February 28, 2005
The Gateway to Asia-Pacific
Private Members' Statements

Located at the Pacific Rim, British Columbia is closely related to the regions in the Asia-Pacific. We are interconnected in history, people, culture, geography and economy.

Historically, Canada has had a very close relationship with Asia-Pacific regions. It's widely believed that the aboriginal peoples in Canada arrived from Asia thousands of years ago by way of a land bridge between Siberia and Alaska. Many of them settled in British Columbia, as it's known now, while others chose to continue to the east and the south. More recently, in 1788, a British fur trader, John Meares, recruited 50 Chinese smiths and carpenters from Guangdong and Macao to Nootka Sound on Vancouver Island to help him build a 40-tonne schooner — namely, the North West America, the first European ship launched in the Pacific Northwest.

I happen to have been born in Guangdong, and I lived in Macao for several years before I came to British Columbia in 1971. My grandfather came to Canada in 1913. He was a farmer.

The history of British Columbia shows the supply of Chinese labour was indispensable in opening up this great province. They worked as shipbuilders, goldminers, railroad builders and farmers. Mr. John Meares wrote in his memoirs at that time: "If, hereafter, trading posts should be established on the American coast, a colony of these men should be a very important acquisition."

Many immigrants have arrived in British Columbia since then from the Asia-Pacific region. Waves of immigrants from India and Japan were also attracted to British Columbia in the last 30 years. Immigrants from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea and the ASEAN countries have all increased substantially and contributed many of their unique cultures to our society. This interconnection of people and cultures actually positions British Columbia well as the gateway of Canada to the Asia-Pacific.

Geographically speaking, British Columbia is the second-closest region in North America to Asia. Alaska is the closest, but few people live in that cold land. Ports in coastal British Columbia have the distinguished advantage of saving time and cost in transportation. Goods from Asia by sea entering at Prince Rupert can be delivered to Chicago with a savings of at least two days compared to delivery time with a U.S. seaport. Goods from other provinces in Canada, of course, must go through our land to gain access to the water of the Pacific Ocean.

Because of our geographic advantage, products originating from British Columbia dominate the export market to Asia. In 2004 exports from British Columbia accounted for one-third of all exports from Canada with APEC destinations, excluding the Americas. This $8.3 billion of exports maintains many jobs in this province.

One very notable rapid growth is the exports to mainland China, which increased from $756 million in the year 2000 to $1.709 billion in 2004, or 126 percent over four years.

British Columbia imports from these Asia-Pacific countries accounted for about half of all imports of the province. This number showed that the economy of British Columbia and the economies of Asia-Pacific countries are closely dependent on each other.

On February 2 and 3, 2005, the Caucus Committee on Asian Economic Development had the opportunity to listen to many prominent community and business leaders expressing their views on how to increase investment from Asia-Pacific countries and how to increase our exports to these countries. The participants included John Wiebe, president of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada; Earle Drake, vice-chairman of Canada China Business Council; Florence Gordon, president of Richmond Chamber of Commerce; William Cheuk, president of the Chinese Federation of Commerce of Canada; Michael Lam, director of Canada Singapore Business Association; Valli Chettiar, president of Canada-India Business Council; Robert Fairweather, president of the International Financial Centre; Guibert Ho, president of the Malaysia-Canada Business Council; Carmelita Tapia, president of the ASEAN Canada Business Council; and Mary Mahon Jones, CEO of the Council of Tourism Associations of British Columbia.

To be an effective gateway to the Asia-Pacific, it was suggested that B.C. needs a mission and strategy on our role in global economic development. B.C. should establish a council to meet regularly on how to focus our resources in marketing. B.C. should have trade offices abroad. B.C. should help small and medium-sized businesses improve their competitiveness in the global market. B.C. needs an office here to meet and greet foreign dignitaries and business people and to show them opportunities. B.C. should empower the business bilateral associations by establishing a resource centre. B.C. should communicate with the federal government regarding the problems of overseas business people getting Canadian visas.

I am pleased to see that on February 9 the Speech from the Throne clearly announced a British Columbia gateway strategy. Some of these concerns have been addressed. The government now has a clear mission and strategy, which is the Asia-Pacific gateway strategy.

The Premier has a clear vision of the mission:

"We have a golden opportunity to become North America's foremost crossroads to the Asia-Pacific. B.C.'s role as the nation's Pacific gateway, our multicultural society, the diversity and wealth of first nations cultures, B.C.'s world-class education and research capacity, and the province's transportation and trade infrastructure give us a strategic advantage over every other province and allow us to lead the way in accessing the growing economic opportunities in the Asia-Pacific."

At this moment I know that my colleague, the member for Richmond Centre, is eager to offer some comments.

G. Halsey-Brandt: Mr. Speaker, it's a pleasure to rise to carry on this topic, certainly critical in my constituency and throughout British Columbia, on the Asia-Pacific gateway strategy.

First, I would just like to recognize the member for Burnaby North and his very hard work at building connections in trade, education and culture in his ongoing role as the chair of the Asian Economic Development Committee. I serve on that committee with him, and we've had some excellent meetings. We're rolling ahead, and we look forward to greater progress in the future.

Indeed, we are uniquely positioned here in British Columbia to carry out this strategy. As everyone knows from their social studies classes — if they can reflect back on school — in terms of geography, we are a gateway to Asia, and Asia is a gateway to North America because of the great circle route. As you know, on a globe we're closer to Asia because of the curvature of the Earth. If you're flying to China, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia or India, you're probably going to fly over Alaska. That way is much, much closer than going through L.A. or San Francisco.

