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Positioning for the Region’s Future: Greater Victoria Goes ‘all-in’ on the Blue Economy 

Dallas GislasonNovember 5, 2024November 7th, 202436 min read

With the Grand Opening of the new COAST Ocean Innovation Hub this week, SIPP examines how this amazing new facility–near Rock Bay–will benefit the entire region, for years to come.

SIPP, along with partners such as the Association of British Columbia Marine Industries (ABCMI), the City of Victoria, PacifiCan and others, catalyzed the Centre for Ocean Applied Sustainable Technologies (COAST) starting in 2021 as a post-pandemic, industry-aligned, recovery project that will not only contribute to our region’s resilience by creating more diverse types of jobs in the region, but also position us for climate change mitigation and adaptation. Following the exploration phase, SIPP took the reins on establishing COAST as Pacific Canada’s major strategic play at accelerating the sustainable blue economy. As part of this strategic plan is COAST’s latest initiative: the Ocean Innovation Hub—launched officially on October 16th at a grand opening event. The Ocean Innovation Hub is a 7,000 square-foot coworking and collaboration facility near Rock Bay, in downtown Victoria.

Despite its location near downtown Victoria, the COAST Ocean Innovation Hub will benefit the entire metropolitan region. Let’s explore.

The following article is divided into two sections: 

  1. An Executive Summary that captures the pressing points about COAST as a strategy of SIPP and how COAST and its facilities will benefit Greater Victoria as a whole.
  2. A Full Backgrounder detailing all the sections and the economic applications behind them. It’s a more fulsome exploration of why COAST is so important to SIPP’s mission and our regional economy going forward. It contains the same sections as the Executive Summary in a more detailed format. 

Section 1 – Executive Summary—

COAST as a Strategy of the South Island Prosperity Partnership (SIPP)

(Reading Time: 10 minutes)

SIPP was founded on the premise of regionalism. Our guiding assumption and everything we do operates from the reality that household prosperity, or a household’s ability to support itself through their income (often a ‘two-income’ situation), is reliant on the Greater Victoria metropolitan area as a whole, as opposed to each of the 13 municipalities or 9 First Nations having their own self-contained economy. Residents of Greater Victoria can live, work, play, invest and consume services fluidly across multiple jurisdictional boundaries. Additionally, the data shows how the Victoria Census Metropolitan Area – or Victoria CMA – is a fairly natural economic container for developing and executing economic strategies, policies, and interventions. 

Further to the above guiding premise, SIPP’s model is grounded in several considerations of how local & regional economies actually work. These include common economics theories and strategies such as: 

  • Economic Base analysis, which asserts that community prosperity mainly relies on economic base sectors (those that bring wealth into the community from outside). SIPP will always have a strategic focus on sectors driving the highest level of positive impact with the most efficient allocation of resources. 
  • The second is the concept of Economic Multipliers. These are the estimates of the local impact caused by a change in employment in one of the economic base sectors. To optimize its limited resources, SIPP should always focus on producing multipliers through its strategies and programs.
  • The third consideration is Regional Comparative Advantage. Businesses and investment decision-makers have choices where to locate their business operations and/or their investment capital based on location factors that align with their needs. Economic development strategy is often about improving these location factors to make a jurisdiction or economic region more attractive to their specific Base Industries. The alignment of comparative advantages (location factors) to Base Industries is the essence of economic development strategy.
  • The fourth consideration is recognizing the Differential Shift Effect and how SIPP can influence it. The Differential Shift Effect is the change in employment attributed to the unique local conditions for a certain sector. Through deliberate policy and program interventions, we can alter the future of our local economy despite how general economic conditions and trends would have otherwise impacted it. 
  • The fifth consideration is the Importance of Innovation and the role geographic proximity plays in catalyzing it (see also: The City as Innovation Machine). SIPP believes that innovating the future is a fundamental aspect of economic development–it puts us in a position of assertiveness rather than passiveness about our future. SIPP subscribes to the conclusions that innovation is best approached collaboratively, cross-sectorally, through interdisciplinary teams; and that knowledge-transfer between and among SMEs in the marketplace can be accelerated if those companies interact with each other (rather than work in isolation).

