B.C. premier's Asia trade mission seeks to diversify trade and explore rental housing opportunities

British Columbia Premier David Eby says his trade mission to Asia is part of an effort to grow trade and reduce the risks that come with international uncertainties.

The premier and his delegation have not visited China, B.C.'s second-largest trade partner, during the two-week trip but instead focused on Japan, South Korea and Singapore and have met, so far, with a range of businesses, including a large Japanese rental housing company looking to break into the Canadian market.

"Right now, we see the tensions caused by the war in Ukraine, sanctions on Russia, the relationship between the U.S. and China, Canada and China, and the volatility of international relationships,'' Eby said on the phone from Singapore.

"And it's very obvious to me and to many British Columbians that being dependent on one or two major trading partners disproportionately is going to really affect us if the worst happens.''

Tensions between China and Canada have been growing amid accusations of foreign interference and election meddling.

Last week, B.C. MP Jenny Kwan became the latest politician to report that Canada's spy agency confirmed her long-held belief that she is being targeted by the Chinese government.

B.C. exports to mainland China totalled $8.48 billion last year, according to government statistics. That's second only to the United States with more than $37 billion.

Japan and South Korea place third and fourth with about $6 billion and $4 billion, respectively.

During the trip, Eby said he has met with dozens of companies, including Mitsubishi, about possible investment in a nickel project, and a number interested in hydrogen production.

Japanese purpose-built rentals

In Tokyo, a meeting with one of Japan's largest users of B.C. wood turned into a conversation about potentially breaking into the province's tough and expensive rental market.

Eby says the company, Daito, which already manages rentals in Tokyo, is proposing offering deals to B.C. landowners to build and run rental properties on their land and then lease that housing back from the landowner for a 30-year term, paying a set fee.

"In this way, that housing and the property stays with British Columbians, and the company facilitates investments in rental housing that wouldn't otherwise happen, that people who own land would never think of building or running rental housing,'' Eby said.

It's a project the premier said he would support.

"We're desperate for rental housing, and if they can encourage landowners to use their land for rental housing by taking away a lot of the headaches that they would face in building and operating that housing, I think is a huge potential win for us,'' he said.

"So those discussions will be carrying on as well.''

Renewing relationships

Ben Stewart, MLA for Kelowna-West, and the Official Opposition critic for Tourism and Trade, commended Eby for going to Asia to seek trade opportunities in person and in unusual areas such as housing.

"It's good to always be looking," said Stewart. "That's the benefit of external missions is that you do learn from other people, but I think British Columbia is well-equipped to use British Columbia fibre as well as labour to make certain that they do [purpose-built rental housing projects]."

In 2013, under the Christy Clark B.C. Liberal government Stewart was appointed British Columbia's special representative in Asia to strengthen B.C.'s government-to-government relationships in China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia.

In 2019, he criticized the John Horgan-led NDP government for closing several trade offices across Asia to be co-located in Canadian embassies and consulates.

"And the relationships we developed over many, many decades were essentially eliminated," he said, adding that Alberta has surpassed B.C in trade opportunities in Asia.

Life sciences mission

Meanwhile, B.C. job's minister Brenda Bailey, who was with Eby in Asia, returned to North America and is now in Boston promoting life-sciences companies and ingenuity to potential international partners.

This year the province published its Life Sciences and Biomanufacturing strategy, which seeks to create jobs and the production of life-saving interventions, such as vaccines, in B.C.

Bailey is on a trade mission at the BIO International Convention in Boston, which is the world's premier life-sciences event, according to a statement from the province.

"Our life-sciences and biomanufacturing sector is world-renowned and growing faster than anywhere else in the country," Bailey said.

The province said it recognized an over-reliance on off-shore produced personal protective equipment and vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Medical equipment and supplies manufacturing in B.C. are now the fourth- and eighth-fastest-growing manufacturing sectors in the province.

Bailey said she will meet with private-sector companies such as Moderna, Merck, AstraZeneca, Glaxo-Smith-Kline and Roche Canada.