Based on 2023 data, the District of Sechelt stayed in this year's top tier rankings of the province’s most resilient large communities as published by the magazine BC Business. The local municipality ranked as number 19 out of 50, down from a fifth-place ranking by the publication the year before. The magazine assigned scores to municipalities through an assessment exercise carried out in cooperation with Environics Analytics.
This latest round of rankings marked the fourth year in a row that Sechelt was included in what those two sources cite as their “top 20” communities with 10,000 or more permanent residents. Results released in 2021, had Sechelt in 14th place and the following year it moved up to 13th spot.
To determine the most economically resilient locales, the sources used 10 indicators to evaluate and award points to the areas based on their performance. Ratings were assigned to parameters that included population growth, residents' financial vulnerability and sense of community belonging, rental vacancy rates, housing starts, unemployment rates and economic diversity.
When contacted by Coast Reporter for comment on the ranking change, Sechelt’s mayor John Henderson did not respond with a statement. Communications manager, Lindsay Vickers, stated in an email that the local government was “not really up for commenting on rankings based on other organizations’ surveys." she expressed the view that "this one is quite subjective."
Ratings for other communities
The title of this year's most resilient community went to Central Saanich. That municipality was in ninth place last year and the community of Squamish had ranked as number one. Squamish placed sixth on the current scorecard.
Four of the top 10 finishing communities in the latest scoring – Burnaby, Langley, Saanich and North Vancouver – pulled their rankings up from midpack placings the previous year.
Powell River was the only other Sunshine Coast community looked at in the ranking exercise. It edged up to 37th spot in the most recent listing from the number 40 position it held the year before.