SIPP’s model proved effective. SIPP’s programs in the first four years led to direct and indirect impacts creating over 700 jobs and payrolls of $37 million per year. SIPP was on the right track!

And then 2020 brought an entirely new challenge: a global pandemic. 

This is where COAST comes in. COAST started as an idea (first pitched in fall 2019 during planning for Victoria 3.0 Economic Development Plan) that was later assessed in 2020 through the Rising Economy Taskforce (a region-wide, public/private/third-sector collaboration that assessed how our region could emerge in a post-pandemic economic environment). After a feasibility study completed in 2020 by SIPP, with support from the City of Victoria, the Association of BC Marine Industries (ABCMI), Pacific Economic Development Canada, and others, SIPP agreed to take on the catalyst phase for an Ocean Innovation Hub & Cluster. This initiative later became known as the Centre for Ocean Applied Sustainable Technologies (COAST). SIPP has been the lead champion for establishing COAST over the last two years, having raised millions of dollars in project investment. 

COAST is in full strategic alignment with SIPP for the following reasons: 

  • COAST builds on our region’s strengths. We are an ocean region with the potential for success in the Blue Economy. We have many assets, competencies, programs and a long history that make our location factors incredibly competitive as a place where ocean and marine innovation can thrive.
  • COAST positions our economy within a globally-growing opportunity that is also good for the planet. The Blue Economy is expanding. Let’s capitalize on this, while also embracing and inventing clean technologies that can change the world.
  • COAST aligns with the priorities of both Federal and Provincial governments, allowing SIPP to leverage and attract funds here. COAST’s success helps deliver results directly across SIPP’s mandate. The more successful we are, the more attention these wins will achieve in Ottawa, potentially driving additional project funds to Greater Victoria and the west coast.
  • COAST enables SIPP’s progress in furthering economic reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. Coastal Nations are already deeply tied to the ocean. Let’s work together to create new opportunities for both the creation and ownership of Indigenous businesses and good paying jobs for Indigenous people.
  • COAST aligns with our region’s workforce and our ability to keep young people here. Young people want good, clean, household-sustaining jobs that contribute positively to the world around them. The Blue Economy can deliver on these across a range of vocations and skill sets. 

COAST has many sub-projects to come as it matures into a robust strategic initiative. The new Ocean Innovation Hub near Rock Bay is among the first of these. These new facilities will accelerate the above benefits by:

  • Nurturing Innovation where it happens: at the intersection of multiple sectors and disciplines, and in proximity to other innovators.
  • Inducing domestic demand through access to BC-based suppliers and innovators.
  • Facilitating access to capital and support programming – along each stage of development, allowing SMEs to create jobs of the future.
  • Developing the broader economic ecosystem to promote downstream effects and benefits to peripheral sectors.

The benefits of the above will accumulate across the Greater Victoria region in several ways. 

The first, and most obvious, is that employment and economic impacts (direct, indirect and induced) will cross municipal borders seamlessly, like many other aspects of our regional economy. This economic spin-off supports households in every municipality so they can pay local taxes, support local businesses, and contribute to local causes. 

(Image: this map shows a sample size of 18 of SIPP’s private sector members by where their employees live – three digit postal codes only. As you can see, even a small sample size of 18 employers impacts the entire region as a whole with employees living in all 13 municipalities, and some – though not many – crossing the Malahat; demonstrating that the metropolitan region is a useful container within which to pursue this mandate)

The second way that COAST and these new facilities will benefit the region as a whole is through projects. Whether it’s mapping the ocean floor of the Sooke Basin, exploring clean-energy integration into a micro-grid with the Coast Guard in the Saanich Inlet, demonstrating new technologies – like remote-operated underway scanners – in partnership with BC Ferries at Swartz Bay, or developing workforce opportunities through new pathways into the Blue Economy for the region’s workforce, numerous projects touch municipal jurisdictions and their stakeholders directly and meaningfully. 

