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/1490198
32 BCBUSINESS.CA JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2023 environmental resiliency (for details, see page 40). To provide additional insight into how local economies and businesses are navi- gating a post-pandemic world, we're tak- ing a closer look at three of this year's top regional performers and checking in with local business leaders representing diverse industries—including outdoor recreation, food services and agritourism—about their perspectives on the year ahead. BACK TO BUSINESS AS USUAL Our annual ranking has shown time and time again that when it comes to the eco- nomic fortunes of our communities, change is one of the few certainties. In that regard, our third assessment of B.C.'s most resilient cities does not disappoint, underscored by Squamish's mete- oric rise of 31 spots back into the No. 1 position after a two-year absence. Embodying last year's conferred "resil- ient" status, six cities have managed to maintain their positions in this year's top 10: the City of North Vancouver (No. 2), Parks- ville (No. 3), Coquitlam (No. 6), Kelowna (No. 7), Langford (No. 8) and Central Saa- nich (No. 9). Joining fellow returnee Squa- mish (No. 1) are Sidney (No. 4) and Sechelt (No. 5) with newcomer Summerland (No. 10) rounding out the frontrunners. Rising a collective 43 and 25 places, respectively, this year's biggest regional gain- ers were the Sea-to-Sky Corridor, comprising Squamish and Whistler (No. 11), and the Fraser Valley, which includes Chilliwack (No. 12), Mission (No. 19) and Abbotsford (No. 32). Despite representing two of this year's top 10 cities, Metro Vancouver communi- ties slid a collective 83 spots from last year's ranking, with the District of North Vancou- ver (No. 36), Vancouver (No. 33), Richmond (No. 38) and New Westminster (No. 16) tak- ing the greatest tumbles. An eroding rental vacancy rate, slowing housing starts and weaker—though still positive—job growth were all contributing factors. Port Coquitlam (No. 28) was the only Metro Vancouver com- munity to see a double-digit jump in this year's list, aided by a rare improvement in rental vacancy rates over the year prior. 2022 RANK 2021 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%) 1 32 SQUAMISH 18.8% 98 92 9,322 2 6 CITY OF NORTH VANCOUVER 9.5% 96 101 6,985 3 5 PARKSVILLE 8.8% 90 96 13,050 4 19 SIDNEY 5.1% 80 93 9,137 5 13 SECHELT 4.6% 93 97 15,261 6 9 COQUITLAM 7.4% 104 98 10,927 7 4 KELOWNA 12.5% 94 87 13,314 8 1 LANGFORD 28.6% 107 86 7,106 9 8 CENTRAL SAANICH 3.8% 82 101 6,773 10 12 SUMMERLAND 3.8% 91 99 16,969 11 23 WHISTLER 16.9% 89 72 19,967 12 25 CHILLIWACK 10.5% 106 92 14,477 13 17 SALMON ARM 9.1% 86 95 17,426 14 3 COMOX 6.7% 85 96 12,161 15 7 TOWNSHIP OF LANGLEY 12.4% 98 95 14,933 16 2 NEW WESTMINSTER 10.8% 103 95 6,305 17 22 WEST KELOWNA 9.9% 94 93 21,339 BEST CITIES FOR WORK IN B.C.