20 INVEST in BC 2 0 2 4 Official Publication of the BC Economic Development Association in special partnership with BCBusiness.
M A I N L A N D / S O U T H W E S T
TOP:
MOLSON
COORS;
MIDDLE:
CIT
Y
OF
SURREY
populous, most densely developed, most
economically diverse part of the province.
It's also where the vast majority of
immigrants to B.C. first land and settle, and
immigration has been an outsized factor
in Canada's economic growth in recent
years. In just the first three months of
2024, net international migration to B.C.
hit a new quarterly high of 40,840. Almost
all those migrants, a mix of permanent
and temporary residents (such as those
on work and study permits), made their
homes in Metro Vancouver. That inevitably
drives demand for housing and other
services; regional housing starts rose more
than 20 percent in 2023 over 2022. It also
encourages residents and businesses to
seek out lower-cost locales outside the
urban core—places like Mission.
Or, for that matter, Chilliwack. For
more than a year Chilliwack Economic
Partners Corp. (CEPCo) worked with
Red Bull to find a suitable location for
the energy drink maker's first ingredient
preparation plant outside its home base of
Austria. Red Bull settled on a 15-acre parcel
within the Chilliwack Food and Beverage
Processing Park, which was already
occupied by Molson Coors's brewery for
western Canada. It cited the location's
proximity to major road and rail links, the
Port of Vancouver—Canada's largest trade
entrepot—and the U.S. border, along with
the availability of fresh farm produce and
skilled workers for its choice. Construction
of the plant began this year.
Surrey, the largest of Vancouver's
suburbs and soon to be the region's most
populous municipality, continues to boom
with some 34,000 homes in various stages
of development, work ongoing on the
$1.4-billion Patullo Bridge replacement,
plans to extend the SkyTrain system to
neighbouring Langley, the site cleared for
a new $2.9-billion hospital in Cloverdale
and ongoing expansion of the mammoth
Campbell Heights industrial park near the
U.S. border.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 22
AFFORDABLE LAND: Chilliwack's Food
and Beverage Processing Park (top) has
attracted Molson Coors and Red Bull;
Surrey's Campbell Heights offers industrial
space near the U.S. border (above); the
municipality is on track to become the
region's most populous (bottom)
