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On the Street: Capital shines on livability list

Five Greater Victoria municipalities have made MoneySense’s Top-25 places to live in Canada list. Ottawa was chosen as the best place in Canada to live by the online personal-finance magazine.

 

Five Greater Victoria municipalities have made MoneySense’s Top-25 places to live in Canada list.

Ottawa was chosen as the best place in Canada to live by the online personal-finance magazine. Oak Bay was ranked third, followed by North Saanich in fourth place. Saanich was 11th, Central Saanich placed 14th and Colwood was 19th.

Colwood was also named as the best place in B.C. to raise kids, though it placed 86th nationally on that list.

Victoria was named the best place to retire and topped the list of cities with the lowest taxes.

Langford was named the 34th-fastest growing city in the country. The magazine took into account taxes, the local economy, arts, suitability for retirement, weather and other factors.

 

Freshworks Studio hits Vancouver

Just over a year into its business life, Victoria mobile application developer Freshworks Studio has expanded to Vancouver.

The company, founded by Samarth Mod and Rohit Boolchandani, has more than doubled in size since last fall and now has 25 employees.

“We wanted to set our foundation in Victoria first and have a strong base before we moved there,” said Mod, noting the Vancouver move makes sense for a company with big plans in its future. “The business in Vancouver is probably 10 times that in Victoria, and we had been hearing that for more than a year.”

The company already has several Vancouver-based clients, and expects that to increase significantly now that it has a presence at 543 Granville St.

“Right now there seems to be a barrier to have [clients] come to Victoria for an office visit,” Mod said. “We want to remove that barrier for them and, hopefully, grow our business.”

The ultimate goal is to expand to the U.S. The company intends to set up a Seattle office within the next two years.

 

New directors join art gallery

The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria has added Godfrey Archbold, Chantal Meagher and Chris Lawless to its board of directors. Archbold is the former chief executive officer of the Land Title and Survey Authority of B.C., Meagher works for Global Affairs Canada and Lawless is the chief economist at the B.C. Investment Management Corp. Leaving the board are Silvia Bonet, John Kirby, Michael Morris and Lynne Woodruff.

The AGGV Foundation has added a new president in Jackie Hamilton, and new directors with Greg Pedersen, chief financial officer of the Land Titles and Survey Authority, and Emma McArthur, an associate with law firm Farris, Vaughan, Wills & Murphy.

 

Prima Strada gets marketing manager

Vanessa Johnson has joined Pizzeria Prima Strada as marketing manager. Johnson most recently worked at Harbour Air, Whistler Air and Saltspring Air in a marketing and media relations position.