2025 SIPP Year in Review

The year 2025 is ending just like it began: with much uncertainty in the air. 

But despite the economic and geopolitical challenges, the South Island Prosperity Partnership (SIPP) met the moment through intense collaboration with our partners, a committed team working hard day-after-day, and a LOT of deep engagement activity (surveys, open houses, one-on-ones, a sold-out business conference and multiple smaller events, not to mention the dozens of events and conferences hosted by the COAST and IPC teams as well!). 

This work culminated with the advancement of SIPP’s new 5-year plan (Rising Economy 2030) as a strategic – and pragmatic – response to Greater Victoria’s economic risks, challenges and opportunities, while also accelerating the momentum and growth of our flagship initiatives, the IPC (Indigenous Prosperity Centre) and COAST (Centre for Ocean Applied Sustainable Technologies). 

Here are the highlights of a busy and productive year:

Rising Economy 2030

• Rising Economy Taskforce & Final Report
  • In March, SIPP assembled a Taskforce of business leaders to assess the impacts of tariffs and geopolitical tensions on the region’s economy. However, the group quickly determined that to become more resilient against these sorts of external shocks, we need to understand and address several key systemic risks:
    • Affordability pressures
    • Declining productivity & overreliance on the public sector
    • Essential workforce & skills gaps
    • Commercial district health and long-term vibrancy
    • Regional fragmentation in a shared economy
    • An obstructive entrepreneurial climate
    • Alleviate the uncertainty created by external forces and policies.
  • The Taskforce report (“Igniting Momentum”), released in September, offers a range of actions to address these issues while pursuing opportunities aligned to regional strengths and values.
• Engagement, Research & Strategic Planning                 
  • SIPP used a range of activities throughout the year to engage business and community leaders and the public in planning for the future. These activities include two region-wide surveys, a public open house eliciting feedback from over 100 attendees, speaking at events in front of hundreds of business and non-profit organization representatives and hosting dozens of one-on-one meetings to gather input. Several secondary and tertiary research activities supported the planning work as well, leading to updated statistical information for the region (Greater Victoria Metropolitan Region Socio-Economic Profile and Greater Victoria Economic SWOT analysis)
• Rising Economy 2030 Plan
  • In October, SIPP released a 5-year regional economic plan that translates these risks into priority actions for creating jobs in sectors of strength, upskilling our region’s workforce, diversifying the economy away from overreliance on the public sector, increasing ownership and equity across the economy, and other key initiatives across our strategic RISE outcomes: a resilient, inclusive, sustainable and entrepreneurial economy. Find the plan here: ​​https://ourrisingeconomy.com/plan/
• Greater Victoria Possibility Charter
  • As an accompaniment to the 5-year plan, we shaped a collaborative community-wide declaration for the future, along with a campaign to help “flip the script” from cynicism to possibility. The Greater Victoria Possibility Charter invites residents, employers and institutions to sign on and align initiatives with the Charter’s principles. Stay tuned for more in 2026 by signing up here: choosepossibility.ca
  • If you want to go deeper into the “why” and the methodology behind the Charter (including learning about a professor of regional geography from Cardiff University who endorsed it!), read this article by SIPP’s Dallas Gislason.

Program & Initiative Highlights

Rising Economy 

• Rising Economy Conference (March 2025; Attendees: 200+)
  • A three-day conference that convened business, community, First Nations and government leaders around the theme “What’s Possible” and showcased local innovation. 
• Rising Economy Open House (May 2025; Attendees 110+)
  • Community and business leaders, along with some members of the public (including a few UVic students), visited the SIPP office to review nine proposed initiatives emerging from the survey and other Taskforce work. Some of these draft initiatives were then refined for inclusion in SIPP’s new 5-year plan.
• Summer Patio Mixer (August 2025; Attendees 115+)         
  • SIPP hosts occasional member appreciation events to ensure our key stakeholders can connect over good spirits and local food. 
• 5-Year Plan Reveal + Launch Event for the Greater Victoria Possibility Charter (Oct 2025; Attendees: 80+)
  • After 11 months of work, SIPP released the Rising Economy 2030 plan in October along with The Possibility Charter. We also featured a panel of regional leaders who appeared in the promo video.
• Local Leadership Forum (Nov 2025; Attendees: ~90)
  • On November 25, we hosted the 3rd standalone edition of the Local Leadership Forum, a full-day annual event that we co-design with our municipal partners. Find the post-event report here.

COAST – Pacific Canada’s Hub for the Sustainable Blue Economy

If you ever wondered why COAST is so instrumental to SIPP’s long-term vision for the region, check out our in-depth analysis on this (here). 

