Wednesday November 13, 2019 ~ LANGFORD
by Mary P Brooke ~ West Shore Voice News
Today in Langford the Premier of BC officially announced the first BC government office that will be located in the west shore.
For this big shift in the work environment culture of the BC government and the economic culture of Langford, Horgan shared the announcement with Langford Mayor Stew Young who has long advocated for provincial government offices to be in the west shore.
The west shore location will allow for more provincial government employees who live in the west shore to work locally instead of taking the commute into Victoria. This is considered a significant step toward reducing some of the traffic congestion between the west shore (Langford, Colwood, and Sooke through the west shore) into downtown where the BC Legislature and all main government offices are located.
The event attended by about 80 people was emceed by Mitzi Dean, MLA (Esquimalt-Metchosin). Attending were the Deputy Minister of Citizens’ Services Jill Kot and the Executive Director of Citizens’ Services Lorne DeLarge.
Langford Councillors Lillian Szpak and Norma Stewart as well as the mayor’s senior staff were on hand. Attending from the District of Sooke were Councillors Tony St-Pierre and Dana Lajeunesse.
Attending from Royal Roads University was President Philip Steenkamp and Director of Business Development Dale Gann. Westshore Chamber of Commerce President Mike Kelley attended. Representing Sooke School District 62 was Vice-Chair Dianna Seaton.
Situated in a brand new building at 1311 Lakepoint Way (at the corner of Langford Parkway), the second-floor government office space will be fitted to accommodate up to 100 government workers. That could be a shifting set of workers based on projects and initiatives requiring the input of different staff at different times.
The fully set-up facility is expected to be ready for action about a year from now, in November 2020.
There was immediate and enthusiastic uptake today, with many of the 2,000 BC government employees who live on the west shore (including Colwood, Langford, View Royal, Metchosin, Sooke and the Highlands) already indicating interest in working at the location in Westhills. That number of employees is 20% of all BC Public Service employees in Victoria.
The building rollout — including construction, technology and furnishings — is about $2.2 million. The more than 929 sq m (10,000 sq ft) office space will feature modern, collaborative work areas, natural light and innovative office technology. Shared workspaces will support innovation, increased collaboration and a sense of community, and will help attract and retain employees who are interested in flexible work environments.
Those 100 employees are in place now. “We’ll be taking existing dollars and channel that into preparing the workforce of the next generation to live, work and play in the same location. It was contemplated this would happen, based on the Regional Growth Strategy (of the Capital Regional District),” said Horgan. The 100 spaces will be taken up almost instantaneously. “We can make a difference by reallocating where people work. We’re not increasing employees or expanding government, we’re making it easier for employees to do their work and provide services to the community,” the Premier said.
As an interesting note, the street address 1311 Lakepoint Road matches today’s date: 13th day of the eleventh month. The building faces the Heritage Branch of the Greater Victoria Public Library and the Victoria Conservatory of Music, and just around the corner is the Langford YM-YWCA and the BC Transit Westhills bus depot.
Premier John Horgan pointed out that the selection of which employees can relocate for work to the Langford office space will not be done by a ‘lottery’ process but based on the needs of the work of six major ministries to start, including the Ministry of Children & Family Development and the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction.
“This is not without challenges,” says Jill Kot, Deputy Minister of Citizens’ Services. There will be a complex set of factors in determining who will be offered the opportunity to relocate most of their working days to the first of more offices to come in Langford. One of the factors will be to consider employees who already live in the west shore but that won’t be an exclusive factor, and neither will government employment seniority status. It will have a lot to do with “workplace strategy”, says Kot.
Whatever key projects and initiatives government can be advanced in a flexible team environment in combination with the geographical and commuter-traffic factors will be part of the complex mix of employee-assignment decision-making, Deputy Minister Kot told West Shore Voice News today.
“We’re getting away from the cubicle workspace model,” said DeLarge. Computers will be laptops. There will be secure servers. “The physical workspace and technology will allow things to operate in different ways,” he said.
The working environment won’t quite be the Amazon or Google model, but will be part of “drawing the best people into the BC public service,” said Kot, adding that BC will be “leading all government in Canada with this space design and IT integration”.
Mayor Stew Young pointed out that reducing the number of vehicles heading from the west shore into Victoria is welcome, not only for traffic congestion and the family time eaten up by commuting but of course the climate change aspect of having fewer carbon-producing vehicles on the road.
The idea of reducing time away from families due to commuting was also emphasized by Mitzi Dean (who is also the Parliamentary Secretary for Gender Equity) and the Premier who has lived for about 30 years in Stew Young’s home town of Langford. “The commute for child care and after school activities is a big factor,” said Dean.
Horgan and Young were ‘hockey dads’ back in the day; this idea of bringing government offices to the west shore goes a long way back, discussed arena-side long ago.
“Thanks to technology of computers and the Internet we can now see this become a reality,” says Young. He reiterated how back in the 1990s when he asked for government offices to come out to Langford that one of the key impediments for government was having to deliver documents confidentially and securing by courier between ministry office locations. Thanks to secure cyber capabilities, the transmission of documents can now be done via the Internet.
“Stew made it his business as mayor at every point to remind me to remind everyone in Victoria that the regional growth plan by design was focused on making Langford the hub for new residents,” said Horgan at the podium. “We have seen an explosion of people coming here, mostly young families who are putting down roots in this bustling community and new businesses creating new opportunities here in the west shore. We see all this development but still have people sitting in gridlock going downtown to Victoria,” the Premier said.
There are about 40,000 public servants working for the provincial government, most of them in downtown Victoria which is BC’s capital. Horgan said this pilot project will assemble employees from across at least six ministries. Young will keep pushing for the next building (already in the discussion phase) to house a full ministry. It’s about reducing congestion, addressing climate change and allowing families to spend more time together.
“This announcement is long overdue,” said Horgan. “I’m confident that 100 spaces open will be over-subscribed almost instantly. We will start planning the next purpose-built building of government offices to provide services to the people of BC in a way that meets the challenges of the 21st century.”
Horgan elicited a chuckle out of the crowd when he said he is “stoked” about a building for people to work, live and play in the same place. “That’s the model of Langford.”
This first BC government office location outside of the Victoria core is made possible due to secure cyber technology via the Internet and 25 years of politicking by Langford Mayor Stew Young and his council. Mayor Young thanked his council and the SD62 school board in being supportive of the growth changes in Langford. “This is an exciting day for us as politicians and our community. We’ve arrived thanks to technology including cell phones and the Internet,” said Young. He thanked Horgan and his government for stepping forward with the BC government office initiative in Langford.
“People will also save money on parking downtown, the gas and wear and tear on their vehicle,” said Young. “We need to do more, this is a pilot project. If people embrace it, we’re going to see an actual ministry out here.” he said. “I’ve been waiting 28 years.”
“Let’s build government offices so it saves a bit of money,” said Mayor Young. He also promoted having a new university out in the west shore. “It’s a great day for Langford, the community and our region.”
“Our government is focused on doing things differently to improve the lives of British Columbians,” said Minister of Citizens’ Services Selina Robinson in a news release today.
Highway 1 and Highway 14 are the major provincial arteries serving the Westshore. The northern section of Highway 1, known as the Malahat, carries about 25,000 vehicles a day to and through Langford between upisland and Victoria/Saanich. This increases to more than 85,000 vehicles per day on Highway 1 west of McKenzie Avenue (McKenzie Interchange construction updates). Approximately 16,000 vehicles a day travel on Highway 14 (Sooke Road) between Sooke and Langford; major improvements were made to that highway in the past 18 months including shoulder widening, LED directional arrows and adding several bus pullouts.