Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
the provincial governments who have been the abiding champions of the
BIP, with its promise of in-flows of financial and human capital, and the
Premier of British Columbia, Glen Clark, leader of the left-of-centre New
Democratic Party, was an early and persistent opponent of the disclosure
rules, warning they would 'chase away wealthy immigrant investors'
(McCarthy and Gibbon 1998). His Finance Minister, Andrew Petter, wrote
to the federal government asking for the withdrawal of the legislation, which
'has led to fears of increased taxation and appears to have weakened
Canada's international reputation as an attractive place for individuals to
reside and invest. This is of particular concern to British Columbia because
the recent influx of new residents has been a major source of economic
growth in the province… We have fears that people will not come or will
leave' (Chow 1997a).
The Vancouver Board of Trade held hearings on the proposed global
assets legislation, and was forthright in opposition, fearing the erosion of
foreign investment and declining property prices as wealthy immigrants,
unsettled by the disclosure rules, returned to East Asia (Gibbon and
McCarthy 1997). Revealing the vulnerable economic sectors, the Board's
chief economist observed critically that 'People of high personal worth are
leaving, taking investment funds to other places, and leaving [behind] the
trickle-down effects in real estate, construction, architecture, consumer
goods and services… [The law] is applauded by those who oppose Chinese
immigration' (Chow 1997b). Organizations supporting the Board of Trade
included the BC Business Council, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce,
the Canadian Bar Association and the Canadian Institute of Chartered
Accountants, all beneficiaries of the BIP. This lobby was nothing if not per-
sistent, with Patrick Wong, an accountant and leader of the Vancouver activ-
ists, even pursuing and cornering Paul Martin, then federal Minister of
Finance, in the men's washroom of a Vancouver hotel. In September 1997,
the federal government's chief campaign organizer in British Columbia
joined other Liberal politicians in urging for the assets legislation to be
scrapped. Ted McWhinney, Liberal MP for Vancouver-Quadra (covering
Westside neighbourhoods) noted, 'While our policies were designed origi-
nally for general application and without regard to particular communities,
they have come to be seen as having particular impact on the Chinese-
Canadian community, and especially on those recent immigrants from
Taiwan and Hong Kong who came to Canada under the entrepreneurial
immigrant program' (Chow 1997d). To political and economic elites in
British Columbia foreign assets disclosure would upset the Asia-Pacific
strategy of the previous 15 years. Too much asset transparency was not
helpful when it came to expanding the global space of flows.
By 1998 opponents had some statistics to work with. Business immigra-
tion in the investor and entrepreneur streams from Hong Kong and Taiwan
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