This year’s COAST highlights include: 

• Growing the Ecosystem across Pacific Canada:
  • COAST has hosted 46 events (including three international conferences, three PitchFests and two province-wide Innovation Forums with partners) over the last three years! 
  • COAST has grown its membership to over 580 as of the end of 2025
  • Partnerships: COAST has 18 active MOUs in place across multiple priority areas. In just a few short years, COAST has become the face of BC’s and Pacific Canada’s Blue Economy innovation & commercialization ecosystem. 
• Blue Pathways Initiative: workforce development programs that link training and micro-credentials to in-demand ocean and marine roles. In the past 2 years, 35 companies have been involved in over $800,000 of Blue Pathways activities, including:
  • Programs: Blue Pathways Initiative has several key activities and programs in place, such as: ESG Blue, Blue AI, Indigenous Training Program, Ocean Hackathon & more
  • In November, the local Ocean Hackathon winners went on to represent Canada at the Global Ocean Hackathon in Paris and placed second! Read their story.
• Commercialization: In January, COAST launched Blue Action Canada to pilot the country’s first dedicated blue economy accelerator, supporting ocean-tech ventures. 
  • 8 participating cohort companies raised over $2 million in investment and secured sales contracts valued over $1.7 million.
  • Venture Profile: seaweed acoustic panel innovator Seacork Studios has raised over $900,000 in non-dilutive funding, signed sales orders in multiple countries, secured product supply from the Caribbean and continues to build the team all on the back of winning COAST’s inaugural PitchFest in 2024 and participating in the Blue Action Canada Cohort No. 1 in 2025
  • COAST has had a long-term partnership with the Ocean Startup Project to position a full-time Ocean Ecosystem Navigator position in Pacific Canada. This year saw 16 awards going to 13 individual BC based companies, more than any other Province demonstrating the strength of the BC ecosystem and innovation pipeline.
• Established the BC Marine Energy & Decarbonization Hub in 2025 with UVic (through the Accelerating Community Energy Transformation initiatives) to test and scale clean marine technologies.
• One of the first major initiatives of the Hub: In partnership with InnovateBC, COAST announced a COAST Innovation Challenge with the Canadian Coast Guard to support solutions for decarbonizing remote and coastal operations. (10 Companies to be engaged soon).
• Integrated Energy Hub: COAST and UVic are establishing an Integrated Energy Laboratory at the Marine Technology Centre on the Saanich Peninsula critical to the testing and commissioning of energy systems that can support community and ocean-based industries on their path to decarbonization and energy sovereignty.
• Blind Channel: COAST is expanding the capability of the Blind Channel Tidal Demonstration facility (established by UVic) to allow future testing of tidal energy converters connected to an integrated energy system powering an eco-resort.

Indigenous Prosperity Centre (IPC)

• IPC hosted the first-ever Indigenous Youth Conference (April 2025) focused on economic opportunities: connecting youth with mentors, careers and entrepreneurial pathways. (Participants: 250; over 10 First Nations represented). The most interesting aspect of this event was that it was co-designed by the youth themselves. (Bonus material: check out the event photo gallery).
• This August, the IPC team coordinated and hosted the second Blue Economy Day Camp, a week of in-depth learning and activities around the Salish Sea and its importance not only to Indigenous culture but also to economic and holistic well-being.
• With partners, the IPC worked to collaboratively expand the South Vancouver Island Indigenous Business Directory to 130+ listings, supporting Indigenous procurement and visibility. View and share the directory here: https://indigenousbusinessdirectoryvi.com/
• Indigenous Tourism: 
  • IPC has been involved in the Juan de Fuca Corridor since its inception by the District of Sooke and other partners. Learn more about the potential of this exciting cross-border initiative here. 
  • IPC is exploring an Island-wide Indigenous supply chain network to link tourism, procurement, and local Indigenous businesses.

• Coming soon
  • The IPC completed some contract work for Songhees Nation to undertake deep analysis on their labour market needs and opportunities. The results of this work will be privately available to the Nation but some pieces are slated for public release in 2026.
  • The IPC team has been working with Animikii to plan a robust new website for Indigenous economic development. We look forward to the reveal in early 2026! 
  • We are also about to announce an expanded partnership with Public Sector Procurement Canada (PSPC) for another phase of work on Indigenous procurement. More to come!

Working Regionally with Municipal Governments

• Local Leadership Forum (Nov 25, 2025)
  • At this annual event, SIPP brought together elected officials, municipal staff, First Nations, Federal partners and other regional partners to focus on “what’s possible,” share best practices and align municipal action with Rising Economy 2030. (Attendees: 90; Local Governments represented: 10)
• Ongoing municipal engagement
  • Our engagement with SIPP’s Municipal Partners Committee, along with input and collaboration from key economic development staff, ensured local priorities guided SIPP’s new 5-year strategic plan and the implementation approach for Rising Economy 2030. During the fall, Aaron presented to eight municipal councils (with more to come in the new year).

Regional Promotion, Thought Leadership and Media

Victoria Rising

• SIPP expanded this regional promotion platform to 1,200+ assets used by partners such as the Vancouver Island Construction Association, Island Health and Divisions of Family Practice to attract essential workers and investment.
• We also launched the new “Sectors on the Rise” section to kick off 2025. Stories of our region’s opportunities in Life Sciences and Health, Technology, Creative Industries and the Blue Economy can be found here.
• Victoria Rising complements the regional promotion of Destination Greater Victoria, but the initiative is distinct in that it is not tourism focused and it responds to a direct call to action from the business community that we need a platform to promote our region as a place to do business, innovate, learn and work in emerging fields or in one of the essential services that need people (like healthcare and construction!). We know that our region is a great place to visit. But we still need to fill other gaps across the economy. That’s why Victoria Rising is so complementary to the destination marketing story.