The third impact on the region (though longer-term in nature) is the development of a cleaner, more diversified economy. Embedded within SIPP’s Constitution – designed by municipal members – is a statement on adapting our regional economy to climate change. This means developing jobs of the future. Every aspect of the COAST strategy is designed with this in mind, and it’s one of the reasons why COAST received funding from the BC Innovative Clean Energy (ICE) fund. 

The South Island Prosperity Partnership (SIPP) is enormously proud of the effort that has gone into getting COAST up and running. This ranges from the first ideation discussions with Alex Rueben at ABCMI in 2019, to the collaborative and highly-engaging process taken through the feasibility study in 2020, to the set-up of the first advisory board (and formal incorporation that was eventually brought back into SIPP), through to the 9-12 months of the diligence process working closely with staff at Pacific Economic Development Canada (PacifiCan), the BC Innovative Clean Energy (ICE) program, Coast Capital Savings, Babcock Canada and other early contributors. These all came together around the launch of COAST’s $9.7 million Catalyst Plan. 

Thanks for reading this far. Your interest in and support for our work is encouraging and really keeps us moving forward with momentum. To read the full details of the above summary points, please keep reading!  

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Section 2 – FULL BACKGROUNDER—

COAST as a Strategy of the South Island Prosperity Partnership (SIPP)

(Reading Time: 35 minutes)

SIPP was founded on the premise of regionalism. 

Each municipal jurisdiction has its own set of priorities and infrastructure considerations and respective tax base supporting these things, but one area of our region is completely borderless — the region’s economy. 

Sure, there are businesses and commercial land in most municipal jurisdictions, but those represent a land-use classification enabling services for local residents; these services are NOT the economy itself. The economy is borderless in the sense that people can work in one jurisdiction and live in another; and consume services–like recreation, restaurants or healthcare–in yet another. 

In other words, household prosperity, or a household’s ability to support itself through their income (which is often earned by two or more occupants of that household), is reliant on the Greater Victoria metropolitan area as a whole, as opposed to each of the 13 municipalities or 9 First Nations having their own self-contained economy. 

This is an important distinction in our region. Why? Because to achieve the type of economy we all want requires deliberate interventions sustained over time. Having each municipality take action in isolation of each other would be counterproductive for desired outcomes. Therefore, the region needs a collaborative, cross-jurisdictional approach to take the right deliberate action. 

This is why SIPP was created in 2016, following the great recession. Our region had stagnated and local leaders–from municipal councils, the business community and NGOs, post-secondary institutions and philanthropic organizations–came together to assess what options were available to us. They elected to create a collaborative public/private/third-sector alliance.

SIPP’s model is grounded in several considerations of how local & regional economies actually work:

The first is Economic Base analysis, which asserts that community prosperity mainly relies on economic base sectors (those that bring wealth into the community from outside). Whereas the growth of non‐basic sectors (retail, construction, local services) is constrained by the size of the local market, basic sectors serve the broader world and through their success will drive increases in local employment and investment. The success of economic base industries is then shared with the local community when these organizations purchase local supplies and services and when their employees spend their wages locally. If economic base industries are successful, the non‐basic businesses that serve local populations will also be successful.

The second is the concept of Economic Multipliers. These are the estimates of the local impact caused by a change in employment in one of the economic base sectors. The idea is that an expansion in the economic base will create additional local spending on other goods and services that will create additional local employment–either directly, through their own payrolls; indirectly, through their supplier relationships, or through induced effects, caused by wage increases within the local economy as demands increase. Whereas Chambers of Commerce and Business Improvement Areas/Associations (BIAs) focus on these types of sectors, SIPP focuses exclusively on Base Sectors with high multipliers. This is in large part due to limited resources and the need for sound strategies that produce return on these limited investments. 

