Government Federal Archives - Victoria Chamber

Feds invest in EV charging stations in Greater Victoria

August 28, 2025/in BizNews This Week, Climate Change Solutions, Government Federal, Transportation Options/by Jim Zeeben

Improving transportation infrastructure and taking Climate Action Leadership makes economic sense. With the rapid adoption of EVs in Greater Victoria, drivers need to know they can reliably use their vehicles for extended road trips.

On Wednesday, the federal government announced almost $23 million to help build out a network of EV charging stations across British Columbia. Most of the projects will be done by BC Hydro along travel and community corridors.

In addition, two projects went to the City of Victoria and one to the District of Saanich.

Victoria gets $395,000 for 34 chargers of various levels near municipal workplaces, as well as $122,500 for 23 chargers in high-density neighbourhoods where residents can’t access at-home charging.

Saanich will receive $395,000 for 42 chargers that support municipal operations.

Chamber hosts series of meetings with fed leaders

August 28, 2025/in BizNews This Week, Chamber Awareness, Government Federal/by Jim Zeeben

It’s another productive week at The Chamber as staff have been busy hosting federal leaders in our new Garry Oak Boardroom.

On Tuesday, The Chamber invited members to participate in pre-budget consultations with Parliamentary Secretary Ryan Turnbull.

The meeting was one of the final stops for Turnbull, who listened attentively to suggestions on how government can better invest in the economic growth of our region.

Topics included using Department of Defence land for housing, improving infrastructure to add capacity to our marine economy and urgent legal reforms to stem property crimes by keeping repeat offenders behind bars.

On Wednesday, The Chamber hosted Senator Andrew Cardozo for a discussion about government advocacy and policy priorities. Senator Cardozo spoke about the positive change that has happened by appointing Senators as independents rather than partisans.

On Thursday, our Boardroom is again sold out for a meeting with the Hon. Rechie Valdez, Minister of Women and Gender Equality and Secretary of State (Small Business and Tourism).

The event is an opportunity to hear directly about the federal government’s plans to support tourism and small business, as well as ongoing work to advance diversity, equality and inclusion in Canada.

Last week, The Chamber hosted Rajiv Gupta, Head of the Canadian Centre of Cyber Security.

Boardroom meeting with fed Minister open to members

August 20, 2025/in BizNews This Week, Business And Economic Strength, Chamber Awareness, Government Federal, Hospitality And Tourism Rescue And Recovery, New And Established Businesses/by Jim Zeeben

Being a Chamber member means being part of the unapologetic Voice of Business for our region. That means opportunities to speak directly to top decision-makers, such as the Hon. Rechie Valdez, Minister of Women and Gender Equality and Secretary of State (Small Business and Tourism), who will be visiting The Chamber’s boardroom next week.

The event is open to members, providing a chance to hear directly about the federal government’s plans to support tourism and small business, as well as ongoing work to advance diversity, equality and inclusion in Canada.

The event will begin with small-group networking, followed by remarks from Minister Valdez.

A moderated Q&A will follow, focusing on the challenges and opportunities facing tourism and business in our region, and how we can work together to build an inclusive, welcoming community where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.

Space is limited, so register early to secure your spot.

Reserve Your Seat

Military pay raise a boost for region’s economy

August 13, 2025/in BizNews This Week, Finding And Keeping Workers, Government Federal/by Jim Zeeben

Greater Victoria’s economic ties to Canada’s military go back more than a century. Today, our business community has a symbiotic relationship with CFB Esquimalt, home to more than 4,000 Canadian Armed Forces personnel.

“We know the base benefits our community in many ways, from purchasing goods and supplies from local businesses to providing thousands of jobs to local families,” Chamber CEO John Wilson said. “We support efforts to invest in our military and the recent news that CAF members will be better compensated will help a major local employer find and keep workers — an issue for a lot of organizations in our region.”

