Emergency funding, remaining ‘open for business’, countless books, and moving forward on shore power
Let’s be honest. Looking back on 2020 is not something many people will want to do, but our team wants to celebrate the many successes that occurred despite a difficult and challenging year.
Over the past 12 months, through the hard work of our board of directors and staff, our organization:
- Welcomed more than 3,000 Victorians to The Breakwater District at Ogden Point for the Times Colonist Book Drive drop-off. More than 50 pallets of books were donated in six hours.
- Supported CFAX Santa’s Anonymous by providing space in the warehouse at Pier A for the preparation of their Christmas hampers. Hampers will be given to more than 3,000 families this year.
- Prepared for the launch of Victoria Wonderland by supporting a dedicated group of local entrepreneurs and providing space at The Breakwater District for the event. Although the event was postponed, the vision remains, and we may see it return in another form at a future date.
- Committed more than $85,000 toward First Nations initiatives through our First Nations Revenue Contribution Fund. Projects included the Esquimalt Nation Lekwungen Career and Job Fair, Explore Songhees kiosk development, and Esquimalt Nation governance training.
- Supported 33 of our commercial customers with the Canadian Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance (CECRA) program and our in-house rent deferral program. The much-needed CECRA funding was approximately $358,000 for a five-month period.
- Ensured that Fisherman’s Wharf and the commercial customers located there could remain open to welcome locals, especially during the ‘take out only’ period of the pandemic in the spring.
- Maintained our marina winter moorage rates during the summer season so transient Canadian boaters would find a safe space to stay in Victoria harbour.
- Led the discussion on the safe resumption of cruise in Canada alongside our other port partners as part of the Association of Canadian Port Authorities.
- Completed facility condition assessments for The Breakwater District at Ogden Point as part of our Sustainable Service Delivery Program.
- Moved forward on the next steps for our shore power project with the goal of making the Victoria Cruise Terminal one of the greenest ports in North America.
- Achieved a ranking of 3.7 out of 5 by Green Marine, an increase over our previous 2018 score of 3.3 and one that places the deep-water port among the most environmentally sustainable ports in North America.
- Launched an ocean health monitoring pilot study with support from Ocean Networks Canada, including sampling for underwater noise and ocean science parameters in our water lot. This open data will be used to help inform management and future research in Victoria harbour.
- Lowered our corporate emissions by 27% from our 2012 Climate Smart baseline thanks in large part to a decade of energy smart retrofits, upgrades, fleet electrifications, waste management, and bike storage facility investments.
- Continued to engage with community boards through staff participation as committee and board members. This year, our staff sat as members on eight local boards and associations.
- Accelerated our work from home employment model for staff due to the impact of COVID-19. We are now fully committed to this flexible plan going forward.