(Image: A demonstration of how the multiplier effect works. Sometimes called the ‘ripple effect’. As money circulates in the economy, the ripple effect diminishes due to leakage)

The third consideration is Regional Comparative Advantage. The basic premise is that the businesses and investment that drive the Base Sectors have choices where to locate either their business operations and/or their investment capital that makes those business operations successful over time (equipment, increased facility space, workforce training, R&D spending etc). These location choices are made based on various factors used to describe how attractive a jurisdiction or economic region is for those types of Base Sectors. Every region is different and will have different strengths and weaknesses across those factors (educated workforce, access to capital, market or business conditions, specialized facilities or R&D capacities, physical infrastructure like Ports or Railroads, quality of life conditions, etc). As you can see, cost and/or tax rates are only a component of overall comparative factors between regions. Businesses often locate to higher cost jurisdictions that offer benefits perceived to be worth the value. 

One of several ways to measure regional strength is to look at the Location Quotient (LQ) of the region’s economic sectors. LQ is a measure of specialization that captures the share of local employment in a given sector relative to the provincial average. An LQ of “2.0” indicates area has twice as many jobs in a given sector relative to the size of the economy; whereas an LQ of “0.5” would mean there are half as many jobs. This forms the basis for converting data intelligence about the Greater Victoria region into actionable strategy because it reveals where greatest areas of strength already exist; and where gaps may be present.

(image: Every region has a unique set of strengths that form their Regional Competitive Advantage. These are typically a blend of the above input factors. These are the foundation of your region’s economy)

The fourth consideration is recognizing the Differential Shift Effect and how SIPP can influence it. The Differential Shift Effect is the change in employment attributed to the unique local conditions for a certain sector. It is the leftover part of local growth after removing the provincial growth effect and the industry mix effect. While it’s presumed that local economies ebb and flow over time due to natural economic cycles, if our region is strategic and coordinated, we can shift certain sectors to be more (or less) prominent per our values and collective vision for the region’s future. SIPP’s model is grounded in its painstakingly designed constitution by its founding municipal members and built in alignment with Official Community Plans (OCPs) across the region. SIPP’s constitution demands that we not only create good-paying jobs for the future, but also mitigate climate change and pursue economic reconciliation with First Nations and Indigenous peoples. Sustaining these efforts will transform our regional economy over time.

The fifth consideration is the Importance of Innovation and the role geographic proximity plays in catalyzing it; including the role of cities and metropolitan regions as engines of creativity, connection and innovation (see this article: The City as Innovation Machine). Economists and regional geographers have been studying this as far back as 1890 when Alfred Marshall published his agglomeration theory that sought to answer the question about why certain sectors within the economy locate near each other, and, perhaps more importantly, why do those firms outperform relative to disbursed peers. This theory was expanded in the 1990’s by Harvard strategist, Dr. Michael Porter, with his theory of national competitiveness (including “cluster theory”) which asserted that countries are made up of geographic regions where their economic producers (entrepreneurs and companies) are located, and that these regions could be nurtured to produce better outcomes. 

This phenomenon was also studied with regard to the rate of innovation, with many studies concluding that working in close proximity to other companies produces positive externalities, such as knowledge sharing, technological adoption, employee satisfaction and workplace learning, reduced rates of turnover (especially for new workforce entrants and women), and, of course, the rate of innovation itself. 

Nurturing projects and initiatives aligning with the above and therefore become part of the defining ethos of SIPP. 

SIPP’s model proved effective. 

In the first four years since inception, SIPP’s programs led to direct and indirect impacts creating over 700 jobs and payrolls of $37 million per year. SIPP was on the right track!

And then 2020 brought an entirely new challenge: a global pandemic. 

Aside from being a health crisis first and foremost, the pandemic also brought to us the realization that our economy–the ability of our regional households to support themselves–was indeed vulnerable. Unemployment jumped to multi-decade highs exceeding 11%. Numerous retail, hospitality, transportation and service businesses shuttered (a trend that seems to have continued even years later). 

