The tide is turning in Gaspésie. The peninsula is overflowing with newcomers following years of devitalization. Latest arrivals in the decor: some 300 Filipinos. The LM Wind Power company turns to them to manufacture wind turbine blades in Gaspé. Not without causing some friction in the community, their integration glimmers like a premise for other industrial megaprojects at the heart of the energy transition in Quebec.

The 12-hour shift has just ended. Despite the fatigue in the eyes, smiles appear on the faces. We warm up by eating rice and a bowl of soup for lunch. “We Filipinos laugh a lot. Smiling is our way of presenting ourselves,” says the most talkative of the group, Andréi Capili, in English.

There are 17 of them sharing this downtown rooming house, while there are nearly 300 in total who work in Gaspé. Most arrived between September 2022 and June 2023 thanks to a placement agency, and they work alongside around 300 Quebec workers.

Even with its harsh winter, Canada is seen as a land of “green pastures,” says Alex Espino, dean of the latter “ batch », an expression that comes from him. “I have worked in Abu Dhabi and elsewhere in the Middle East. There, we have no chance of gaining legal status. We come here to live like we live in Canada, the United States or the United Kingdom. »

However, nothing is easy in the white winter Gaspésie. Their daily life is punctuated by the employer’s requirements. A bus takes them home and brings them back following work. Temporary work permits guarantee them a three-year stay in Quebec. They would like to stay longer in Gaspésie, but they do not have too many illusions. If they are granted Canadian permanent residence, “some will leave, some will stay,” says Andréi Capili.

“We don’t see them often”

Discreet and friendly, these Filipinos have nevertheless transformed the linguistic landscape of the Gaspé factory opened around 2005. In addition to their mother tongue, Tagalog, they express themselves in English. Consequence: internal communications at LM Wind Power are bilingual. We use technical jargon in English specific to the wind turbine blade sector, and this language is gradually establishing itself as the main working language.

There is always the language of gestures to communicate basic needs, but some unilingual French-speaking Gaspé workers have resigned themselves to learning English to be understood by their colleagues. “I miss speaking in French,” confides to Duty an early worker who prefers not to be named for fear of reprisals.

Two complaints have also been filed with the Office québécois de la langue française in connection with this situation. LM Wind Power management declined our repeated requests for an interview.

Most of these newcomers take French lessons assiduously, with two lessons per week. But they still struggle to express themselves in the local language.

“You have to learn French to penetrate the culture,” recognizes Alex Espino. However, the backbreaking work and the few days off leave little room for learning a new language. “And some of us are embarrassed [de le parler] ,” rancher Andrew Capili.

The old English background of Gaspé doesn’t help either. Around 5% of residents are unilingual English speakers and 35% are bilingual. It is therefore easy for them to bypass life in French.

Fishing remains the great meeting point between foreigners and locals. The freezer full of fish confirms that the Gaspé residents share with their new neighbors the good places to spot the striped bass swimming in the bay.

The arms of Gaspé remain wide open to immigration, confirms a survey conducted for The duty by the Côte-de-Gaspé Chamber of Commerce. “We would like to see them more” often comes up among the comments collected. We might involve them in the Christmas parade, or even offer them a stage during the Musique du bout du monde festival, we suggest.

Economic diversification

The other general observation from the business community is that these newcomers have caused an “imbalance” in the rental housing market.

Because “LM” is responsible for housing its employees. Bungalows, rooming houses and even student residences were rented for these 300 workers.

Being an employer and a landlord is “a lot of eggs in the same basket,” observes Gabrielle Neveu, of the Independent Housing Accessibility Committee of Côte-de-Gaspé. The “imbalance” mentioned also stems from the advantage of these workers compared to other people looking for housing. “ [Les propriétaires] seem much more confident in renting to these workers, because they can always turn to the employer [en cas de problème]. »

Houses only inhabited in the summer by vacationers also add to the equation which leads to the vacancy rate for rental housing of 0% in Gaspé.

Even before these hundreds of new Gaspésiens arrived, the mayor of the municipality had placed the construction of new housing at the center of his mandate. Hundreds of new homes will soon see the light of day, promises Daniel Côté. A huge building with more than a hundred rooms for workers would even be on the cards for developers. “Gaspé has always grown on waves of immigration,” he recalls.

All this excites the mayor, who, also all smiles, is pleased that Gaspé has gone from the status of a mono-industrial city – centered on fishing – to that of a “bi-industrial” city. This “economic diversification” reassures him, without the objective being completely achieved.

Everything is fine for now, but the viability of the big business is never guaranteed in the long term. The emigration of the great factories of the past proves that this frenzy for new employees and new housing might well fade if the winds of the economy lead to the closure of LM Wind Power. “I’m not worried regarding the next few years. But 10 or 20 years from now, will we still be OK? »

This report is supported by the Local Journalism Initiative, funded by the Government of Canada.

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