Province of Alberta hiring thousands of Filipino workers

More than ten thousand professionals and workers are needed urgently in the province of Alberta in Canada as they are experiencing a shortage in doctors, dentists, nurses, engineers, and mechanics and machine operators.

In order to promote employment opportunities in Alberta, the Canadian Province of Alberta has entered into an agreement with the Philippines Department of Labour and Employment.

Alberta’s Minister of Employment and Immigration, Hector Goudreau, said that they prefer Filipino workers because of their skills, flexibility, adaptability and wonderful work ethics.

All those who want to apply to Alberta need to have experience and that is why Philippine Labour Secretary Marianito Roque is looking at labour mobility. DOLE plans to transfer overseas Filipino workers (OFW) whose contracts are expiring in near future in countries like Middle East.

Roque pointed out that in Canada, the OFWs earn much more than they do in Middle East countries. For example, welders in Saudi Arabia, welders earn only 400-500 dollars, whereas they earn almost 6,000 Canadian dollars in Canada.

Similar to countries in Middle East, Alberta is looking for temporary workers who can work up to a period of two years, but they also welcome these workers to attain permanent resident status through the Immigration Program for Skilled Workers in Alberta.

Roque also emphasized on the fact that Canadian employers will cover all the recruitment costs related to hiring of the OFWs under the MOU.

Therefore, the employment agency in Canada and the recruitment agency in the Philippines are not allowed to charge any amount as recruitment fees from any of the OFWs.