Early on in the pandemic, SIPP was able to deploy its greatest and core strength to help the region respond. Those first four years since SIPP’s inception allowed us to prove the value of having the “collaborative architecture” in place to convene the region together quickly and meaningfully. With this strength, SIPP launched a region-wide, cross-sectoral taskforce involving all levels of government, academic, business, health and 10 sectors across the regional economy–over 120 organizations strong–in just a few weeks from the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Getting to a point of meaningful action was a difficult proposition for SIPP and the taskforce. Governments had responded to the immediate health needs as well as the need for “relief” programs, such the wage replacement and business continuity loans. The role of SIPP’s taskforce then became about moving the region from relief to recovery to increased resilience. This allowed us to be a bit more strategic. It allowed us to take stock of what the lockdown and restrictions would mean to the local economy and what strategic interventions could help make our region recover during crisis and uncertainty. 

In November 2020, SIPP released the region’s plan (called “Reboot: Greater Victoria’s Economic Recovery Plan”). This wasn’t SIPP’s action plan; rather, it was the region’s collaborative plan containing 50 strategic actions across 10 recovery pillars. A major call to action within this plan involved our region’s need to economically diversify; ensuring that we are less vulnerable to major disruptions and external forces outside of our control (like extreme weather events, the impacts of climate change or even global recessions or future pandemics). 

(Image: 10 recovery pillars that would get Greater Victoria’s economy from relief to recovery to resiliency in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic)

This is where COAST comes in. 

COAST is one of several of SIPP’s major responses to the calls to action outlined in the Reboot Plan. COAST is our region’s major, multi-stakeholder, multi-organization strategy designed to grow a range of strategic sectors that will ensure a more diversified and resilient economy–while also creating positive strides toward a cleaner, more climate adaptive economy, a more equitable economy (by engaging with First Nations and Indigenous partners), and an economy where the next generation of youth and young people can be inspired and hopefully be able to build their own careers and support their future households with good, clean, career-oriented jobs across a range of vocations.

Why does COAST represent a smart “strategic” move for our region? 

There are several reasons why the Blue Economy represents the right move at the right time for the Greater Victoria metropolitan region. 

  1. COAST builds on our region’s strengths. 

In any jurisdiction’s economic development strategy–the best strategy will be built on a foundation of regional strengths and assets. 

Pulling from the economic theories outlined above, we can look at our region’s LQ. It might be obvious that among the highest LQ for any sector in Greater Victoria is “Public Administration”. As the capital region of BC, our LQ for that sector is high (1.441). Another key area of strength, relative to the provincial average is tourism, with an LQ of 1.022. For context, Greater Victoria’s LQs for Forestry and Oil/Gas/Mining are 0.29 and 0.18 respectively, meaning those are not areas of opportunity for us. So what Economic Base sector offers us a really strong LQ that we can use to create new opportunities? (You guessed where I was going with this, didn’t you?). It’s of course, the ocean and marine sectors, with examples like fishing/aquaculture (LQ of 2.553) and shipbuilding and repair (LQ exceeding 3.004). Both higher than public administration and tourism, generally. 

At first glance, these might seem overly high, but considering that Greater Victoria already has many unique strengths and competencies that position us within the global oceanspace, it starts to make sense. We have active shipyards (like Victoria Shipyards, managed by Seaspan; Port Hope, a Ralmax company; as well as a robust fleet maintenance facility at CFB Esquimalt), and we’re also home to Canada’s Pacific Navy as well as a large contingent of the Canadian Coast Guard, and not to mention the HQ of BC Ferries, one of the world’s largest vehicle ferry fleets. 

Additionally, we have high competencies in ocean sciences (UVic Oceanography faculty, the Institute for Ocean Science, as well as Ocean Networks Canada, the world’s largest underwater observatory), and many emerging technology companies across a range of ocean and marine activities (ocean data acquisition and management, aquaculture modernization, fleet management software, wireless & remote vessel monitoring, fishery compliance tech, clean marine tech, ocean energy systems, and the list goes on).   

  1. COAST positions our economy within a globally-growing opportunity that is also good for the planet. 

The “Blue Economy”, the moniker describing sectors strongly linked or correlated with the world’s oceans, is growing in importance in economic, environmental and geopolitical terms. A 2016 report from the OECD forecasted that the global Blue Economy would grow from a then $1.5 trillion in activities to $3 trillion by 2030. This rate of growth far exceeds many other sectors of the economy, which means it’s a smart “wagon” to hitch ourselves to.

