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
8 P o r t r ai t : A l ai n a M i c h e ll e BC BU S I N E S S .C A F E B R U A R Y 2 0 24 BOUNCING BACK "Resilient" is a funny word. As editors, we are often required to say the same thing in slightly different ways, and, unfortunately, this particular word doesn't lend itself well to synonyms. Tough? Flexible? Irrepressible? All are decent substi- tutes, but none of them are quite the same thing. This is our 10th time ranking the best cities for work in B.C., but since the COVID-19 pandemic, we've been adjusting the fram- ing around this research, seeking out metrics that prioritize eco- nomic resilience. And while the long-term effects of COVID are certainly still present in today's business climate, the economic downturn, inflation and climate devastation have all forced B.C.'s businesses to be arguably more resilient than ever. Once again, Vancouver Island communities have a strong showing at the top of our list, with four placing in the top 10. That includes Central Saanich and Sidney, two neighbouring municipalities that have taken the top two spots. Somehow, in the ultimate show of resilience, Kelowna has grabbed the No. 5 spot this year after being ravaged by fires. For the complete list, methodology and profiles on some of the regions that excelled this year, see page 24. Andrew Macaulay, who spends his days working as a city planner, put together our list for the sixth time and once again went above and beyond in his duties. The same can be said for veteran BCBusiness writer Steve Burgess, who took a simple premise (what happens when a B.C. company hires someone from outside of the province to be CEO?) and turned it into a dynamic investigation into the different approaches that executives who come to B.C. take and how those approaches might impact their results. You certainly would require a kind of resilience to arrive in a new province and take over one of its biggest companies. Resilience is threaded through the rest of this issue, too. Frances Bula's Land Values column looks at how developers are embedding resilience into buildings; Jennifer Van Evra's inaugural column (Business Climate, which will tackle how different industries are dealing with climate change) highlights the ongoing struggles that Okanagan wineries are facing; this issue's Weekend Warrior, Adam Weir, wants to become the oldest person to complete an Ironman competition. Lastly—and perhaps I'm biased—the idea of resilience came to mind this past December when Stacey McLachlan was appointed editor-in-chief of our sister publication, Vancouver magazine. One of McLachlan's first roles in journalism was interning for Vanmag over a decade ago. You'd be hard pressed to find a more driven, hardworking person. To me, she defines resilience—sticking it out through the ups and downs of this industry purely out of passion when she could be doing pretty much anything else she wanted. I'm excited to see what she has in store for Vanmag, and I encourage you to check it out. DESK DITOR'S e Our Real Estate issue covers how B.C. is faring when it comes to industrial and commercial markets. NEXT NATHAN CADDELL Editor-in-Chief bcb@canadawide.com | @bcbusiness | Follow BCBusiness on