Provincial government is decentralizing its workforce.
Flexible work strategies — including work-from-home models and remote- location hirings being embraced by the B.C. public service — could have a catastrophic effect on Greater Victoria’s small businesses and overall economy, say concerned business groups.
In a letter to Shannon Salter, head of the B.C. public service and deputy minister to Premier David Eby, six groups headed by the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce said new hiring policies to fill public-service ranks will harm local businesses that have long been established to cater to government workers.
Effective April 1, postings for provincial government jobs will open up to qualified people wherever they live in B.C., an initiative that in the future may see small government offices set up in more rural communities.
The 36,000-member-strong B.C. public service lost about 3,000 employees last year. Filling vacancies and expanding the talent pool is an “urgent issue,” Salter has told the Times Colonist.
But the business groups said the new strategy will come at a cost to Greater Victoria.
“We urge you to consider the potentially catastrophic domino effect that changing the nature of public sector work could have on the economy of our provincial capital,” the business groups said in the letter. “The proposal by the B.C. public service to disrupt its hiring practices will further reduce the number of workers in downtown Victoria and in our region as a whole.
“This decision has been made without consideration to the economic ecosystem that Greater Victoria has supported for decades,” the letter added. “These workplace practices were needed during the pandemic, but employers, including the federal government, are returning to the higher productivity and long-term benefits of having employees back in a well-designed workspace experience provided by downtown offices.”
The groups are urging the province to consider the implications the proposal would have on the stability of the provincial capital, where many businesses are still feeling the pinch of government employees working from home, and not eating in restaurants or supporting local shops.
“Many family-supporting businesses have been built on providing service to government workers,” the letter said.
The chamber said helping employers find and retain workers continues to be its top priority for most of its members and the community partners who co-signed the letter, including the Downtown Victoria Business Association, Destination Greater Victoria, Hotels Association of Greater Victoria and the B.C. Restaurant and Foodservices Association.
“It’s a complex problem that affects many layers of our economy,” said the business groups. “Affordable housing and child-care as well as a sound regional transportation strategy are key to making regional economies such as Greater Victoria’s more resilient and sustainable. Your government is beginning to make real progress on finding solutions.”
But the new hiring practices have the potential to disrupt the public sector, which the chamber considers a cornerstone of the local economy that helps Greater Victoria support a world-class tourism and hospitality industry and a vibrant city centre.
Salter said earlier this month that embracing flexible work is essential to fill job vacancies and attract and retain a diverse workforce, noting that half of the public service is already working remotely.
The public service hiring strategy includes opening all job postings to anyone in the province and putting the onus on government ministries to explain why if they can’t accommodate flexible work arrangements.
— with files from Cindy E. Harnett
dkloster@timescolonist.com
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