Business in Nanaimo - Nanaimo Economic Development

BUSINESS
In Nanaimo
Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada
Abundant land, a skilled and diversified workforce, excellent
infrastructure, key transportation connections and commercial
lease rates up to 60% lower than Vancouver or Victoria…
just a few of the competitive advantages which make
Nanaimo the place of Infinite Possibilities.
investnanaimo.com
BUSINESS
Contents
In Nanaimo
The big city's backyard
Nanaimo becomes closer to the mainland
JOHN HANKINS
Chief Executive Officer
Phone: 250-824-0152
[email protected]
Sector: Technology
SquareOne hosting tech-based startups
Land-based aquafarm leading
Setting example for other companies
Sector: Education
AMRIT MANHAS
Economic Development Officer
Phone: 250-824-0156
[email protected]
VIU grads supplying skilled labour
Crane expands capabilities
Part of multimillion-dollar port project
Tilray a top employer in region
Medical marijuana producer expanding
Publisher: Maurice Donn
Editor: Melissa Fryer
Contributors: Nicholas Pescod, Tamara Cunningham, Chris Bush
Production Manager: Darrell Summerfelt
Creative: Nanaimo News Bulletin Production Department
Advertising Sales: Sean McCue
Advertising and Editorial Inquiries: 250-753-3707
Business in Nanaimo
is published by Black Press
for Nanaimo Economic Development Corporation.
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A made-in-B.C. solution
Sector: Investment
Sector: Real Estate
Manufacturing growing
Sector: Construction
Sector: Retail
Sector: Marine
First Nation building strategies
Sector: Arts and Culture
Sector: Amenities
10
104 Front Street, Nanaimo, BC V9R 5H7
Phone: 250-591-1551
Email: [email protected]
www.investnanaimo.com
© Nanaimo Economic Development Corporation. All rights reserved. For editorial matters, please contact the editor. The views of contributors do not necessarily reflect
the policy or views of the Nanaimo Economic Development Corporation, its Board of
Directors, nor that of the publisher. The publisher cannot be held responsible for loss or
damage to unsolicited manuscripts or photographs. The publisher is not responsible for
the content of any advertisement, or any representations made therein. No part of Business in Nanaimo may be reproduced without the express permission of the publisher.
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investnanaimo.com ❚ BUSINESS IN NANAIMO
6
3
Nanaimo attracts
homeowners,
businesses priced
out of mainland
Jeremy Van Loon, Bloomberg News
T
hree times a week Neil Valsangkar escapes Canada’s
most expensive real estate
market by paying $100 for a
20-minute float plane ride to his Vancouver office from his home across
the Salish Sea.
The 50 kilometre aerial commute
allows the father of three to live in
Nanaimo, B.C., where homes cost
about a quarter of those in Vancouver,
one of the world’s frothiest markets
with average homes selling for $1.3
million. He’s encouraging some of his
employees to do the same.
“Raising a family in Vancouver is
really challenging logistically,” said
the 50-year-old chief executive of Sun
Coast Consulting Ltd. “I made a lifestyle choice because of housing and
the ease of raising a family here.”
Nanaimo, a formerly rough-andtumble logging and fishing town of
almost 100,000 people on Vancouver
Island, offers the same stunning views
of snow-capped mountains and rugged bays as its larger neighbour. With
float planes taking off for downtown
Vancouver several times an hour, a
vehicle ferry, helicopter flights and
a planned high-speed passenger service, the commute across the Salish
Sea makes sense and can be shorter
in some cases than commuting by
car from Greater Vancouver’s eastern
municipalities.
The cost of owning a bungalow in
Vancouver now accounts for 87 cents
of every dollar earned by the average
family. That has triggered protests by
young professionals who complain of
4
having to bunk
with roommates
into their 30s and forcing them to
delay starting families. The provincial
government will begin collecting data
on foreign buyers who have been
accused of driving up prices in the city
of 2.5 million residents.
John Winter fled Canada’s most
expensive city six years ago, settling
in Nanaimo with his wife after struggling with Vancouver’s sky-high cost
of living. “I knew I’d never be able to
afford a home there,” said Winter, 41,
who runs Harbour Air Ltd.’s Nanaimo
operations. “The average house price
in Vancouver is out of everyone’s price
range.”
Despite its proximity to Vancouver’s
real estate frenzy, Nanaimo seems a
world away.
“This was very much a fisherman’s
town, a forestry town and had been a
coal town,” said Ralph Nilson, president of Vancouver Island University,
a “hinterland school” that’s helping
to attract interest in Nanaimo with
students from 88 countries, many of
whom end up buying property, as part
of the 2,000-student campus.
The city, which sells itself as a “solution to Vancouver’s affordability and
transit challenges,” is aiming to attract
new businesses and their employees,
in addition to people nearing retirement age who want to realize property
price gains in Vancouver and downsize
to Nanaimo, said John Hankins, chief
executive of Nanaimo Economic Development Corp.
A single family home averages
BUSINESS IN NANAIMO ❚ investnanaimo.com
$358,200, an increase of about seven
per cent over the past five years compared with Vancouver’s 57 per cent
gain.
In addition to becoming a transportation hub for Vancouver Island, with a
new cruise ship dock in one of British
Columbia’s deepest ports and an airport that has had five years of record
passenger growth, the town has a
growing technology sector.
“We’re really an annex to Vancouver,”
said Bernie Dumas, president of the
Nanaimo Port Authority. “We’re seeing
Nanaimo becoming the backyard of
Vancouver.”
Unlike other waterfront cities such
as Seattle and its nearby islands such
as Vachon and Bainbridge, Vancouver’s real estate boom has left prices
in Nanaimo and other nearby towns on
Vancouver Island largely untouched.
For now, that has its benefits. Nanaimo’s laid-back vibe and quiet streets
mean many of its workers walk to the
office in 15 minutes, including stopping to buy a coffee.
Michael Reid, a 41-year former Vancouver resident who runs a technology company employing five people,
strolls along the harbour walkway
after arriving from Vancouver on a
float plane and walks back to his office
a few blocks away. His Vancouver
meeting was finished before noon and
he was back in Nanaimo for lunch.
“Vancouver might be more fun, but
will you have the money to enjoy it?”
he said. “As long as you can easily get
to Vancouver when you need to, it’s
not a problem living here.” ‹‹‹
A MADE-IN-B.C.
in each office class.
Housing is more affordable in Nanaimo compared to both Vancouver
and Victoria, allowing
employees to either
enter home ownership,
or if an existing home owner, potentially realize substantial savings by
selling a property in Vancouver and
Victoria and buying and living in
Nanaimo.
As far as transportation, Nanaimo
is well-serviced with daily direct links
to and from Vancouver and Calgary
on Air Canada and WestJet. Commute
times in Nanaimo are significantly
lower than the mainland, parking
costs are negligible compared to
downtown Vancouver and Calgary;
there are seaplane and helicopter
services to Vancouver; and there are
two B.C. Ferries routes, one from
Departure Bay to Horseshoe Bay and
one from Duke Point to Tsawwassen.
Vancouver Island University,
located in Nanaimo, provides graduate and undergraduate degree programs, and international students
SOLUTION
A
s recently highlighted in several national media outlets
including Bloomberg and the
National Post, Nanaimo is a
made-in-B.C. solution to Vancouver's
sky-high real-estate costs.
Nanaimo is the second-largest city
on Vancouver Island, and being centrally located, it offers significant cost
savings and employee advantages for
a business to establish a presence. A
recent survey of companies' reports
recruiting outside of the area is easy
due to Nanaimo's coastal location,
affordable housing, broad range of
recreational options and lower cost
of living.
