{"id":5589,"date":"2025-11-02T17:14:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T20:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2025\/11\/02\/from-the-philippines-to-the-prairies-how-neepawa-is-thriving-through-immigration\/"},"modified":"2025-11-02T17:14:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T20:14:18","slug":"from-the-philippines-to-the-prairies-how-neepawa-is-thriving-through-immigration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2025\/11\/02\/from-the-philippines-to-the-prairies-how-neepawa-is-thriving-through-immigration\/","title":{"rendered":"From the Philippines to the Prairies: How Neepawa is thriving through immigration"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>ManitobaCatherine Vego opened her Filipino restaurant in Neepawa at the start of October, with the southwestern Manitoba town\u2019s growing Filipino community making it the right time to start cooking, she says. According to Statistics Canada, Neepawa\u2019s Filipino population has grown to 2,600 \u2014 almost half of the total population.Filipinos now make up nearly half of southwestern Manitoba town\u2019s population of 5,700Chelsea Kemp  \u00b7 CBC News  \u00b7 Posted: Nov 02, 2025 7:00 AM EST | Last Updated: 5 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 5 minutesVego\u2019s Home Pinoy Restaurant owner Catherine Vego says because of Neepawa\u2019s growing Filipino population, she felt it was the right time to open her new restaurant. (Chelsea Kemp\/CBC)A new Filipino restaurant in Neepawa is highlighting the town\u2019s rapidly growing newcomer population and the strong cultural ties shaping rural Manitoba.Catherine Vego, who is from the Philippines and came to the Neepawa area in 2014, opened Vego\u2019s Home Pinoy Restaurant at the start of October, bringing a taste of her home country to the southwestern Manitoba town.\u201cI want them to feel like they\u2019re just in the Philippines,\u201d Vego said. \u201cEverything that they miss.\u201dNeepawa has seen a dramatic demographic shift in recent years, led by Filipino newcomers. According to the 2021 Statistics Canada census, Neepawa had a total population of just under 5,700, more than half of whom \u2014 just over 2,900 people \u2014 were visible minorities. That included 2,600 who identified as Filipino.That number has nearly doubled since 2016, when Neepawa had just over 1,600 Filipino residents, and a total population of about 4,600.Marilyn Crewe, Neepawa\u2019s economic development officer, said the number of newcomer businesses in the community has doubled in the last decade, with about 13 storefronts, roughly half of which are Filipino-owned.Marilyn Crewe, Neepawa\u2019s economic development officer, says newcomer businesses have doubled in the Manitoba town over the last 10 years. (Submitted by Marilyn Crewe)Many newcomers arrive through the temporary foreign worker program at HyLife Foods, a Manitoba-based company that has a pork-processing plant in Neepawa. It brings an estimated 200 workers a year to the community, many from the Philippines, said Crewe \u2014 recruitment that has fuelled Neepawa\u2019s growth.\u201dIt\u2019s a gift for the community,\u201d she said. \u201cFor Neepawa, it\u2019s just been handed to us.\u201dTemporary workers can, after a period, apply for permanent residency. If successful, they can stay and build a new home in Neepawa, which creates opportunities for everyone, said Crewe.Local businesses are also looking for new ways to help fill labour shortages and skills gaps through immigration, and Crewe helps employers find staff when they aren\u2019t available in the small town.\u201cWe see this opportunity then for entrepreneurship, to also help them,\u201d Crewe said. \u201cIt\u2019s part of what they see as becoming successful in Canada.\u201dIn a statement, HyLife told CBC its current workforce includes a strong Filipino community, along with employees from other countries like Mexico.\u201dWe are thrilled to see the positive growth in Neepawa,\u201d and the company works with municipal and provincial officials \u201cto ensure this progress benefits everyone and supports the long-term success of the region,\u201d the statement said.Neepawa and Area Settlement Services executive director Ilce Pineda says while Filipinos make up the majority of newcomers moving to the town, the area is also seeing people from Mexico, India, Ukraine and other countries. (Chelsea Kemp\/CBC)While the federal government has promised changes to immigration and temporary foreign worker programs, Crewe says she\u2019s hopeful they\u2019ll take into account how immigration helps smaller communities like Neepawa grow.Meanwhile, the community\u2019s growth has not been without challenges, she said.There is a growing need for housing, education and daycare spaces. Crewe hopes entrepreneurs will step in to help fill some of these gaps.Ilce Pineda, the executive director for the newcomer-support agency Neepawa and Area Settlement Services, said while Filipinos remain the majority of newcomers, people are also arriving from Mexico, India, Ukraine, Korea and other countries.Newcomers are drawn to the town\u2019s safety and welcoming atmosphere, Pineda said.\u201dAs soon as you come here, you feel like you can try a little bit of everything, especially the food,\u201d she said. \u201cYou feel that you\u2019re in a family environment with the community.\u201dFeeding the communityCarmela Comila, who runs Lola\u2019s Bakery with her family, came to Canada from the Philippines in 2004, and moved from Winnipeg to Neepawa in 2019.The peaceful, family-oriented environment with a strong Filipino community makes Neepawa feel like home compared to bigger cities, she said.\u201dEspecially in summer, when everybody\u2019s outside, you can feel \u2026 like you\u2019re in the Philippines, because you hear them speak Tagalog, you see \u2026 Filipinos and they eat Filipino foods.\u201dCarmela Comila, who runs Lola\u2019s Bakery with her family, says Neepawa feels more like home than bigger cities. (Chelsea Kemp\/CBC)Restaurant owner Vego said Neepawa has transformed since she first arrived in 2014, and that demographic shift has offered a great opportunity to share Filipino meals with the community.\u201dEverywhere you look, there are a lot of Filipinos,\u201d she said.She\u2019s lived in Gladstone, about 40 kilometres east of Neepawa, for the last four years, but she\u2019s planning on moving back to be closer to her restaurant. But it can be tough to find housing.At Vego\u2019s Home Pinoy, business has been booming\u2014 she gets about 400 visits a day and up to 600 on the weekend, Vego said. The restaurant serves Filipino classics alongside dishes like biryani rice, sushi and Korean noodles. On weekends, live music adds to the atmosphere, Vego said.\u201dEveryone is welcome,\u201d Vego said. \u201cI love cooking. Every time that I cook, I put my heart and my mind so that the food will make it good, and that people will come back.\u201dWATCH | Neepawa\u2019s growing Filipino community is booming:From the Philippines to the Prairies: Neepawa\u2019s population is boomingCatherine Vego opened her Filipino restaurant in the southwestern Manitoba town of Neepawa at the start of October, with the town\u2019s growing Filipino community making it the right time to start cooking, she says. According to Statistics Canada, Neepawa\u2019s Filipino population has grown to 2,600 \u2014 almost half of the town\u2019s total population.ABOUT THE AUTHORChelsea Kemp is a multimedia journalist with CBC Manitoba. She is based in CBC\u2019s bureau in Brandon, covering stories focused on rural Manitoba. Share your story ideas, tips and feedback with chelsea.kemp@cbc.ca.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ManitobaCatherine Vego opened her Filipino restaurant in Neepawa at the start of October, with the southwestern Manitoba town\u2019s growing Filipino community making it the right time to start cooking, she says. According to Statistics Canada, Neepawa\u2019s Filipino population has grown to 2,600 \u2014 almost half of the total population.Filipinos now make up nearly half of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5590,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118,127,1],"tags":[116,126],"class_list":["post-5589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-indigenous","category-manitoba","category-uncategorized","tag-indigenous","tag-manitoba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}