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34 D e s t i n a t i o n B C /J o r d a n D y 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 In our quest to identify British Columbia's most economically resilient cities, we analyzed nine key metrics, each assigned weightings ranging from 5 to 15 points. Each city was assigned a score out of 95 points and is ranked based on their performance. Five-year population growth (maximum score of 10 points) This figure represents the population growth for each city from 2019 to 2024. We gave the highest-growth city 10 points and scored the others in proportion to that. Household financial vulnerability (15 points) This figure—an index created by Environics Analytics—looks at a range of household financial variables, including debt, liquid assets and discretionary income, to show how precarious a typical household's finances are in a given city. The higher the index value, the more vulnerable a city's households are on average. Therefore, we gave the lowest value 15 points and scored the others in relation to that. Resident sense of belonging (5 points) This value represents the sense of belonging that a resident has within their community, as derived from Environics Analytics' Community Life Survey. Cities who had a greater share of residents reporting a "very strong" or "somewhat strong" sense of belonging scored higher than those with more residents reporting a "somewhat weak" or "very weak" sense of belonging. We assumed that cities with a stronger sense of community had stronger social resiliency. The city with the highest sense of belonging received a score of 5, with the others scoring in proportion. Rental vacancy rate (10 points) This indicator reflects the reported vacancy rate for rental housing units from Canada Mortgage BEST CITIES FOR WORK THE HOW WE CRUNCHED THE NUMBERS need for change," he says. When residents pushed back against one of the area proj- ects CityState was working on, he worked with the development to address their concerns. They were soon satisfied and the project went ahead. "We completely avoided the acrimony that we might have faced elsewhere." Long neglected, the tourism infrastruc- ture all along the Sunshine Coast is under- going an upgrade, says Laurie Reid, owner of Pedals & Paddles, a kayak rental and tour company in Sechelt. "The tourist portion of the economy is very strong," she says. Sum- mer activity is at capacity such that oper- ators are looking for ways to shift some of the load onto the shoulder seasons too. Two hotel properties have had recent facelifts to help accommodate the summer rush. There has also been construction on new seniors' housing such as Green Court, along with rental apartments and retail. Two seasons of the TV crime series Mur- der in a Small Town have been shot in the area, attracting not only production revenue but also interest from the show's fans. The Sunshine Coast Chamber's next priority is to host a regional investment forum that it hopes will take place in the fall of this year. Gaetan Royer would like to see private developers and businesses looking for space, along with local govern- ments and nonprofits getting together to talk about opportunities in housing, tour- ism infrastructure and industrial develop- ment. The District of Sechelt has land on the northeast shore of Sechelt Inlet that is "begging for investment," he says, and the regional district owns a large, underutilized tract near the Langdale ferry terminal. "We want to make something happen there," he says.

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