The President of the AMBM and Reeve of the Rural Municipality of La Broquerie, Mr. Ivan Normandeau, the Mayor of the Town of Sainte-Anne, Mr. Yvan St. Vincent, and the Mayor of the Rural Municipality of Taché, Mr. Armand Poirier, issued the following statement on the occasion of the 11th edition of National Francophone Immigration Week (November 5th to 11th, 2023):
As part of this 11th edition of National Francophone Immigration Week, we, as municipal leaders, have chosen to join and promote the campaign of the Welcoming Francophone Communities initiative of the Seine River region (Communautés francophones accueillantes de la région de la Rivière-Seine, CFARS) and the Réseau en immigration francophone du Manitoba (RIFMB) entitled Champions of diversity (Les championnes et champions de la diversité).
We warmly congratulate them on this initiative, and invite the communities, local businesses and community groups in the Seine River region to join us as champions of Francophone immigration to our province. We encourage them personally and collectively to spread the word to their respective networks about the importance of Francophone immigration to our rural Francophone and bilingual communities.
Across Canada and in Manitoba, municipalities play a key role in immigration. They welcome immigrants filled with hopes, dreams and aspirations. By helping them to flourish, our municipalities also create thriving communities that value cultural and linguistic diversity. In our communities, immigration is a win-win situation, as newcomers fill jobs that are in demand and help our businesses succeed with their skills, talents and enthusiasm.
We recognize that to play their role effectively, our municipalities must be ready to welcome newcomers. To achieve this, we are committed to making our communities ever more attractive, and to creating the winning conditions for affordable housing, efficient transportation systems, reliable Internet and cell phone services, sustainable community infrastructure and interesting activities for young people and families. In addition, the AMBM works with our local governments to anchor and improve the delivery of municipal services in both official languages, with direct impacts on successful economic immigration.
For example, over the past few years, our municipalities have actively supported the construction of housing and diversified community activities in La Broquerie, planned and structured the upcoming construction of the new Taché Community Center in Lorette, and supported the upcoming opening of a large-scale Co-op grocery store in Sainte-Anne.
We also invest ongoing efforts to connect the region’s communities to reliable Internet services through partnerships with various service providers. Not to mention the development of a new regional wastewater treatment system for the bilingual rural municipalities of Taché and Ritchot that will accommodate more families.
Our role as elected officials is also to constantly remind our communities of the importance of welcoming with open arms those families who choose to come here. And we are succeeding quite well, since all the communities concerned are experiencing significant demographic and economic growth.
The positive and constructive actions taken by our municipalities and all AMBM members to attract and include immigrant families are rooted in the Strategy to Support Economic Immigration to Manitoba’s Bilingual Municipalities. Both AMBM subsidiaries are also actively involved in implementing the strategy: the Economic Development Council for Manitoba Bilingual Municipalities (Conseil de développement économique des municipalités bilingues du Manitoba, CDEM) coordinates the Francophone strategic sub-stream of the Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program (MPNP), while Eco-West Canada (EWC) supports municipalities in identifying and implementing strategies to increase the supply of affordable housing and public transit solutions in rural areas. More than ever, the synergy of the AMBM Group’s expertise and resources is delivering concrete results.
In fact, in March 2023, Manitoba’s bilingual municipalities gathered for two days in Saint-Boniface for the first edition of the Municipal Economic Immigration Forum organized by the AMBM, under the theme Ready to Welcome. The forum provided our municipalities with an unprecedented opportunity to welcome municipal immigration leaders from across Canada, and to drive progress on a number of large-scale projects aimed at fostering welcome, inclusion and living-together in our communities. We are aiming for a second edition in 2025.
We thank Manitoba’s French-speaking and bilingual immigrants for choosing our province and our communities as their new home. They contribute to nurturing the bilingual character and the social and economic added value of the French fact in our province, for the benefit of the entire community. We wish them and all Manitobans an excellent National Francophone Immigration Week.
The AMBM is the voice of bilingual municipal leadership in the province of Manitoba. It represents 15 local governments committed to providing services in both official languages to their citizens. Together, these municipalities represent the majority of Manitoba’s population. Manitoba’s bilingual municipal leadership is also at the head of the AMBM Group, a consortium of three complementary organizations: the AMBM, the Economic Development Council of Manitoba Bilingual Municipalities (Conseil de développement économique des municipalités bilingues du Manitoba, CDEM) and Eco-West Canada (EWC), which specializes in the green economy. These three complementary organizations actively contribute to the development, vitality and sustainability of the province’s Official Language Minority Communities (OLMCs).
Information: Office of the Chief Executive Officer (O-CEO), 204-289-4077, [email protected].