Prime commercial real estate in
Nanaimo is among the lowest lease
rates in B.C. for communities of similar size and significantly lower when
compared to Victoria and Vancouver
from more than 80 countries attend
the institution's international MBA
program. VIU graduates from various
disciplines provide a constant pool
of talent from which companies can
draw.
The popluation base for the
Regional District of Nanaimo is
154,000 and the growth rate was 6.5
per cent between 2006 and 2011.
Business growth was 21.2 per cent
between 2001-2014.
The Nanaimo Economic Development Corporation is an arm's-length
organization of the City of Nanaimo,
providing economic development
for Nanaimo and the region. NEDC
actively supports the key industry
sectors including the operation of a
tech incubator called SquareOne.
For anyone considering Nanaimo
and region as a business location,
NEDC provides services to support
the decision-making process, by supplying economic data and facilitating
introductions to key individuals and
organizations. NEDC is there from
initial setup to settling and thriving in
the community. ‹‹‹
mosaicit.ca
250-591-1777
Your IT department
From Help Desk to Virtual CTO
Savings Consulting
Onsite service
Infrastructure
Networking
Disaster Recovery
investnanaimo.com ❚ BUSINESS IN NANAIMO
5
SECTOR:
TECHNOLOGY
A
Nanaimo-based startup company called Kube is aiming to
create a social network that
keeps users information completely private.
Created a few years ago brothers
Michael and Ian Reid, Kube promises
to keep users personal information
private from everyone including the
company itself, unlike Facebook,
which sells user data to corporations
and marketing firms.
Users have the ability to decide
exactly what content they want to
remain public and private.
“All the information inside of Kube
is completely private and encrypted,
even from us. So we have no access
to the information,” said Michael
Reid. “We can’t actually see what you
have inside your account at all.”
Kube is just one of a handful of
technology-based startups to call
Nanaimo home in the past year. It
was one of the very first tenants of
SquareOne, a tech startup incubator
located in downtown Nanaimo. In a
short period of time, SquareOne has
helped build a startup community
in Nanaimo according to Reid, who
said Kube will be creating a video for
a Kickstarter campaign using a film
crew they met while at the co-working space.
“You’re not suppose to be sitting at
your house all by yourself doing the
idea and thinking that you are going
to take on the world,” he said. “You
gotta get out and talk to people and
having things like SquareOne really
make things like that go that much
further.”
Kelsey Wolff, community manager
of SquareOne, said the time to create a tech-based start-up in Nanaimo
couldn’t be better.
“The barrier for entry is low. So
many of these start-ups require such
little capital input to get them going,”
she said.
Lifestyle, relatively low cost of liv-
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Michael Reid, co-founder of Kube, foreground, helped create software for a new
online social network, which promises to keep user information private.
He and development team Lee Babin, left, Peter Morrison, Ian Reid and
Dustin Dawes employed facilities and other tenants at Square One
to engineer and promote the product.
ing and having Vancouver Island
University in town are among some of
the reasons that start-up companies
have chosen Nanaimo for their base
of operations. Nanaimo’s geographical location to larger urban centers
such as Vancouver, Victoria, Kelowna,
Seattle and California only adds to
the appeal.
“You go down to Silicon Valley and
you want to hire an engineer it is
probably going to be around $120,000
to a $150,000 US,” Reid said. “That is
pretty expensive when you are doing
a tech start up ... especially when
the dollar is low and you can burn
through money pretty quick.”
For Hyas, one of Nanaimo’s newest
startups, protecting small businesses
online is the name of the game.
Founded early last year by Christopher Davis, who has the unique dis-
BUSINESS IN NANAIMO ❚ investnanaimo.com
tinction of becoming the first Canadian to receive the Director’s Award
of Excellence by the Federal Bureau
of Investigation in 2013, Hyas specializes in online security for small and
medium-sized businesses. The company offers a highly secure firewall,
intrusion section and prevention
system as well as a computer crime
investigation for security professionals.
With more tech start-ups calling
the Harbour City home, Wolff said
Nanaimo has potential to become a
significant player in the start-up landscape in the coming years.
“We have some interesting startups
that have the potential to be that
champion, to really spearhead and
put Nanaimo on the map,” she said.
“We are really beginning to pull in all
the pieces.”
‹‹‹
SECTOR:
but generate economic
benefits to the local community and province.
In Nanaimo, business
owners have embraced
the provincial nominee
program as a means to
keep jobs in the community. Since 2003, there have been
more than 130 applications for businesses in Nanaimo with 34 nominated
for residency and there are more
than 50 applications awaiting nomination.
Infinite Granite, Let’s Boutique,
Dog’s Ear T-shirt and Embroidery
Company, and New China Restaurant
are just a few of the businesses in
Nanaimo sold to foreign owners nominated through the program.
Nanaimo has become an attractive
community in which to invest due
to its spectacular ocean views, endless amenities, low cost of living and
geographical proximity to Vancouver,
Victoria and Seattle. The population of Nanaimo has
increased 1.12 per cent annually
since 2010 and is only expected to
increase.
INVESTMENT
A
s more Canadian business
owners begin to think about
retirement, many are selling
their businesses to individuals from overseas rather than close
and impact the local economy.
Thanks to British Columbia’s
Provincial Nominee Program, an
expedited immigration program that
allows prospective immigrants to
acquire permanent residence status
in Canada in exchange for investing
in a new or existing business, numerous businesses throughout the province continue to operate.
Those nominated through the program must meet numerous requirements set out by the province and be
able to prove that they will be able to
invest in a new business or successfully take over an existing business
that not only can employ Canadians,
Between 2004-14, the value of building permits in Nanaimo has increased
at a higher rate than anywhere else
in the province. The value of building
permits in 2014 was $229 million, an
increase of 91 per cent from the previous year. Housing starts increased
by 60 per cent over the previous year.
The number of business licences
issued by the City of Nanaimo has
grown by 4.7 per cent in the last five
years and 21.2 per cent in the last
decade. Leading the way were the
professional, scientific, technical sector; health care; and arts, entertainment and recreation.
Last year, businesses in Nanaimo
paid an average of 2.15 times more
municipal tax than residential property tax based on the same assessed
value, which is below the provincial
residential tax ratio and is lower than
that of similar sized cities such as
Kamloops and Kelowna.
Nanaimo’s gross domestic product
in 2014 was $4 billion, accounting for
two per cent of B.C.’s total GDP.
All these factors point to a community that can not only support investment but also welcomes it. ‹‹‹
investnanaimo.com ❚ BUSINESS IN NANAIMO
7
Land-based aquafarm
leads technology
Farm-raised steelhead salmon model
for other companies
W
hat began as something to
do during retirement has
spawned into a world-leading business for Nanaimo’s
Steve and Janet Atkinson.
Since 2013, the couple have owned
and operated Taste of B.C. Aquafarms
Inc., an independently run fresh water
land-based aquafarm that produces
steelhead salmon, sold under the
brand name Little Cedar Falls at Overwaitea Food Group and Quality Foods
stores. The East Wellington area aquafarm is the first of its kind to have its
product reach the market place on a
continual basis.
The aquafarm was constructed in
2012 and completed in 2013 at a cost of
$1.5 million, which included a $450,000
investment from the federal government through its Aquaculture Innovation and Market Access Program.
Designed by Nanaimo firm PR Aqua,
the farm receives 15,000, 10-centimtre
salmon every eight weeks and grows
and harvests 1,814 kilograms of salmon
per week.
The farm features 15 tanks and has
the ability to produce 100 metric
tonnes of salmon a year. It is also
equipped with a highly advanced and
energy-efficient water filtration system.
The recirculating-aquaculture system
reuses 99.6 per cent of the water on
site.
“About 50 per cent of what we do
here is science and 50 per cent is
growing fish,” Steve Atkinson said. “I
really wanted to do something that
makes a difference and this will launch
a fresh water aquaculture industry in
Canada, it really will.”
