A Cape Breton bakery and store offering free land to anyone who moves to town and works in their business for at least five years has hired three women after getting more than 3,500 applications.
Owners Sandee Maclean and Heather Coulombe posted online that Sonja Andersen, Kerry Walkins, and Trish Tait will be soon be reporting for work at The Farmer’s Daughter Country Market in Whycocomagh, N.S.
“BUT don't worry - we are not done yet,” added Maclean and Hunter, who are sisters.
“We are planning on hiring 3 to 4 more people for the spring, so if we are in the process of talking to you or even if you haven't heard back from us were are still working on the applications.”
They have struggled to attract employees to their co-operative country store and bakery so they decided to offer 0.8 hectares of Maclean's 80 hectares of land to anyone who relocates and works at the market for five years. The new hires can live on the land in the meantime and, after five years, pay the roughly $2,000 legal cost to transfer it to their names. They also get an hourly wage, of course.
"We think we need to think outside of the box to keep Cape Breton true to its roots -- a place where people live year-round and celebrate the beauty that surrounds us in music and stories, and where being a neighbour truly means you talk to everyone in the local co-op," their original Facebook ad had stated.
With files from The Canadian Press and CTV Atlantic
