Consul General Austria joins the officers and members of the FWCBC in a group photo after the induction ceremony.   In her remarks earlier, Congen Austria lauded the Cooperative for its mission of helping Filipino workers, regardless of their status, and assured them that the Consulate is honored to partner with them.

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Toronto, 21 January 2023 – With ecstatic shouts of “Viva Senor Santo Nino” and “Hala Bira” from the officers, members, and friends of the United Aklanon Association of Toronto (UAAT), the Philippine Consulate General in Toronto led by Consul General Orontes V. Castro joins the UAAT in the successful annual celebration today of Ati-Atihan Festival, entitled “Ati-Atihan Toronto 2023”, in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) held at the Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Toronto in Scarborough, Ontario. There were 550 participants in today’s event.

The event started with Thanksgiving Prayers led by Reverend Father Norberto Eule and a welcome remark from UAAT President Mercedes Molina.

In his remarks, Consul General Castro commended the UAAT for initiating this year’s Ati-Atihan Festival and recognized the relentless effort of the Association in involving the young generation of Filipino Canadians in their community in cultural activities that promote the continuing link of the young Filipino Canadians with the country of origin of their parents – the Philippines.

The highlight of today’s event is the friendly competition of five (5) groups who came from the Province of Aklan and performed their respective interpretation of the Ati-Atihan performance through dance and music. The Ieigkamoran Linabuan Norte 2023 was adjudged as this year’s Best in Presentation and Costume. The participants in the event were served with Filipino foods and desserts. END-

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According to Consul General Zaldy Patron, 21 of these 104 Filipinos also received financial assistance from the ATN Fund of the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA). They included two Filipinos who were repatriated and three Filipinos whose remains were shipped to the Philippines last year.

In addition, 14 Filipinos received welfare assistance. Among them were the 11 hotel workers in Jasper, Alberta, who were out of work in September 2022 for almost two weeks due to the wildfire in Jasper National Park that caused the closure of business establishments in Jasper.

The rest of the Filipinos who received assistance from the PCG were either given legal and consular advice, referred to pro-bono lawyers, or directed to social services agencies and non-profit organizations that could further help them.

“We are pleased to have extended assistance to our fellow Filipinos in distress last year in line with our mandate to protect the rights and promote the welfare of overseas Filipinos,” said Consul General Patron.

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Fully vaccinated foreign nationals will be allowed to enter Canada for discretionary travel on the following dates if they meet specific criteria:

• August 9: American citizens and permanent residents of the United States, who currently reside in the United States, who meet specific criteria to qualify as fully vaccinated
• September 7 (tentative): All other foreign nationals who qualify as fully vaccinated

The 3-night hotel stopover requirement ends for all travellers scheduled to arrive by air after 12:01 A.M. EDT on August 9.

• Check if you qualify for the fully vaccinated traveller exemption

TORONTO — The federal government’s eased border restrictions are set to take effect on Monday – meaning that for the first time since March 2020, travellers from the U.S. will be allowed to enter Canada for non-essential purposes.

As of Aug. 9, American citizens and permanent residents will be allowed into Canada if they can provide proof that they’ve been fully vaccinated for at least 14 days.

However, prospective visitors will only be allowed to cross if they reside in and are travelling from the U.S. In addition, only the four vaccines approved by Health Canada (Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson) will be considered acceptable, although U.S. health authorities haven’t approved any vaccines outside that list.

Just like fully vaccinated Canadian travellers, U.S. travellers who are fully vaccinated will also be exempt from quarantining for 14 days.

Given that there aren’t any vaccines approved for children under the age of 12 in either Canada or the U.S., unvaccinated children under 12 who are travelling with a fully vaccinated parent or guardian will also no longer need to quarantine as of Monday.

The feds are also eliminating quarantine hotels as of Monday. Previously, all travellers flying into Canada from an international destination had to quarantine at an airport hotel at their own expense for up to three days while they wait for their COVID-19 test result.

Only the major airports in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary had been allowed to accept international flights. But starting on Monday, international flights will again be allowed to land in Halifax, Quebec City, Ottawa, Winnipeg and Edmonton.

All travellers over the age of five, regardless of vaccination status, will still have to provide proof of a COVID-19 test taken prior to entering Canada. However, starting Aug 9., fully vaccinated travellers will be exempt for taking an additional COVID-19 test upon entry, unless they’ve been randomly selected to take a test.

