Gimli catches eye of national newspaper

PHOTO BY AJ BATAC / FLICKR

Gimli was named one of the top places to retire by the Globe and Mail last week.

 

 

By Austin Grabish, The Express Weekly News

 

Gimli has caught the attention of Canada’s national newspaper.

An article published last week in the Globe and Mail highlighted six retirement hot spots across the country and among them was the RM of Gimli.

The Globe chose the hot spots after the paper’s readers boasted about the six locations.

The Globe’s article is part of an ongoing retirement series the paper has been running.

Gimli was the third town listed in last week’s article. The article said Gimli has become “one of the province’s unsung retirement hot spots.”

“Offering an appealing combination of a laid-back lake lifestyle and affordable housing that’s attracting retirees even from beyond the Keystone province’s borders,” the article said.

The Globe story gave just a paragraph to each town, but said longer articles featuring baby boomers that have already made the move to the six locales would follow it.

No word yet on when that story will be published.

Gimli Mayor Randy Woroniuk said the Globe interviewed him a few weeks ago but he didn’t know the town was going to be ranked so highly.

“I was kind of shocked because he didn’t say anything about ranking Gimli and then all of the sudden (I’m) on my Facebook and Gimli ranks number six, I thought what!”

Woroniuk said the national publicity is more than welcomed.

“I think it’s great because now we’re on the national radar, people are going to think… hey you know what Gimli would be a good place to live it’s not in the city (and) it’s not in the country,” Woroniuk said.

Woroniuk thinks Gimli has a lot to offer for baby boomers looking to retire. 

He said the town has all the amenities that a city has.

“You can buy all your hardware here, you can buy all your groceries here, we have specialty stores, we’ve got restaurants,” Woroniuk said.

And the mayor said there is an array of activities for boomers to do in Gimli.

“Recreation wise we not only have the lake but we also have land if you want to go bird watching, hiking, hunting, snowmobiling, we’ve got all that here,” Woroniuk said.

“It’s because of our rural type of lifestyle (that) you can enjoy all that stuff.”

Woroniuk said there are plenty of housing options for retirees looking to move to Gimli.

“Right now there’s a huge private market,” Woroniuk said. 

Woroniuk hopes the national publicity Gimli has received will encourage investors to look at doing business in the town.

“Hopefully private investors will look at that article and say hey this may be the place to invest, let’s build 55+ condos because you know the demand could be there in the future.”

-- First published in the Express Weekly News print edition January 22, 2015 p.14

www.expressweeklynews.ca