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WHAT'S HAPPENING ON CITIFIED VICTORIA
What does everyone think of the idea to create a privately-funded, free of government subsidies economic development office focused on downtown Victoria? The initial financiers would be developers and those companies/organizations that stand to benefit directly from an increase in demand for office and commercial space absorption. This would not be confused with the Urban Development Institute which is more of a think-tank and government lobbying organization.
Local governments hinder economic development more than they foster it (development restrictions, zoning restrictions, business license issues, social engineering, high taxation, etc.) and despite the efforts of the Victoria Economic Development Office and efforts of similar government-subsidized organizations not much has been accomplished over the last 20 years that various private industries did not accomplish on their own.
G-man has remarked in the past on how tantalizing of an offer a 10 year (if not 20!) tax holiday would be for a major tech firm willing to consider the idea of opening a satellite office in downtown Victoria. Imagine Google, eBay, Microsoft, even Amazon, operating 20-100 man teams in the downtown core. That would be an incredible boon and would attract attention from other players. Instead we have a tech park out in the woods that looks like an architectural experiment gone wrong (not to mention is losing money) and one that most of its workers absolutely loath. Meanwhile office leases are ending in the downtown core and space is going unfilled.
We have so much to offer so many industries but our strengths are going untapped. Marketing is all but limited to soundbites about quality of life, hiking trails, feeding seals and cookie cutter images of the Parliament Building and people doing yogo in a field. We can do better.
Victoria's definition to the business world should be this: One of the most livable cities in the world, Canada's island metropolis of Victoria has the infrastructure your organization needs and offers everything your employees want. Or something like that, you get the idea.
And this is what we have to offer:
- 7.2 million people reside within a short distance of Victoria with fast and convenient access to Seattle and Vancouver
- over 60 daily flights to Vancouver
- a dozen flights to Seattle
- direct flights to SFO
- thousands of well trained university and college graduates every year
- a built-up and lively downtown core
- no traffic problems
- one of the best public transit systems in North America for a city under 1 million
- slower pace of life
- easy access to outdoors
- beautiful neighbourhoods with lots of oceanfront
- mild climate
- a perfect environment in which to raise children
- comparatively more affordable real-estate (compared to Vancouver, SFO, LA, etc.)
...and on it goes.
A privately-funded econonomic development office staffed with individuals connected to a variety of industries not bound by government bickering and red tape would have the resources of private industry waiting to capitalize on accomplishments. And being profit-driven the initiative would more than likely yield tangible results in a relatively short amount of time. Private industry already pays to maintain Tourism Victoria and the DVBA and who knows how much of the business tax goes to fund "economic development" efforts. Much of this money is, unfortunately, for naught.
The City of Victoria should have been bending over backwards to make Microsoft's foray into this market as gratifying as possible. Instead our politicians high-fived each other only to realize a year later Microsoft decided to fold up the office and get out of dodge. Microsoft should have been seen as the first stage of a multi-year plan to put Victoria on the tech map but instead far too many took the move for granted and chalked it up to some valiant behind the scenes effort. Now we're back to square one and the economic development forces are all wondering what happened. Put private industry at the helm and I can virtually guarantee that opportunities won't go untapped and the potential to put Victoria on the map will be realized.