Taste of B.C.’s unique approach to
fresh water aquafarming and meticulous attention to detail has attracted
scientists, engineers and various other
professionals from around the world
to the farm.
“We are the world leader right now.
We have had visitors from over 20
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countries,” Atkinson said.
As the population of the
world increases, so does
the demand for protein,
which is why aquafarming
is so important, according
to Atkinson.
“The only way you can
produce protein efficiently
enough is through aquaculture. Fish produce protein
about … seven times more
efficient than pork and
16 times more efficient
than beef,” Atkinson said.
“Farmed salmon produces
protein and converts
protein 15 times more efficiently than wild salmon. It takes me
one pound of feed to grow one pound
of fish where as it takes a wild salmon
15 pounds of feed to grow one pound.
Its a big difference.”
A large part of the Little Cedar Falls
and the aquafarm’s success can be
attributed to ensuring the fish taste
exceptional, accomplished through the
use of ozone and modern technology.
“That’s the thing that we have contributed to the industry that nobody
else has figured out,” Aktinson said.
“Our fish taste fabulous and that has
been one of the biggest hurdles – to
get them to taste good. Our water
quality is just absolutely crystal clear
and the fish taste absolutely spectacular.”
In order to make an exceptional
product, fish receive no interaction
with marine life and are hormone and
antibiotic free. The farm regulates the
swim speed in each of its tanks, which
allows for proper exercise and generally healthier fish.
“As the fish grow we want to increase
the swim speed so that they get optimal exercise, that they are working
hard enough that they stay firm and
happy in a swimming pattern where
they don’t fight with each other and
BUSINESS IN NANAIMO ❚ investnanaimo.com
don’t have to work too hard to waste
energy,” Atkinson said.
Taste of B.C. has worked closely with
Vancouver Island University, providing
on-site learning for students in VIU’s
fisheries department and working
closely with professors and educators.
All of the farm’s employees are graduates of the university.
“We have all their students go
through a practicum at this farm
and that was a big part of our original vision. They get a chance to be
exposed with the technology that we
have got,” Atkinson said. “We are hoping to work with them to develop a full
training component on the technology.”
Last year, Taste of B.C. Aquafarms
was named The Ocean Products Company of The Year by Vancouver Island
Business Examiner and nominated for
a Natural Environment Science Award
by the Greater Nanaimo Chamber of
Commerce. Atkinson said the company is close to making profit and that
the real success will be when other
farms in B.C. begin to use his farm as a
model.
“Success for me isn’t when we are
successful – success for me is when
we see the farm duplicated,” Atkinson
said. ‹‹‹
SECTOR:
REAL ESTATE
N
anaimo’s real estate sector
continues to remain healthy,
thanks to a diversified local
economy, scenic views and
ever-increasing amenities.
Average real estate prices increased
the past two years and according to
Janice Stromar, incoming president
of the Vancouver Island Real Estate
Board, Nanaimo isn’t a buyer’s market
anymore.
“Prices have started to inch up
mostly because there has been a
downward pressure on inventory,”
Stromar said. “There are less listings
than there are new sales.”
Each year the real estate board
releases its buyer’s profile, a comprehensive analysis that looks at
the Nanaimo real estate market with
regards to demographics, types of
properties purchased and other
valuable information. Stromar said
that 2014 (the most recent profile)
was another solid year for Nanaimo.
For 2014, single-family homes represented 61 per cent of the market
share while apartment condominiums represented 11 per cent. Three
bedrooms (35 per cent) and two
bedrooms (26 per cent) were most
popular with buyers.
Stromar said single-family homes
continue to remain more popular
than condos in Nanaimo due to their
affordability compared to other
markets such as Vancouver, where
there is a significant price difference
between a single-family home and a
condo.
“I don’t think there are a big
enough differences in the prices
here,” she said. “When you’re in
Vancouver, you can either buy a
home for $2 million or a condo for
$500,000 and that is a big difference.
Whereas here in Nanaimo you buy
a house for $350,000 or a condo for
$250,000.”
Listings in the $200,000 to $400,000
range were most popular among
buyers, accounting for 56 per cent of
sales in 2014. Stromar said decently
priced properties
that are in selling
condition don’t last
long in Nanaimo.
“If they are well
priced and in reasonably good condition, they gone
within days,” Stromar said.
Fifty-one per
cent of real estate
purchases in 2014
came from buyers
who already called
Nanaimo home
with 37 per cent
of those buyers
indicating that they
had lived in the
Harbour City for
more than 20 years.
Buyers from outJanice Stromar, incoming president of the
side of Nanaimo
Vancouver Island Real Estate Board,
represented 49 per
cent of the market,
is seeing well-priced properties selling fast in Nanaimo.
with 13 per cent
States and China.
of buyers coming
“There is not a big influx of Chifrom elsewhere on Vancouver Island
nese buyers,” Stromar said. “I’ve
while six per cent of buyers came
been doing this for 11 years and had
from Vancouver. More people moved
a fairly successful career and I have
to Nanaimo from Alberta than from
had one Chinese buyer in 11 years.”
any other province in Canada, with
In real estate, location is everyAlbertans representing 10 per cent
thing and Nanaimo’s amenities, such
of the market.
as health care facilities and its proxStomar said in her experience
imity to the ocean and urban centres
some of those buyers coming from
such as Vancouver, Victoria and
Alberta were ones who had moved
Seattle, make it a popular choice on
away from Nanaimo or British
Vancouver Island.
Columbia years earlier.
Although the 2015 buyer’s profile
“When I ask people why you are
has yet to be released, the last year
coming here, a lot of it is because
proved to be a positive for the real
they want to be closer to the ocean
estate market in Nanaimo. Listings
and they don’t want to be shoveling
increased three per cent and sales
snow anymore,” she said. “It is like
increased 16 per cent from 2014-15.
the Hawaii of Canada – where else
The average sale price in 2015 was
would you want to live?”
$391,000 – an increase of six percent
Foreign buyers represented two
over the previous year while Nanaiper cent of the total market share for
mo’s benchmark price rose five per
2014. The majority of real estate purcent to $356,300.
chases made in Nanaimo are by resi“It has been a really good year,” Strodents within Canada and that there
mar said. ‹‹‹
were few buyers from the United
investnanaimo.com ❚ BUSINESS IN NANAIMO
9
A.J. Hustins, president of Nanaimo Precast Ltd., left, oversees work as a pipe saddle for the new Hammond Bay sewage treatment
plant wastewater outflow pipe is hoisted to a new location to cure in the company's production facility in south Nanaimo.
Manufacturing a growing sector
Manufacturing grew by 33 per cent in Nanaimo region since 2009
M
anufacturing companies
in Nanaimo are making an
impact beyond city limits.
For more than two decades,
Nanaimo-based Vehicle Mounted Air
Compressors, more commonly known
as VMAC, has quietly grown itself into a
globally respected brand that employes
nearly 100 full- and part-time employees.
VMAC specializes in the development
of small truck mounted mobile air compressors used by public works vehicles
and utility vehicles in industries such
as mining and oil and gas. Air compressors, along with other VMAC products,
are manufactured at its 3,065-squaremetre facility on Kipp Road.
VMAC was founded in 1988 in Kitchener, Ont., by Tony Menard, who moved
the company to Nanaimo in 1996 as
a way to return to his hometown. For
the past 26 years, VMAC established a
global customer base and client list that
includes Kal-Tire, Cummins, Finning,
Lincoln Electric and Brandt Tractor.
Jim Raymond, sales manager for
VMAC, said approximately 20 per cent
of its Canadian clients are in Alberta,
while it also has a significant number
of customers in Ontario and the United
States.