The funding will provide as much as a 20% pay raise for some sailors, and offer up to a $20,000 bonus for recruits who complete training. Canada’s military has been facing staffing challenges, and the last significant overhaul of CAF pay was in 1998.

Chamber network continues to call for red tape reduction

July 23, 2025/in BizNews This Week, Business And Economic Strength, Chamber Awareness, Government Federal, Government Provincial/by Jim Zeeben

The Chamber continues to call for reduced red tape across all levels of government.

According to the latest update from the Business Conditions Terminal for Greater Victoria, conditions remain challenging with the number of active businesses at 11,300, a slight increase (0.5%) from a year ago.

Businesses are encouraged to help shape Chamber advocacy efforts through tools such as the Red Tape Review. This survey seeks specific feedback on regulatory irritants. The results will be used in direct consultation with federal ministries as they work to streamline government.

Provincially, there was good news as BC signed agreements to ease interprovincial trade with Ontario, Manitoba and the Yukon. The Chamber has been calling for reduced restrictions for east-west trade for years. The move helps Canada’s economy overall and lessens the over-reliance on southern trade routes with American states.

The agreement will make it easier for regulated trades and professions to work in any of the jurisdictions. The deal with Ontario also improves the ability for alcohol producers to access either market.

The agreements were signed during a gathering of all 13 provincial and territorial premiers at the Council of the Federation meeting this week.

Save Our Streets meets with feds about public safety

July 17, 2025/in BizNews This Week, Government Federal, Safe Communities/by Jim Zeeben

The Chamber is a founding member of the Save Our Streets coalition, which met this week with the entire BC federal Liberal caucus. SOS representatives asked what was being done to curb crime, violence and public disorder disrupting and threatening communities throughout the province.

“British Columbians are at a tipping point … and are demanding action,” SOS’s Clint Mahlman said. “People have lost faith in our justice system as a result of lack of bail efficiency and the revolving door that repeat offenders find so accommodating and that contributes to the degradation of safety on our streets.”

It’s time for all levels of government to stop blaming each other, and for senior governments to change the judicial system. The BC caucus was given a list of changes to bring back to Ottawa:

· effective bail reform targeting repeat theft and street disorder offenders

· federal dollars to provincial governments, with performance strings attached, for building out a full continuum of care for individuals suffering from addictions and mental illnesses

· a national bail repository so prosecutors can easily and quickly determine if an arrestee is out on bail with existing warrants in different jurisdictions across Canada and

· proper resourcing for the judiciary.

“Victoria council recently re-allocated $10.35m to combat these issues in Victoria and, unfortunately, many of the issues to be addressed are the realm of senior governments,” said Downtown Victoria Business Association CEO Jeff Bray, who also sits on the SOS Board.

Bray also urged the government caucus to not renew BC’s unique exemption from Health Canada’s Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. Our province is serving as guinea pig for a trial project that decriminalizes certain hard drug possession until Jan. 31, 2026. The experience here, and in Oregon where a similar pilot was attempted, has been a failure.

Chamber applauds move to keep trade talks on track

July 2, 2025/in BizNews This Week, Global Uncertainty, Government Federal/by Jim Zeeben

Businesses are looking forward to the economic certainty that should come out of a new trade deal between Canada and the US.

The two nations are at the table now and are aiming to strike a deal before the end of the month.

On Sunday, Canada played a bargaining chip that will help Canadian businesses and consumers while also giving the US administration something to share with its followers.

“As the Canadian Chamber of Commerce has argued since the beginning, the decision to eliminate the DST makes sense,” Canadian Chamber Vice President of Government Relations David Pierce said. “This tax would have fallen on Canadian consumers, businesses, and investors in the form of higher costs and hurt our economy at a critical time. And removing it moves us one step closer to a renewed, reliable trade deal … that will help to secure and grow the already incredible $3.6 billion of trade a day between our countries.”

