Just to preface my letter, I was priced out of Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»20 years ago and moved to a suburb. Mr. Hasiuk makes two critical errors (or assumptions) in his column. First, he couldn't provide any data to back his claim in terms of the level of foreign ownership in Vancouver. Without hard evidence, his conclusion doesn't have a leg to stand on.
Second, he's assuming the Chinese buyers are foreign buyers, which is far from the truth. The vast majority of Chinese buyers are landed immigrants who've gone through a lengthy process set out by Canadian government. Although they may look very "foreign" to Mr. Hasiuk, they are no less local than Mr. Hasiuk once they landed in Vancouver.
If Mr. Hasiuk did some research, he might find property speculation has long been a favourite sport by Vancouverites. In 2005/2006, Kelowna became the second most expensive place to buy a home in Canada, just behind Vancouver. He also might find there was no huge infusion of so called "foreigners" to Kelowna during the period.
Without a doubt, wealthy Chinese buyers have made a huge impact on certain Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»neighbourhoods, but there are a variety of other factors that play a role, such as government policy, bank lending policy, CMHC, property speculation, etc. When things get tough, it's easier to pick a group that looks very "foreign" as scapegoat without looking hard for the root cause. Mr. Hasiuk made it abundantly clear who that "foreigner" group is.
I know a Chinese lady who is fourth-generation Canadian and has been living in the same West Side house for 25 plus years. She has noticed more racist remarks tossed at her than ever during last three years. She has been called "chink" and was told to "go back to where you came from" by a Caucasian neighbour.
The unfortunate consequence of Mr. Hasiuk's column is inflaming the "us versus them" mentality, which does a great disservice to the community. You can either view your new neighbour as new blood to the community, or treat them as if they are the unwelcome "foreign invasion." The choice will determine the future of Vancouver.
Affordability is an intensely emotional issue here. We need a rational approach to finding a solution that is applied equally and fairly.
Peter Xie, Richmond
