Jollibee Foods causes long queues in Toronto

Filipino fast-food chain Jollibee Foods Corporation has opened its first Toronto store to a queue of fans, some of them waiting up to eight hours.

Its Canadian expansion comes as Filipino restaurants have been opening as well as a major grocery store catering to cooks of the cuisine.

Jollibee entered Canada in 2016 with an outlet in Winnipeg, reporting that despite the freezing winter, thousands waited overnight for the store to open.

Toronto’s store is the third, with another having opened in Winnipeg. The first 40 customers spending more than $3 each won a six-piece bucket of crispy chicken each month for a year. At the grand opening, customers were buying bucketfuls of chicken and taking photos with the chain’s mascot, a red and yellow bee.

The Philippines was the top country of birth of new migrants to Canada, according to Statistic Canada. Its 2016 census shows that 188,805 people, or 15.6 per cent of recent immigrants, were born in the Philippines.