1026 replies to this topic

[spanky123]

BCIMC manages the investments for the Public Service Pension Plan. BC Pension Corporation administers the plan according to the direction provided by the Public Service Pension Board of Trustees. The board implemented changes to the PSPP to modernize the plan and make it more equitable. The changes were not related in any way to performance by employees of BCIMC or the Pension Corporation, and therefore it's unlikely any would be laid off as a result of plan design changes.

 

BCIMC does this every few years. They take the work in-house and suck at it. Management gets upset and decides to outsource it. After a few years they see all of the money that the other fund managers are making and decide to bring the work in-house.

[AllseeingEye]

Hearing noises that Money Mart, part of Dollar Financial Corp in Pennsylvania, is 'apparently' shuttering the Victoria office on Jutland road supposedly by the end of the calendar year. I was told the retail stores are fine but that the Victoria corporate office/roles are being consolidated at the US parent, affecting somewhere in the neighborhood of 150+ positions. Anyone else hear of this?

[spanky123]

Hearing noises that Money Mart, part of Dollar Financial Corp in Pennsylvania, is 'apparently' shuttering the Victoria office on Jutland road supposedly by the end of the calendar year. I was told the retail stores are fine but that the Victoria corporate office/roles are being consolidated at the US parent, affecting somewhere in the neighborhood of 150+ positions. Anyone else hear of this?

 

Wouldn't be surprised. The other large tech employer in town, Schneider, has also been moving jobs south.

 

Maybe all of the predictions about job losses to the US due to the huge tax disparity are actually starting to come true.

[AllseeingEye]

Wouldn't be surprised. The other large tech employer in town, Schneider, has also been moving jobs south.

 

Maybe all of the predictions about job losses to the US due to the huge tax disparity are actually starting to come true.

Hadn't heard that; if true Schneider which (had?) somewhere north of 300 staff, combined with MM if that story is true, will put some significant downward pressure on IT job hunters in this town for sure. If MM does indeed go that includes a call center, HR, financial and something in the range of ~ 40 IT positions. Interesting, and not in a good way.

[Mike K.]

Yup, that’s the word on the street.

[rjag]

Yup recent PWC study indicates more than 1/2 million jobs will go South primarily due to massive difference in corporate taxes

[LJ]

Yup recent PWC study indicates more than 1/2 million jobs will go South primarily due to massive difference in corporate taxes

The housing crisis is over!!!!

[Casual Kev]

The housing crisis is over!!!!

Reading the report, BC would actually be somewhat insulated since we don't manufacture a whole lot of things while ON/QC/AB would get the short end of the stick. It would somehow get worse.

[Mattjvd]

Hearing noises that Money Mart, part of Dollar Financial Corp in Pennsylvania, is 'apparently' shuttering the Victoria office on Jutland road supposedly by the end of the calendar year. I was told the retail stores are fine but that the Victoria corporate office/roles are being consolidated at the US parent, affecting somewhere in the neighborhood of 150+ positions. Anyone else hear of this?

I heard that nearly two years ago, I thought they were long closed by now?

[spanky123]

Reading the report, BC would actually be somewhat insulated since we don't manufacture a whole lot of things while ON/QC/AB would get the short end of the stick. It would somehow get worse.

 

What we have in BC though, and especially in tech, are a lot of companies which are partially owned or have been acquired by US firms. What will happen is that the US owners and investors will bleed profits out of the companies into their US parents so that they can be taxed at a lower rate. 

[Laszlow]

Predictions: (Or ramblings of an old guy!) LOL

 

The City of Victoria will become Niagara on the Lake West.

Look up Si Wai Lai
 

- owned and operated as a tourist trap. When you see the resurgence of Christmas Stores and more British Pubs - think Bermuda without the shorts! And NOTL without ready access to civilization. (There is an entire thesis to be developed about living somewhere you cannot escape easily. I call it Ferry-Madness!)

 

Up-Island will crumble and implode - first in real estate because to afford million dollar shitty, small houses an hour away from anything - you need transportation. And if we don't address rapid transit or The HAT!  - we will be picked off one-by-one by the pick-up truck drivers on this island! (BC aaprox 1000 crashes a day - I swear most are here!)  And you need a great income. And this is where the one-time non-affluent residents of Victoria moved to. Their plight did not get any better and will get worse as pseudo gentrification creeps northward. The farther north the farther away from jobs that pay above minimum wage ... if? All the socialist rhetoric be damned - capitalism is alive and well on the Island and the owners do not want to pay their staff.