We're also very fortunate here in British Columbia that in our time zone we can carry on business both in Europe and in Asia in the same working business day, which puts us ahead of many of our competitors.

Secondly, from a cultural aspect we're uniquely positioned as well, because of hundreds of thousands of our immigrants who have come from East Asia and South Asia. They've come with business ties — with business there and friends there who carry on business. They've come with cultural ties to Asia, and they bring that benefit to us here in British Columbia. They can do business with their friends and the businesses they've left behind, with new businesses here in British Columbia.

Of course, if you're looking for expertise, we have to look no further than those new immigrants in terms of understanding the business practices, laws and accounting practices that affect businesses in Asia. We should be using our local population more and more to help us develop those very important trade links. I think that was a resounding message that we heard from the Asian Economic Development Committee members.

I would like to talk briefly, uniquely focused, about tourism. The more tourists that come here…. They go back and talk to their friends and neighbours about it, and we increasingly build it. We've really turned it around since the decline that happened after 9/11 in 2001. In last summer's quarter we had a 37 percent increase in the number of Asian tourists here to British Columbia. What we heard from the tourism industry is that we have to develop our products here in British Columbia as draws and as promotions.

I can think back to my visit to Prince Edward Island a number of years ago and all the tourists from Asia I saw going to Anne of Green Gables cottage. Well, here in British Columbia we can surely rival that and focus tourism resources on British Columbia.

Another area is our commodities that we have in British Columbia — whether they be oil or gas, forest products, pulp and paper, lumber, plywood, fish and agricultural products, coal and other minerals such as copper — which are all in demand in the growing economies of Asia. What we have to do — and I think we have a lot of consensus around this — is take our exports to a higher level. We need more manufacturing exports in terms of our technology, environmental products, educational products, nursing and engineering training. We need overseas trade and tourism offices, and we need a consistent marketing of British Columbia with the B.C. brand abroad.

In my concluding remarks I just want to talk a wee bit about four partners that we work with in building this gateway strategy. The first is the port of Prince Rupert. I was up there with the Finance Committee in the fall. We were thrilled with the optimism in the city of Prince Rupert, with the expansion of the CN Rail partnership, upgrading of the trackage to the port, the new container terminal…. They were looking for funding and, of course, British Columbia is there as a funding partner; we're looking for more funding from the federal government. And the coal and grain port is expanding in Prince Rupert.

Here in my community we have the Fraser River port, which is the main stem of the Fraser River from Steveston to Surrey and to Maple Ridge. The volume out of that port makes the Fraser River port the second-largest port by volume in Canada, generating over $2.1 billion in local economic output, with 12,400 direct jobs and about 350 businesses depending on that port-related activity.

The Fraser River port posted another record year in 2004. The port handled over 325,000 container units, up nearly 30 percent from the record volume of 2003. Container shipments at the Fraser River port have been up every year that this B.C. Liberal government has been in office in British Columbia, and now they are at more than six times their level in 2001.

The port of Vancouver is the largest and most diversified port in all of Canada, trading $29 billion worth of goods with over 90 trading economies every year. Port activities, as we know in the lower mainland, generate over 62,000 jobs in total. They're expanding. They're increasing their potential in the port of Vancouver. They're also increasing the infrastructure at Delta Port for the container docks and Roberts Bank coal port is expanding as well. Their partners, CN and CP Rail, are investing funds and upgrading their trackage as well.

The final partner I just wanted to talk briefly about — I can't let it go by — is the airport. YVR is spending $1.4 billion and expanding their facilities. There are new international gates and runways at YVR to handle over 15.7 million passengers that we've got coming in. This is truly a great Asia-Pacific gateway strategy. Working with the chair, we're going to build it even greater.

R. Lee: I would like to thank the member for Richmond Centre for his comments.

I am pleased to see that concrete steps are taken in the throne speech to strengthen our gateway status. An Asia-Pacific trade council will be established to advise the government on where and how best to target our resources. A network of B.C. trade and cultural centres in key international markets will be built to promote making B.C. products. And a B.C. competition council will be set up to review B.C.'s competitiveness.

The government of Canada also realized the importance of the rapid growth of Asia-Pacific opportunity. Recently, in the February 23 federal budget, it was announced that the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada would get an injection of $50 million in this endowment to continue its work to build networks between Canadian and Asian business leaders and to unearth potential market opportunities that will benefit both regions.

The government also announced that many students from Asia-Pacific countries are attracted to British Columbia by our study environment, multicultural society and excellent learning institutes. Here we must capitalize on the strength in providing quality education to our advantage. It's widely believed that after foreign students experience our education system, they will become veritable ambassadors between two cultures. The relationships built among cohorts will last many years and could lead to closer business relations. Our education system must accept the challenges of globalization.

Last week I was at the inauguration of the professional master's degree program of international leadership established through collaboration between Simon Fraser University and Capilano College. I am also looking forward to witnessing the signing of an MOU on another innovative dual-degree program developed between Simon Fraser University and Zhejiang University in China, one of the top universities there. Under this arrangement, a B.C. student will be awarded two degrees by two universities upon graduation.

We must also encourage our students' outreach by establishing a new One World scholarship fund to help B.C. students earn their degrees and diplomas in other non–G-8 countries, helping to create new relationships for B.C.

By the government's high level of commitment in advancing these initiatives, I am confident that this strategy will work and that we will be stepping into a golden decade of opportunities with the Asia-Pacific.