Moving to Victoria

Provincial government & public administration

BC Public Service, the Legislative Assembly, BC Housing, BC Hydro regional offices, Crown agencies

The capital's defining employer. Ministries are headquartered here rather than in Vancouver, which makes the BC Public Service the largest employer in greater Victoria and gives the city an unusually stable, well-pensioned professional class. Many roles require Canadian citizenship or permanent residence.

Defence & the Pacific fleet

CFB Esquimalt, Maritime Forces Pacific, Fleet Maintenance Facility Cape Breton, Seaspan Victoria Shipyards, Babcock Canada

Canada's Pacific naval base and the largest single-site employer in the region, with a civilian workforce alongside the uniformed one. The Victoria Shipyards in Esquimalt handle submarine and frigate refits — long-cycle work that sustains a skilled trades economy.

Health care

Island Health, Royal Jubilee Hospital, Victoria General Hospital, Saanich Peninsula Hospital

Island Health runs services for all of Vancouver Island from here, so the hospitals serve a catchment far larger than the city. Health care is among the largest employers and is one of the three occupation groups BC's nominee programme now prioritises.

Higher education & ocean science

University of Victoria, Camosun College, Royal Roads University, Ocean Networks Canada, Institute of Ocean Sciences

UVic anchors the region's research, and Ocean Networks Canada operates cabled undersea observatories from here. Ocean science is a genuine local specialism built on the geography rather than on policy.

Technology

Latitude Technologies, StarFish Medical, Certn, Semaphore Solutions, Codename Entertainment, Carmanah/Kirkland, VIATEC member firms

Several hundred small and mid-sized firms in health technology, marine and environmental sensing, security software and games, organised around the VIATEC industry association. It is a real sector and a shallow one — few large employers, so a redundancy usually means a smaller pond than in Vancouver.

Tourism, hospitality & marine transport

BC Ferries, Black Ball Ferry Line, Harbour Air, Victoria Clipper, the Fairmont Empress, Butchart Gardens, Ogden Point cruise terminal

A large seasonal economy built on cruise calls at Ogden Point, the American day-trip market and the gardens. It is the reason downtown feels different in February and August, and the reason a great deal of the service workforce is on seasonal contracts.

Landmark · Downtown, at the foot of Government Street

The working harbour at the centre of the city — the 1898 Legislative Assembly outlined in lights, the Empress hotel opposite, float planes landing among the water taxis, and the Coho tying up from Washington State.

Local tip: The float plane traffic is the thing to watch: this is a scheduled commuter service to downtown Vancouver taking about thirty-five minutes, and it is the fastest link between the two cities. Free public tours of the Legislature run most of the year, and the building is genuinely worth the hour.

Nature · Immediately south of downtown

Seventy-five hectares of Garry oak meadow, ponds and gardens running down to a cliff-top path above the Strait of Juan de Fuca, with the Olympic Mountains across the water in Washington.

Local tip: Go along Dallas Road in a winter southeasterly when the strait is white and the mountains are clear — it is the best free thing in the city and almost nobody visits in February. The Garry oak meadows are a genuinely endangered ecosystem, which is why parts are fenced off in spring.

Culture · Fisgard Street, north end of downtown

The oldest Chinatown in Canada, established in 1858 during the Fraser gold rush, with Fan Tan Alley — a metre wide in places — running through the middle of the block.

Local tip: The alley was a gambling and opium quarter and is now full of very small shops; go on a weekday morning before the cruise passengers. The interpretive plaques on Fisgard are unusually honest about the head tax and the exclusion era, which is not true of every heritage district in Canada.

Food · West of the Inner Harbour, Erie Street

A floating village of brightly painted houseboats, fish-and-chip and seafood kiosks, and a resident harbour seal population that has learned exactly how this works.

Local tip: Take the little harbour ferry across from the Inner Harbour rather than walking — they are the smallest passenger ferries you will ever board and in summer they perform a synchronised water ballet on Sunday mornings, which is exactly as odd and as charming as it sounds.

Neighborhood · North-east of downtown, around Gladstone and Fernwood Road

A dense pre-war neighbourhood of narrow streets and heritage houses around a tiny square with a theatre, a bakery, a coffee shop and a co-operatively run grocery.

Local tip: This is where the city's non-tourist life happens and where a newcomer is most likely to end up making friends. It is also a useful housing lesson: character conversions with cheap rent and no insulation, walkable to downtown, and precisely the sort of stock that is being eyed for redevelopment.

Nature · James Bay and Vic West, either side of the harbour mouth

A 750-metre concrete arm reaching into the strait past the cruise terminal, decorated along its base with a large Coast Salish mural, and a harbourside path opposite running from the bridge to the point.

Local tip: Walk out on the breakwater in a westerly when the swell is breaking over it — it is the closest thing this sheltered city has to open ocean. The Unity Wall mural at its base is worth reading properly, and the Songhees walkway across the water gives the best view of the downtown skyline at dusk.