With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1332052
2021 RANK A DICHOTOMY EMERGES Thanks to a refreshed methodology, this year's top cities look much different from 2020, yet much the same. Despite our new indicators, the Township of Langley (No. 4 this year), Salmon Arm (No. 6), Courtenay (No. 7) and Kelowna (No. 10) make a repeat showing in the top 10, underscoring their resiliency across a range of metrics. With a more generous take on how we define "bedroom communit y"— appropriate, perhaps, given that more people than ever are working from home—four new cities join this year's list and, coincidentally, the top 10: Langford (No. 1), Sooke (No. 5), West Kelowna (No. 8) and Central Saanich (No. 9). Rounding out the top three are Parksville (No. 2) and Sidney (No. 3), improving on last year's solid showings of No. 15 and No. 14, respectively. With six cities in the top 10, Vancouver Island has proven to be the most resilient region in the 2021 ranking. One secret to its success: a higher-than-average share of residents working in the public sector. This is especially true in the Capital Region, where the government employs more than 10 percent of the workforce in cities like Langford, Sooke, Central Saanich and Victoria. Martin Farnham, associate profes- sor of economics at UVic, thinks this has helped to stabilize the region's economy during the pandemic: "Thanks to the abil- ity to run deficits, government employment is not as cyclical as the private sec- tor." But that's not all the region has going for it. The success of this year's top cit- ies also highlights an emerging trend, consistent with the obser vations of our experts: mid-pandemic conditions favoured smaller independent communi- ties and suburbs over the central cities of B.C.'s largest metropolitan areas, such as Metro Vancouver and the Capital Region. "This is one thing that's quite fascinating about this downturn—there are definitely regional differences," notes Ken Peacock, chief economist at the Business Council of British Columbia. "There really is this churn and uneven impact." Comprising the bottom of the list is 46 BCBUSINESS JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2021 COMMUNITY FIVE-YEAR POPULATION GROWTH (10% WEIGHT) SHARE OF POPULATION AGED 65+ (5%) HOUSEHOLD FINANCIAL VULNERABILITY (15%) SHARE OF WORKFORCE IN PUBLIC ADMINIS- TRATION (5%) IMMIGRANT COMPONENT OF GROWTH (5%) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 NR 15 14 3 NR 7 10 NR NR 5 28 16 2 32 33 25 39 2020 RANK LANGFORD 19.6% 13.2% 2.4% 122 15.0% PARKSVILLE 8.0% 43.6% 0.8% 98 5.4% SIDNEY 6.5% 41.5% 2.1% 95 6.6% TOWNSHIP OF LANGLEY 12.0% 16.9% 2.1% 107 5.4% SOOKE 12.0% 17.7% 1.1% 121 12.4% SALMON ARM 7.7% 26.6% 1.2% 88 3.9% COURTENAY 9.9% 26.4% 1.0% 106 8.0% WEST KELOWNA 6.9% 21.1% 1.0% 102 4.1% CENTRAL SAANICH 10.3% 26.1% 1.0% 94 12.3% KELOWNA 11.3% 20.6% 2.1% 99 3.4% COMOX 7.1% 29.3% 1.0% 102 15.0% CHILLIWACK 11.8% 18.2% 1.4% 110 6.3% WHISTLER 21.4% 7.7% 9.9% 83 3.6% SECHELT 8.9% 35.7% 1.7% 94 5.0% SUMMERLAND 4.3% 32.2% 0.6% 101 7.2% ABBOTSFORD 10.7% 16.9% 4.1% 113 4.2% NELSON 7.3% 19.6% 1.4% 96 5.6% BEST CITIES FOR WORK IN B.C.