VMAC has also been able to make a
name for itself overseas, where orders
come from as far away as Australia,
New Zealand, the United Kingdom and
beyond.
10
“We are just starting to sell some stuff
into the Middle East,” Raymond said.
“We are the little success story that
nobody knows about.”
Manufacturing in Nanaimo represents
roughly 1. 8 per cent of the city’s total
business, but the sector is growing.
Between 2009-14, Nanaimo’s manufacturing sector grew by 33 per cent.
Tod Gilbert, vice-president of engineering and product development for
VMAC, said the manufacturing sector
has a real impact in the community.
“Unlike the service industry, manufacturing supports a lot of other businesses that support us,” he said. “We
have got suppliers and equipment suppliers and then the companies that service us, like electricians and shipping
companies. There is a lot of money that
flows through the community because
of the manufacturing industry.”
A.J. Hustins, president of Nanaimo
Precast, a CSA-certified company that
produces large pieces of concrete for
structural applications such as tanks,
barriers, wall panels and bridge components, said the manufacturing industry
in the city is better than most people
assume.
“Nanaimo has a fairly healthy and
strong manufacturing sector and a lot of
business people and politicians seem to
think that because we are on an island
that is a deterrent because you have
B.C. Ferries or barges that have to ship
product, but that is not the case at all,”
BUSINESS IN NANAIMO ❚ investnanaimo.com
Hustins said.
Nanaimo Precast has been in operation for two years and employs around
15 people with roughly nine projects
on the go at any given time. The company ships its products across British
Columbia and Alberta and has supplied products for companies such as
SNC- Lavalin, Pacific Industrial Marine,
West Bridge Corporation and others. Its
concrete work can be found on a number of bridges throughout the province,
including Harrison Lake, Naver Creek
and Ryan River.
Nanaimo Precast, like any manufacturing company, has a lengthy supply chain
that often includes local and regional
companies. Nanaimo Precast gets its
concrete from Nanaimo’s Mayco Mix
and its cement is produced by Lehigh
Hanson in Delta, B.C. The company also
has suppliers in Qualicum Beach and
Victoria.
The low cost of living and the lifestyle
of Nanaimo can sometimes give manufacturing companies an advantage over
their Lower Mainland counterparts.
“The cost to manufacture here sometimes gives you a better competitive
edge because the labour costs are a
little bit lower than they might be in
Vancouver, Edmonton or Calgary,”
Hustins said. “Nanaimo and Vancouver
Island have lured lots of entrepreneurs
here because of the lifestyle. There are
some very unusual manufacturers that
are doing a bang up job.” ‹‹‹
SECTOR:
some big ideas being considered.
The development was
A new multimillion-dollar waterapproved last year by
front hotel in downtown Nanaimo
the City of Nanaimo and
has been pitched for property right
has an estimated worth
next to Maffeo Sutton Park. Develof $1.5 million.
oped by InSight Holdings Ltd., the
Nanaimo’s Harewood
36-storey hotel would be operated
neighbourhood has been
under the Hilton brand and would
going through a numfeature 300 rooms, restaurants, comber of changes over the
mercial and retail spaces, and public
years, with improvements to local
access to the park and the city’s
parks and other amenities, and develwaterfront. The proposed project at
opers have clearly taken notice as a
10 and 28 Front St. would transform
number of them purposed new comthe otherwise quiet corner of the
mercial developments in the area.
downtown into a destination. The
Bosa Properties has proposed
overall project is valued at more than
a new commercial development,
$200 million.
dubbed Village Centre, on the corner
Nanaimo could also soon find
of Fifth Street and Bruce Avenue.
itself with a brand new multi-purLocated directly south of the Univerpose sports facility and hotel. Last
sity Village shopping plaza, Village
summer, Howard Johnson Hotels
Centre is a key part of Harewood
unveiled an ambitious redevelopNeighbourhood Plan, the long-term
ment plan for its current location,
vision for the south end community.
1 Terminal Ave. The hotel chain is
Harewood Village would be loaded
proposing a 160-room hotel along
with amenities with potential as a
with a 5,000-seat multipurpose arena
location for community events and
that could potentially be the home of
festivals. Once Harewood's plan is
a future Western Hockey League franrealized, the Village Centre would
chise. The project has been dubbed
form the heart of it.
the Millstone Gateway and is valued
Change could also be coming to
/ Size:estimated
3.625” x 4.75”/ CMYK
Nanaimo Bulletin‹‹‹
- Business
at an
$80/ million.
Nanaimo’s downtown as there are Client: HELIJET
CONSTRUCTION
As Nanaimo’s population continues
to increase, so does the demand for
new residential, commercial and
industrial development. That also
means change and it’s something that
Nanaimo has experienced plenty of
during the last decade.
Notable developments include a
$27.5 re-development of the B.C.
Hydro operations facility that
includes a brand new 8,600 square
metre building.
Tilray, a producer of medical marijuana in the city’s Duke Point industrial park, is planning a $75-million
expansion of its facility.
Meanwhile, the British Columbia
Automobile Association is preparing
to construct a new service centre in
the city’s north end. The service centre, a 700-square metre, two-garage
building, will be constructed at 6581
Aulds Rd., directly behind Staples.
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11
SECTOR:
EDUCATION
Vancouver Island
University graduates
supply skilled
labour to Nanaimo
industries
A
recent Vancouver Island
University graduate is having a major impact at one
of Nanaimo’s biggest manufacturing companies.
For the a little more than a year,
Margarita Shabanova and her insightful ideas have taken Vehicle Mounted
Air Compressor (VMAC) by storm.
Originally hired as an intern, Shabanova is now the company’s supply
chain analyst and is responsible for
inventory analysis, reviewing inventory procedures and finding creative
solutions for improving them.
“Margarita does an amazing job,”
said Chris Larson, human resources
and special projects manager for
VMAC.
Hailing from Khabarovsk, Russia,
Shabanova studied her Master of
Business Administration at Vancouver Island University and graduated
last year, where she made the Dean’s
Honour List.
Shabanova said she was attracted
to Vancouver Island University
largely because of the type of MBA
offered as well as the school’s location.
“It was one year of theory and
half a year of internship, which is
great because other programs had
two years of theory for example,”
Shabanova said. “It is a more compressed course, it was very hard but
it was worth it.”
Shabanova and her fellow classmates learned a variety of relevant
skills for today’s working world such
as strategic planning, corporate
development, lean manufacturing
12
Margarita Shabanova is a
Vancouver Island University
Graduate applying new ideas to
industry as Vehicle Mounted Air
Compressor's supply chain analyst
at the company's manufacturing
plant in Nanaimo.
and finance. During the program,
students spent two months creating
a strategic plan for VMAC’s entry
into the U.S. market. Students were
assembled into teams of four, where
they competed against each other to
develop the best strategic plan for
the company.
“VIU worked so well with the students and gave us so many ideas,”
Larson said. “Each group did such
different things. They designed logos
for us, told us how we were to penetrate the market and what the numbers were. The research that had
gone into it was quite huge.”
“It was the best course because of
VMAC and that we could apply the
knowledge that we learned,” Shabanova said.
Shabanova was named leader for
her team, who created a QR code
that once scanned with a mobile
device would allow clients and dealers to view a 3-D model of VMAC’s
various compressor products. Her
team ended up developing the winning strategic plan for VMAC and
Shabanova’s leadership
and knowledge helped
land her an internship
and eventual full-time
employment at the
Nanaimo-based company.
“How would I know
about those things given
my age?” Larson said.
“This is why we need the
technology minds coming
out of the university.”
Today, Shabanova
implements the knowl-
BUSINESS IN NANAIMO ❚ investnanaimo.com
edge and skills that she learned at
Vancouver Island University at VMAC
as a supply chain analyst.
