The Mayor of Sun Peaks says there are two Ukrainian families who are currently staying in the resort community near Kamloops.

Speaking on the NL Noon Report, Al Raine, says they reached the community at the end of last month, noting people in Sun Peaks have since offered up their basement suites so they have a place to stay.

“One family with one boy who’s five and just turning six, and the other family has two girls, and they’re two and four,” he said.

“They’ve been around Sun Peaks a little bit, just settling in. Obviously, lots of paperwork with getting them their Social Insurance Numbers and all that kind of stuff.”

While he’s not sure if these families will end up staying in Sun Peaks, Raine says he’s proud of how people in Sun Peaks have stepped up to try and help.

“It has been a pretty amazing couple of days. People have already showed up with a little scooters for the kids,” he said.

“We went out to a restaurant, and the restaurant brought them all dinner. One of the patrons in the restaurant even bought them all beer. They’re being well looked after.”

As for things like schools for the children, Raine says that work is ongoing, noting these families may decide to move to the Kamloops area in the future.

“I think within a couple of weeks we’ll try and find them some employment in their suitable fields and hopefully it all works out,” Raine said, noting the kids are in the process of learning English.

“[Wherever they go,] we’ll have given them a little bit of a head start here and I suspect by the fall, they’ll be on their own.”