Canada has the longest coastlines of any country on earth, yet as a percentage of our economy, we are underperforming relative to peers when it comes to nurturing the potential of our nation’s “Blue Economy.”

  1. COAST aligns with the priorities of both Federal and Provincial governments, allowing SIPP to leverage and attract funds here. 

With major initiatives, such as the Ocean Supercluster, the Government of Canada’s Blue Economy Strategy (progress to date) and the launch of the Ocean Supercluster several years ago, as well as the Government of British Columbia’s CleanBC strategy and other mandates, such as InBC (investment) and InnovateBC (nurturing innovation), the potential will only increase. COAST helps us coordinate across Pacific Canada to position our region for success in alignment with these and other programs.

SIPP, as the region’s economic development alliance, leveraged significant funds to make this happen. While SIPP as a non-profit organization is funded operationally by its members to “keep the lights on” (i.e. staff wages, overheads on office and equipment, our annual audit and reporting expenses, and other such operational costs), one of our long-term strategic goals is to leverage these membership fees into project funds. And we’ve proven pretty good at this. For example, if you look at SIPP’s 8-year history, we’ve leveraged $1.63 of project funds for every $1.00 of municipal dollars invested. Over eight years, this equates to about $8.5 million into projects that benefit our entire region. As an initiative of SIPP, COAST was able to establish itself, including the setup of the Ocean Innovation Hub, due to this leverage effect. Both the Federal and the Provincial governments saw a strategic opportunity to invest in COAST’s mandate and came to the table, along with numerous other private sector and institutional partners. 

  1. COAST enables SIPP to make significant progress in furthering economic reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. 

All nine First Nations communities located within the metropolitan region are within the Coast Salish Nations cultural and language group. As the name suggests, the ocean holds significant importance to Indigenous people culturally, ecologically and economically. Not just historically over the last thousands of years but through to today and tomorrow. 

In spring 2023, SIPP brought together the Marine Teams from eight of the region’s First Nations in a coordinated flotilla event in Victoria’s inner-harbour. The event brought the region together to learn how important marine conservation and ocean ecology is to the Nations. Not just that, but their stewardship activities are at risk due to funding programs that are sunsetting over the next few years. This means, if we want their activities to continue and flourish in the years to come, we need to create economic opportunities around the oceanspace, from aquaculture to ocean technologies, so that the Nations can continue to invest and employ their people in these types of careers. COAST is strategically positioning to help with this; and SIPP’s Indigenous Prosperity Centre (IPC) is bringing several programs online in alignment to this.

  1. COAST aligns to our region’s workforce and our ability to keep young people here. 

Across a full spectrum of sectors and types of employment—from good-paying work in the trades to technical & engineering careers, COAST will be the catalyst to grow a range of opportunities here that align to the types of training programs offered by our local post-secondary institutions. Not only that, but the recently launched “Blue Pathways Initiative” will offer training programs to those already in the workforce, which will allow them to move into these new career opportunities–offering growth opportunities, income opportunities and vocations that are values-aligned for a cleaner economy.

Allowing our region to be more attractive for the next generation of youth and young families is a major imperative. Our demographic structure across the region means that demands for healthcare and other services will only increase. This is part of addressing that significant underlying problem of ensuring that our local economy is dynamic enough that when a nurse or doctor is recruited here, we can answer one of the most recurring questions that they ask, which is: “What will my spouse do there?” That’s not an aspect of the problem that the Ministry of Health or IslandHealth will ever be able to address. It’s our collective problem to solve as a region.

Now that we know why SIPP nurturing of COAST as a major initiative here in Greater Victoria is so strategic for our region’s future, let’s examine the importance of the facilities themselves.

We alluded to COAST’s first major facilities announcement: the Ocean Innovation Hub near Rock Bay (in downtown Victoria). These facilities will serve as the first foray into bringing the stakeholders across the blue economy together under one roof: entrepreneurs, innovators, academics/researchers, capital partners, support organizations like the IRAP program, along with the COAST team. 

