Benjamin Doan is helping Vietnamese students learn, thrive in Sudbury

The scene is set for Vietnamese students to come to Sudbury, Ont.

There's a residence for them, and now a restaurant, named after the classic soup called Pho that provides a taste of home.

It's all largely due to the efforts of Benjamin Doan, an immigration consultant who moved to the city at the beginning of the pandemic.

After moving to Canada in the 1980s from Vietnam, he's had a varied career as a restaurant owner and businessman.

In 2014, in southern Ontario, he started working in immigration to attract students to Canada. 

In November, 2019, along with his brother, he made his first trip to Sudbury.

"We just got a feeling that this is the place," he said.  

The students he is helping attract to Sudbury would stand a better chance learning English and competing in the workforce if they lived for a time in the Nickel City, Doan said. 

"But if I talk the talk, I need to walk the walk," Doan said. "That's why I had to move here first. I have to be here to be able to help them."

I think Sudbury has a great future.- Benjamin Doan, Pho Noodle House owner

He first encourages his Vietnamese students to learn about the local labour market.

"In Sudbury, there's a strong mining industry," he said. "So I would encourage them to go into mining technologies instead of going for business, because business everybody can take.

"But mining is what we need here, the technologies, the engineers."

And despite its reputation as being a dirty industry, Doan said he's actively steering immigrants in that direction. 

"Being new in a country. I know it's very hard. And having someone who knows, and who's helping you, I think that would be much better for them."

Doan now plans to set up a greenhouse to grow Asian vegetables for his restaurant, Pho Noodle House on Larch Street in the city's downtown core, and sell at the farmer's market.

He also said he has a partner who is opening an Asian grocery store, and another who is setting up an import/export business and Asian bakery.

"I'm bringing the people, the investors, the students, the investors to come here and we can always work together to make it happen sooner," Doan said.

Doan is also interested in the fall municipal election.

He said for Sudbury's downtown to succeed, it needs stronger support from the government.

"I think Sudbury has a great future," Doan said. 

"But we need to diversify the economy and the population too, to make it an inclusive community where everybody can feel at home."