Travellers will also be required to submit their travel information, proof of vaccination and COVID-19 test result through the ArriveCAN app or website beforehand.

Canadian border agents had also been engaged in a work-to-rule campaign on Friday, causing long lines at border crossings and airports. But hours later, the federal government reached a tentative deal with the union representing border guards, avoiding further havoc before the border reopens to Americans.

While Canada is opening its borders for U.S. travellers, the U.S. has yet to reciprocate and open the land border for Canadian travellers. The Biden administration extended the land border closure until at least Aug. 21. However, Canadians have never been restricted from flying into the U.S. during the pandemic.

Canada will also open its borders to fully vaccinated travellers from the rest of the world starting Sept. 7. 

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29 July 2021, Calgary – With the gradual lifting of COVID-19 public health restrictions in Alberta beginning June 2021 and the transfer of the Philippine Consulate General (PCG) in Calgary to its new office the month before, the PCG has been processing more in-person applicants with confirmed appointments in recent months.

The PCG was able to process 3,224 consular services in June 2021, compared to the 1,181 applications it processed in April 2021 when the PCG was still at its former office, for an almost 275 percent increase in the PCG’s total number of processed consular services per month.

For passport services alone, the PCG processed 2,524 applications in June, almost 360 percent higher than the 708 passports processed in April when the COVID-19 public health measures were still in place and the PCG was in a smaller office. The PCG was also able to conduct back-to-back passport outreach missions in Edmonton, Alberta, on 22-24 June and 27-29 June 2021.

“Starting June, the PCG has begun to offer 100 passport slots per day that applicants can book at www.passport.gov.ph. This will be further increased to 122 slots daily beginning 16 August 2021,” Consul General Zaldy Patron said.

He also explained that with the new Global Online Appointment System (GOAS) of the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila, which the PCG uses for its passport appointment, passport processing in the PCG can now be completed in about ten (10) minutes.

Aside from increasing the number of passport appointment slots, the PCG started accepting in July 2021 in-person applicants for non-passport services, i.e., notarial and authentication of documents, civil registration, and NBI verification, who are able to book appointments at http://www.calendly.com/yycpcg/nonpassport.

Likewise, the number of applicants taking their oath as Filipino citizens under RA9225 in the PCG has increased to 15-20 people per day.

While the PCG now accepts an increased number of in-person applicants with appointments in its new office, the 16 months of restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic have resulted in a backlog for passport and dual citizenship applications, which may take the PCG a little more time to fully address. END.

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Building on the success of the PGP Program in recent years, the Honourable Marco E. L. Mendicino, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, today announced that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will invite a record number of people to apply under the 2021 intake of the Program. IRCC will accept up to 30,000 additional applications, giving more Canadians and permanent residents than ever before the opportunity to bring their loved ones to Canada.

Using the same random selection process as used in previous years, IRCC will send invitations to potential sponsors who have already submitted an interest to sponsor form in 2020. This will give additional interested sponsors the opportunity to bring their parents and grandparents to Canada. Invitations to apply will be sent over the course of 2 weeks, starting the week of September 20, 2021.

Those invited to apply as part of this process will be able to use our new Permanent Resident Digital Intake tool, which allows applications to be submitted electronically. This is part of our commitment to modernize Canada’s immigration system, and will speed up and simplify the application process.

We know that many Canadian families have experienced financial difficulties in the last year because of the pandemic. For this reason, we will continue to implement a more facilitative income requirement to ensure that more people can apply.

For the 2020 tax year, the income requirement will continue to be the minimum necessary income, instead of the minimum necessary income plus 30%, and will allow regular Employment Insurance benefits and temporary COVID-19 benefits, such as the Canada Emergency Response Benefit, to be included towards the sponsor’s income. This measure will ensure that applicants are not penalized for losing income during the pandemic.

Quotes

“The importance of family has never been clearer than during the pandemic. That is why we are delivering on our commitment to help more families reunite in Canada. By strengthening the Parents and Grandparents Program, inviting a record number of sponsors to apply, and by adjusting our requirements to adapt to the current times, we are once again proving our commitment to helping Canadian families stay together, and thrive together.”

