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First Nations are emerging as major players shaping the dense and increasingly layered landscape of the Lower Mainland.
When YMCA British Columbia put out a request for proposals to redevelop its aging Langara YMCA facility in Vancouver a few years ago, a clear winner emerged. Led by Musqueam Capital Corp., the economic development arm of the Musqueam Indian Band—in whose traditional territory the property is located—the proposal envisioned not only a new fitness, child-care and community events facility but also a 33-storey, 306-unit rental tower, a 37-storey condominium tower to be jointly developed by Townline Homes and social housing to be delivered by YMCA. The design of the project is co-created by Musqueam elder Charlotte Mearns and is hoped to become a visible, lasting expression of reconciliation.
The project answers the City of Vancouver’s need for new housing alongside its UNDRIP (United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples) strategy and is meant to create a long-term revenue stream for Musqueam members. While still in the rezoning and development permit phase, it was deemed worthy of BCEDA’s Economic Reconciliation Award (Community more than 25,000 population) at this year’s B.C. Economic Summit.
In this and some even larger developments like Senakw and the Jericho Lands, the area’s first inhabitants are emerging as major players helping shape the landscape of B.C.’s southwestern corner, known as the Lower Mainland. The region is by far the most populous in B.C., with more than 3 million residents and a dominant share of the province’s economic output. It is centred on Metro Vancouver and also takes in the Fraser Valley and the Sea-to-Sky Corridor encompassing Squamish, Whistler and Pemberton.
Vancouver’s raison d’etre since its founding in 1886 is its port, the terminus of two transcontinental railway networks. The port accounts for about half Canada’s ocean-going trade and continues to grow. Having recently received the environmental and financial go-ahead, the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority is commencing the tender and design process on a huge expansion known as Roberts Bank Terminal 2. Mostly meant to expand the port’s container transshipment facilities, Terminal 2 is forecast to boost Canada’s trade capacity by 2.4 million 20-foot container units (TEU) per year, worth $100 billion, and contribute $3 billion in annual GDP. When construction ramps up in 2028, there will be 18,000 jobs on site. The terminal is expected to create 17,000 permanent port jobs once it goes into service in the mid-2030s.
Liquefied natural gas is making waves not just in northern B.C. but in the Southwest too. The Woodfibre LNG project, under construction near Squamish, is seeking to ramp up its workforce this year to more than 1,200 with the help of a second “floatel,” or converted cruise ship, to house trades workers at the site. The LNG liquefaction plant and export terminal is slated to come into service in 2027. Meanwhile gas utility FortisBC is expanding its Tilbury LNG plant on the Fraser River in Delta. A new jetty is under construction to load bunker vessels and LNG carriers, mostly to serve domestic customers and those in the transportation sector.
Other signs of a changing energy landscape include a $140-million hydrogen plant to be built by Hydrogen Technologies and Energy Corp. (HTEC) in North Vancouver. Approved by the municipality this year, the plant will take the gaseous hydrogen byproduct of a neighbouring chemical plant and liquefy it for marketing to the transportation sector. The plant will create enough hydrogen to replace 300 heavy-duty diesel trucks currently travelling B.C.’s roads with zero-emission fuel cell vehicles.
Meanwhile Mangrove Lithium raised $35 million from a consortium of investors including Japan’s Mitsubishi conglomerate earlier this year to build North America’s first electrochemical lithium refinery in Delta. Expected to be completed this year, the plant will have the capacity to produce enough battery-grade lithium for 25,000 electric vehicles per year.
Beginning with the Klondike gold rush and continuing to this day, Vancouver is a world crossroads for mining and exploration finance, as well as headquarters for major forest products companies. The past half century has seen a broad spectrum of secondary and tertiary industries, from athletic fashion design to alternative energy, add layers to what has become a highly diversified economy.
Various high-technology sectors, from robotics to cleantech, account for more than 125,000 jobs in this part of the province and have been the leading generator of employment growth over the past decade. The largest of these, information technology, has seen record-setting investments over the past year. Themis Solutions raised US$900 million in 2024 to further development of its Clio legal software platform, including artificial intelligence capability. This deal represented the largest venture capital investment in Canadian history. Other IT investments in excess of US$100 million included Jane Software, developer of a platform for health practitioners, and financial technology company Zafin, which was acquired by Denmark’s Nordic Capital.
Just as active was the life sciences sector, where Kardium Inc., developer of a heart disease treatment system, pulled in $340 million in new money, Aspect Biosystems raised US$115 million and Swiss-based Novartis AG and Versant Ventures of San Francisco teamed up to invest US$150 million in Vancouver startup Borealis Biosciences.
Lower Mainland hotels and other tourism businesses are anticipating a banner year in 2026, due to the seven FIFA World Cup matches to take place at Vancouver’s B.C. Place stadium and associated festivities. Vancouver will also host the 2026 FIFA Congress, the annual meeting of 211 national soccer associations from around the world, in advance of the tournament. The city demonstrated its hosting chops in 2025 with the global Alcoholics Anonymous conference, which drew 60,000 attendees, and the Web Summit, which is scheduled to return in 2026 and 2027.
According to real estate firm Avison Young, Vancouver had Canada’s strongest hotel market in 2024, with an occupancy rate of 78.2 percent and average daily room rates of $285 and revenue per available room of $223. A 2025 report by Destination Vancouver and the B.C. Hotel Association estimated the city needs 10,000 new hotel rooms by 2050; 4,200 rooms are currently in various stages of development. The largest project is a 578-room, 32-storey hotel planned by local developer Marcon for downtown Vancouver.
Metro Vancouver remains an entertainment hub with a robust digital gaming, film and television and special effects clusters. Record label Monstercat was acquired by Create Music Group in May of this year for a reported $1 billion.
The City of Maple Ridge created Film Maple Ridge in 2021 not just as a way to better attract and service film and TV productions but to leverage the area’s profile in popular entertainment to promote tourism and build support in the community for an industry that can at times be invasive. It started with a change of ethos towards “why can’t we?” at city hall, says Draevan McGowan, the municipality’s senior advisor, film development. Instead of having a list of yes/no rules governing film productions, local government would work with producers and location scouts to see their creative vision realised.
Among the tangible results was the Film Kiosk, an 800-amp power box that productions can use instead of noisy, polluting diesel generators; a tiered fee system geared to lure all levels of production budget; a streamlined series of just three “webforms” for securing permission to shoot; and a series of digital initiatives that share news and photos about locations with the broader community and help visitors find where memorable scenes from their favourite shows were shot.
The efforts of Film Maple Ridge are clearly paying off. Since 2019, the city’s direct revenue from film activity has shot up 345 percent. The economic impact is likewise growing, up an estimated 24 per cent over the past two years. A greater variety of shows are showing up, and they’re staying longer than they did in the past. More than 2,700 residents earn their living in the industry.
“We are seeing that productions are coming here because of the local government support, not in spite of it,” McGowan says.
Michael is a financial journalist based in the Cowichan Valley. He's a former managing editor of Canadian Business and editorial director of Canada Wide Media, BCBusiness's publisher. In 2024, he co-authored Personal Finance for Canadians for Dummies, 7th Edition (Wiley, 2024).
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