I mean, we could sure use the housing, though!

We dream a lot, but then recognize Victoria is just a small government city, insulated from much of the rest of the world, with a largely circular economy that depends on taxation redistribution.

We don’t have the money for the nice stuff, and governments don’t invest too much into us because our region is not producing sufficient wealth that gets returned back to the province and nation, so there is difficulty for provincial and federal governments to make a return on their investments (this is why we don’t have adequate highways and see so little infrastructure investment, it doesn’t make our region more competitive or produce more wealth for the broader society).

It is what it is.

I mean, we could sure use the housing, though!

We dream a lot, but then recognize Victoria is just a small government city, insulated from much of the rest of the world, with a largely circular economy that depends on taxation redistribution.

We don’t have the money for the nice stuff, and governments don’t invest too much into us because our region is not producing sufficient wealth that gets returned back to the province and nation, so there is difficulty for provincial and federal governments to make a return on their investments (this is why we don’t have adequate highways and see so little infrastructure investment, it doesn’t make our region more competitive or produce more wealth for the broader society).

It is what it is.

That's sad. Victoria is the provincial capital city of one of the richest provinces in Canada. It should be enjoying the same status as Quebec City, which is putting us to shame, especially when it comes to heritage preservation.

Only bright side to this is the inclusion of a lot more housing. But then again, there are a lot more bland, low-quality buildings with no heritage value that deserves to be demolished for higher density housing all across town.

Victoria is a logistical nightmare for the province’s leadership.

If they could move the capital to the mainland or Kelowna, they’d do it in a heartbeat.

I think longer term that’s eventually what will happen. It’s hard to pretend you care about the climate when an armada of MLAs travel on helicopters and have secondary homes here, and then criticize secondary homes, and remind us to be mindful of our travel choices.

The Legislature is old and won’t survive a moderate earthquake. Work-from-home is moving provincial workers out of Victoria for the first time in post-war history. I don’t know how things worked pre-war but I imagine provincial matters were focused on Victoria back then, too, but maybe less travel to the legislature?

So following that logic, what’s the future looking like for Victoria? If not provincial government, what is there for this region to be known for?

The CoV is now reacting to provincial WFH measures. They’re asking for supports.

So if officialdom is moving on this, what do they know we don’t? Could the situation be far more dire than we give it credit for?