Richmond Centre MLA and B.C.’s International Trade Minister, Teresa Wat, remains in China, more than two months after suffering a serious injury, Business In Vancouver (BIV) has learned.
Wat broke her hip, according to a media report.
She did not accompany Finance Minister Mike de Jong on a B.C. trade mission to India and Malaysia that began Oct. 20.
Neither Wat nor her chief of staff, Jay Denney, has confirmed the hip injury, however, ministry spokeswoman Courtney Carne issued a prepared statement, which did not deny it.
“Minister Wat sustained the injury in late August while on personal vacation in China. Since, Minister Wat has been in regular communication with ministry and constituency staff via phone and email. The minister is expected to return to Canada within a week,” Carne wrote.
Wat’s Twitter account contains an Aug. 16 photograph of her at the Hong Kong Trade Development Council Food Expo.
She was not in the group photo from her Aug. 28 community barbecue in Richmond, noted BIV.
Attorney General Suzanne Anton stood in for Wat on Sept. 19 to welcome a trade delegation from Heilongjiang, China.
Representatives for both Anton and Wat have refused to give BIV the names and affiliations of the members of that delegation.
The government’s Flickr photo gallery includes a photo uploaded Nov. 1 of Wat and a group of people at the Canadian pavilion of the Airshow China convention running through Nov. 6 in Zhuhai, near Hong Kong.
The scheduled fall sitting of the Legislature was cancelled on Oct. 3.
It was not known whether Wat would return in time for last weekend’s BC Liberal Party convention at the Westin Bayshore.
Later this month, she is scheduled to co-headline with Premier Christy Clark at a party fundraiser at the River Rock Casino Resort in Richmond.
Tickets for the “Annual Winter Celebration and Fundraising Gala” on Nov. 28 are $388 a plate or $3,880 for a table.
