B.C. municipalities to review whether Chinese government should sponsor its meeting

The president of the Union of B.C. Municipalities says the organization will review whether the Chinese government should be allowed to sponsor its annual general meeting, as criticism of the Vancouver consulate’s recurring sponsorship grows amid heightening tensions between Canada and China.

“We are in a position of trying to figure out what’s the right position for our membership as a whole,” said president Arjun Singh, who is also a Kamloops city councillor. “We took a position we thought was in a solid space, but, given recent strong concerns, we’ll look at it again.”

The Chinese consulate in Vancouver has been a sponsor of the UBCM convention – which requires a $6,000 payment to the union – and has hosted a reception at the organization’s annual September meeting since 2012, as have a raft of other groups, including the province’s main municipal-employee union, Port Metro Vancouver, numerous law firms and oil and gas companies.

More than 2,000 councillors, mayors, regional-district directors and staff attend the convention every year.

Supporters have cited B.C.’s strong trade relationship with China, and many of the province’s cities’ connections with the country through sister cities and cultural exchanges as reasons to continue the relationship, and the fact that the sponsorship has gone unopposed for years. Over the past two years it has received more attention as Canada’s relationship with China started to deteriorate.

The issue caught fire this year when Port Coquitlam Mayor Brad West raised objections after seeing the consulate event listed yet again on the finalized convention program last month, amid regular stories about Chinese retaliation against Canada over its arrest of a prominent Huawei executive at the request of the U.S.

For Mr. West, the issue is clear-cut.

“It’s a foreign government paying to host a reception. I don’t believe a foreign government should be able to pay to have access. And why are they doing it? They have an agenda.”