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The Vancouver Board of Trade is a supportive group where I am inspired and encouraged.” Rain Emily Zhang, pg. 5
THIS ISSUE Historic Stock Exchange redevelopment · 2 Transportation 2040 · 2
A runway for economic growth Air access creates jobs and facilitates trade in B.C.
Community Heroes · 3
By ken martin
TransLink priorities · 3
Canada is a large trading nation. Not one single economic activity adds more to our nation’s GDP than trade, and B.C. is at the heart of it. Anchored with Canada’s second largest airport and North America’s largest export port, 175,000 jobs in British Columbia are connected to the Pacific Gateway. The recent dialogue on trade has focused on rail, water, and road infrastructure. In the past 10 years, we have done much to add to the capacity of our ability to service overseas customers. While potash, lentils, wheat, car parts, and lumber move by truck and rail — and while energy moves through pipelines and wires — the relationships that get those contract orders filled are moved by air travel. Over the last 50 years, Canada has embarked on a series of talks with foreign countries, negotiating airline landing rights in Canada. In exchange for those landing rights, Canadian carriers were now able to land at foreign airports. However, at the time many of those agreements were signed, it wasn’t contemplated that Vancouver should be included in those agreements. As a result, our domestic carriers have landing rights at many foreign ports of call, while some of those foreign national carriers
CEO’s Message · 4 Employee engagement · 6 The gift of giving · 9 Season’s Greetings · 10-11 Salary surveys · 12 BMO’s 125th · 14 The outlook for gold · 16 Marketing trends · 17 Holiday performances · 18 European perspective · 19 @boardoftrade /VancouverBoardofTrade
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December 2012 • VOLUME 52 • NUMBER 9
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The Vancouver Board of Trade is making air access one of its top public policy priorities for 2013. Every time a foreign airline adds a new route to Vancouver International Airport, it has a $200 million annual impact to the Canadian economy. Photo by Larry Goldstein.
don’t have landing rights at Vancouver International Airport. The significance of this is our domestic carrier now has monopolistic control over certain routes leaving Vancouver to foreign ports of call and their return flights. Beyond the obvious issue of lack of competition and the impact that has on ticket prices, flights from Europe transiting to Asia, or flights from Asia transiting to the U.S., are not choosing Vancouver as a transit hub. Instead, airlines are choosing to transition at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (Sea-Tac). Emirates Airlines, Qatar Airways, and numerous Chinese
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carriers have requested permission to land in Vancouver, yet the international agreements are not yet in place. Further complicating matters is the requirement for transiting passengers from certain countries to have transit visas. If the final destination for a Chinese flight is the U.S., transiting through Vancouver becomes a hassle. Hence, carriers and passengers will naturally turn to Sea-Tac airport for those flights. The impact of all of this is quite measurable. When a foreign airline adds a new route to Vancouver International Airport, it has a $200 million annual impact to the
Canadian economy. Furthermore, it’s estimated that due to the lack of competition and the resulting increase fares that 372,000 Vancouver passengers are flying out of Bellingham International Airport each year or 62 per cent of Bellingham Airport’s traffic. The Federal Government under Prime Minister Stephen Harper has done more on this issue for British Columbians than any other government before it. With an agreement signed with Korea recently, B.C. is seeing progress. However, more work needs to be done. turn to page 14