Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise to speak this afternoon on behalf of the Conservative Party in support of this motion, designating June as Filipino heritage month.

My colleagues and I in the Conservative Party of Canada are pleased to support this motion to designate June as Filipino heritage month.

The Philippines is a country in southeast Asia with more than 105 million inhabitants. Canada is home to one of the largest, if not the largest, Philippine diaspora communities in the world.

I was just speaking with my colleague from Abbotsford while my hon. colleague from the other side was speaking. He reminded me that over the course of the last year we have seen a large wave of Filipino citizens coming into Canada. At one point, they were even the largest number of immigrants our country was welcoming. In that regard, it is more than suited to support and recognize the contributions of these new fellow Canadian citizens of Filipino heritage.

It is indeed a growing community, something to which my colleague just referred. It is a community with a rich and vibrant culture and a community made up of hard-working Canadian citizens. It is certainly one of their traits. In all, it is a community that contributes to strengthening the social fabric of Canada. Through its contributions, it is a community which makes our country the best in the world.

I had the privilege of sitting in the Conservative caucus with an honourable colleague who has passed away, the late Senator Tobias Enverga. I would like to take a few moments to pay tribute to this great man, who would be very proud on this day. He was a proud member of the Canadian Filipino community.

Senator Enverga was born in the Philippines, and like many other Filipinos, he chose Canada as his new home. After arriving in Canada, he worked hard to support his family and his children and build a better life for them, while also throwing himself wholeheartedly into Canadian life.

In 2010, Tobias Enverga was elected as a City of Toronto school board trustee, becoming the first Canadian of Filipino origin to be elected to this municipal position in Toronto. He was a passionate advocate of high-quality education for Canadian youth. He held this trustee position until 2012.

In 2012, Tobias Enverga was again to make history for the Canadian Filipino community. He was appointed to the Senate of Canada by the Right Hon. Stephen Harper. He became the first Canadian of Filipino origin to serve in the Senate. I am sure colleagues from the other place and from here acknowledge he served with great honour. He was a source of pride not only for members of my party, but for all parliamentarians and Canadians.

Senator Enverga also launched the Philippine Canadian Charitable Foundation, which focused on bringing together the Filipino Canadian community to promote the spirit of charity. The senator was a kind soul, someone of whom the Filipino community and all Canadians can be proud. Again, on this very day, he would be very proud to see his welcoming country acknowledging not only his contributions, but the contributions of all members of the Filipino community.

Hopefully, when the motion is passed and adopted, in June we will have an opportunity to acknowledge the great contribution of the Filipino community to our country.

One way in which this community is contributing to our country is through the outstanding entrepreneurial spirit of the Filipino members. Canadians of Filipino origin have founded several businesses and even brought some businesses from the Philippines to Canada. This includes the Philippine National Bank and several food businesses, such as Goldilocks bake shop, Max's of Manila, the Seafood City Supermarket and Jollibee, which recently made the news after announcing it would be setting up shops in several Canadian cities like Winnipeg. Hopefully, we will get one in Quebec City and even in Lévis.

Speaking of Winnipeg, I mentioned there was a large diaspora of Filipino people in Canada. I discovered. while preparing for this speech with my team. that Filipino Canadians represent almost 9% of the city of Winnipeg's population and about 7% of Manitoba's population. Therefore, it is a large and significant footprint on the landscape of many of these western provinces and is certainly helping their prosperity.

About 25,000 Canadians of Filipino heritage work in Montreal, and there are nearly 10,000 more right here in the Ottawa-Gatineau region.

The Filipino community also contributes to our media, through Filipino Canadian publications like the Filipino Canadian Magazine and Juan Radio 96.1 FM, which is Vancouver's first Filipino radio program.

If people are willing to discover and encounter the amazing Filipino culture, they can experience the food by checking out one of the many Filipino food festivals hosted throughout Canada, like Toronto's Taste of Manila, which is attended by about 350,000 people every year.

My colleague, the parliamentary secretary for heritage, mentioned a lot of the contributions made by Filipino members to the Canadian cultural landscape, especially in the emerging media scene. He referred to very prominent people of whom we are very proud. Filipino Canadians are also contributing to Canadian sports.

Take, for example, Filipino-Canadian hockey player Matt Dumba, who now plays for the Minnesota Wild.

We have Olympians, such as Olympic archer Crispin Duenas, Olympic skater Gilmore Junio and Olympic boxer Rey Fortaleza. Maybe we will have the privilege of having those people in this very place when we welcome all the Olympic sports athletes. It is certainly a source of pride for all Canadians.

If we look at soccer, which we know is a very popular sport there, the de Guzman brothers have made us proud. Julian and Jonathan de Guzman made it to Europe's elite soccer leagues, which is quite an accomplishment, including the Bundesliga and the Premier League.

We can be proud of all these people, who left the Philippines for Canada and who contribute to our prosperity. I just want to say that we support the motion. We will be pleased to support the motion through the next steps and send a message of openness to the Filipino community.

Steven Blaney

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