It was a full house on the morning of Tuesday, Oct. 2 as representatives from community groups, business, government, education, and non-profit organizations gathered at the Victoria Marriott Inner Harbour for the release of the 2018 Vital Signs report.
Vital Signs is an in-depth report tallying survey results grading 12 key issues such as housing, transportation, arts and culture and health.
This is the thirteenth consecutive year for the survey, and close to 1,800 residents from Sooke to Sidney participated this year, logging on to the Victoria Foundation website to take the survey.
This year’s results find the cost of housing and the standard of living are top concerns of respondents.
This is no surprise to Catherine Holt, CEO of the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce.
“That absolutely reflects what we’re hearing from our members,” says Holt. “The number one thing we hear from employers is the difficulty they have getting workers to move to the city because of the cost of housing.”
Island Health’s Chief Medical Health Officer, Dr. Richard Stanwick, is concerned about the findings within the report.
“The numbers in today’s report were very distressing,” says Stanwick. “Only seven per cent of young people, that’s people in their middle and young age, were not stressed financially.”
Many who attended the Vital Signs launch commented that the report is an important feedback tool from the residents of Greater Victoria.
” It’s become a real benchmark for people,” says Holt. “A lot of us look to [Vital Signs] every year to get a good overview of attitudes and opinions and concerns of a wide array of people who live here.”
Read the full Vital Signs 2018 report here.
Veronica Cooper
