China is Canada’s third-biggest trade partner and B.C.’s second-largest. It’s a significant market for Canadian commodities, and since the 1990s, Canadian resource companies have benefited from $78 billion in direct foreign investment from China.
“While the idea of pulling back trade with China is often-discussed in expert circles, China’s rapid growth, massive consumption of commodities and integration in the global supply chain make it exceedingly difficult for Canada to ‘turn off the taps,’” the University of Alberta’s China Institute noted in a 2021 report.
B.C.’s exports to China are dominated by resource commodities, and the lion’s share of China’s $98 billion in direct foreign investment in Canada since the 1990s have been disproportionately weighted towards resource industries: Oil and gas and mining.
Investments in oil and gas accounted for $57 billion; Canadian minerals, metals, and mining…
