. Hesaid he's particularly worried about his mother, who has adisability. His father volunteered to fight, but Vasylchuk said he'sapplied to have his mother come to Canada ideally to Newfoundland.

"She has two degrees, actually. Construction engineering andeconomics," he said, the pride clear on his face. He said hisexperience being cared for in Canada have convinced him that she'dalso be looked after here.

"But I definitely hope I will be able to find a proper job," hesaid. "I'm doing my best here."

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