The City of Victoria has had to extend the closing date of its call for tenders to build a cycling path on Pandora Ave, for what appears to be stiff competition during Greater Victoria's construction boom - one that's projected to last for several years. With all the planned projects underway, demand for skilled workers is rising, as is construction costs.
"They really need a strategy nowadays," said Vancouver Island Construction Association President Greg Baynton in this Times Colonist article. "They can't just sort of get approval and put it out into the marketplace."
As outlined in this Business Matters article, Building Greater Victoria, the key for meeting the surging demand is the strategic investment of construction projects.
Victoria was frozen in 1916 thanks to English photographer Alice Lisle who took photographs of First Nation entrepreneurs and residents around the Victoria harbour. For 100 years the photos were kept in storage unseen. In 2015, they were gifted to the Chief and Council of the Songhees Nation and now the Songhees Nation and Robert Bateman Centre worked together to incorporate these rare photographs in a new exhibit called Resilience of the People: A Visual History of the Traditional Territory of the Lekwungen/Songhees People.
The exhibit covers a visual history of the Songhees First Nation's traditional territory. The photographs capture the complexities of the lands around them, and show the Songhees' resilient relationship to the conditions of their ancestral lands has changed, including how their relationship has developed up to the present day.
Full-colour Times Colonist advertising is available for $100. Creative services provided by the Times Colonist for no additional cost. Limited supply.
Wed, Oct 19 | 4-7 pm
Comfort Hotel & Conference Centre 3020 Blanshard St.
You Scream, I Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream!
Need an excuse to eat ice cream this weekend?
Sun, July 17 is Ice Cream Day! Why not visit these grocery stores to pick up a tub of Island Farms ice cream? Or if you're downtown and wandering along Government St, stop in and grab a scoop from Rogers' Chocolates!
Island Farms: member since 1961
Rogers' Chocolates Ltd.: member since 1962
The "Vacancy Tax"
There is much discussion about the potential for a new vacancy tax in Victoria, whereby owners who are neither occupying a residence nor renting it out on long-term basis will be taxed. The goal of the vacancy tax is to prompt owners to start renting, thereby contributing to the overall rental inventory.
As Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps outlined on CFAX Wed morning, such a tax would be just one of the mechanisms needed to help improve our vacancy rate, now sitting at 0.06%, one of the lowest in Canada. She estimated there were 700 rental units currently under construction in the region, available sometime over the next year or so.
In today's Times Colonist piece by Les Leyne, Questions abound on new vacancy tax, he outlined some of the other moving parts in play, and mentioned, "it's part of the argument that's been underway for years between the province and local governments about housing. Municipal leaders demand BC do something about the need. Provincial leaders demand they do something about exorbitant development charges and long delays in approving residential construction."
"Our members cite challenges with complex and slow approval processes, which not only delay construction but increase costs that only flow downstream to owners and renters," said The Chamber's Manager of Policy and Public Affairs, Peggy Kulmala. "To enhance our rental inventory and contribute to affordable home ownership, we should also identify and remove administrative barriers to development - at all levels of government."
Be sure to send your corporate news to The Chamber's Graphics and Communications Coordinator, Kate Masters, to be featured in Biznews or the Member News section of Business Matters.