“I apply all these courses to my
work right now, so when I work
on strategic improvements, doing
cost-benefit analysis and those sort
of things. It is really helpful,” Shabanova said. “We also had global
trade courses and with VMAC being
an international company and with
our supply chain being in Canada
and the United States and all over
the globe, it is really helpful to have
that background in global trade.”
Shabanova hasn’t just made an
impact at VMAC, she is also a volunteer board member for the local
chapter of the Supply Chain Management Association.
Larson said Shabanova is a prime
example of why VMAC hires local
university graduates.
“They bring knowledge to us,” Larson said. “As an employer all these
young bright minds come to us and
things that we don’t see or know
they bring to our company.” ‹‹‹
Simulators provide
connection to forestry
industry
Students train in safe and
controlled environment
A
new mobile forestry program will give students
at Vancouver Island University all the necessary
tools of the trade.
Last summer, Vancouver Island University
received $1 million from the federal government’s Western Economic Diversification program and purchased two
semi-trucks and trailers outfitted with state-of-the-art simulators. The trucks and simulators are part of the university’s
recently established mobile forestry skills training program, which will provide students with training in a range
of high-demand careers relating to the forestry industry,
including hand fallers, heavy-duty mechanics, heavy equipment operators, logging truck drivers, forestry technicians
and loggers.
The state-of-the-art simulators work in a similar fashion
to flight simulators, teaching students the fundamentals as
well as the ability to deal with a number of scenarios that
they would encounter while operating heavy machinery
in a work setting. The simulators also have the ability to
evaluate student performance to identify strengths and
weaknesses. Glynis Steen, dean of trades and applied technology at
VIU, said the simulators are a great resource that give students real experience on equipment that is worth millions
of dollars all while in a safe and controlled environment.
“This is a real nice connection to industry because we
are giving them [the students] that foundation piece before
they step into, potentially, a million-dollar piece of equipment in the forestry industry,” Steen said. “When you are
learning, lots of things happen ... You may do something
like tip into a pit that you have been digging with your
excavator and you will actually feel like you’ve tipped. The
simulation is absolutely amazing.”
Vancouver Island University’s new mobile forestry skills
training program now gives the school the ability to reach
rural and First Nations communities throughout the central Island, improving access to education and employment
opportunities. “The beautiful thing about the mobile training unit is we
can just pull up and simulate on site,” Steen said. “We don’t
have people having to pack up from their communities to
come to us.”
Vancouver Island University purchased six simulators
and is looking to add more in the near future. The mobile
forestry skills training program gives students the tools
and skills needed to fill the anticipated job openings. ‹‹‹
investnanaimo.com ❚ BUSINESS IN NANAIMO
13
Online platform
helps local
business thrive
Mentor program
introduces shops to
online marketing
W
hen Craig Hanson discovered that a tea he
was drinking was from
Nanaimo, he was sur-
prised.
“I didn’t know we made such awesome things right here in Nanaimo,”
he said.
That’s when Hanson got an idea.
“I just thought it would be cool if
there was something out there where
you could rave about these local businesses,” he said.
Hanson eventually came up with
the idea create an online market platform that would allow customers to
purchase products or services from
businesses within their own community without ever having to leave the
comforts of home. In 2013, Hanson
along with William Zouzouras, Andrea
Huhn and Cleary Donnelly co-founded
Thriving Locally, an online market
place for Nanaimo and Gabriola-based
businesses hoping to reach customers in their local area.
“It is all focused around the community,” Hanson said.
Thriving Locally works in a similar
fashion to other online platforms like
Amazon or Etsy. In a matter of minutes, businesses can create an online
shop and begin generating listings of
their products or services. Creating
a shop on Thriving Locally is no more
challenging than creating a profile on
Facebook.
“They [business owners] don’t need
any special kind of web programing
available,” Hanson said. “They just
need to be able to fill in the blanks.”
With a few clicks of a button, customers are able to purchase hundreds
of items from more than 40 local businesses including Arbutus Distillery,
Art With Heart, Blue Poppy, Lobelia’s
14
Andrea Huhn and Craig Hanson co-founded Thriving Locally,
an online marketplace for local businesses hoping to reach customers
in their market region.
Lair, Longwood Brewery and Wrapped
Indulgences. Purchases are typically
delivered within 48 hours.
One of the numerous challenges
that many small businesses face is
being able to reach and sell to potential customers. Hanson said in his
experience fewer than 50 per cent of
small businesses actually have a website and for those companies that do,
most don’t sell their products online.
Thriving Locally solves that problem
since customers can pay using any
“Wherever there is the desire
for small businesses to sell
online and communities to buy
online is where you see
Thriving Locally pop up.”
major credit card or PayPal, an online
payment service.
Thriving Locally recognizes the
online retail world can be a challenging place, so the company created
Thrive Online, a mentorship program
that walks local businesses through
the basic online retail practices. It
helps business owners setup their
online shop and teaches best social
media practices, how to take photos of products as well as customer
engagement and retention.
“It is a one-on-one program where
we sit down for roughly an hour each
BUSINESS IN NANAIMO ❚ investnanaimo.com
week for about eight weeks,” Hanson
said. “That eight-week period we will
go through modules to increase their
online habit, which I find is a big thing
that they are missing. It is really like a
hand-holding process.”
Thriving Locally also established a
system that helps keep shipping costs
down by having its own truck deliver
all of the orders in one trip for a small
fee.
“Since we got the shops and the
customers all in the same framework,
we now know when and where a shipment needs to go,” Hanson said. “We
can send out one truck to deliver for
all the businesses on Thriving Locally,
rather than the businesses having to
deal with one or two or three shipping companies. That’s become a
really big draw and it also helps us
bring the cost down.”
Thriving Locally currently serves
Nanaimo and Gabriola with plans to
expand to Campbell River, Parksville,
Qualicum Beach, Salts Spring Island,
Quadra Island, Victoria and London,
Ont. Hanson hopes to eventually have
Thriving Locally serve communities
right across the country, as long as
there is interest.
“Wherever there is the desire for
small businesses to sell online and
communities to buy online is where
you see Thriving Locally pop up,” he
said.
‹‹‹
SECTOR:
RETAIL
N
anaimo has become one of
the premier destinations
for shopping on Vancouver
Island. With major retailers such as Wal-Mart, Home Depot,
Costco, Best Buy, The Hudson’s Bay
Company, Canadian Tire and Cabela’s, it is easy to understand why.
The retail sector in Nanaimo has
grown during the past five years.
Between 2009-14, the number of
retail businesses in the Nanaimo area
increased by 0.9 per cent, exceeding
the provincial rate of 0.6 per cent
over the same period. Meanwhile, the
City of Nanaimo reported a 0.5-per
cent increase in business licences for
the retail sector during the same fiveyear period.
A major addition to the retail scene
is Lowes, which is expected to open
a location at the Nanaimo North
Town Centre later this year. Lowes
will fill the void left by Target, which
departed last year as part of a company-wide exit plan from Canada. The
American-based home improvement
retailer is expected to generate anywhere between 120 and 140 full and
part-time jobs as well as 40 seasonal
positions.
Dan Fraser, general manager of
Nanaimo North Town Centre, said
Lowes will make a great addition to
the mall, which already has Canadian
Tire and Sears as two major anchor
stores.
Lowes will be open at 6 a.m.
between Monday to Friday in order
to provide service to contractors and
trade workers.
“There will be some great cross
traffic between the mall. There is an
internal exit that will remain and so
we will see that cross shopping going
to London Drugs and Sears and other
stores.”
Lowes is under construction and is
expected to open by summer of this
year.
At 69,821 square metres and 140
retailers, Woodgrove Centre is the
largest mall on Vancouver Island,
drawing millions of visitors annually.