C-5 aims to rebuild Canada’s economic momentum

June 25, 2025/in BizNews This Week, Business And Economic Strength, Chamber Awareness, Government Federal, Government Provincial/by Jim Zeeben

An economic evolution that the national chamber network has been working on for years is one step closer to reality this week. On June 23, the federal government passed legislation to vastly improve free trade and labour mobility between provinces.

Without this legislation, large-scale energy and infrastructure projects have routinely been delayed by regulatory gridlock, rising costs and political indecision.

“The Canadian Chamber of Commerce applauds the federal government for urgently introducing and passing Bill C-5 in the House of Commons,” Canadian Chamber Executive Vice President and Chief of Public Policy Matthew Holmes said, adding the ongoing tradewar with the US administration drove home the need to diversify. “We cannot have all our eggs in the United States economic basket any longer.”

Projects where fast-tracking has the broad support of impacted First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities should be the first to be considered.

“Canada’s business community firmly believes we can end project paralysis while working in collaboration with Indigenous rights holders and communities while maintaining world-class environmental standards,” Holmes said. “We know respect and partnership for shared prosperity are the path forward. The Canadian Chamber does not believe a major project is viable in the absence of clear community level support and expects Canada to meet its legal obligations to consult and cooperate with Indigenous peoples, per the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act adopted in 2021.”

Bill C-5 is just the first step. The onus is now on the federal government to deliver so that we can build economic momentum in Canada and show the world we’re serious about growth, energy and getting big things done.

Report calls for changes to ease port labour disputes

June 18, 2025/in BizNews This Week, Food Security, Global Uncertainty, Government Federal, Transportation Options/by Jim Zeeben

The federal government has released a report on Canada’s West Coast ports, including recommendations to protect critical supply chains.

The Industrial Inquiry Commission on West Coast Ports found that changes need to be made to reflect the increasing importance of global supply chains on our economy.

“The strain on Canada’s supply chains has been compounded over recent years by repeated labour disruptions, resulting in 2023 holding the unfortunate record of most working days lost since 1986,” Canadian Chamber Vice-President Pascal Chan said. “As our economy contends with a productivity crisis, Canadian businesses cannot afford these continual major trade infrastructure shutdowns that prevent them from reliably delivering the goods.”

The impact of recent labour disputes has had serious implications on Greater Victoria and Vancouver Island, as we are dependent on the flow of goods for our food security as well as many of our livelihoods.

Work continues on reducing internal trade barriers

June 18, 2025/in BizNews This Week, Business And Economic Strength, Government Federal, Government Provincial/by Jim Zeeben

With less than two weeks to go for Canada’s new Prime Minister to meet his promise of reducing barriers to inter-provincial trade, the national chamber network is encouraging lawmakers to move quickly.

On Monday, the Canadian Chamber appeared before a Senate committee to highlight the urgent need to reduce internal trade barriers and accelerate the development of critical infrastructure across Canada. The delegation also reiterated Canada’s role in ensuring energy security, supporting Indigenous partnerships and restoring investor confidence through regulatory reform.

The government has said that removing internal trade barriers would reduce prices by up to 15% and add up to $200 billion to Canada’s economy. According to Scotiabank, there is a lot to understand the impact removing inter-provincial trade barriers could have on our economy.

“The (barriers) are basically a lot of these small differences in regulatory standards that just make it that much more difficult to trade internally. When we think about trade barriers, often we think about them as anything that makes trading more difficult,” Scotiabank’s Senior Policy Advisor John McNall said. “They can be these little unintentional frictions that add up over time. For example, think of a nurse or an electrician who’s working in a particular province, they’re licensed to work in one province. But if they want to move over to another one, their licence doesn’t necessarily carry over. These sorts of little technical standards or regulatory changes create extra costs for businesses. None of these laws are created maliciously, the province is implementing what it feels is best for business in that jurisdiction, but they become an issue when regulations are different between provinces.”