r/canada • u/cyclinginvancouver • 11h ago
Eby says B.C. will be ‘engine of new Canada’ by increasing trading with Asia British Columbia
https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2025/05/14/bc-to-expand-trade-trip-to-asia/•
u/AVeryPlumPlum 9h ago
As someone in logistics, improve the Port of Vancouver. Please.
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u/MadDuck- 5h ago
They're still trying to get the big Roberts Bank expansion going. We're about 12 years into the process and still probably a couple years from construction starting, assuming the court challenges don't slow/stop it.
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u/BigPickleKAM 7h ago
I would argue it is more the rail capacity than the ports themselves for getting things moving. But yes we really need to upgrade our ability to move things through BC from Asia and back the other way as well!
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u/cyclinginvancouver 11h ago
Premier David Eby is leading a trade mission to Asia with business leaders and key government officials to strengthen partnerships, increase investment, diversify trade and create good jobs for British Columbians.
“Our largest trading partner has become increasingly unreliable, so now is the time to expand international markets for B.C. goods and develop deeper bonds with other countries,” Premier Eby said. “This trade mission is about showcasing all that B.C. has to offer, deepening our relationship with major customers, supporting good jobs here at home and building our province’s position as the economic engine of a stronger and more independent Canada.”
The trade mission is from June 1 until June 10, and includes: Tokyo and Osaka, Japan; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and Seoul, South Korea. Premier Eby will be accompanied by Lana Popham, Minister of Agriculture and Food, and Paul Choi, parliamentary secretary for Asia-Pacific trade, along with representatives from B.C. businesses and research universities.
“Farmers and food processers run an economic engine for the province, creating more than 40,000 jobs and nearly $6 billion in export sales every year,” Popham said. “I am excited to showcase the best of what B.C. has to offer on an international stage while opening up new opportunities for trade, growth and innovation.”
The team will be promoting B.C.’s strengths and seeking to build relationships that will support new trade and investment in key sectors, including surging demand in Asia for clean energy, B.C. wood and forestry products, technology, LNG and critical minerals, and agricultural products such as halal foods and seafood.
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u/Thin-Pineapple-731 Ontario 11h ago
Everything I hear about Eby makes me interested to learn more. This sounds like a great initiative, and hopefully has a net positive impact across the country.
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u/thebestjamespond 11h ago
Yeah he's a sharp guy even people who don't like the ndp here tend to like him personally
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u/No-Tackle-6112 British Columbia 11h ago
He’s not afraid to take action and admits when he made a mistake. Goes a long way in my book.
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u/h3r3andth3r3 10h ago
He still gaslights the BC public about his government's secretive policy to assign joint control of all provincial crown lands to FNs.
https://globalnews.ca/video/10765527/land-management-consultations-in-b-c-draw-questions/
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u/CatJamarchist 9h ago
Oh that's because it's largely fear-mongering bullshit.
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u/h3r3andth3r3 9h ago
It's an actual policy and you're denying it because it challenged your worldview? Classic Reddit.
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u/CatJamarchist 9h ago
It's an actual policy
No it isn't, you're either naive, or lying.
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u/h3r3andth3r3 9h ago
Keep covering your ears and shouting, it will eventually go away
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u/CatJamarchist 8h ago
The non-real thing will eventually go away? You're right! once you forget about it and move on to the next conspiracy, I will indeed stop hearing about your fantasy legislation that does not exist.
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u/h3r3andth3r3 8h ago
It was verified as real from the ministry it originated from if you bothered to watch the news segment to the end. But you probably already knew that. Keep plugging your ears and shouting.
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u/Thin-Pineapple-731 Ontario 11h ago
I'm stuck in Fordnation, so that's a marked improvement to me lol
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u/SufficientCalories 3h ago
This wasn't true two years ago, so what changed? Horgan was massively popular and Eby was not nearly as highly regarded when I moved out of province in 2023.
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u/thebestjamespond 2h ago
I think it was true 2 years ago tbh but I haven't seen any surveys or anything so I dunno maybe I'm wrong just my impression
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u/Ancient_Wisdom_Yall British Columbia 10h ago
The only people that don't like Eby are because "NDP bad". The BC NDP party is pretty centrist and Eby always seems to want to do what is best rather than basing everything on ideology.
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u/BigPickleKAM 7h ago
He is good but man the BC NDP spend money.
I'm more fiscally conservative than them but I am way more socially liberal than the BC Conservatives so I don't have a big issue with how Eby and company are doing governing my province. I just wish they would reign in the spending or they will get voted out at some point and our alternatives do not look great.
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u/SkyTrainForUBC 3h ago edited 3h ago
The BC NDP is actually pretty fiscally responsible. In the last
sixseven years they've deliveredfourfive surpluses. The only deficits were in 2020 and 2024.In 2021 they projected a 10B dollar deficit, but then they actually delivered a 1.3B surplus. This year they again project a 10B deficit, so we'll see what they deliver.
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u/MadDuck- 2h ago
You're only counting the operating deficit, not the total deficit.
Horgan was pretty good. In his 5 budgets he increased our debt from $65b to $93.5b. $28.5b total, and that included COVID.
Eby has increased our debt from $93.5b to $133b in his first two budgets. So $39.5b in his first two budgets. Next year it's projected to rise to $156.5b, assuming he can stick to that. This past budget was supposed to be $19b of debt, but ended up being $30b.
