Canada needs 5,000 Filipino workers

CANADA needs about 5,000 Filipinos to work in its oil and gas industry, according to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). Labor and Employment Secretary Arturo Brion said Saturday that more job opportunities are lined up for Filipinos in Canada, particularly skilled workers, because of developments in the oil-rich central and western Canadian provinces. Brion said the Philippines and Canada signed a memorandum of understanding strengthening cooperation in the fields of labor, employment and human resource development. The milestone accord, which affirms the preference for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the Canadian labor market, was signed by Brion and Pat Atkinson, the minister of Advanced Education and Employment in the province of Saskatchewan, Canada. "We hope to replicate the agreement we signed with Saskatchewan since other Canadian provinces have also expressed their interest in hiring Filipino workers to meet their labor need," Brion said. He noted that Canada accounts for an increasing volume of remittances from major OFW host economies. He cited Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas figures indicating that total OFW remittances from Canada surpassed $117.061 million in 2005, representing a 73.8-percent growth from $67.338 million in 2004. Francisco Luna, labor attaché to Toronto, Canada, said the agreement between the Philippines and Canada has opened up new opportunities in emerging labor markets in Canada. Saskatchewan is one of the provinces comprising the vast central and western area of Canada, which includes Manitoba, British Columbia, Alberta and other territories. Luna noted that earlier Filipino migrants to Canada tended to concentrate on the eastern area of the country. "Canada's slow birth rate and graying population are factors propelling the need for overseas Filipino workers, who would also be filling up labor market requirements this time in central and western Canada amid the development of the oil and gas industry in the area," he said. This means that Filipinos who worked as undocumented truck drivers in the Middle East as well as highly experienced Filipino oil and gas workers in the desert will have a chance at better paying, safer, quality jobs in Canada, Luna said. The opportunities in Canada are not limited to oil and gas, because there is also a wide demand for OFWs in a broad range of services, including fast-food-type jobs. "Normally, these job types pay $6 to $7 an hour, but here, they pay as high as $12 to $15."