It's the spring conference season and that means elevated levels of information-trading.
At a Seattle event this past week there was plenty of talk within the business and civic community about China's direct investment in North America. It's one of the most important trends of our time and in the U.S. it topped $14 billion last year. That's the first time the Chinese have turned the table on our southern neighbour. Numbers from 2012 reflect the same picture here.
Despite Canada's much smaller population we drew $12 billion in Chinese investment. That's a lot of foreign ownership. Even with major energy and natural resource sales we
lose $50 billion annually in general trade with China.
Good news for North Shore entrepreneurs? The hottest sectors for outbound Chinese investment are in advanced, innovationintensive industries. That translates as high-tech, "clean-tech," biotech, and advanced transportation opportunities.
Luck found me on a seminar panel with Eric de Place, policy director of Seattle's highly regarded Sightline Institute, an independent non-profit think tank. He's headed our way shortly, invited by Mayor Gregor Robertson to address Vancouver area decision-makers on the economic and ecological implications of fossil fuel export strategies within the Pacific coast's Cascadia region. South of the line, coal export issues dominate the agenda similar to oil pipelines in B.C. Their hot-button issue is coal trains from Wyoming and Montana. But there's a new concern: increased coast-bound trains carrying volatile shale oil from North Dakota's Bakken oil fields. That's the same fuel that brought tragedy to Lac Mégantic in Quebec last July.
Why should the North Shore care? Washington State has five oil refineries; one at Cherry Point near Blaine, another at Ferndale and two at Anacortes. U.S. corporations already ship their coal dust through Vancouver-area depots which have recently bulked up in size to accommodate them. What's a little volatile oil between friends, especially if tanker shipping capacity fattens up in Burrard Inlet for an expanded Kinder Morgan pipeline? North Vancouver's Tsleil-Waututh community understands what's at issue in its legal challenge to the National Energy Board's cosy review of the KM proposal. They contend the NEB review should broadly consider not just the pipeline but expansion of the fuller Burnaby-side Westridge marine terminal area and its storage tanks, and the impact
of this upon the immediate environment's human and natural geography. They contend that as historic stewards of this region they should have been consulted about this, and legal precedent says they're correct. They've petitioned the Federal Court of Appeal for relief.
If the combined West Coast pipeline, coal and oil proposals go through, climatically the impact will be far greater than the Keystone project President Obama can't seem to abide. Ironically, as Eric de Place explains, "by historic accident this greenest corner of North America will play an outsize role in determining our planet's climate future in this century."
De Place calls our Cascadia region the "thin green line" between Asia's voracious energy markets and North America's vast interior fossil fuel deposits. Will our community decisions permit the Pacific coast to become a carbon export hub of negative global significance on planet Earth's climate future this century? Politically, coalitions like North Shore NOPE - No Oil Pipeline Expansion - are determined to make a difference. They'll challenge local politicians in this November's municipal elections to make sure that energy corporations don't gain a political stranglehold the way they have down south. District councillor Mike Little, who has announced his run for the federal Conservative nomination in the new Burnaby-North Seymour riding, may have to sell a tough federal spin on all this to skeptical voters.
Meantime, en route to Seattle we detoured via Nanaimo south along the coastal highway for the Black Ball Ferry that still departs Victoria harbour in front of the Legislature. It's a folksy road swing in a thrifty four-cylinder. How we'd ever missed Petroglyph Provincial Park outside of Nanaimo before is a mystery. Its 2000-year-old stone carvings are a real discovery and look more Viking sea-serpent than contemporary Aboriginal art, proof that everything changes over time. There's an easy loop trail through big trees that's a good stretch after the ferry crossing. Ladysmith remains a sweet stop with its fun civic museum, appealing main street and Bay View Gallery. Chemainus nearby has a new trompe l'oeil mural tribute to Emily Carr's beloved big trees. The five wall paintings in Carrstyle by Steffan Junemann are fabulous; ideal for summer visitors. Duncan, the next town along, is bursting at the seams nowadays. What its plans are for booming civic growth is anyone's guess.
As ever, hitting the road remains instructive.
A happy Mother's Day to all the dear mums.
