Pearson-Shoyama Institute

Pearson-Shoyama Institute
HOT BUTTON

Increase in Chinese origin population -- Recent Statistics Canada

Recent Statistics Canada figures suggest that there has been a significant increase in immigratns from China and Hong Kong in the Toronto and Vancouver areas. The percentage in the Greater Toronto Area population of Chinese origin rose from 1% in 1971 to 7% 1991 and is likely to be around 10% in 1996. In 1996 the Chinese origin population in Scarborough was 28 %.

What is it about Chinese Canadians moving into a city that gets some folks all upset.

In Markham, Ontario, Southshore Montreal and Richmond B.C. there has been concern that too many Chinese immigrants and Chinese Canadian are moving into a neighbourhood and then supposedly changing the physical face of the area. This is not a matter of changing the colour of the faces you see - at least not just that. It is about municipal zoning, shopping centres, home building and expensive cars. The new look is not always welcome.

Drain on social services?

This is not about immigrants who arrive here unemployed and go on welfare, or poor immigrants perceived to be making too many demands on social services and subsidized housing. Quite to the contrary. It is about people, many of them new Hong Kong immigrants, who are seen as having too much money and with it can, and are changing neighbourhoods. The closest thing to social services that are affected is the education system and local schools. Needs are significant for English or French language classes as are other general services related to diversity and new immigrants.

Economic asset

In these tough economic times there is one significant asset that these newcomers are bringing into their neighbourhoods - economic growth. There isn't a municipality or province in the country that wouldn't give an eye tooth for an influx of new businesses and new residents with money. These immigrants tend to move in either, at an average middle class level or at an upper income level with significant amount of money to invest. The worst allegations is that they are building too many "monster homes" in Vancouver and too many shopping malls in Markham. Since when has economic activity been seen as such a drain on the neighbours. St. John's, Newfoundland would love to have investment from outside.

Whatever it is that these people are doing, it is resulting in change and too much change too fast. That in itself is understandable. Most people are resistant to change, especially if it is happening all around them, which can seem like it's happening to them.

City by-laws

In Richmond Hill, Ontario, a city adjacent to Markham, several new zoning changes have been considered which on the face of it are neutral, but which happen to undermine the ability of Chinese Canadian merchants to build and invest in various ways. It is said that a series of new by-laws will require:

a maximum size on restaurants in the city - this will have the affect of disallowing large Chinese restaurants, especially the buffet restaurants, from being built,
a cap on the number of stores in one mall, which will have the affect of dissuading large malls of many merchants in a relatively small space,
a minimum size for stores which will have the effect of disallowing smaller stores common among Chinese Canadian merchants,
requirements for a high number of parking spaces against the square footage used for stores, which could be just another barrier to finding suitable locations.

Such malls are also designed on the condominium style where merchants own their own stores as opposed to renting them from large developers. Attempts are being made to disallow this.

In Richmond and Vancouver the issue came to a head after a column in the Vancouver Sun by Elizabeth Aird, which raised the concerns of there being too many Chinese Canadians in certain neighbourhoods. She suggested for example, that English speaking parents were having to take their children to other neighbourhoods to play so they could play with children who spoke English. She talked about "white flight" where white families were moving to further suburban areas because there supposedly too many residents of Chinese origin.

The Richmond and Vancouver story has the added issue of "monster homes", where it perceived that many homes are bought in middle-class neighbourhoods, the homes are torn down, sometimes in addition to large trees, and replaced with homes that are much larger than the others in the immediate neighbourhood.

When Carole Bell said "Now all we get ar theme malls to serve people way beyond our borders", she may inadvertently have sounded xenophobic. She may not have meant the Canadian borders, but the Markham borders. But it still begs the question, since when have municipalities not wanted to attract people from beyond their borders? Don't they want their merchants to be as successful as possible so that they will stay in the municipality and pay taxes? It is extremely common for people in the Greater Toronto Area to live in one municipality, work in another and shop in a third.

Municipal multiculturalism

This issue demonstrates how immigration and multiculturalism have an impact at the municipal level and at a very grassroots level. The solutions lie in listening to each other and developing solutions in each community that apply to the region - for the newcomers and the original residents.

Some of the other cases that have affected municipal government in recent years are as follows:

In the Borough of East York (Metropolitan Toronto) council has been battling over the zoning request for a mosque, first resisting a zoning application which would turn some unused factory space into a mosque then making rigid requirements for parking,
In Ottawa a similar controversy arose where an Orthodox church had used an adjacent parking lot during services with the agreement of the owners. When those owners wanted to change the arrangement, there were really no other options for parking than street parking.
A large number of Somali refugees and new citizens have settled in a condominium area in Etobicoke also in Metropolitan Toronto. About half the population of 6000 are of Somali origin and are all renting from condominium owners, some live in over-crowded apartments. This has become an issue for the municipality and the local school board. Non-Somali residents complain that the residents of Somali origin do not respect the by-laws: that they have more than one family in many apartments, have been threatening to older residents (of a variety of origins) and do not keep the area clean. Residents of Somali origin feel some of the older residents are being disrespectful of their cultural values and are discriminatory in their treatment, including the security guards.

Solutions

Here are some of the solutions that could help with the situations facing Chinese Canadians in the three cities noted at the beginning of this report:

Dialogue is of the utmost imortance.

Politicians need to assist in bridging the differences of opinion in their communities, by getting various community leaders together to sit down and talk over their concerns. If some citizens are bothered about an incoming group or some aspect of change, the concerns need to be articulated and listed clearly with some degree of explanation. Without such a process, issues get mixed up, get out of control and the solutions then have little to do with the real problem. What is it that most bothers people?
Politicians should refrain from blaming newcomers or others for the change.
City Councils should quantify the amount of financial investment that comes into a community with each new mall and each new commercial zoning application.
If there is concern about maintaining specific buildings, streets or neighbourhoods, consideration should be given to issuing historical recognition to areas that citizens want to maintain in its traditional or original form. In other words, if parts of a city need to be preserved, this should be clarified in some detail. It would be important not to use this excessively as a mechanism to limit the growth of certain groups.
Zoning should be used only as an urban planning tool rather and not a mechanism to limit the growth of certain ethnic groups.
As with the case of Vancouver architect Benjamin Ling, architects should develop building styles that will satisfy the needs of new arriving home owners and businesses as well as the longer time residents.

Contact persons for further information:

  Dr. Joseph Wong,               (905)940-2823
  Harmony Movement	                

  Dr. Alan Li,                   (416) 977-9871    
  President, 
  Chinese Canadian National Council 
                                                        

 Carole Bell,                    (905) 475-4872
 Deputy Mayor
 City of Markham               

 Ms Lilian To,                    (604) 684-1628
 Executive Director,
 S.U.C.C.E.S.S., Vancouver

Attached documentationIt is intended that the HOT BUTTON include extensive primary sources: letters, statements, newspapers articles and radio/TV transcripts. These provide the reader - researcher, media, community group or interested person - with as much information of the facts and the media coverage that drove the controversy - whether it was positive or negative coverage. This allows them to have the facts as well as the "flavour" of the debate. We also want all sides of the controversy to have their say so typically we would ask the various sides to provide us with material which will be included in its entirety as much as possible.

The materials come from primarly two regions:
Region 1 : Markham & Richmond Hill, Ontario

Region 2 : Richmond & Vancouver, B.C.