Business Costs
Competitive Alternatives Cost Comparisons
Greater Victoria has very competitive business costs compared to major Canadian and western US locations. Based on analysis of cost factors for software, research & development, and manufacturing companies, Edmonton is the only competing location with consistently lower costs than Greater Victoria and the largest difference is about 2%.
After factoring in the depreciation of the Canadian dollar, the West Coast US locations of Seattle, Portland and San Jose are an average of 9-17% more expensive than Greater Victoria for all industries.
Business Costs Index, All Industries ($US = $1.20 CDN)
Competitive Alternatives is a biennial report produced by MMK Consulting of Vancouver and KPMG that compares the costs of doing business in multiple industries for more than 100 cities around the world.
The latest version of the study is based on data as of January 1, 2008. Most notably, the Canadian dollar is assumed to be at par with the US dollar, so the final row in the table below provides an adjustment based on a 20% depreciation of the Canadian dollar.
|
Business Costs Index (Victoria = 100) |
Victoria |
Vancouver |
Calgary |
Edmonton |
Toronto |
Seattle |
Portland |
San Jose |
|
Software |
100.0 |
105.3 |
103.5 |
99.4 |
104.9 |
110.8 |
106.0 |
116.9 |
|
Research & Development |
100.0 |
110.5 |
111.0 |
100.8 |
106.9 |
113.4 |
104.2 |
125.7 |
|
Manufacturing |
100.0 |
100.9 |
98.4 |
98.0 |
97.9 |
101.6 |
99.8 |
104.3 |
|
All Industries |
100.0 |
102.8 |
100.6 |
98.5 |
100.1 |
104.0 |
100.8 |
108.5 |
|
All Industries, with $US=$1.20 CDN |
100.0 |
102.2 |
99.7 |
97.9 |
99.4 |
112.1 |
108.6 |
116.9 |
| Source: CompetitiveAlternatives.com, created by KPMG and MMK Consulting. | ||||||||