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A Richmond woman who is seeking to end so-called birth tourism has more than 1,000 signatures on an electronic petition set to be introduced in the House of Commons.

Kerry Starchuk wants the Liberal government to eliminate automatic citizenship for babies born in Canada to foreigners, unless one of the parents is a Canadian citizen or permanent resident. Canada and the U.S. are the only G7 countries that allow birthright citizenship.

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Starchuk said the house next door to her Blundell home of 28 years is operating as a maternity motel for pregnant women from China.

There is no official data about birth tourism. However, Richmond Hospital reported 299 non-resident births (295 to Chinese mothers) out of a total of 1,938 births for the year ended March 31. That represents nearly one out of every six babies born at the hospital.

By comparison, Statistics Canada reported in 2012 that only 699 of 382,568 births across Canada — or about one out of 547 — were reported by mothers who were not Canadian residents.