14 November 2016 – Consul General Julius D. Torres led a Consulate team on an outreach mission to Edmonton, Alberta from 11 to 13 November 2016, providing passport and notarial services to nearly 600 Filipinos in the city and surrounding areas.

The outreach, held at the Ramada Edmonton South, was organized in cooperation with the Duterte Volunteers of Edmonton headed by Mr. Benjamin Lindo.  During the three-day outreach, the Consulate was able to process 541 passport renewals, 49 notarial services, and 8 applications for dual citizenship.  An additional 29 persons who had submitted their dual citizenship applications took the Oath of Allegiance during the outreach mission.

The Consulate team was also joined by Ms. Violeta Buenaventura, Officer-in-Charge of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in Vancouver, who offered POLO and OWWA services to Filipino workers who attended the outreach.

Edmonton, the capital of Alberta and the province’s second-largest city, is the gateway to Alberta’s oilsands region in the north.  Most of the Filipinos there were historically employed as skilled workers by energy companies that operate in the area, although the current economic downturn has led to retrenchments.  Those formerly employed in the energy sector have either remained unemployed and are searching for work or have begun working in other fields.  Many other Filipinos are employed in the services sector as health care workers, restaurant staff and hotel workers.