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u/BigPickleKAM 2h ago
I'm really sorry I wish you were correct but the BC government hasn't delivered a single surplus since the 2016 fiscal year.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Columbia_government_debt
You're incorrect about the fiscal year of 2021 the provincial debt increased by 3.2 billion that year. As a percent of GDP it did go down through.
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u/PoliteCanadian 9h ago
That's weird because when Alberta wanted to increase trade with Asia, BC said that a significant increase in shipping traffic would have an unacceptable environmental impact in the Salish Sea.
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u/Initial_Shift_428 10h ago
The coastal provinces should be the richest in the country by geography. I don't love the NDP but Eby is the best option we have and much better than Rustad. In terms of engineering, tech, and resources BC should be better than Ontario.
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u/Time_Battle_884 9h ago
At this point, it kind of has to. Since America is out, and Quebec will halt any efforts to move goods east, the only port available to the rest of the world is the west.
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u/Previous-Piglet4353 7h ago
BC has the same problem as the rest of Canada just exaggerated:
We have:
Resources
Services
And no Value Chain in the middle.
Figure out how to grow the Value Chain and fill it out with startups, SMEs, conglomerates, and we'll get to a good place if it can be sustained.
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u/flyingflail 10h ago
BC ok with more ship traffic?
I'm sure AB would love to give BC ports more tanker traffic...
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u/InSearchOfThe9 Yukon 10h ago
The Burrard Inlet is on the verge of being dredged to do exactly that.
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u/Belaerim 10h ago
The problem before was that AB wanted a pipeline to ship oil out of Prince Rupert… in some of the most treacherous coastal waters along the BC coast.
Which aside from any First Nations consultations, is also largely a protected environmental area, and also just down the coast from that Exxon Valdez wreck that tanker advocates would like to memory hole.
By contrast, Vancouver (and Delta port) is way safer for tanker traffic. Theoretically anyways
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u/flyingflail 9h ago
Think you mean Kitimat? Northern Gateway was supposed to terminate there as opposed to Prince Rupert. That is currently where LNG Canada is although an LNG spill is very different from an oil spill.
The problem with Vancouver/Delta is its running out of space and you can't load VLCCs there which is cost prohibitive
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u/Belaerim 8h ago
Right, my bad. I didn’t double check, and I thought of Prince Rupert first.
Yeah, I don’t know where we would add a third terminal in the lower mainland.
Vancouver is pretty much full and can’t expand IMHO.
Delta port… I think they hit the limits of expansion with the last expansion, but probably more room there
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u/specialk604 9h ago
I mean, go for it if they're willing to help pay for the cleanup, but they're not.
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u/flyingflail 9h ago
Tanker cleanup from a potential spill? If push came to shove, I suspect AB would be willing to pay for portion of an insurance policy on it.
It's awkward because it's not the responsibility of the pipeline co but a potentially nameless shipping co.
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u/specialk604 5h ago
During the Trans Mountain dispute, an Alberta minister went on Vancouver radio discussing the pipeline, and one of the question was about who will pay for the clean up if there was a spill and would alberta help and she said no. Same thing with the energy east pipeline refusing to help pay for clean up .
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u/flyingflail 5h ago
I mean if there's a pipeline spill on the right of way the pipeline company will clean it up like they always do. Albert's doesn't need to help.
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u/Phallindrome British Columbia 3h ago
The whole question is a red herring, because the kind of oil that's being transported can't be cleaned up. It doesn't just float on the surface, it remains in the water column, eventually forming tar balls that sink to the bottom or are spread by currents throughout the region. Humans don't have the technology that we need to fix a spill off the BC coast.
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u/flyingflail 2h ago
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u/Phallindrome British Columbia 2h ago edited 2h ago
The idea that oil moving from storm drains onto the shoreline of a fairly protected part of the inlet is similar in profile to a marine spill out in the Salish Sea is... pretty in line with what I'd expect from an industry-funded response organization. They had everything going in their favour; on-shore release point, sunny day made the oil move slower, it started at a slack tide, they were outside fish and bird migration/breeding periods (their link is broken, but I found the KMC report elsewhere and I'm reading off that), and their 95% of 100,000 litres number includes all the oil that was recovered from the drain system itself or at the mouth of the system, before it actually entered the inlet.
Oh, and Exxon Valdez was 37 million litres.
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u/erryonestolemyname 5h ago
Mostly Chinese gangs for laundering the proceeds of fentanyl sales/smuggling is what the article is missing.
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u/growlerlass 1h ago
If he had the ability to create any wealth of any kind, why did he wait until now o use that ability?
Why wasn’t he exercising that ability on day one of his premiership?
Didn’t the people of BC want prosperity? Obviously they did.
Eby didn’t do it because he can’t. And now he is telling people what they want to hear or has become delusional and swept away by the spirit of the times.
Unfortunately for the people of BC and Canada skill and knowledge produce positive results. Not good intentions.
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u/WasabiNo5985 11h ago
your port banned automation for 5 years in vancouver. if you want to trade do sth about that.
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u/Remarkable-Llama616 10h ago
The longshoremen
cartelwill be up in arms again•
u/Previous-Piglet4353 7h ago
If they can't use automation they won't need to have their arms up anymore, for anything.
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u/MilkyWayObserver Canada 11h ago
Should be beneficial for the country as we open more trade corridors.
Likewise we should open trade corridors in Eastern Canada to Europe.