The Honourable John McCallum, ambassador of Canada to the People’s Republic of China, and LU Xu, consul general of the PRC to Calgary, addressed CCBC members and guests at a luncheon in Calgary on March 20.
According to a proposal submitted to Ottawa, the project would be led by the Creative Housing Society, an independent non-profit group to be based in Toronto. Creative Housing was established last fall by Ian Gillespie, a prominent Vancouver real estate developer whose firm, Westbank, is active in Toronto and Vancouver.
With all the headwinds buffeting international trade and investment, from ongoing negotiations about the future of NAFTA to a growing protectionist sentiment in many countries, it’s important that Canada keep an open mind about new opportunities wherever and whenever they arise. Many of these opportunities come from the second-largest economy in the world—China—but Canadians have sometimes been reluctant to seize them because of a lack of understanding about modern China and outdated perceptions of Chinese businesses, particularly state-owned enterprises, or SOEs.
Jeff David, the new Consul General of Canada in Chongqing, discussed opportunities for Canadian businesses in southwest China including Chongqing and the provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou at a business luncheon on March 7, 2018 in Toronto.
The shift resulted in two events in Vancouver in early February. A reception focused on connecting the educational institutions of the two countries, as well as promoting networking by alumni of schools with Canada-China links, took place on February 8 at Simon Fraser University’s (SFU) downtown campus. That was followed by a February 9 fundraising luncheon for Educating Girls of Rural China (EGRC), a Vancouver philanthropic group that has put 845 girls through school since the organization launched in 2005.