Media

SIPP, IPC and COAST collectively secured strong local, provincial and national coverage, raising the profile of Greater Victoria’s innovation, key sectors of strength, Indigenous prosperity and blue economy leadership.

This year, we set a record for media coverage, with over 80 stories across multiple media types. This is over and above our own organized organic growth of newsletters and social media activities (all continue to grow and in fact our weekly SIPP newsletter has maintained a >50% open rate. Incredibly high for our industry, that’s for sure!).

Examples of positive media coverage include: 

• “Creativity is a cornerstone in Greater Victoria new economic plan” (Victoria News)
• “The Future is Local” – a profile of SIPP’s new CEO, Aaron Stone (Douglas Magazine)
• “New Taskforce Sees the Region’s Untapped Potential” (Douglas Magazine)
• “Victoria Team Builds SAR Tool Powered by AI at Ocean Hackathon in France” (Techcouver)
• “New Victoria Hub Building Path Toward More Sustainable Blue Economy” (Vic News)

Thought Leadership and Accolades

As part of SIPP’s efforts to showcase its award-winning multi-jurisdictional approach, we signed an agreement with the Shorefast Institute for Place-Based Economies (emerging from Fogo Island, Newfoundland) to develop modules and case studies on collaborative models/approaches. More on this in 2026!

Speaking of ‘award-winning’; we’re excited and honoured to have been recognized as the Bronze Award recipient for Economic Development Organization of the Year from the International Economic Development Council (IEDC), the world’s preeminent association for the economic development profession. SIPP has received numerous accolades over the years, but this may be our most prestigious to date. 

What’s Next (2026..and beyond)

• We’ll kick off the year with the annual Rising Economy Conference on March 10 & 11 at the Delta Ocean Point Resort. Make sure you sign up for the ticket launch, as last year we sold out in one week and had many people emailing and messaging that they couldn’t get tickets. 
• April 1 marks a new fiscal year and the start of implementation for SIPP’s new 5-year plan, Rising Economy 2030. Planning is already underway for several key initiatives, such as: 
  • Diversifying the economy through key sectors like Life Sciences & Health and Ocean & Marine.
  • Building a competitive region for makers and manufacturers, starting with responding to tariff impacts. A UVic MBA Capstone team will help us get this underway starting in January! 
  • Piloting a community ownership model so that we can scale and transform the economy over the long term. We’re in talks with Scale Collaborative to partner and build on the work they’ve already started (we joked that they built the springboard for our region to jump from, so we can — hopefully  — move fast and far!)
  • Examine policy alignments for circular building demolition waste. We’ve already applied for funding to assess municipal policies and market opportunities related to this. 
  • Strategizing around the economic viability of agriculture and how to support it going forward. Building on work started by CR-FAIR, let’s organize our region around the top, most strategic/high-impact initiatives to help with this.
  • Innovating clean ocean energy, innovating solutions with the Canadian Coast Guard, deepening global excellence in ocean data intelligence and other initiatives under COAST’s next 3-year growth phase. 
  • Putting Pacific Canada on the global and national “Blue Economy” map over the last 5 years is something we’re really proud to have been part of initiating and supporting. Jason Goldsworthy has done the vast majority of the heavy lifting, and he and his team deserve all the credit for where COAST has gotten to!
  • Expanding the Indigenous Prosperity Centre’s programs for Indigenous youth, Indigenous entrepreneurs, such as procurement pathways, and support for Nation-led projects, such as Kelp management and the Songhees Labour Market Research. Also, we just secured funding to continue the procurement work (not yet announced, so stay tuned!).

We’re also excited to bring a group of passionate people together in 2026 to help build momentum around the Greater Victoria Possibility Charter, turning commitments into concrete regional initiatives that help shift our region toward an entrepreneurial, open-for-business culture. The Charter is a movement that transcends all our projects, as it will require all these key initiatives to build a future of possibility and opportunity for the next generation.

Continue to nurture local leadership capacity and regional collaboration capacity by working with municipal leaders through the Local Leadership Forum & SIPP’s Municipal Partners Committee along with tailored briefings and ad hoc projects that emerge. Just as in any other city, place or metropolitan region, SIPP can only thrive with the foundational support of municipal governments. All 13 local governments have a role in addressing economic challenges and pursuing economic opportunities. And, since the economy is regionally integrated, SIPP’s apples-to-apples structure makes it super easy, fair & equitable to make this a reality (not to mention it’s the most cost-effective economic development mandate in all of Canada).   

We look forward to a hectic 2026 and the official start of our new plan in April. Best wishes to you and yours over the holidays!