Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
the two-year deadline for meeting his terms and conditions to establish a
business employing a Canadian, but he had no idea of which way to turn.
Inactivity, becomes one response to perceived weak business opportuni-
ties, and for wealthier families, typically in the investor class, can eventually
lead to early retirement. The Mak family owned a land use consultancy in
Hong Kong and in their mid-40s are well off, with their four children
in private school in Vancouver. In the three years since they landed in
Canada neither parent has worked. The children are told that their father
has a home office. In fact behind the closed door he is playing computer
games much of the day, and is phasing into retirement. Early retirement is
a common status passage for the investor class, for respondents all agreed
that if British Columbia's economy could not compete with Taiwan or Hong
Kong, its quality of life was unequalled.
Typically, investors are a little older than the entrepreneurs and the model
of passive investment does not demand active economic activity from them.
Jack Leung had been a senior manager in a multinational corporation in
Hong Kong. He and his wife had lived briefly in Toronto and, back in Hong
Kong in the early 1990s, were at a dinner party. Of the dozen ethnic Chinese
at the table, ten held Canadian passports, and the Leungs, who did not,
were persuaded to return to Canada. They have four other family members
living in Canada, and two in Hong Kong, all of them bearing a Canadian
passport. At the age of 52 Jack and his wife had moved to Vancouver to
retire, with a five-year investment in a Quebec-based fund qualifying them
in the investor stream of the BIP. They have a busy social life with friends
from Hong Kong, and return to their apartment in the former colony for
three months each year. Life is good, adjustment has been easy. Mr. Leung
has a clear sense of what living in Vancouver allows:
You can't earn any money here. If you have enough money, you can come.
Just stay here and relax. You cannot earn good money here because the tax
here is so high. So you must have earned enough money to come. And then
if they come they must expect their lives to be totally different especially
when they are working. Even though they have money in Hong Kong, they
earn a very good salary in Hong Kong, when they come here they may not be
able to find a job, or the salary would be about one-third or even less that of
Hong Kong.
I would never think of doing business here. Actually, most of my friends,
they retire, because they are all my similar age. All my good friends are retired,
I mean those who come recently, we are all retired people.
Jack continued that he knew only one person who was actually thinking of
starting a business: breeding pigeons. But jokingly he added, it was only an
idea. His friend would not follow through with the plan. The contribution
of these investor class newcomers to the regional economy will be through
