Rising Economy Week Moves the Needle in Economic Recovery

The Rising Economy Week Conference will bring together leaders from business, Government and the Non Profit sectors to strategize ways to energize the region's economy.

Rising Economy Taskforce’s preliminary Retail, Services and Restaurants Committee Report
The Rising Economy Taskforce’s preliminary Retail, Services and Restaurants Committee Report states that these sectors employ 40,000 people in the Greater Victoria region. Photo by Jeffrey Bosdet.

Some communities and sectors are starting to recover in our region, but we all need to rise together for a long-lasting, robust recovery,” says Emilie de Rosenroll, CEO of the South Island Prosperity Partnership (SIPP) and chair of the Rising Economy Taskforce.

“Rising Economy Week is about bringing that vision together and moving forward with a strategic regional recovery plan.”

The conference will kick off on November 16 with a declaration from the mayors of the Southern Vancouver Island municipalities and then feature a selection of virtual events designed to highlight the specific challenges of the regional economy.

Along with keynote speakers and panelists on its virtual mainstage, Rising Economy Week will include live events on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, plus a selection of collaborative workshops on a range of topics critical to the Pacific Northwest region.

Themes include: Recovery to Resilience, Workforce of Tomorrow, 2021 Megatrends, Building Back Better and the Next Economy.

A highlight of the conference will be the public release of the Rising Economy Taskforce Report. The taskforce was convened on April 16, 2020, to develop the region’s economic recovery strategy, and it released its preliminary Committee Reports in August. These initial reports featured 40 recommendations, and the final report will focus on decisive actions.

Emerging recommendations, outlined in the Committee Reports include: expanding access to financial support; infrastructure development and other resources to help businesses stay solvent, investing in the future workforce; expanding and promoting initiatives, such as Buy BC,

ShopLocalYYJ and agrotourism; helping businesses adapt by creating a responsive regulatory environment; investing in inclusion; and leveraging areas of opportunity and growth that can be capitalized on by coordinating strategic responses across sectors.

“The recommendations in the Committee Reports represent the results of 120-plus stakeholders from multiple sectors coming together to confirm what is needed to move forward on the route to recovery,” says Craig Norris, chair of SIPP. “The resulting recommendations are inclusive, innovative and actionable over the next 18 months.”

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