On Nov 7, the Greater Victoria Development Agency (GVDA) hosted a public summit, attended by more than 35 local politicians and representatives from First Nations, the University of Victoria, Royal Roads University and Camosun College as well as from many other organizations and businesses.

The summit was to discuss a proposal to fund a new regional economic development model. Nanaimo and Vancouver invest more than $4 per capita; comparatively Greater Victoria's municipalities currently invest less than $1 per capita at the regional level.

"The economy we want will not happen by accident - it will take coordinated stewardship, deliberate leadership and targeted action," said GVDA Economic Development Officer, Dallas Gislason. "That is what we're after with local governments."

Greater Victoria's 13 municipal councils will be discussing the proposal over the coming weeks.

The GVDA currently operates as a committee of The Chamber.

Times Colonist's Jack Knox was named British Columbia's commentator of the year at the annual Jack Webster awards dinner in Vancouver last Wed. Knox started writing his column on a weekly basis in 1997, and became a full-time columnist in 2000. The annual award is presented by the Jack Webster Foundation, dedicated to excellence in British Columbia journalism.  

The Fraser Institute says that the land-transfer tax does more than transfer money from homebuyers to the government. It stifles economic activity and makes moving less attractive. In fact, the land-transfer tax does more economic damage than a typical property tax.

According to a BC Chamber of Commerce policy, BC's has the dubious distinction of having the highest land transfer tax in the country. Our property transfer tax was originally intended to affect only 5% of luxury home buyers (based on the 1987 average home price in Vancouver of just under $150,000) but now affects virtually everyone who purchases a home in BC. The transfer tax on a modest $350,000 home in Alberta is $120. The same property in Ontario would be $3,725. In BC, the property transfer tax would be $5,000.

The Downtown Victoria Business Association (DVBA) is asking Greater Victoria what they want from downtown Victoria. To get the conversation started, the DVBA offers some rather wild suggestions, including waterslides in Bastion Square. DVBA is offering weekly prize draws for survey participants. The survey is available on the DVBA's website and will be online until November 30.

Last year, the City of Victoria introduced a suite of parking changes designed to entice motorists into parkades, freeing up on-street parking in the process. For example, ParkVictoria is a free app and mobile web application designed to make it easier and more convenient to pay for on-street parking.

These successful initiatives have resulted in a dramatic drop in the number of tickets issued, cutting into 2015 parking revenues - by about $400,000.

In this CHEK News clip, Chamber CEO Bruce Carter says while downtown is more welcoming, the City of Victoria will look for ways to recover that revenue.

The Victoria Police Department (VicPD) is asking municipal councillors to approve a two-year, $500,000 pilot project to create a better mental-health team. VicPD Chief Frank Elsner said people with mental-health issues trigger many calls for police assistance. A new way of responding is needed, he argued.

"Police are not the best people to deal with people in mental-health crises," Elsner told councillors.

Triathlon Canada moves to Victoria!

Canada's national triathlon team is making Victoria its home base - and it's expected to be a big economic boom for the region. As part of the deal, Victoria will become an official sponsor of the team, providing office space for the team's national headquarters at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.

SportHost Victoria calculates Greater Victoria sees an average of $95 million in direct spending each year in sport related activity.

 

 
The Greater Victoria Harbour Authority marked the end of a record cruise-ship season with the arrival of Princess Cruises' Star Princess at Ogden Point on Monday. Overall, the harbour authority welcomed 227 ship visits and about 533,000 passengers in 2015 - up from 206 ship visits and about 465,000 passengers the previous year.

 

Greater Victoria Harbour Authority: member since 2003 

BUSINESS LEADERS LUNCHEON:
Peter Fassbender, Minister of Community, Sport & Cultural DevelopmentDelta Victoria Ocean Pointe Resort & Spa, 100 Harbour Rd.

The Greater Victoria Development Agency (GVDA) convened a 31-member delegation to San Francisco September 28-30.

The diverse team hosted events and

BC Minister of Technology, Innovation and Citizen Services, Amrik Virk and Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps in San Francisco

met with global companies such as Apple, Google, Oracle, Tesla, as well as leading venture captial firms such as Blumberg and high tech incubators such as Rocketspace. One of the events was a reception and audience discussion with a Greater Victoria panel consisting of James deGreef (Chatterblock), Jeff Mallett (former CEO of Yahoo, from Victoria), and Paul Friedland (BevMo).

"Our mission was to leverage the power of collaboration and showcase Greater Victoria as a prime investment opportunity," said GVDA Economic Development Officer, Dallas Gislason, "We showed influential entrepreneurs, investors and organizations that Greater Victoria is big on innovation, entrepreneurial zest and talent with quality of life advantages that position us well in the future."

Special offers abound on The Chamber's website, both for members - and their staff - as well as for the general public. If you are a member and have a special offer, simply log-in to the Members Only section to share. A sample of this week's deals: 
 
 

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