Village of Canal Flats Foreign Direct Investment Action Plan, 2017 1 Disclaimer for Errors and Omissions: Rynic Communications makes every reasonable effort to ensure the accuracy and validity of the information provided on this Report. However, as information and data is continually changing and this Report is to be used as a general framework for consideration of targeted economic development, Rynic Communications makes no warranties nor accepts liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in the content or for damages as a result of relying on information contained within this Report. Village of Canal Flats Foreign Direct Investment Action Plan, 2017 2 Table of Contents Executive Summary 4 Study Purpose and Background 5 Industrial Land Supply and Demand 9 Sector Analysis: Labour Force Skillset 13 Sector Targeting 28 One Page Foreign Direct Investment Action Plan 33 Next Steps 34 Village of Canal Flats Foreign Direct Investment Action Plan, 2017 3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Conducted in 2017, an analysis of Canal Flats’ workforce and business base, in context of broader Columbia Valley industrial land supply and BC Government sector targeting yields recommended Target Economic Sectors amenable to foreign direct investment: Primary Attraction Focus 1) Agrifoods OBJECTIVE – ATTRACT PROCESSING INVESTMENT (NICHE CROPS, GREENHOUSES, FABRICS, AQUACULTURE, DISTILLERY) 2) Fabricated Metal Product Manufacturing OBJECTIVE – LEVERAGE BID GROUP METAL FABRICATION ENTERPRISE INTO ADDITIONAL METAL FABRICATION CLUSTER ACTIVITY 3) Forestry – Wood Products Manufacturing Secondary Investment Attraction Focus 4) Mining 5) Transportation Some detailing of these sector opportunities is presented in this Plan. Additional micro foreign direct investment opportunities have been identified as follows: 1) Mountain Mercantile – partial conversion of a former school building into a mixed-use community commercial, residential and activity hub. 2) Kootenay Landing – capitalize creation of innovative “sea can” housing on a 24 acre riverside property to provide a missing housing rental market in Canal Flats, serving employment centre lands. This site also features potential to develop a highway-facing hotel (40-50 units) on an existing, serviced 1.5 acre parcel within the bigger site. 3) Work-Live (Village Centre) - Canal Flats is seeking pioneer investors that will re-build the downtown in a form unique to the Columbia Valley: work-live. “Work-live” refers to a building where the primary use is commercial, but the entrepreneur lives on the second floor...connected to the commercial enterprise. 4) Resort/Hotel - a 25-acre site in the Village offers potential to develop an amenity-based resort. 5) Immigration – the Village of Canal Flats welcomes new immigrants who invest in start-up enterprises or purchase existing enterprise(s). This targeting has been incorporated into: 1) investment opportunity sheets; 2) a more general Investment Guide; and 3) investment-focused website content that forms part of a larger, impending Village website redesign that will better position investment and tourism opportunities, and community development vision. I) STUDY PURPOSE This FDI Action Plan builds a foundation of understanding of the structure of the local and Columbia Valley economy, and relates it to BC strategic sector targeting to development of foreign direct investment positioning for Canal Flats. This is an important activity given a Canfor mill closure in 2016 that, in turn, has opened up 400 Village of Canal Flats Foreign Direct Investment Action Plan, 2017 4 acres of industrial land for potential development. At this size, this land will be of interest to foreign direct investment, including large industrial enterprises and multinationals. At the same time, Canal Flats’ and the Columbia Valley’s economic and labour force features present additional, more micro scale foreign direct investment potential, identified in this Plan. II) BACKGROUND DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGE In 2015 the Village of Canal Flats lost its major employer, Canfor, when it permanently shut down the sawmill. The mill site had been in operation for 100 years. Canal Flats is struggling with population decline (-7% from 2011 to 2016) largely due to closure of this single, large forestry employer in a one industry community. This sector in this form will not re-establish in Canal Flats. The future for Canal Flats by necessity will look nothing like the past – from workforce skillset to development concepts. Factors complicating economic revival include geographic location in the south end of the Columbia Valley (investment has focused further north in the Valley - within a 3-hour drive time of a primary Calgary region market), a largely vacant land