 

We are an Island. And as an Island, it would be a great idea to investigate the other Islands that have flourished. All of them I believe are doing it with Tourism. What will happen due to increased reliance on tourism is that more and more light industries/retail/business will move out of Victoria proper and the NOTL-takeover phenom will happen - only as opposed to QEW traffic we get Cruise ship traffic. (Yeah, I know we say we are environmentally aware! But just wait til the Greenpeace type fanatics start descending on our city complaining of the footprint left by the behemoth ships.) and any and all businesses that are not 100% devoted to the million passengers a year (summer season) will leave. No one visiting for a day wants furniture, renovations, appliances or other non-shiny-sparkly carriable items. The issue now is can the tourist traps stay afloat in the offseason. The answer is generally ... no. No, they can't.

 

And lastly, the biggest fear I have is someone will discover just how stupid and naive we really are. That person/group will descend on the Yokels here just like the failed NHLer descended on Langford and Bear Mountain but in a collosol and majestic fashion. This group will buy up, destroy and generally take down everyone and everything in their path.  Think Walmart meets Costco but without cheap socks and TVs. Or Bernie Madoff with a grand plan promised to the gullible. A plan that will dupe the rubes and leave Victoria begging for someone or something to save it.

 

And no - technology will not be the savior.   Sadly no technology sector save from the oceanic groups will buoy up an economy (ie pay salaries) our downtown tech is not an ecosystem - it is a whole gaggle of youngsters living on government grants hoping their company will one day be bought by Google or the like. It's a fool's game.

 

A sure sign the end is nigh is when the music scene dies. And the scene here died a horrible death more than a decade or so ago - and no one noticed. So we are entertained by 80's rock bands doing farewell (Yet again) tours or unknown bands that can only get gigs here (Who is Skerryvore?) or the Riff-Raff-Landia type of "trade show" (That is all it is folks! A trade show. Good on them I like trade shows - I have made money on trade shows. But it does zip. nada, nyet to a culture.) who bilk performers and get DJs to entertain beer-sodden kids who really have nowhere else to go. Sad really.

 

It will be interesting to watch this freak show over the next 20 years.

[AllseeingEye]

I heard that nearly two years ago, I thought they were long closed by now?

From what I've heard its a phased draw down with some folks having already left the Jutland office, more being released this month and next, with the final group going by the third week of December. Not surprising: you just knew once Dollar One was running the show it was just a matter of time before the Victoria corporate operation would be shuttered.

[Citified.ca]

Victoria ranks high among Canada's leading tech towns: industry report
https://victoria.cit...ndustry-report/
 
Victoria’s emergence on a high-profile tech industry ranking identifying Canada’s leading technology clusters underpins the Capital’s role as a centre for innovation and a welcoming environment for start-ups.
 
A report issued by commercial real-estate brokerage CBRE has identified the south Island as a rising star among Canada’s 20 key tech clusters, otherwise known as urban centres with an established tech industry, that are critical to ensuring start-ups have access to investor capital, unique supports and opportunities to secure sufficient human resources.
 
“Victoria’s debut on CBRE’s list is at a very respectable number-ten spot,” says Ross Marshall, Vice-President of CBRE’s Victoria office.
 
“This is the first time the list has been expanded to include more than ten technology clusters and Victoria placing in the top-ten confirms what so many of us have suspected, that the region plays an integral role on a national scale.” [Full article]

[Citified.ca]

The City of Victoria's Douglas Street corridor. The most recent ranking of B.C.'s best cities for job hunters by BCBusiness magazine is particularly unkind to the B.C. Capital which saw the largest year-over-year slide of all communities on the list.

 

Victoria identified as B.C.'s biggest loser in annual employment ranking

https://victoria.cit...oyment-ranking/

[lanforod]

 

Victoria-identified-as-B.C.'s-biggest-loser-in-annual-employment-ranking.jpg

The City of Victoria's Douglas Street corridor. The most recent ranking of B.C.'s best cities for job hunters by BCBusiness magazine is particularly unkind to the B.C. Capital which saw the largest year-over-year slide of all communities on the list.

 

Victoria identified as B.C.'s biggest loser in annual employment ranking

https://victoria.cit...oyment-ranking/

 

Try clinching instead of clenching, Mike 

 

And your full list at the end is missing Victoria...

[Rob Randall]

Try clinching instead of clenching, Mike 

 

 

You clearly don't understand the economy--in order to be number one, or even number two--if you really want to sit upon the throne you have to do a lot of clenching. 

[RFS]

Unrelated to the article but MAN did 1515 Douglas ever improve the look of that block! wow

[rjag]

When one of the pillars of your local economy is the $4billion poverty industry ...... 'nuff said 

[Mike K.]

Regarding the unemployment rate, I think we can all agree that Victoria's rate is the lowest in BC our of necessity. It's not easy to make ends meet in this city if only one partner is employed. You find a lot more single-income households further up-Island where it's more likely you'll be able to make it all work.

 

Special thanks to Sparky who came across the article.

[jonny]

A stay at home mom is not "unemployed". Just like retirees and children are not unemployed. You're not counted in the unemployment rate if you are not trying or have no intention of being employed. This was covered in Econ 100.