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/1441359
36 BCBUSINESS JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022 2021 RANK 2020 RANK COMMUNITY FIVE-YEAR POPULATION GROWTH (10% WEIGHT) HOUSEHOLD FINANCIAL VULNERABILITY (15%) RESIDENT SENSE OF BELONGING (5%) RESIDENTIAL GHG EMISSIONS PER 10,000 POPULATION (5%) 18 25 SAANICH 5.4% 91 96 6,794 19 3 SIDNEY 3.3% 94 96 7,020 20 22 PENTICTON 4.2% 103 92 10,122 21 46 RICHMOND 7.2% 100 86 8,697 22 8 WEST KELOWNA 5.6% 102 102 19,594 23 13 WHISTLER 11.7% 84 78 13,674 24 21 NANAIMO 7.7% 108 94 8,629 25 12 CHILLIWACK 9.3% 110 94 11,688 26 18 VERNON 5.6% 104 92 13,456 27 24 DUNCAN/NORTH COWICHAN 5.2% 110 100 8,100 28 23 KAMLOOPS 7.8% 113 93 11,768 29 5 SOOKE 9.0% 122 98 4,783 30 32 DELTA 5.8% 102 85 12,117 31 20 CITY OF LANGLEY 7.1% 127 89 6,415 32 35 SQUAMISH 4.8% 114 90 7,398 33 38 SURREY 3.2% 112 95 10,084 34 19 PITT MEADOWS 6.6% 113 98 9,532 BEST CITIES FOR WORK IN B.C. the building managers in all of the condos and apartment buildings in the area," he adds. "This was a huge payoff for us." Motivated by supportive staff and a deep sense of personal responsibility to his employees, Boateng found similar success in a new approach. "We switched to a take-and- bake model instead of takeout. This allowed staff to come in, prep all the food, organize it, and then we could sell it," Boateng says. "And that worked really, really well for us." Having now navigated the worst of the pandemic, the two restaurateurs are opti- mistic. "In the past few months, since the circuit breaker was lifted at the end of May, our industry in Langford has been excel- lent," Stuart explains. "I cannot speak for other municipalities, but I do know that Langford's restaurant industry is booming." Inspired by the business strate- gies that carried him through the pan- demic and signalling his confidence in the local market, Boateng opened a new store in November: HOB Fine Foods. "We decided to build more of a retail shop where you can pick up meals to go—it's very chef-driven, so we're bringing a lot of our chef friends' prod- ucts to our store," he says. "We want people to be able to go into an area where you can shop all these wonderful artisan products being developed on the Island." The new space will also host ticketed dinner events and private cooking classes. While Langford kept welcoming new eateries in 2021, the restaurant industry isn't its only bright spot. In Sep- tember, the City announced the relocation of construction manage- ment specialist Plexxis Software's head- quarters from Brampton, Ontario, to a new Langford commercial space that is set to open this August. The City is also pur- suing building a performing arts centre, welcoming a new postsecondary institu- tion and attracting a new film studio to a business park development at the former Western Speedway racetrack. N E W W E S T ' S N E W G R O O V E After spending the past five years in the lower half of the Best Cities list, New Westminster made this year's biggest