A new study shows Okanagan cities are in a good position to weather the COVID-created economic storm

Photo: Colin Dacre

Okanagan and Southern Interior communities are in good shape to weather the economic storm created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

That according to a new survey put out by BC Business.

The survey, 'most resilient cities in 2021' is a different take on the best cities to work report published each year.

It also used a different set of data points and expanded the list to include the top 50 communities in the province.

The survey places three Southern Interior communities in the Top,10, Salmon Arm at six, West Kelowna at Number 8 and Kelowna 10.

Four other communities, Summerland (15), Vernon (18), Penticton (22) and Kamloops (23) all ranked inside the Top 25.

This year, BC Business focused on four key points, demographics, workforce composition, real estate and employment trends to explore resiliency factors and early signs of recovery.

“We are arguably in the single greatest socio-economic experiment in history,” says urban planner Andy Yan, director of the city program at SFU.

Yan says the pandemic is not only reshaping the economies of our cities but is reorganizing the human geography of our province.

Several experts were consulted to reveal the pandemic’s uneven impact on industries and regions. The state of the tourism and real estate sectors and the shift to working from home figure prominently in their evaluation.

Survey authors say a return to the Top 10 for cities such as Kelowna (5th in 2020) and Salmon Arm (6th) underscores their resilience across a range of metrics, while a generous take on the definition of "bedroom community" allowed West Kelowna to rate high within the Top 10.

The survey also showed Vancouver Island as a whole as the most resilient region in the province with six cities ranking in the Top 10. Authors attribute this, in part, to a higher-than-average share of residents working in the public sector, which is particularly true throughout the Capital region.

It also showed the Metro Vancouver area has suffered the most when it comes to job loss with Vancouver, Surrey, North Vancouver, Richmond and New Westminster all ranking in the lower third of the survey.

On the flip side, Salmon Arm actually added more than 100 jobs, while Kelowna and West Kelowna have lost fewer than 100 according to the survey.

All three ranked high in housing sales per 10,000 people, while West Kelowna was sixth in the province with 108 housing starts per 10,000 people.