Retired federal politician Stockwell Day kicked off the B.C. Natural Resource Forum by painting a picture of "phenomenal" economic opportunity presented across the Pacific in Asia.
Day then warned that "unnecessary regulation" could hurt Canada's chances to cash in on that growth.
"You have to be there to see it," said Day of the scene in Asia before providing some numbers to back his case - China intends to build 85 million new homes over five years and has plans for 200 cities on the books.
"It's the most fantastic story in modern history if not all of history in terms of how people are moving out of poverty and depravation," Day said.
Canada is well positioned to help China, as well as India and other emerging countries require, to meet their goals said Day.
"The wood, the fibre optics, the copper, the precious metals, the rare earth metals, on and on it goes, Canada has that," he continued.
He also maintained Canada is a preferred source because of its reputation for stability and predictable policy.
But he said it's all at risk when unnecessarily long and onerous regulatory processes and structures are in place.
"If those hundreds of millions of people cannot get them from Canada because it sits in the ground because of process that are not reasonable they will get them from other countries," said Day.
"And they will get them from other countries that have the environmental regulations that we do, and don't have the human rights process that we do."
Day also challenged industry to speak out when they hear claims about their enterprises that are not factual saying Canadian industry generally does a good job of practicing in an environmentally-sound manner but a poor job of letting people know about it.
