Forty-eight per cent of downtown Victoria businesses say they’d consider pulling up stakes and moving if their lease expired this year, according to a new survey.
It’s one of the findings of a report compiled by the Downtown Victoria Business Improvement Association that the group’s CEO says is a “wake-up call” to all levels of government.
“This isn’t a new phenomenon; this has been building up for years, and this is why our businesses say they need action now,” Jeff Bray told media on Wednesday.
“They cannot afford to wait any longer for studies, task forces, reports. If they do not see bold action this year, they may well decide to move and not risk signing another five-year lease.”
The report also found that 39 per cent of businesses reported a decline in profit from last year, while more than half (54 per cent) gave doing business downtown a grade of C+ or lower.
More troubling, the percentage who graded business downtown as a D or F quadrupled from 5.2 per cent in 2019 to 22 per cent this year.
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Keith Johnson, co-owner of the Oh Sugar sweet shop said he’s among those who would consider moving out of the core if conditions don’t improve.
“I hear from friends and family and clients and customers every day and they tell me, ‘I don’t want to come downtown anymore, it’s unsafe,'” he said.
“They tell me more and more, downtown for them is a place they don’t want to visit.”
According to the BIA, the retail vacancy rate in downtown Victoria has risen to 11 per cent, up from 3.4 per cent, a trend line Bray called “very concerning.”
He said businesses want to see immediate action from the municipal, provincial and federal governments, and they don’t want “perfect to get in the way of progress.”
“We need addictions treatment, we need bail reform, we need justice reform. Just take action. It won’t be perfect, it won’t be seamless, but we can’t wait for the perfect solution,” he said.
From the federal government, Bray said businesses want to see bail reform targeted not just at violent offenders, but at repeat non-violent criminals who return to steal from businesses over and over again.
The group wants the provincial government to move faster on mental health and addictions treatment — both voluntary and involuntary — using temporary facilities until more permanent beds can be set up.
And they’re calling on the city to deploy more bylaw and police officers to patrol the streets to deal with crime, public disorder and encampments.
Victoria Mayor Marianne Alto said she was “not at all surprised” to see community safety concerns front and centre in the report.
She said that while there are limits on what the municipality can do, businesses would be pleased to hear that the city was “harmonious” with them in the desire to expand policing and bylaw presence.
“You would not be surprised to see some similar concepts in the community safety plan when it is finally released,” Alto said.
The city has yet to say when its draft Community Safety and Wellbeing Plan will be released, but it is expected at some point this year.
Alto added that she would support the deployment of additional patrol officers if the Victoria Police Department recommends it, and urged businesses on the fence about their future to give the city a chance to implement changes.
“I think they will be pleased because we have heard them and we are taking some significant actions,” she said.
Bray said bright spots identified in the report include another strong tourism season and growth in construction and housing development.
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