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Canada's province seeks to change assets law to woo back Indian immigrants

Arthur J Pais in Vancouver, Canada

British Columbia, which has steadily attracted wealthy immigrants from Hong Kong, and is the home for about half a million people from India, is asking the federal immigration minister to roll back his foreign assets disclosure law.

The foreign assets disclosure law requires Canadian residents to disclose all assets held outside the country if their original cost exceeded C$100,000. Legislators want the law changed before the April deadline for the first income tax returns filed under the new legislation.

According to the British Columbia Employment and Investment Minister Mike Farnworth, the reversal of the law would help turn around the alarming decline in the number of immigrant investors coming to British Columbia.

"They need to change their position on the federal asset disclosure legislation," Farnworth was quoted as saying in the local newspapers. "That's the key message because that sends a very strong signal and that's the most important thing we can do."

The law is widely blamed for deterring immigration to Canada, especially among wealthy Asians who have been flocking this part since late 1980s.

Every year, Canada brings in thousands of immigrants under its investor class programme, which aims to attract business people with a substantial net worth who are willing to invest in Canadian projects in exchange for resident status for themselves and immediate families. Although a substantial number of these immigrants are the Chinese from Hong Kong and Indonesia, a fair amount of Indians from Hong Kong and Fiji have also made British Columbia their home.

Since the programme began in 1986, it has generated $4.5 billion in investments, but Ottawa announced changes last month to the programme in response to complaints of abuse and fraud involving a number of funds in the private sector.

Jock Finlayson, vice-president of the BC Business Council, said BC has not been aggressive enough in courting offshore investment. Since the New Democratic Party took power late in 1991, the province's share of direct foreign investment in Canada has dropped from 10.6 per cent to just five per cent in 1997, the most recent year for which date is available.

"We are in recession and the world is becoming a much more competitive place," he said last Wednesday. "Other provinces are more aggressive in seeking out foreign investors. If we want to succeed we have got to be more proactive and put more time and resources into this area."

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