BCBusiness

22 INVEST in BC 2 0 2 4 M A I N L A N D / S O U T H W E S T LEFT: THE CIT Y OF LOUGHEED This year Surrey was awarded the Community Resiliency Award (community more than 20,000 population) by the BCEDA for its Economic Strategy 2024. The comprehensive, 77-page document, Surrey's first such strategy since 2017, aims to create one job for every resident worker in the city within 20 years—a lofty goal that will require the creation of more than 300,000 new jobs. It identifies four priorities: the attraction of and readiness for strategic industries; ensuring the availability of land for optimizing employment; enhancing the innovation ecosystem; and creating livable, vibrant and distinct communities. A HUB FOR HIGH TECH The Mainland/Southwest is home to a large and diversified high-technology community recognized at an international level. Vancouver tied Austin, Tex., for having the highest technology job growth of all North American cities since 2021 at 26.3 percent, office leasing company CBRE determined in its Tech 30 report released in October 2023. Local companies continue to attract noteworthy venture capital investments. For example Operto Guest Technologies raised $34 million last year to further develop its platform for automating hotel reservations, payments and other operations. Blockchain developer LayerZero Labs attracted $120 million in a Series B funding round. This year, Sanctuary AI landed a major cash infusion from the Business Development Bank of Canada and InBC Investment Corp. that brings its total raised to date to $140 million. And there are growing clusters of companies in niches such as nuclear energy, quantum computing and antibody- based drug development. The provincial government announced late last year it is adding a $638-million research centre to the new, $1.9-billion St. Paul's Hospital under construction in downtown Vancouver. Connected to the hospital by an overhead "sky bridge," the facility is meant to accelerate the testing of innovative therapies and medications in a clinical setting and help build the ecosystem of private- and public-sector life sciences research in the city. FROM SHIPBUILDING TO ENERGY EXPORTS The wide-ranging economy of Southwest B.C. is evidenced by the head offices of its largest corporations, which include telecommunications company Telus, mining giant Teck Resources and fashion designer Lululemon Athletica. In North Vancouver, the next generation of Canadian Coast Guard research vessels is coming together at Seaspan shipyards. The first, $1.3-billion ship is expected to be in service on the Atlantic coast in 2025, part of a multi-vessel contract stretching into the 2030s. Bucking the slowdown in retail nationwide, Lougheed Town Centre, on the border of Burnaby and Coquitlam, is undergoing a $7-billion redevelopment. Swedish furniture brand Ikea is revamping and expanding its Richmond store—the first in Canada when it opened in the 1970s—on a budget of more than $100 million. It is expected to open its doors again late next year. This past spring, Squamish saw the arrival of a converted cruise ship, soon to be a "floatel" housing hundreds of workers assembling the Woodfibre LNG terminal on the site of an old pulp mill. The proponents tout the $1.6-billion liquefaction plant as "the world's first net- zero LNG facility," designed to be powered by renewable hydroelectricity. • FROM PAGE 20 TRADE WINDS: (clockwise from top) Woodfibre LNG near Squamish promises to be the world's first net-zero gas export terminal; construction workers will be housed in a converted cruise ship; Lougheed Town Centre is undergoing a $7-billion renovation Official Publication of the BC Economic Development Association in special partnership with BCBusiness.

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