downtown, a community size that is not critical mass to viably and sustainably provide and re-invest in infrastructure and amenity, 50% of the community being mobile-home based, no rental housing to meet workforce requirements, and a school within 10 students of School District consideration of closure. The school, for example, is vital given closure would greatly threaten ability to attract working BC families. A NEW DEVELOPMENT DIRECTION On the other hand, Canal Flats’ very low residential density, large amount of commercial, industrial and residential vacant land (including the former Canfor lands – which is the only large block employment centre development opportunity in the Columbia Valley and therefore offers catalytic economic development opportunity for the entire Valley), spectacular location between the Kootenay River and Columbia Lake, amenable climate (including for agricultural production/processing), BID Group purchase of the Canfor lands and openness to development concepts and land sale that would drive a successful community bottom line, and proximity to significant tourism and other amenity in the Columbia Valley presents a generational opportunity to re-imagine and redevelop the future of a community. In 2016, the Village of Canal Flats generated an Economic Development Strategy. The Strategic Vision for the community is: We are the affordable, family-friendly village building a new future in housing, quality of place, tourism, and a unique live-work downtown. We will be a key employment centre in a Columbia Valley that reconnects people to nature….and each other. Key value propositions are: 1) Largest/Last Large Block Employment Centre lands in the Columbia Valley, 2) Affordable housing relative to Columbia Valley and BC, and 3) Access to backcountry amenity. A Strategic Goal is growing to a population of 1000 people (30% increase) – which makes the community more financially and economically sustainable. Target demographics to achieve this goal are: Working families, Younger working generation, Entrepreneurs, Early retirees, Transition of part-time recreational property owners to more full-time status. The Economic Development Strategy has two complementary goals: • Goal 1: Generate Employment (recreational property owner transition to more full-time status in Canal Flats, and development of employment centre lands (former Canfor lands)); Village of Canal Flats Foreign Direct Investment Action Plan, 2017 5 • Goal 2: Build a Distinctive Community (downtown quality of place and work-live planning policy, and specified quality of life initiatives). To achieve this vision and these goals, the Economic Development Strategy has three action-focused pillars, the first of which forms the focus of this Foreign Direct Investment Action Plan as a matter of industrial investment: 1) Redevelop Employment Centre Lands – BID Group (owner, purchased from Canfor in 2017) – work with Province and developer to facilitate re-subdivision and redevelopment of lands. To provide an idea of the scale of these lands, at approx.. 400 acres gross on the core mill site, this represents 1.5% of industrial lands in the Metro Vancouver region (28000 acres). A key challenge at the moment is to work with the Ministry of Environment to release these lands for re-subdivision. Complementary to that, this FDI Action Plan – in identifying positioning/targeting of lands, helps the landowner fast track pursuit of market opportunities, in turn helping the Village achieve its employment/population growth/taxation objectives. A comparable net developable area (225 acres) economic impact assessment of a property in West Abbotsford, using industry standard calculations (Src: West Abbotsford Industrial Park Supply and Demand for Industrial Land and Economic, Employment and Taxation Impacts Based on ALR Exclusion, 2012 – (https://abbotsford.civicweb.net/document/32044/Appendix%204%20-%20Supply%20and%20Demand%20for%20Industrial%20Land.pdf? handle=D5D43A0F29EF474DA114B7AD433BC7EC) suggests the following extremely rough economic benefits for the Canal Flats and the Columbia Valley related to development of the former Canfor lands: • 4600 job years (direct and indirect) – project development • 4,800 new permanent full-time jobs • $500 million – finished project value • Annual payroll: $280 million • Annual municipal taxes: $11 million • Net present value: $2.9 billion • This impact would be felt across the entire Columbia Valley. 2) Generate Housing Innovation to Increase Permanent Population - innovative housing will appeal to both a local workforce (feeding generation of the industrial development benefit noted above) and recreational property owners. Accelerated housing development and sales will generate tax revenue for the Village. New population will drive demand for more