Late last year, upscale cosmetic retailer Sephora, opened a
349-square-metre store inside the
mall.
Julia Dow, Woodgrove’s general
manager, said adding a high-end, wellrespected retailer such as Sephora
not only provides choice to the consumer but also enhances the shopping experience for patrons.
“Sephora is a great retailer, so it
improves the allure to the mall,” Dow
said. “Every time we can enhance
our retail mix through adding a great
retailer we are improving the shopping centre.”
In an effort to attract more business
and improve the shopping experience, Woodgrove’s owners, Ivanhoé
Cambrige, announced last year that
the mall would undergo a $17-million
renovation, which includes upgrades
to the mall’s interior and exterior as
well as the relocation of the customer
service desk, which will be expanded
to 148 square metres.
Renovations are currently underway and are expected to be completed in November. ‹‹‹
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investnanaimo.com ❚ BUSINESS IN NANAIMO
15
Crane expands cargo capabilities
Part of multimillion-dollar expansion at Nanaimo Port Authority
N
anaimo Port Authority’s
Duke Point terminal has seen
all kinds of cargo come and
go from its dock over the
decades and now it has a new crane
to handle it.
Last year, the Nanaimo Port Authority purchased a slightly used Liebherr
mobile crane for $4 million as part of
a $9.3-million series of upgrades that
included the creation of a new barge
berth as well as land enhancements to
the terminal. The new mobile crane, which came
from Brazil, improves the range of
cargo that the port can handle and
will eventually replace the port’s
existing crane.
“This is going to give us more capacity and flexibility. We can handle all
kinds of cargo with this” said Bernie
Dumas, president and chief executive
officer for the Nanaimo Port Authority. The idea to create Duke Point stems
from the 1970s when the government
of the day envisioned a time when
industrial space in the Lower Mainland would eventually reach capacity.
The Duke Point terminal opened in
the 1980s and for years was a major
16
mover of forestry products. The Nanaimo Port Authority handled more than four million tonnes of
cargo in 2014, an increase of 22 per
cent over the previous year. A reason
for the increase can be attributed to
the authority’s ability to diversify.
“We are now getting involved in
some cargo that maybe 10, 12, 15
years ago we wouldn’t have touched,
but because we are so close to Vancouver we see an opportunity to do
business that we weren’t traditionally
doing,” Dumas said.
In 2012, the terminal began handling
containers for the very first time.
The port authority estimates that it
handled roughly 25,000 containers in
2014 and more than 35,000 containers
in 2015 – a 39-per cent increase.
“We started from nothing and
we found a new cargo base for the
future,” Dumas said. As industrial space continues to
shrink and ports approach capacity in
Metro Vancouver combined with the
new crane and barge berth, Dumas
believes that Duke Point is in the perfect position to begin taking on additional cargo.
“We think that our terminal at Duke
BUSINESS IN NANAIMO ❚ investnanaimo.com
Point is going to be an ideal location
to handle all these components,”
Dumas said. “We need to be ready
when all this cargo starts to move. If it
shows up and we don’t have the infrastructure or equipment in place it is
not going to be handled here.”
The Nanaimo Port Authority is looking at the addition of a second berth,
which would allow the port to handle
multiple ships at once as well as bigger cargo vessels.
“The second berth will give us
capacity to do two ships at one time
or handle a bigger ship and that is
really important,” Dumas said.
The estimated cost of a second birth
is around $60-$70 million and the
authority is looking at finding investors and turning to the provincial and
federal government for funding.
“If we don’t have a cargo facility for
central Vancouver Island what is the
central Island going to do? You can’t
live off the ferry system,” Dumas said. Dumas said the authority is playing
with new ideas all the time to ensure
that the future of the port is secure.
“It is survival. If we don’t come outside the box and find new things we
won’t exist,” Dumas said. ‹‹‹
SECTOR:
MARINE
W
hen it comes to marine
technology, Nanaimobased companies Inuktun
Services and Seamor
Marine have become worldwide leaders, attracting the attention international corporations from around the
globe.
It’s not everyday a Nanaimo company gets to work with world leader
in space exploration and research,
but that is exactly the case for
Seamor Marine, a robotic engineering firm specializing in the research
and development of remote-operated
vehicles (ROV) for aquatic environments.
Seamor Marine was founded in 2006
after Inuktun sold the intellectual
property rights of its highly successful underwater vehicle known as the
ROV Seamor to a private ownership
group. The result was the creation of
Seamor Marine, which today sells a
variety of remote-operated vehicles,
including the ROV Seamor, that are
used for industrial and research purposes to numerous clients around
the globe.
In 2014, Seamor Marine began working alongside researchers and scientists at NASA as part of the Pavillion
Lake Project, a exploration project
that examines microbial development. Seamor Marine’s remote-operated
vehicles were outfitted with NASA’s
highly advanced communications
and tracking equipment.
Meanwhile, for the past 26 years
Inuktun Services established itself
as an industry leader in small-scale
robotic vehicles and crawlers.
Founded in 1989, the company originally produced the ROV Seamor and
has since become a leader in the
community for its continuing innovation. Today, Inuktun specializes in
designing and manufacturing remote
controlled robotics and visual inspection equipment. Inuktun’s past clients include Ontario Hydro, Hitachi
Nuclear, GE Nuclear Energy and Idaho
National Engineering Laboratory. ‹‹‹
New Versatility and Capacity for
Canada’s West Coast
Duke Point Deep Sea Terminal
expands services with a
Liebherr 104-metric-tonne
Mobile Harbour Crane and
new Barge Berth
• Close to Mainland &
direct service to Asia
• Expanded vessel
options (up to
Post-Panamax vessels)
• Continuous container
movement & minimal
delays
• New load / discharge
options & cargo types
• Greater lift capacity
and outreach
• Adjacent lay down area
THE SOLUTIONS PORT
@portnanaimo
250-753-4146 ext.229
investnanaimo.com
42 BC Shipping News February 2016
www.npa.ca
❚ BUSINESS IN NANAIMO
17
Snuneymuxw builds
economic strategies
First Nation looks forward
to working with NEDC
T
he forestry industry is anticipated to kindle economic
activity and wealth in the
“multiple millions of dollars a
year” for Snuneymuxw First Nation.
The first cut was made into 877
hectares of Snuneymuxw-owned
forest on Mount Benson last year,
representing an important economic
driver, new revenue and future
employment for more than 1,700
members of the Nanaimo First Nation.
The forest lands are part of a reconciliation agreement with the B.C.
government, meant to spur economic
activity for a nation that’s struggled
with economic development, largely
because of a lack of land, according
to Douglas White III, band councillor
and chief negotiator for the Snuneymuxw.
He now sees a community on the
cusp of change, of being able to create employment opportunities and
generate wealth for benefits and
services and quality-of-life improvements for the Snuneymuxw people.
With forestry lands and hoped-for
achievements with land negotiations
in the coming years, the nation has
been brought from a place of poverty
to one where it has “real financial and
economic assets and economic activity for the first time.”
The provincial transfer alone
more than quadrupled the nation’s
land base and managing it all is a
revamped and arms-length Snuneymuxw Economic Development Group
of Companies, which is spurring
economy activity by managing land
holdings and forestry on behalf of the
nation and outside the governance
of Indigenous and Northern Affairs
Canada.
18
“It’s an incredible
moment that we’re in,”
said White. “We’ve largely
been impoverished by
the loss of access to our
resources and to our village sites over the last
100 years or longer, so
we’ve grappled with poverty and being in a state
of dependency for far too
long.
“We’re looking for
opportunities to build
our own wealth so we
Erralyn Thomas, president of the Snuneymuxw
can set priorities and that
Economic Development Group of Companies.
we can start to look after
ourselves, and to create
that kind of independence is what any
box and you only get this amount of
community and any political commufunding and you can only do this with
nity would wish for itself.”
it,” Thomas said.
