It’s a funny irony that 7000 kilometres from Port-of-Spain, in Vancouver, Canada there is much debate about the extent to which the soft hands being laid on the business of marijuana has ignited a street war between rival gangs, in a city ranked in 2005 by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) as the best city to live in (CNN.com, October 5, 2005) and by Mercer Consulting (Business Week, 12 June 2008) in 2008 amongst the Top 4 cities to live in. The debate on gangs became so heated that Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, put aside his own troubles of a minority Government and an economy unresponsive to fiscal action, to travel to Vancouver’s Metropolitan Area (VMA) and outline a response to the fear of rising gang violence and its implications for Vancouver.
Vancouver is, after all, one of Canada’s major gateways and the country’s critical link to corporate Asia. The position of Vancouver as a global centre of commerce and expertise in the mining industry is well established and there are some 800 mining companies headquartered in Vancouver. Global mining names such as Teck Cominco (CAD$13 assets in 2007), Goldcorp (11,000 employees worldwide in 2008) and Northern Orion Resources are among the largest mining companies in the world and provide a strong anchor for the entire industry, according to the Vancouver Sun (June 2, 2008). The industry contributes about CAD$7 billion to the British Columbian economy.
Apart from the well known mining and wood products industries, from a public safety perspective, Vancouver hosts over eight million overnight visitors per year and cruise ship passengers alone have amounted to over one million visitors annually to the city, according to the Provincial Government’s website. Nearly 90,000 people were employed in 2008 in the tourism sector on a seasonal and year-round basis, contributing $3.1 billion per year to the Province.
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Vancouver is, after all, one of Canada’s major gateways and the country’s critical link to corporate Asia. The position of Vancouver as a global centre of commerce and expertise in the mining industry is well established and there are some 800 mining companies headquartered in Vancouver. Global mining names such as Teck Cominco (CAD$13 assets in 2007), Goldcorp (11,000 employees worldwide in 2008) and Northern Orion Resources are among the largest mining companies in the world and provide a strong anchor for the entire industry, according to the Vancouver Sun (June 2, 2008). The industry contributes about CAD$7 billion to the British Columbian economy.
Apart from the well known mining and wood products industries, from a public safety perspective, Vancouver hosts over eight million overnight visitors per year and cruise ship passengers alone have amounted to over one million visitors annually to the city, according to the Provincial Government’s website. Nearly 90,000 people were employed in 2008 in the tourism sector on a seasonal and year-round basis, contributing $3.1 billion per year to the Province.
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