– The Honourable Marco E. L. Mendicino, P.C., M.P., Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship

Quick facts

• IRCC aims to receive up to 40,000 complete applications in 2021—10,000 from the 2020 intake process and 30,000 from 2021.
• IRCC invites more people to apply than the number of applications we aim to receive because not all sponsors who are invited to apply submit an application.
• Those not invited to apply may consider applying for a super visa, which would allow a parent or grandparent to visit them in Canada for up to 2 years at a time, without the need to renew their status. A super visa allows multiple entries for up to 10 years.
• Invitations will be sent over the course of 2 weeks, starting the week of September 20, 2021. Those who are invited to apply will have 60 days to submit the application.
• In order to confirm whether they’ve been selected, potential sponsors should check the email account they used to submit their 2020 interest to sponsor form. They will also be able to check their status online using their 2020 confirmation number. Further details will be posted on our website in the coming weeks for those who no longer have access to their email account.
• Misplaced confirmation numbers can be retrieved using the Lost My Confirmation Number tool, which will be available online once all the invitations have been sent.
• Selected potential sponsors will have their income assessed for tax years 2020, 2019 and 2018. This is the same as those who applied as part of the 2020 intake.

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Manny Aranez is one of eight people to be inducted into the Manitoba Basketball Hall of Fame earlier this month.

“Something like this is unexplainable,” Aranez said on CBC Manitoba’s Weekend Morning Show on Saturday. “I’m so honoured and representing the Filipino basketball.”

Aranez was inducted for his role as the creator of the Philippine Basketball Association, which started as a way to help kids like Aranez’s own son.

“I wanted to see my son progress and because I love basketball so much. And I said because it’s going to help him along the way,” Aranez said.

In 2001, it started with just seven teams, but now features more than 114 teams with 14 divisions.

“I was surprised the year after it became 10. So from there it just grows and grows and grows,” Aranez said.

The “patriarch of Filipino basketball,” as Basketball Manitoba calls him, Aranez says his love of the game goes back to his childhood in the Philippines.

“I’ve been playing almost every single day from dawn when there is no sunshine yet and until dark,” he said.

Aranez says he owes it all to his mother for encouraging him and his team of volunteers in Winnipeg.

Also being honoured this year are Shawn Gray, Joanne Wells-Small, Ray Hurd, John Klassen, Randy Kusano, plus two teams — the Joseph Wolinsky Collegiate Raiders and the Treherne Collegiate Tigers.

Basketball Manitoba’s induction ceremony will be held in September.

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Every day, Joy Tajanlangit sees people come through the doors of her store, looking to send money to people they care for in the Philippines.

“They just received their salary; they won’t even see it pass through their hands. Just go straight to our store and send it back to the Philippines,” said the owner of the Manila Convenience Store in Calgary.

Tajanlangit’s customers are not alone. They are among thousands of people who send money overseas to the Philippines from Canada.

The amount of remittances sent from Canada to the Philippines was largely unchanged in 2020 compared to the year before, suggesting that Filipino-Canadians and expats alike are striving to continue financial support for families and friends back home during the pandemic. This bucks the trend of global remittances, which saw a dramatic decline in 2020 including an 11 per cent drop in East Asia, according to the World Bank.

According to the latest data from the Government of the Philippines, as supplied to CBC News through the consul general’s office in Calgary, people in Canada sent $1.08 billion to the Philippines from January to October of 2019.

Remittances over the same period in 2020 were almost identical: $1.079 billion.

Tajanlangit witnesses the community’s unwavering dedication up close at her store.

“I would give advice to them to take care of yourself as well,” Tajanlangit said about her customers in an interview with CBC Calgary’s Filipino pop-up bureau. “They’ve been working here so hard, and sometimes they don’t even have a break in the whole week.”

Overseas remittance is common in Canada

Sending remittances is common for many cultures in Canada, including those with Middle Eastern, Asian, Latin American and African roots. 

It involves sending a sum of cash to relatives or friends in another country through a bank or an international service such as Western Union.

And for some countries — including the Philippines — those remittances are integral to the local economy. 

In 2019, the Philippines saw remittances of more than $42.8 billion from Filipinos living overseas, according to Zaldy Patron, consul general for the Government of the Philippines.

“This accounts for about 10 per cent of our country’s gross domestic product,” said Patron.

Many foreign temporary workers, immigrants, students and even Canada-born citizens feel compelled to help family and friends who still live abroad, despite their own financial uncertainties during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Sometimes it would be like $200 every two weeks, to as much as about $2,000 every two weeks,” said Tajanlangit.

“That could either save [family and friends] from hunger or sometimes hospitalization, their kids being in school. You know, without that, it would be really hard for them to live.”