A key limitation has been the lack of
She sees herself carrying on a vision
land, he said. As of February this year,
built up by previous councils and
the population is 1,769, with 586 peochiefs, with an economic group that
ple living on reserve lands that span
will allow for wealth generation, com266 hectares, according to Indigenous
munity development and an increased
and Northern Affairs Canada.
land base – all without compromising
But claims and negotiations have
cultural values and way of life.
been expanding the Snuneymuxw land
Forestry has been a big deal for
base, with one of the main goals being
the community, and there has been a
economic development.
transition from dealing with pennies
Already the Snuneymuxw Economic
to millions overnight, she said, addDevelopment Group of Companies,
ing it allows for things to be done that
tasked with managing land holdings, is
couldn’t before.
attracting the attention of developers,
Thomas is excited about engaging
realtors and investors with the land
the community and optimistic others
it has, including the south industrial
like the City of Nanaimo and Nanaimo
waterfront and Duke Point. The work
Economic Development Corporation
of the company is just beginning, says
are receptive to working with the
Erralyn Thomas, a band councillor
Snuneymuxw. She is also clear, that
and new president of the economic
gone are the days Snuneymuxw is left
group.
in the dust and development won’t
There are so many things the comhappen without them at the table.
pany can do whereas previously “we
“Boom, Snuneymuxw is here,
were within this box, this Indian act
guys.” ‹‹‹
BUSINESS IN NANAIMO ❚ investnanaimo.com
Tilray poised for rapid expansion
Medical marijuana producer contributes millions to local and provincial economy
L
ocated in Nanaimo’s industrial
district sits a large state-of-theart production and research
facility.
The 5,574-square-metre building is
the home of Tilray, a producer of medical marijuana and one of Nanaimo’s
largest employers.
Tilray was established in 2014 by Privateer Holdings, which invested $23.2
million into the establishment and
construction of the Nanaimo facility.
“We were in discussions with several cities across Canada to locate
our facility, we choose to locate in
Nanaimo as the cost base, access to a
skilled labour and support from NEDC
and the city made the decision easy,”
said Greg Engel, Tilray chief executive
officer.
It didn’t take long for the Nanaimobased company to make significant
impact on the local economy. Within
nine months of operations, Tilray
generated $48.1 million in economic
output and $27.4 million in provincial
gross domestic product, fostering 215
direct jobs and supporting an additional 180 jobs.
Today, the company employs
approximately 125 full-time and parttime employees in a variety of posi-
tions, including research scientists,
botanists, horticulturalists, manufacturing executives, management and
security, resulting in $3.2 million in
local wages and salaries.
Since production began in April of
2014, Tilray managed to become a
nationwide leader in the production of
cannabis for medicinal purposes.
"The cost base, access
to skilled labour and
support from NEDC
and the city made the
decision easy."
Now the company is working on
approval to expand its facility with
the construction of a five-storey
building that would be roughly 7,896
square metres in size. The facility
would increase Tilray’s laboratory
and research capabilities. Once
approved, the expansion will result in
capital expenditures in the province
worth $64.7 million and would have
a projected annual operating cost of
$48.8 million.
“We are one of the top 10 private
employers in the region, so certainly
expansion of our existing facility and
expansion of our workforce would
have a significant impact," said Engel
The construction of the expanded
facility will result in $112.8 million
in total economic output in British
Columbia and $55.8 million in provincial gross domestic product. Once
completed and at full production, the
facility will be able to generate on
an annual basis $88.7 million in total
economic output within the province, $66.8 million in provincial gross
domestic product and $17.8 million
in tax revenue for all levels of government and support 459 full-time jobs.
Tilray also has global ambitions, as
it recently applied for a medical cannabis licence in the South American
country of Uruguay. The goal is to
establish Tilray’s brand beyond the
borders of Canada and put Nanaimo
on the map.
“We are working with different
groups globally and also with the
federal government to explore those
opportunities and I think we are in a
greater position to expand the expertise and knowledge and potentially
product that we are producing in
Nanaimo to global markets.” ‹‹‹
investnanaimo.com ❚ BUSINESS IN NANAIMO
19
SECTOR:
ARTS &
CULTURE
N
anaimo is home to a vast
number of performance venues and culture centers.
The city’s most recognized
and popular venue is the Port Theatre, which first opened in 1998. The
800-seat theatre hosts more than 250
events a year and attracts more than
100,000 people.
But as beautiful as the Port Theatre
is, plans are in the works to see it
expanded.
The Port Theatre Society, which
oversee operations of the downtown
venue, is working toward finalizing
and securing funding for $12.6-million expansion of the theatre. The
ambitious plan calls for a 50-220 seat
performance venue along with three
additional rehearsal spaces that could
be turned into small performance
spaces if needed. The society is hoping for the expansion to be complete
by next year.
Just steps away from the Port Theatre lies one of the city’s prized possessions, the Vancouver Island Conference Centre, a 3,500-square-metre
convention centre.
The conference centre opened in
2008 and can host small and mediumsized events, such as trade shows,
arts and culture events, and weddings
for up to 1,300 people.
Attached to the conference centre is
the Nanaimo Museum, where visitors
can learn about Nanaimo’s history. It
is also the site of the Nanaimo Sports
Hall of Fame. The museum’s upcoming exhibit, Characters, Con Men and
Celebrities, will examine the lives of
colourful people from Nanaimo’s past.
Two years ago, Nanaimo Centre
Stage was a building in need of new
blood. Located just minutes away
from the Port Theatre and the Vancouver Island Conference Centre, the
building landed a new management
group, received a paint job, a new
20
lease on life and a new name. Now
known as the Harbour City Theatre,
the Victoria Road venue plays host
to numerous productions throughout
the year as well as live music and
comedy. Once operated by the City of
Nanaimo, the building was taken over
by the Harbour City Theatre Alliance,
who have made it their mission to
revitalize the performance space.
The intimate space has a seating
capacity of around 100 people –
depending on the event – and was the
host of the Nanaimo Fringe Festival,
an annual event that draws artists and
visitors from across North America.
Nanaimo’s main academic institution, Vancouver Island University, is
the among the city’s breeding ground
for artistic and cultural creativity.
The school’s Malaspina Theatre, a
294-seat venue, is home to student-led
productions, colloquium series, movie
screenings, concerts and more.
The university also boasts
Shq’apthut – A Gathering Place, a cultural centre for First Nations students
and members of the community. The
139-square metre building, which
meets the gold standard in energy and
environmental design, was created to
foster understanding and education
of aboriginal culture, history and heritage.
When it comes to live performance
venues in the Harbour City, Bailey
Studio is among the oldest. And while
it may be more than 30 years old, it
certainly doesn’t feel that way. Converted from an old miner’s shack in
1971 by the Nanaimo Theatre Group,
Bailey Studio recently underwent a
renovation, which included upgrades
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to its roof. The 172-seat theatre boasts
a computerized lighting system and
modernized sound equipment.
The sheer number of arts and culture organizations in Nanaimo is staggering. From the Cedar-Yellowpoint
Drama Group to the Nanaimo Arts
Council, the list of organizations in
the city is endless. Among two of the
cities oldest and best known organizations are TheatreOne and the Vancouver Island Symphony, which have both
been existence for more than 20 years.
For more than three decades TheatreOne has been staging professional
theatre production in the Harbour
City. The not-for-profit organization
stages four professional productions
each year as well as its Just Kidding
series of four productions tailored
for families. TheatreOne also offers
Nanaimo the opportunity to indulge in
independent films through its Fringe
Flick series, which screens at Avalon
Cinema in Woodgrove Centre.
