FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Ottawa, Ontario, November 9, 2017 – The Honourable Tobias C. Enverga Jr., Senator from
Ontario, voiced his pleasure upon hearing the news that the city of Toronto has passed a motion
declaring the month of June as Filipino Heritage Month within the city, beginning in 2018.

“I would first like to extend my warmest congratulations to Councillor Neethan Shan, whose
motion before Toronto City Council made this month of recognition possible for Filipino
Torontonians. I would also like to congratulate all organizations that supported this great
initiative,” Senator Enverga said in a statement.

“This is indeed wonderful news not only for the Filipino community within the city of Toronto,
but for all Filipino-Canadians from coast to coast to coast. Filipino-Canadians have an ever
growing presence within our great country, as Filipinos are consistently among the top source
countries of Canadian immigration,” the Senator continued. “Filipino-Canadians continue to
have a positive impact on Canada’s society and economy and I am thrilled that the city of
Toronto has taken this first step towards recognizing the importance that Filipino-Canadians
have on strengthening Canada’s multicultural mosaic. I would like to thank the Filipino
community, with the leadership of Paulina Corpuz, for their support of this endeavour. I urge all
cities across Canada, large and small, to follow suit and support this initiative by recognizing and
celebrating Filipino heritage in the month of June as well,” the Senator concluded.

Filipino-Canadians have been recognized similarly before, as the city of Vancouver, led by the
initiative of Jojo Quimpo, had declared August 14 as “Filipino Fiesta Day” in recognition of the
contributions made by the Filipino community and held in tandem with Vancouver’s large Pinoy
Fiesta celebrations.

Since 2010, the Philippines has been the number one source of Canadian immigration in each
year, except for one. In 2015, the last year under the previous Conservative government, a
record high was set as an incredible 50,816 Filipinos came to Canada. The city of Toronto’s
Filipino community has a population of 160,000.

Under the 2016 census, 510,425 Canadians reported Tagalog as their mother tongue.

www.SenatorEnverga.com