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30 E B A d v e n t u r e P h o t o g r a p h y/ S h u t t e r s t o c k B C B U S I N E S S . C A A P R I L / M AY 2 0 2 5 service to the once semi-rural suburb. He also applauds the recent renovation of the Westin Bear Mountain Resort and consid- ers the spa there world-class. Langford Station, an indoor/outdoor public space recently redeveloped along a disused rail corridor, has become a favourite local gath- ering place, animated by food trucks, inter- active lighting, art studios and live music from time to time. These days Sheringham no longer quali- fies under the "craft distillery" designation in B.C.—its volume is too high. But even in its more expansive location, MacIsaac says, "we still do everything by hand. It's still very mom-and-pop." Langford offers a happy medium between a busy metropol- itan and an authentically West Coast loca- tion, he adds. "Everything we do has a feel of place, of the region." SECHELT: THE DARK (SEA)HORSE Another surprise in this year's Most Resil- ient survey was the rise of Sechelt into a top-10 position. The only Southern Sun- shine Coast community large enough, with a population of 11,754, to qualify for our survey rose 10 spots on our list on the strength of solid economic, job-creation and real estate development indicators. (Curiously, the district did not score well on sense of belonging, possibly because so many of its residents have moved there from someplace else.) "I'm glad your research sees what I see in the community. I see tremendous potential," says Gaetan Royer, chair of the JUST SO YOU KNOW: Our ranking only includes cities of 10,000 or more permanent residents. We excluded bedroom communities such as Lake Country, Oak Bay and West Vancouver, which may offer a high quality of life but have relatively small job markets. Langley and North Vancouver are represented on the ranking by both their city and district municipalities. Although we use the term "city" throughout, our annual survey is technically a ranking of municipalities, as legally defined by the B.C. Local Government Act. We work with research partner Environics Analytics because we believe it has the best data available—but even the best data has its limitations. To produce municipal-level population growth numbers, for example, Environics Analytics used regional-level estimates from Statistics Canada to make 2024 projections. Job numbers and unemployment rates come from StatCan's monthly Labour Force Survey and only present figures for B.C.'s eight economic regions and four largest census metropolitan areas for the first three quarters of 2024. Similarly, monthly housing starts figures provided by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. and quarterly residential sales figures from BC Assessment only reflect the year-to-date figures collected to the end of September. As such, those indicators won't account for economic trends over the final quarter of 2024. Annual rental vacancy rates provided by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. represent the "primary rental market" or private apartment unit market only. However, the primary rental market rates for five cities on our list were not reported due to unreliable or insufficient data. Therefore, estimates were derived for Sooke and Sidney from regional figures reported for the Capital Region; for Whistler from values provided for the Whistler Housing Authority's stock of workforce rental housing; for Sechelt from an analysis of its regional peers; and for Pitt Meadows from broader area figures provided for Pitt Meadows- Maple Ridge. BEST CITIES FOR WORK THE Sunshine Coast Chamber of Commerce and founder of development advisory firm CityState Consulting. Five years ago, Gae- tan and his wife, Zoe, took a vacation in the area and ended up moving there, including setting up a satellite office of Port Moody- based CityState in Sechelt's downtown. The firm secured local clients and now boasts involvement with more than 1,000 housing units in various stages of development on the Sunshine Coast. "Our biggest project is Sunshine Trails, which is the development of West Sech- elt," Gaetan says. "We're working hard, my wife and I, to integrate ourselves into the community." Zoe became a director of the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts while Gaetan was approached to be a member, then chair, of the Sechelt Chamber of Commerce. What happened next encapsulates the spirit of the community, he says. Gaetan was quickly recruited into a drive to amal- gamate the Sechelt, Gibsons and Pender Harbour chambers into a single Sunshine Coast Chamber of Commerce. "People see the region as one region," he explains. "If Pender Harbour is suc- cessful in bringing a family to the area for a visit, they're going to end up shopping and eating in Gibsons or Sechelt and pos- sibly even looking at real estate in the area. Everybody benefits." HERE COMES THE SUN Sechelt was the only municipality on the Southern Sunshine Coast to qualify for this list, but earned 9th place thanks to growth in the real estate and job markets

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