Saanich has adopted its first economic development strategy, with 21 initiatives designed to diversify the district’s economy, while retaining and growing its existing business base.
The strategy, to be implemented over a five-year period, aims to ensure the availability of services needed by businesses, investors and institutions to both expand existing enterprises and create new employment opportunities.
“We know that more people will be moving to this community and we want to ensure that we have employers that offer good-paying, family-supporting jobs and ideally that is going to happen in areas where people can settle in walkable neighbourhoods,” said Mayor Dean Murdock.
The first year of the plan proposes nine main initiatives, including better engagement with the business community, increasing sports tourism, providing business-development assistance, addressing affordable housing for workers and increasing Indigenous participation.
The strategy has identified four main issues Saanich has to wrestle with — growth, lack of housing, over-reliance on government as an economic driver and a land base that is tightly controlled by the urban containment boundary and agricultural land reserve, with next to no available industrial land.
It has also identified target sectors like post-secondary education, health care, clean tech and tourism as areas that still have plenty of growth potential.
Coun. Zac De Vries said it’s one thing to aspire to have more walkable and bikeable communities, but people need commercial areas and destinations to walk and bike to.
De Vries said there has to be focus on the businesses and industries that will provide jobs, and attract workers to the region, while also focusing on the neighbourhoods where those workers will live.
Murdock said part of the role of the district’s economic development manager, Mitchell Edgar, will be to find opportunities within what Saanich is already doing.
That means ensuring commercial centres are conducive to the kind of economic activity and jobs Saanich is hoping to attract and retain.
“I think it’s understanding where we’ve had successes in terms of major employers and job creation in our region and in this municipality and ensuring we can continue to support those groups so that they will be successful in the longer term,” he said.
Coun. Colin Plant noted economic development is not something Saanich has traditionally focused on. “But if we don’t focus on it, how can we possibly expect it to grow?
“This is an opportunity for us to focus on economic development and to then see over a period of time how that improves.”
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