Friday, February 19, 2021 – BC Business has named their “Most Resilient Cities” and Sooke is rated fifth.
BC Business describes how they crunched the numbers: “To determine the most economically resilient cities in B.C., we examined 12 economic indicators with weightings ranging from 5 to 15 percent, including two carried over from last year’s Best Cities for Work ranking and 10 new ones. The weightings strike a balance between demographic- and workforce-related indicators, which include pre-pandemic risk and resiliency factors, and those tracking aspects of 2020 economic recovery, like housing starts and unemployment rates. Each city received a score out of 100 points and is ranked accordingly.”
The article shares, “We are arguably in the single greatest socioeconomic experiment in history,” says urban planner Andy Yan, director of the City Program at SFU. According to Yan, the pandemic is not only reshaping the economies of our cities but also reorganizing the human geography of our province. To help make sense of a dynamic and evolving situation, the seventh annual Best Cities for Work in B.C. survey consults several experts to reveal the pandemic’s uneven impact on industries and regions. The state of the tourism and real estate sectors and the shift to working from home figure prominently in their evaluation.” Looking for local employment opportunities? The District is current hiring a Land Development Technician and Horticulture Student Labours – see our employment page to learn more.
BC Business continues, highlighting, “Small is beautiful. This shift to small-town living has been a trend for several years, observes Ken Peacock, chief economist at the Business Council of British Columbia. “It was clear that people were already moving out [of Metro Vancouver]—and I would argue because of high housing costs—at a rate of about three times of what I would describe as normal.” But with so many people now working from home and no longer anchored to their places of work, he thinks the pandemic may be accelerating this trend. ‘Going virtual was already evident, but [COVID] has just supercharged it. Same thing with some of these migration patterns.'”
Read the full article here.