Why is this “community building” important to achieving the outcomes of COAST?

To understand how COAST and facilities like the Ocean Innovation Hub will be so important to the entire region, we first need to understand the role that a physical building plays in COAST’s long-term roadmap. 

  1. Innovation happens at the intersection of multiple sectors and disciplines. 

According to the MaRS Discovery District in Toronto, “innovation is less and less a product of random factors. These days, where innovation can best be nurtured matters hugely”. What they’re referring to is that often the innovation processes are attempted in isolation (on workshop floors of a company’s product development team). This means that the process becomes constrained by the skillsets of those who are undertaking it. A team of engineers will “innovate” a solution quite differently than a team that involves an end-user, a marketer, a machinist, a financial strategist, a maintenance technician, a computer scientist or coder, and yes, the engineers too. 

COAST’s goal is to bring multiple sectors together in ways that they haven’t done before. A demonstration of this is the first COAST social event that I organized a couple of years ago had 11 people in attendance—all ocean-tech company representatives, many of whom didn’t even know each other. Now, a COAST social event will draw 60-75 people, from across the Blue Economy—people from aquaculture, tech, data, software, science backgrounds, and from a range of applications–like fisheries, ocean energy, autonomous marine vessels, smart port management and beyond.

  1. Access to BC-based suppliers and innovators: Inducing domestic demand

In the Blue Economy, most products are not sold to the general consumer. Rather, they are built to improve efficiencies or decision-making in the ocean and marinespace; which means the customers are mostly large entities with complex procurement policies. Customers like the Coast Guard and border security agencies, the RCMP, Naval bases, Port Authorities, shipbuilders like Seaspan, or ferry fleet operators like BC Ferries. In our discussions with these types of stakeholders, they are often not even aware of the types of innovations happening in their own backyard and thus have no policies built into their procurement practices to nurture or even adopt this innovation. COAST seeks to change that by ensuring that these large companies have a place to “triage” access to innovators, small companies and entrepreneurs, or even procure contract innovations based on their specific needs. 

  1. Access to capital and support programming – along each stage of development 

There’s a concept in the broader tech sector called the “Minimum Viable Product” or MVP. The idea is that a software company should never write a single line of code until they’ve gathered enough feedback from their ideal end-user customer that they know exactly what problem they are solving and, more importantly, how much that end-user will pay to solve that problem. If the problem being solved isn’t worth the price of the “software” product, then the business will fail before it even starts, and therefore, why waste time writing code?!

This approach–adopted widely by the tech sector in general–has limited applications in sectors like the Blue Economy. Why? Because the product development cycle (aka: moving from early stage research, to innovation and iteration, to testing and demonstration, through to commercialization) is very long. If an ocean-tech company were to call a potential customer and say “how much would you pay to have a lighter battery on your electric boat?” they might get laughed at initially. Also, procurement rules in a large company might prevent them from even talking about the parameters around big purchases that are in the long-term roadmap. The above is why access to programs that help these types of companies navigate these long cycles are so important. Alongside those programs there needs to be access to capital (along each stage) that moves their innovations closer to market revenue. This is where COAST facilities will be instrumental: workshop space to deliver programming, a network of supporting organizations, mentors and likeminded companies, and access to capital partners through coordinated formal pitch events, and soft-sell networking events. 

  1. Nurturing the broader economic ecosystem

There are other benefits to having physical space for companies themselves, but what about those not located in the space itself? 

The value proposition of the Ocean Innovation Hub will change depending on the type of organization: 

  • For academic or scientific partners, it might be easier to access groups of private sector SMEs and entrepreneurs they can liaise with to test their scientific findings, conduct market-based research, or place students into co-ops or internships.
  • For large industry players, it might be connecting with early-stage innovative approaches to solving problems that they weren’t aware of before so they can incorporate cutting-edge solutions into their procurement processes or project development roadmaps.
  • For capital and banking partners, it might be better understanding the needs of Blue Economy innovators so that they can adapt their financial products accordingly, or make connections/referrals within their own networks to people who can help with specific needs. 
  • To other non-ocean/marine tech companies and entrepreneurs, it might be learning about how a peripheral technology could be applied into the Blue Economy in a novel way, opening up a new market opportunity.
  • To the broader business community in Greater Victoria, it might be gaining an understanding of the emerging trends so that they can adapt their service offering to a new wave of Blue Economy innovators and employers.
  • And much more…. 

