The Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) has announced that Canada is now hiring skilled foreign workers, including Filipinos, under its Temporary Foreign Worker Pilot project.
DoLE Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said the Philippine Embassy in Ottawa, Canada reported that the Canadian province of Alberta has expanded its Temporary Foreign Worker Pilot project effective July 16.
Baldoz said the Alberta employers have been allowed to hire highly skilled foreign workers in certain in-demand occupations other than steamfitter/pipefitters.
According to the report, effective July 16, Alberta’s Temporary Foreign Worker Pilot project will need welders; heavy-duty  equipment mechanics; iron workers; millwrights and industrial mechanics; carpenters; and estimators.
“The expansion of this pilot project will enable more employers in Alberta to hire foreign workers on a temporary basis to fill up short-term skills and labor needs when Canadians or permanent residents are unavailable,” Baldoz said.
The labor chief also warned prospective OFWs to check with the Philippine Overseas Employment Adminsitration for accredited employers and approved job orders before they pursue their dream of going to Canada.
“This is to ensure that applicants undergo the correct and legal process of worker migration,” she said.
DoLE provides emergency employment to flood victims
Baldoz has also ordered the release of all available funds for emergency employment in DoLE regional offices with operational jurisdiction over nine provinces devastated by the floods brought by the southwest monsoon (habagat), even as she approved the release of P8.8 million in emergency employment funds for 5,861 worker-flood victims in the National Capital Region (NCR).
The nine provinces are Zambales, Bataan, Pampanga, Tarlac and Bulacan in Region III; Pangasinan in Region I; and Laguna, Cavite and Rizal in Region IV-A.
Responding to the directive, DoLE Regional Office 4-A regional director Alex Avila said they would release this coming week an initial P3.5 million for the emergency employment of 680 displaced workers.
Avila also said he was requesting for P6.5 million more from Secretary Baldoz to cover 2,000 more displaced and workers in the region’s various towns.
In Region III, regional director Raymundo Agravante said they will release an initial P1 million in emergency employment assistance, even as he requested for an additional P3.8 million for workers affected by the floods in Zambales, Bataan, Pampanga, Tarlac and Bulacan.
 Baldoz, acting swiftly on the recommendation of DoLE NCR director Alan Macaraya, had approved the release of P8,791,500 under the department’s Tulong Panghanapbuhay para sa Ating mga Disadvantaged Workers or TUPAD, to pay for the wages and labor costs of the 5,861 workers from 212 barangays in the calamity-declared areas of Malabon, Valenzuela, Caloocan, Navotas, Pasig, Pateros, Marikina, Manila, Quezon City, Pasay, San Juan, Muntinlupa and Taguig, and from 42 barangays in the non-calamity declared areas of Makati, Las Piñas, Paranaque and Mandaluyong, or a total of 254 barangays.
The workers to be hired will be engaged in community clean-up activities, like clearing of debris and de-clogging of canals, sewers, drainage and waterways filled with garbage.       With PNA