Moving to Nanaimo

Welcome to Nanaimo. We know you'll love it.

It's a common phenomenon that one visit to Nanaimo leads to another, spurring a desire to locate to a city that offers the ideal blend of job opportunities, affordable housing, extraordinary outdoor recreation and a growing arts, culture and culinary scene.

Nanaimo has evolved dramatically from its roots as a blue collar coal mining town into a sophisticated city of almost 85,000. Strong economic drivers for Nanaimo today include tourism, technology, finance, retail, and health and education.

The population swells with each new semester's influx of students. As many as 20,000 students attend Vancouver Island University (VIU) in Nanaimo, taking advantage of its degree-granting and training programs.

The business-oriented City of Nanaimo is committed to the revitalization of the downtown core and surrounding tourism infrastructure, evidenced most recently with the opening of the new Vancouver Island Conference Centre in 2008. The state of the art conference centre is already attracting convention groups from across Canada with its location near the waterfront and capacity to host events for up to 1300 delegates. At present, plans for the expansion of the local airport and the construction of a cruise ship terminal are underway.

Accessible and Affordable

Nanaimo is 1.5 hours from Victoria, BC's capital city, while Vancouver is two hours away by ferry and only 20 minutes by seaplane. As a result, Nanaimo has seen an influx of mainland commuters relocating here to take advantage of lower housing costs, reduced traffic and a more relaxed pace of life.

Waterfront and water view homes are easy to find here at prices that would be out of reach in many other parts of the province. At the same time, Nanaimo residents enjoy all the benefits of any busy urban centre from fine dining to arts and cultural festivals.

A well-trained and educated workforce, sophisticated telecommunications infrastructure and reliable transportation links make Nanaimo the city of choice for new business start-ups.

Nanaimo's business climate is conducive to self-employment and entrepreneurship. The City of Nanaimo's Economic Development Office provides assistance and helpful information services for those seeking to do business in the Harbour City. For more information, please contact:

Marilyn Hutchinson
Economic Development Officer

Email: Marilyn.hutchinson@nanaimo.ca
Phone: 250-755-4466
Fax: 250-755-4404
www.nanaimo.ca