THE Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) has signed an initial agreement with Canada’s Yukon government for skilled workers to be deployed to the western Canadian territory.

Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III said at a briefing that the agreement was signed last week. Yukon has a population of 3,000 Filipinos out of 20,000 overall.

“Meron kaming (We have a) joint communique that will pave the way for the deployment of skilled workers to Canada… In Yukon, we are planning to deploy on a government to government basis,” he said.

Mr. Bello added that a contract will be ready by the end of this year. He said more discussions are needed between DoLE and the Yukon government.

“They will designate their technical working group and we will have our technical working group and they will have discussions on the preparation of a bilateral agreement which will also provide a template employment contract,” he said.

DoLE is also in talks for a similar agreements with the province of British Columbia, with Mr. Bello adding that he expects to sign a bilateral agreement soon pending further discussions. — Gillian M. Cortez

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