Filipinos in Canada resilient amid economic woes
Elmer Cano got laid off again. PHOTOS BY JHONG DE LA CRUZ
RED DEER, Alberta – Five months ago, Elmer Cano, 39, got relief from months of joblessness after receiving a call back from his employer, asking him to return to work. Early this year, he was laid off yet again.
The father of two had been waiting seven months when he got the call back from his employer Evraz North America, a pipe manufacturer for oil and gas companies. He has had three layoffs since he worked for the company in 2012.
Cano belonged to the more than 58,000 unemployed in Alberta in 2015. By the end of 2015, Alberta’s unemployment rate had risen to 7 percent, up sharply from 4.7 percent the year before, according to recent data from Statistics Canada. There was also a fall in the number of hours worked, down by 4.3 percent in 2015 compared with 2014.
“It is something you don’t want to get used to,” said Cano. He had sailed through what seems to be a rollercoaster ride employment in the province. Cano only works when business for the company he works for picks up. In between lay-offs and reinstatements, Cano receives employment insurance (EI).
Statistics Canada said there were some 61,300 EI beneficiaries in Alberta in November 2.7 percent up from the month before, or more than double the 30,300 reported in 2014. Edmonton and Calgary have the most beneficiaries.
More job losses are predicted to occur in the first half of 2016 as the oil industry reels from steep price decline.
TFWs affected
Temporary foreign workers are also hard-hit by Alberta’s economic woes. Couple this with the projected reduction of about 8,400 TFWs in the province this year as a result of changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker program in 2014.
Jeff (not his real name) has been working under the federal government’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program for three years. He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear his employer might find out of his plans to leave the company for a better future in Saskatchewan where he could quickly become a permanent resident.
Tighter regulations on hiring TFWs have discouraged employers from further keeping their TFWs on staff. Jeff, who works for a fast-food chain, said that it is unlikely his employer will pay up the $1,000 fee to re-apply for his LMIA (Labor Market Impact Assessment) when his contract expires this year. LMIA is a permit from the federal government allowing companies to hire a TFW.
“With less people eating out, there is less active business for fast-food chains. And with more locals looking for work, employers would rather hire them than pay the government a hefty $1,000 for every TFW,” he said.
Beginning July 2016 employers can only have 10 percent TFWs in their staff mix, forcing many TFWs to find work elsewhere or worse, become undocumented when their work permit expires.
Remittances undisturbed
As for Babylene Llamas, 37, she is lucky to be working in healthcare field, which remains stable.
Marcy Viejon is in the remittance business.
Llamas moved to Alberta as an immigrant together with her family in October 2014. A registered nurse who worked for six years in Singapore, she said just the same, lower gas price spelled higher cost of commodities for her family.
The decline in world crude oil price since the summer of 2014 became the main driver in the depreciating value of Canadian loonie. The Canadian loonie hit a new 12-year low on January 16, plummeting to C$0.68 to its U.S. counterpart.
Prices of grocery products are expected to rise as a result of Canadian retail companies spending more on importing fruits and vegetables. Consumer price index in the province was up 1.5 percent at yearend in 2015, with food and shelter having the most increase, according to StatsCanada.
In a separate report, families will be spending an extra C$345 in food products in 2016, found a study by the University of Guelph Food Institute.
And like any other Filipino families abroad, Llamas sends money to her parents in the Philippines.
Money remittance businesses do not seem to share the brunt of the ill effects of the low crude prices.
Marcy Viejon, 72, has been in the money remittance business for over 30 years. She said she saw the Canadian dollar dip to P32.80 to Philippine peso on January 8, the lowest it had been since the economic boom in 2009.
But even with such a low value, she said Filipinos keep sending money out of obligations to their families, never mind the more money they have to spend because of the low Canadian loonie.
Viejon has seen the value of Canadian dollar fluctuate from a meager P15 in 1989 when she started her business, to a high P45 in 2010, to its decreasing value at present.
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