The year 2018 has been one for the record books: hotter, wetter, stormier, shakier. These are short, dark days here in Vancouver. At this time of year, we must be grateful for the slim eight hours of low-slung daylight we are allotted. On one of the shortest days of the year, in thinking about the year past and the one ahead, I have decided to look at some of the brighter stories and more promising trends.
More people are making their way here and we are finding room for them. This past year, international immigration accounted for 80% of Canada’s population growth. Investors and workers and their families came to B.C. by the thousands, bringing skills and energy and culture. International students support and enrich our educational institutions and the broader economy – the BC Federation of Students estimates that international students spend more than $3.1 billion annually in this province.
Generous people live here. Local developer Ryan Beedie celebrated his 50th birthday in October by announcing a $50 million donation to a new scholarship program that helps students facing financial barriers succeed in post-secondary studies and through to careers. In the same bountiful month of October, an anonymous donor gave the BC Cancer Foundation $18.35 million, bringing that giver’s lifetime contribution to $29 million, and Telus pledged $120 million to help vulnerable youth.
More will be housed. This year saw increasing numbers of multi-family projects underway across our region, and the cost of housing flattened and showed signs of easing.
Free, open and fair elections brought new mayors and counsellors to Vancouver and surrounding municipalities. They are full of vim and vinegar and election pledges to be made good.
Across the region we are exercising more, using energy and other resources more wisely and taking the bus more often. With support from the Mayors’ Council on Regional Transportation, TransLink ridership grew by 6.5% in 2018 (and 17% over the last three years). In the year ahead, TransLink will be adding 178 new buses, including 32 new double-deckers, launching four new B-Line routes, adding 56 new Mark 3 railcars to the Expo and Millennium lines and taking delivery of a new SeaBus.
We may not have snagged Amazon’s new North American headquarters, but thousands of new businesses are growing and thriving here. Many of the most successful benefit from a helping hand. At Coast Capital Savings Venture Connection, Simon Fraser University’s (SFU’s) flagship program for early-stage ventures, thousands of participants and hundreds of teams are supported with incubation, mentorship, office space and access to the university’s far-reaching entrepreneurship community.
At the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, staff and peers provide targeted support and collegiality to leaders of tomorrow, young professionals, female leaders and small businesses, and offer essential strategy, resources and coaching to help small to medium-sized enterprises scale up and overcome barriers to exporting.
For me the most positive and motivating event of 2018 was the opportunity to meet and introduce Michelle Obama at a Board of Trade event held at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in February. I took with me an effervescent SFU student, Grace Rose, who is, like Ms. Obama, a black woman from the South Side of Chicago.
After the event, I was able to introduce them. Ms. Obama took Grace’s hands in hers and told her, “You’re gorgeous, babe. You keep working hard. I believe in you. Now go get it.”
As Grace reported later in SFU’s student newspaper, the Peak, Ms. Obama “lived out what she shared just moments earlier: reminding a young person that their voice mattered and seeing them for who they are capable of being.”
None of this is to ignore our many challenges as a city and as a region. There are many broken systems and people, inequities of resources, failures of kindness and miscarriages of justice.
But here also are people of goodwill, millions of them, whose bright light can dazzle even in the darkest of seasons. •
Anne Giardini, OC, OBC, QC, is chancellor of Simon Fraser University.
