This northern Quebec business pulls out all the stops to recruit and retain foreign workers

Sajjade Tugano has come a long way since he first set foot in Chibougamau, six hours north of Quebec City, in the depths of winter in November 2021.

"I didn't enjoy that first winter," Tugano says. "I didn't want to go out because of the cold. I just went from work to home. And I was so homesick."

Tugano is a machinist and occasional crane operator at the Chantiers Chibougamau mill, which produces engineered wood products for the construction industry. When he was looking to move from the Philippines, Canada wasn't on his radar. But he knew someone who was working for the company who encouraged him to apply.

Since that initial winter, Tugano's wife and child have joined him in northern Quebec and his wife got a job at the mill. Tugano says his plan now is to stay on.

"What I really appreciate here is the simple living," Tugano says. "All the people here are equal. And most of all, the safety and the security for the kids."

Tugano is one of over 100 temporary foreign workers from the Philippines employed in Chantiers Chibougamau's mills in northern Quebec, including in Chibougamau, LaSarre, Lebel sur Quévillon and Landrienne, near Amos.

In 2017, the company realized their well-paying jobs weren't attractive anymore to labourers in the province's south, who had plenty of offers, thanks to a hot labour market.

Frédéric Verreault, vice-president for corporate affairs, says the company was facing a dead end, so it widened its net.

The Philippines has a modern, automated wood transformation industry and a large pool of skilled labour. The one thing lacking was French, but Verreault says the language was something that could be taught. The work ethic was a different story.

"From day one, it's plug and play," Verreault says of the Filipino workers. "They come in and it's breathtaking: their skills, their knowledge, their technical capabilities."

Faced with long delays with immigration paperwork, the company decided to pay hires their full salary so they can quit work and study French for six months before they leave home.

Verreault says that investment speaks to their commitment to the French language and integration.

Rex Ardiente, a machine operator, did full-time French before arriving in Quebec in 2021, and he's continued with government-sponsored online classes since.

"One of my friends here, a colleague, was laughing at me at first," says Ardiente. "But now he says, 'Hey, you're good! You read fast! The intonation!'"