Langford Mayor Stew Young’s idea to attract provincial and tech offices to the West Shore is a good one, as long as they don’t come from Victoria, the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce said.
Young has proposed a 10-year tax holiday for any provincial or tech office that moves to Langford. Commuters will be taken off the road to Victoria if more jobs are based in Langford, he said.
But Catherine Holt, the chamber’s CEO, said there’s a problem with trying to draw employers from one municipality to another.
“If it’s a new company to the region, fantastic. We’re not saying all companies have to be in Victoria. If it makes sense for that company to be in Langford, that’s great,” Holt said. “But actually using Langford taxpayer dollars to subsidize an employer to move from Victoria to Langford is not value added for anyone.”
Competition between local municipalities drives business owners crazy, Holt said. It means they have to keep track of all the different deals, rules, taxes and tax breaks in each municipality in which they operate.
A regional approach to both economic development and transportation should be the priority, she said. That would mean, Holt said, focusing on attracting new businesses and creating a regional transportation authority.
Holt also warned that encouraging the province to set up shop in Langford raises the question: Why not Vancouver?
Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps said she supported Young’s proposal, but said it’s “old thinking” to assume that Langford’s growth would come at a cost to Victoria’s economy. “That’s what we’re trying to do as a region: Grow the economic pie,” Helps said. “So I’m delighted if Langford grows.”
Victoria is an attractive place to work and new developments like the Capital Park project will create more opportunities to do so, she said. Concert Properties and Jawl Development Corp. are partners in the 6.2-acre development, which will include 235,000 square feet of office space for about 1,200 people, plus 175 rental units, condos, retail shops and a library branch.
Helps said Victoria has the advantage of both the legislature and Harbour Air as incentives for locating provincial offices in the municipality.
“I’m not worried at all. The government will choose to be where its workers want to be, and downtown Victoria is a very desirable place to work,” she said.
The province makes its real estate decisions based on the business requirements and business case, in addition to analyzing where a ministry’s employees live, said Tasha Schollen, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Technology, Innovation and Citizens’ Services.
The province does not pay municipal taxes, but gives annual grants to municipalities instead. Young said his proposal would be a 10-year holiday on those grants.
