It’s June, and it’s Filipino Heritage Month across Canada.
The community has grown over the years, and Filipinos now number close to one million.
Based on Statistics Canada projections, Filipinos are expected to number over two million across Canada in 2041.
The 2021 Census established that a total of 957,000 people living in Canada reported being Filipino during the tally, or 2.6 percent of the country’s total population.
The heritage month also celebrates the role Filipinos play in creating an open, diverse, and more inclusive society.
Whether it’s in business, politics, health, or the arts, the nearly one million people who claim Filipino heritage in Canada represent one of the fastest-growing diasporas in Canada.
Celebrations are going to happen from coast to coast to coast.
Canada’s House of Commons on October 30, 2018 unanimously passed M-155, a motion officially designating the month of June as Filipino Heritage Month across the country.
Federal Liberal Salma Zahid, who is a Member of Parliament for Scarborough Centre in Ontario, sponsored the motion.
The declaration of June as Filipino Heritage Month has been established at different levels of government in previous years.
In November 2017, the Toronto city council voted unanimously to designate June as Filipino Heritage Month.
On June 1, 2018, the Alberta government issued provincial proclamation designating June every year as Philippine Heritage Month in the province of Alberta.
In May 2018, the cities of Calgary and Edmonton in Alberta declared June as Philippine Heritage Month with the City of Fort Saskatchewan doing the same on June 9 of the same year.