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/1514012
38 To p : i S t o c k / W ir e s t o c k ; B o t t o m : i S t o c k / S li m 3 D BC BU S I N E S S .C A F E B R U A R Y 2 0 24 BURNABY'S BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES ABOUND Leading Metro Vancouver's performance surge this year is Burnaby, which leaped to the No. 4 spot—a feat it last achieved for our inaugural 2015 ranking, which also marked its last appearance in the top 10. Stable household finances, robust job growth, a diverse economy and one of the most active residential construction sectors in the province all helped push Burnaby to the top of the Metro Vancouver heap. "If you look around the city, it's grow- ing, it's developing, businesses are moving here and the economy and the business community here is doing well," declares Paul Holden, president and CEO of the Burnaby Board of Trade. Holden points to a number of key players headquartered in Burnaby that underscore the diversity and weight behind the city's economic suc- and attracting people to the Okanagan and West Kelowna," Denomme explains. "There is a shortage of skilled labour in our industry and it's not getting better." At the very least, COVID, which had major impacts on the area's tourism industry, is in the rearview mirror. "Some of the work that the operators do out there like tourism or heliskiing, all those activities were shut down, which rolled into the maintenance activities that we do," he says. Unfortunately, the recent wildfire season also proved problematic for the Okana- gan's tourism industry. "The travel ban that was imposed by the province really hurt our business community—August is a key month in the Okanagan," reveals the Board of Trade's Robinson. "We have heard from many of our members in both tourism and other industries how their business [was] down 60 percent or more." But looking ahead, Robinson is more bullish. Citing a growing number of busi- nesses relocating to West Kelowna as well as the recent completion of a new official community plan, she believes the area is in a good position moving forward. "We're very optimistic—the industry has picked up," concurs Denomme. "There's not a lot of places around Canada with a concentration of helicopters in one region, so for us the Okanagan is a great place to be." cess. These include digital media mainstay Electronic Arts and life science leaders Life- Labs—the largest medical testing provider in the country—and Stemcell Technologies, Canada's largest biotechnology firm. "A sector that's really booming of late is clean energy, particularly in the hydrogen fuel cell area," adds Holden. Companies like Ballard Power have been a long-time anchor for that sector, and have served to incubate a thriving business ecosystem. Pointing to additional companies specializ- ing in batteries and carbon capture, Holden notes that Burnaby is beginning to garner a reputation as "the Silicon Valley of the clean energy sector." Another economic pillar for the city has been the film industry, which is only now beginning to recover from the dual Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA actors' strikes. "Although it's obviously had its challenges this year with the strikes, the film and TV industries are significant here in Burnaby," confirms Holden. "Almost 70 percent of the province's studio space is in Burnaby, so the industry is really centred around here with a lot of big players in the studio business." According to Holden, the studios have spawned a large industry of supporting businesses around them. TOWERING IMPACT Burnaby's Metrotown is a hub for activity in the Lower Mainland, but the city itself is becoming more economically diverse