Over the years the Vancouver Island
Symphony has built a reputation to
become one of the province’s most
respected symphony orchestras.
Based out of Nanaimo, the Vancouver Island Symphony not only hosts
numerous concerts each year, but
also offers a number of programs
including the Grade 5 Fabulous Five
Choir, which is led by Patricia Plumley. Active within the community, the
symphony hosts countless events
throughout the year including the
annual Symphony Community Days,
the popular Symphony By the Sea and
Play On Nanaimo. ‹‹‹
Events Nanaimo
F
or any movie buff, the Vancouver Island Short Film Festival is
a great chance to check out a
variety of locally, national and
international produced short films.
VISFF takes place in February at Vancouver Island University's Malaspina
Theatre.
The Maple Sugar Festival is a great
opportunity for families to keep
warm for one weekend in February.
Hosted by the L'Association des francophones de Nanaimo, the festival is
unique bilingual event. Visitors are
treated to a wide range of activities
and a diverse lineup of musicians and
dancers, as well as samples of traditional authentic French Canadian
foods.
A relatively new festival to take
over the Harbour City is Festival
Nanaimo. The month long festival
features live music, arts and crafts,
theatre, culinary events and sporting
events. Among the major highlights
is the Vancouver Island Symphony's
Nanaimo Bar None, a one-day event
that features a live performance
by the symphony, and PirateFest
FunDay, a family themed event that
encourages kids to explore their
pirate side.
Held each year in June, the Multicultural Festival celebrates Nanaimo
and Canada's diversity by featuring
a wide array of international food,
music and dance. The objective of
the festival is to not only bring the
city's cultural diversity together, but
to celebrate it.
One day in July numerous organizations gather together at Maffeo
Sutton Park and race to build the
craziest and silliest boat possible.
The Nanaimo Silly Boat Regatta takes
place every year and is a fundraiser
for the Nanaimo Child Development
Centre, drawing thousands of people
out to the shores of Nanaimo's inner
harbour.
One of the biggest festivals of the
year is the Nanaimo Marine Festival
and World Championship Bathtub
Race. The festival celebrates other
marine sports and draws racers
and spectators from across British
Columbia in July.
Held at Beban Park, the four-day
Vancouver Island Exhibition, more
commonly known as VIEX, takes
place in late August and is an agricultural showcase for local farmers.
VIEX features a wide range of family
fun events such as amusement rides,
carnival games, culinary contests,
pie-eating contest, celebrity goat
milking and livestock provided by the
4-H club. VIEX also hosts a number of
musical acts during the four days.
From October 8-10, hundreds of artists from around Nanaimo will open
their homes, hearts and studio's
for the annual Thanksgiving studio
tours, which are held in Nanoose
Bay and Gabriola Island. The tours,
which draw thousands of visitors
from across the province, are held on
thanksgiving weekend and are a great
opportunity for people to interact
with local artisans. Organized by the
Gabriola Arts Council, the tour has
become one of Gabriola Island's most
important annual events.
Whether it's music, theatre, or
embracing the sillier things in life,
Nanaimo has something for everyone. ‹‹‹
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21
SECTOR:
A
AMENITIES
brand new state-of-the-art
water treatment plant and filtration system plant that has
been under construction for
years is open and fully functional.
The $71-million South Forks Water
Treatment Plant began operating
late last year and is one of the city’s
largest and most expensive capital
projects in decades. The multimilliondollar facility replaces an aging treatment plant that no longer meets standards set out by the Vancouver Island
Heath Authority and the Canadian
Drinking Water Quality Guidelines.
The new plant, which serves
Nanaimo and region, is able to screen
minute particles and kill viruses, bacteria and disease-causing organisms
and will reduce levels of turbidity,
which lowers the potential for boil
water advisories.
“Weather-related boil water advisories will be a thing of the past,” said
Bill Sims, the City of Nanaimo’s manager of water resources.
Just as important as clean drinking water, parks in the region play an
important role in individual health
and well-being.
Nanaimo’s destination waterfront
park, Maffeo Sutton Park, has transformed from an industrial site into an
important asset to the city during the
past 60 years. The downtown park
has become host to many of the city’s
major events and festivals, such as
Canada Day celebrations, Marine Festival and Great International World
Championship Bathtub Race, and
Summertime Blues Festival.
An ambitious plan to redevelop
the park in 2008 led to significant
changes, including the creation of
Spirit Square and the demolition of
Civic Arena.
Bigger plans are in the works for
the city’s downtown green space.
After holding public input sessions
last year, city planners released
three sketches of what Maffeo Sutton
Park could look like within the next
15 years. Proposed improvements
include an expanded playground,
22
enhanced shoreline, possible amenity buildings, widened sidewalks,
new parking structure and an urban
wildlife refuge.
The city is taking feedback from
residents on the three proposals in
an effort to better understand the
wants and needs of the community
and to ensure that Maffeo Sutton
Park remains a key part of the city for
years to come.
A popular destination for those
living in the city’s south end is Harewood Centennial Park. The 6.4-hectare park is in the beginning phase of
a roughly $2-million transformation.
Last summer, the City of Nanaimo
upgraded the park’s play structure
and electrical system as well as
improved parking and added a mountain bike course at a cost of around
$285,000. Future upgrades to Harewood Centennial Park will include the
creation of a perimeter trail system,
covered multiplex, public art, a skate
park, rock climbing wall, improved
washrooms and youth facilities.
Indoor recreation is equally as
important as outdoor recreation
to the City of Nanaimo. Each year
the Nanaimo Aquatic Centre and
Beban Park Pool undergo upgrades
to ensure the amenities meet the
standards of residents. This year,
the aquatic centre got a fresh coat
of paint and the leisure pool lighting was converted to high-efficiency
LED. Perhaps the most noticeable
change for frequent users will be the
kids’ pool, where the play structure
received a new slide and side netting.
Meanwhile, Beban Park underwent
energy conservation measures. The
pool will now receive heat from the
nearby ammonia plant in the arena.
Other upgrades include new spray
features to the leisure pool and three
new workout machines for the weight
room. There are plenty of other plans
for the park, as the city has adopted
a master plan that includes a central
boulevard, multi-purpose buildings,
greehouses, permament food vendors and more.
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Bill Sims, city manager of water
resources, looks into one of the
filtration tanks at the South Forks
Water Treatment Plant.
Keeping the mind educated and
engaged is equally as important as
keeping the body moving. After undergoing nearly $900,000 in renovations
and spending the majority of 2015
closed, the Harbourfront Library
opened up in late fall. The renovations
transformed the downtown library
into a bigger and brighter space that
will make for a more comfortable and
enjoyable experience for users. The
library now features Creativity Commons, a space that allows individuals
and small groups to create digital
content, publish hardcopy books and
learn new skills in the area of technology. The commons come complete
with state-of-the-art computers and
a brand-new $85,000 self-publishing
machine.
By next year, medication distribution
at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital
will be controlled by machines. That’s
because NRGH is getting $4.64-million
upgrade to its pharmacy this year.
The upgrade includes renovation and
expansion to the pharmacy and a
$2.14-million automated medication
dispensary system, which will have
the ability to package, label and dispense 520 different types of medications at a single time. Barcodes include
dosage and patient information as
well as how to administer the drugs.
In addition to the pharmacy upgrades,
the hospital will receive new CT scanners later this year. The two new scanners are valued at $3.2 million and will
reduce radiation exposure to patients.
Whether it is ensuring that residents
have clean drinking water, excellent
health care or a wide range of outdoor
and indoor facilities to use, the City of
Nanaimo continues to invest in the
areas that play a big role in everyday
‹‹‹
life.
Business in Nanaimo
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(Nanaimo)
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Nanaimo, B.C.
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Telephone: 250-714-0630
[email protected]
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