The president of the Union of BC Municipalities says he is hearing the concerns loud and clear about China sponsoring the annual AGM and holding a reception for municipal politicians.

Arjun Singh says the UBCM executive will meet next month to discuss the controversy, which flared up over China’s attempts to punish Canada for the detention of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou.

Critics have called for UBCM to scrap the reception and refuse to accept China’s sponsorship dollars.

“Obviously the UBCM has been criticized for this really heavily over the last several days. I think we have to look at that and see if it is worth it for us to be going down this road. I think that is a discussion we will have. We will have it in mid-July in fact at our executive meeting. We should listen to everybody who is coming with ideas and thoughts about it. I don’t think it is all one way.”

Will the UBCM consider scrapping the annual Chinese reception at its convention?

“We will keep all options on the table.”

Some civic politicians have urged a boycott of the reception so if UBCM goes ahead with it will Singh attend?

“As UBCM president I probably will attend but what I won’t do is be shy about talking about things like the diversity of opinions.”

Singh says it might be beneficial to continue to keep the lines of communication open between UBCM and China instead of poking the country in the eye.

Port Coquitlam Mayor Brad West has accused the UBCM it of losing its moral compass for holding the event as China retaliates against Canada’s detention of a Huawei executive at the request of the Americans.