All of this background information was provided to give you a full picture of the strategic importance and direction of COAST and why SIPP has directed time, energy and resources toward it. This background also hopefully helps us answer the question posed at the beginning of this article: how will this benefit the entire region: 

To recap: 

  • COAST builds on our region’s strengths. We are an ocean region with potential for success in the Blue Economy.
  • COAST positions our economy within a globally-growing opportunity that is also good for the planet. The Blue Economy is expanding. Let’s capitalize on this, while also embracing and inventing clean technologies that can change the world.
  • COAST aligns with the priorities of both Federal and Provincial governments, allowing SIPP to leverage and attract funds here. COAST’s success helps deliver results directly across SIPP’s mandate. The more successful we are, the more attention these wins will achieve in Ottawa. 
  • COAST enables SIPP to progress significantly in economic reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. Coastal Nations are already deeply tied to the oceans. Let’s work together to create new opportunities. 
  • COAST aligns with our region’s workforce and ability to keep young people here. Young people want good, clean, household-sustaining jobs that are interesting. The Blue Economy can deliver on these across a range of vocations. 

In turn, the Ocean Innovation Hub itself accelerates the above by:

  • Nurturing Innovation where it happens: at the intersection of multiple sectors and disciplines, and in proximity to other innovators.
  • Inducing domestic demand through access to BC-based suppliers and innovators.
  • Facilitating access to capital and support programming – along each stage of development, allowing SMEs to create jobs of the future.
  • Nurturing the broader economic ecosystem to promote downstream effects and benefits to peripheral sectors.

Conclusion 

The benefits of all of the above will accumulate across the Greater Victoria region in several ways. 

The first, and most obvious, is that employment and economic impacts (direct, indirect and induced) will cross municipal borders seamlessly, like many other aspects of our regional economy. This economic spin-off supports households in every municipality so they can pay local taxes, support local businesses, and contribute to local causes. 

(Image: this map shows a sample size of 18 of SIPP’s private sector members by where their employee live – three digit postal codes only. As you can see, even a small sample size of 18 employers impacts the entire region as a whole with employees living in all 13 municipalities, and some – though not many – crossing the Malahat; demonstrating that the metropolitan region is a useful container within which to pursue this mandate)

The second way that COAST and these new facilities will benefit the region as a whole is through projects. Whether it’s mapping the oceanfloor of the Sooke Basin, exploring clean-energy integration into a micro-grid with the Coast Guard in the Saanich Inlet, demonstrating new technologies – like remote-operated underway scanners – in partnership with BC Ferries at Swartz Bay, or developing workforce opportunities through new pathways into the Blue Economy for the region’s workforce, there are many examples of where these projects will touch municipal jurisdictions and their stakeholders directly and meaningfully. 

The third impact on the region (though longer-term in nature) is the development of a cleaner, more diversified economy. Embedded within SIPP’s Constitution – designed by municipal members – is a statement on adapting our regional economy to climate change. This means developing jobs of the future. Every aspect of the COAST strategy is designed with this in mind and it’s one of the reasons why COAST received funding from the BC Innovative Clean Energy (ICE) fund. 

I realize that this article was lengthy. But I hope we were able to shine some light on the strategic nature of COAST and how it aligns so strongly to SIPP and our interest in ensuring every municipality in the region is part of this engaging and inspiring agenda.

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Endnotes:

  1. Data from BC Stats, Local Area Economic Profiles, 2023
  2. Data from BC Stats, Local Area Economic Profiles, 2023
  3. Data from Vannstruth Consulting, Vancouver Island Regional Economic Analysis, 2009
  4. Estimation based on a calculation using data from R.A. Malatest & Associates Ltd.