Provencher Member of Parliament Ted Falk hosted representatives from Guyana, Bolivia, and the Philippines for two days earlier this week.

Falk says he was excited to welcome Her Excellency Petronila Garcia, Ambassador of the Philippines, His Excellency Pablo Guzman Laugier, Ambassador of Bolivia, and Her Excellency Clarissa Sabita Riehl, High Commissioner for Guyana, to southeastern Manitoba.

Falk says he gave them a tour through a variety of local businesses in Provencher as well as the Mennonite Heritage Village. He notes they also highlighted the agriculture community in the Southeast.

“The Filipino ambassador was interested in chicken farms so we toured a broiler farm and explained the supply management system we have here in Canada and she was very impressed and there too with the animal care that the industry demands from it's producers, just really impressed with how we operate here in agriculture."

SEMFA officers meet with the Filipino AmbassadorFalk says throughout the visit the ambassadors seemed to be very impressed with the work ethic in the Southeast and the entrepreneurial environment.

Kris Ontong is the President of the South Eastman Filipino Association. He says getting a visit from the Filipino Ambassador is a historic moment for the Filipino community in the Southeast and notes officers of SEMFA were invited to join the ambassador for dinner.

“During the reception dinner, the impression that she got was that we are very happy over here,” notes Ontong. “She also asked questions about how easy it is or how difficult it was to get started over here so we shared our own experiences how we started out as newly landed immigrants and she picked up a lot of positives from the stories we shared.”

Falk says Ambassador Petronila Garcia was very interested in the Filipino community in Provencher and was particularly intrigued when they were toured through the new Hylife feed mill on Highway 52.

“Don Janzen mentioned that his company alone employs between 900 and 1000 Filipinos, she was very impressed with that. She commented specifically how happy her people seemed to be because we met many of the Filipino community at the different places where we toured and she could see that they were genuinely happy to be here in the Southeast.”

Falk says the visit was a tremendous opportunity to showcase business and hopefully open up some trade opportunities abroad. He notes he got excellent feedback from all three ambassadors and it was a very positive experience.