Ukrainian war refugee Michael Pluzhnikov has a daily morning ritual.
Before his first cup of coffee, he goes on the Telegram social media site to find out what’s happening at home.
“I see bomb attacks, drone attacks, cruise missile attacks, you only have a few happy days when you open the news and see there was no attacks,” said Pluzhnikov, who brought his wife and three children to Sunday’s Prince George For Ukraine picnic at the Central B.C. Forestry and Railway Museum.
“The children, instead of sleeping a night in their beds, they are used to waking up at 2 a.m. to run to a bomb shelter. Instead of going to school, they are going to a bomb shelter. The Russians plan to make this war as long as possible, so everyone gets tired and everybody forget about Ukraine, about the kids, and the news from Ukraine becomes so usual. This is the plan.”
The 37-year-old arrived in Prince George late last December from with his wife Krystina and their kids – nine-year-old Michelle, six-year-old Leo and five-year-old Julie. They had been living in a Vancouver basement suite and despite working long days as a casual labourer in several jobs he could not afford to pay $3,000 monthly rent. Last winter they met up with friends fAndrei and Halyna, who live in Prince George and they told them there would be a warm reception waiting for them if they moved north, where the rents are not so steep.
“That’s how I knew there was a good community in Prince George which helps Ukrainians,” said Michael.
Michael and Krystina both had jobs with the Ukraine government and each holds three masters university degrees. Michael studied law, economics and public administration and went on to earn his doctorate in political science, while Krystyna studied public administration, journalism and international relations.
“I was working for the federal government and working for the university teaching our public servants to improve their skills - I’m overqualified for a lot of jobs,” Michael laughed.
He now works as an employment consultant for WorkBC and is one of the primary contacts for new arrivals from Ukraine before they come to Prince George.
Pluzhnikov says about half of the 220 displaced Ukrainians in the city are now working. Many of them were trained and have worked in the Ukraine as doctors, nurses, engineers, tradesmen or truck drivers, but because they lack Canadian credentials they can’t work at their jobs and are forced to take whatever work they can find.
“They are here with their families and they need to pay rent each day and they have no money and no time to transfer their skills from their previous jobs to the local market. It’s the same with doctors and nurses here. We run out of doctors and nurses here in P.G., but there is no fast track for those people. They have no time and no money (to recertify) and that’s why they are cleaning our streets, cooking sandwiches or serving donuts.”
Krystina, who worked as a liaison between the office of president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian parliament, now works as a baker for Cobb’s Bakery. She’s expecting her fourth child on Christmas Day.
With so many job sectors facing shortages of skilled labourers, Pluzhnikov says Canada needs to find a better way to integrate internationally-trained workers into the workforce. Assuming they speak English, he says in most cases it should only take a few months for them to learn the new rules or standards for their jobs and the costs of that retraining or retesting should not be prohibitive.
“It would be good for this economy when you have such qualified people over here with the experience they have,” he said. “Think how much of Canadian taxpayers’ money is spent to make one doctor, or to make one truck driver, or plumber or engineer. They just need to be fast-tracked.”
Now that they’re settled in Prince George, the Pluzhnikovs enrolled their kids in the French immersion program at Lac des Bois Elementary School. They plan to make Prince George their permanent home.
Organized by Prince George For Ukraine and the Share Hope Refugee Sponsorship Committee and sponsored by Save-On-Foods, the afternoon picnic drew a crowd of about 250 people to the Forestry and Railway Museum.
Since the Russians launched their invasion on Feb. 24, 2022 the volunteer group has helped 80 Ukrainian families get settled in the city and 220 of those people have stayed in the city.