Financial ties aren’t always familial

Tajanlangit sends about $1,000 a year to Frtzy Jaleco in Iloilo City, Philippines. Jaleco, a 28-year-old call centre agent, said the money helped pay for her education.

“Without Joy’s help and support of sending me remittance money, I wouldn’t have finished college yet, most probably,” she said. “This is the reality that I and many students who come from low-income families face.”

Jaleco and Tajanlangit are not related. She’s the daughter of an old friend of Tajanlangit’s. 

After sponsoring members of her own family to immigrate to Canada, Tajanlangit said she felt compelled to continue supporting others back in her home country. 

Remittances result in joy, but resentment, too

While many in the Filipino community make these financial contributions gladly, a feeling of resentment can also bubble up from time to time, according to Ernie Alama, a scholar with St. Mary’s University in Calgary who has studied the sociology of the Filipino diaspora.

It’s kind of a mixed feeling that’s actually haunting us maybe… until the end of our lives.

Ernie Alama, expert in the sociology of the Filipino diaspora

“There is no point of end. So when, for instance, parents or siblings are already economically stable, you have nieces and nephews and it goes on down the line,” he said.

“There’s a mixed feeling, resentment, because you don’t want to be doing it over and over for the rest of your life. At the same time, there is joy when you see your family being happy with what you have done to support them. And it’s kind of a mixed feeling that’s actually haunting us … until the end of our lives.”

Technology and changing attitudes

Looming trends have the potential to disrupt the culture behind sending remittances, beyond the current COVID-19 pandemic.

New apps and the tech companies behind them are finding ways to bypass service fees and commissions charged for the conventional methods of sending money abroad.

Tajanlangit said she’s already starting to see these startups eat into her business of facilitating remittances.

But what is also coming, regardless of technology, is generational change.

Second and third generation Filipino Canadians are less connected to their parents’ or grandparents’ birth country, according to Alama. So those people are likely to feel the social pressures around remittances. 

“I can see that in my children. Questions, for instance, ‘Well, why should I be sending money there, dad?'” said Alama.

“So what would happen if you just stopped? You’re actually breaking up relationships. They expect your support,” he added.

Written by Falice Chin and produced by Paul Karchut, with files from the CBC Calgary Filipino bureau.

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Working parents have until March 31 to apply to receive a one-time $561 per child benefit to help with the cost of child care.

Parents who used child care from April to December of 2020 while working or attending school, can apply now to receive the Working Parents Benefit at alberta.ca/WorkingParentsBenefit.

“The pandemic and the economic downturn has created significant stress for working parents, many of whom have continued to fuel our economy and provide essential services through extreme challenges. The Working Parents Benefit puts money directly into the pockets of the families who need it most to assist them with the financial pressures they have faced this past year.”
Rebecca Schulz, Minister of Children’s Services

Families will be eligible to apply for the Working Parents Benefit if they have:

A household annual income of $100,000 or less.

Paid a total of $561 or more per child for at least three months of child care between April 1 and Dec. 31, 2020 (must provide receipts).

Children born on or after Feb. 29, 2008, in any form of child care, including licensed or unlicensed child care.

A MyAlberta Digital ID is needed to apply for the benefit. Sign up for your MyAlberta Digital ID.
The Working Parents Benefit is in addition to the recently announced Critical Worker Benefit, a $1,200 payment to 330,000 front-line and essential workers, and the Enhanced COVID Business Benefit, a $10,000 support for businesses hit hardest by the pandemic.
Alberta’s government is responding to the COVID-19 pandemic by protecting lives and livelihoods with precise measures to bend the curve, sustain small businesses and protect Alberta’s health-care system.

Quick facts

As a result of the pandemic, fewer families have been using child care, which has meant that money normally used to support families through child care subsidies has not been spent.

This $108 million of unspent funds from Children’s Services will be redirected under the Working Parents Benefit to support up to 100,000 families and 192,000 children.

As of Feb. 12:

96 per cent of daycares, preschools and out-of-school care programs (2,739 programs) are open.

Four per cent of programs (102 programs) are not open.

The 2,739 open programs have 115,285 spaces available. On average, 58,003 children attended during the week, representing a 50 per cent enrolment rate.

Child care operators have received more than $100 million in COVID relief payments over the past year to address cost pressures and adhere to health, cleaning and safety guidelines.

Alberta’s government is responding to the COVID-19 pandemic by protecting lives and livelihoods with precise measures to bend the curve, sustain small businesses and protect Alberta’s health-care system.

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