The Alberni Valley has over 19,000 acres of land designated for agricultural use and over 90 farms and producers. Berries, fruit, field and greenhouse-grown products thrive in the Alberni Valley's optimal climate. The city's oceanfront provides abundant opportunity for commercial and recreational fishing, shellfish and seaweed production. 

This is a rapidly-growing sector in the Alberni Valley with a favourable outlook.

Port Alberni Food Hub: The Dock+
In 2019 a former fish processing plant adjacent to Fisherman's Harbour was revitalized into a regional food processing facility known as The Dock+ . Equipped with a commercial kitchen space for food maker entrepreneurs, community groups, and instructional classes, The Dock+ is open to additional tenant partnerships.

• See more in News

Craft Breweries & Distilleries
Since 2017 Port Alberni has opened 3 craft breweries with 2 distilleries set to open their doors in the coming months. 

• Alberni Brewing Company
• Antidote Distilling Company 
• Dog Mountain Brewing
• Maehem Spirits
• Twin City Brewing Company

Soil

"Alberni soils are prime agricultural soils...they are suited to a wide variety of crops. Arrowsmith soils are considered to be the most desirable organic soils for agricultural use as they have favourable tilth and permeability." Source: Ministry of Environment Report (PDF) 

Abattoir

The Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District has been proactive in supporting increased access to slaughter for local livestock producers. In 2021 the Province updated the Meat Inspection regulations and producers can now apply to the Province to obtain a Farmgate or Farmgate Plus license in order to legally slaughter a limited number of animals on-farm. The region does not currently have an abattoir facility and demand for such is high.

More information - Meat Inspection & Licensing - Province of BC

Industry Opportunities

Local industry experts have expressed a need in the community for a full-service abattoir facility, livestock veterinarian, additional butchers, cut and wrap facilities, and large scale vegetable growers and packing plants to service local and coastal tourism markets. 

Industry Resources

Farming Directory

Agricultural Resources from the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District

Alberni Valley Agricultural Plan (PDF)

Alberni Valley Regional District's Agri-food Newsletter Signup

The Alberni Valley is home to a cadre of creative practitioners working in the fine and applied arts:

• Practitioners
• Organizations
• Facilities

Each creative professional brings a unique voice to the community, and there is ample opportunity to expand the industry. 

Definitions

'Creative Industry' or 'Cultural Industry' generally refers to any industry requiring creative thinking and expression. It is inclusive of both the fine and applied arts, such as film, music, performing arts, and fashion, as well as publishing, advertising, software, toys and games. Content creators such as artists, filmmakers, designers, event producers, and music professionals make significant economic contributions using their creativity and expertise.

Vancouver Island + Gulf Islands: Arts Super Region

View the impact study, slide deck, videos and key findings from the Nordicity Survey & Report, working in partnership with Creative Coast.

• 1 in 20 people in the region are Artists
• The Arts add $1B in direct economic outputs every year
• The Arts have a 5 to 1 social return on investment
• There are 35,000+ full-time and casual creatives
• There are 25 arts councils

Resources for Practitioners

• Alberni Valley Arts Directory
• BC Arts Council
• Creative BC 
  • Incentives and supports for the motion picture, interactive and digital media, music and sound recording, and book and magazine publishing sectors.
• Creative Coast
• InFILM, the Vancouver Island North Film Commission
• Local education in the arts, media & related trades 

The Pacific Rim School District #70 office is located in Port Alberni, the regional center for public, private and post-secondary education.

• 3% of the labour force between the ages of 25-64 has a post-secondary education majoring in Education
• 6% of the labour force aged 15+ is employed in the Educational Services industry
• Over 250 people are employed in district schools with additional staff at privately operated schools and post-secondary institution

Industry Resources

• Port Alberni's Education Directory 

Port Alberni is the region's leader in healthcare and related services, with over 10% of the labour force majoring and/or employed in the Healthcare Industry.

• Port Alberni's Healthcare Directory

The Island Health/The Vancouver Island Health Authority operates the West Coast General Hospital (WCGH), one of the region's largest employers. Hospital services include:

• Aboriginal Health Diabetes Nurse Educator, Health Dietitians, Liaison Nurses
• Rehabilitation Services
• Acquired Brain Injury Program
• All Nations' Healing Room
• Bariatric Program
• Collaborative Spasticity Program
• Nutrition
• Convalescent Care
• Enterostomal Therapy Services
• Hip and Knee Centre
• Physiotherapy & Occupational Therapy

Port Alberni's natural resources, labour force, businesses and facilities reflect the strength of its manufacturing industry and in turn, the manufacturing industry strengthens related industries such as distribution and service. The largest purchasers of locally-manufactured products are in the logging, fishing and mining sectors.

Wood Manufacturing

Wood products manufacturing has been a core industry in Port Alberni since the days of the first sawmill in what is now known as the Harbour Quay. Changes in the industry are occurring and there is a shift towards a wider diversity of products, including more value-added and niche manufacturing.

The city's location in the vast and healthy forests of coastal British Columbia provides a long term supply of quality 2nd and 3rd growth trees including cedar, fir, spruce and hemlock. A highly skilled local workforce is available locally to develop new products.

Industry resources:

• BC's Coast Forest Revitalization Initiative
• BC's Wood First Initiative
• BC Building Code Adjusted Upwards to Allow 12-Storey Wood Buildings
• Forestry Innovation Investment - Funding Programs

Industry Leaders in Manufacturing

• Canadian Maritime Engineering
• Catalyst - Paper Excellence
• Coulson Aviation
• DBA Silencing Exhaust systems & mining truck parts
• Franklin Forest Products
• Island Rhino Surfboards & Skateboards
• Reaplywood Design & Research Inc. 
• San Group Inc.
• Western Forest Products APD

Port Alberni is the service center for all communities within the Alberni-Clayoquot region. The service area is represented by 25,000+ residents, including a service for tourists visiting Port Alberni and the west coast from May to October. 

All services in Port Alberni are located within minutes of the city's main transportation arteries. In the North Port area, service businesses and organizations are located directly on or next door to the highway on the Johnston Road/Highway #4 corridor, and in South Port (Uptown/3rd Avenue/Harbour Quay) they are located 5 minutes away from Highway #4. City residents can access both city centers within a 15 minute drive from their homes.

Service Hub of the West Coast

Port Alberni leads the region in the following service categories:

• Creative services (arts, culture, events, entertainment)
• Education services 
• Healthcare services
• Recreation services 
• Services for families
• Services for seniors

The Service Market

• Stable resident market (Over 50% Port Alberni residents have remained in the city the last 5 years)
• Large seniors market (Approx. 1/4 population in Port Alberni)
• Large seasonal market
  • Tourists (refer to this directory's Tourism & Hospitality category)
  • Management, contractors and labourers working in the backcountry / work camps in remote areas
    • Forestry
    • Fishing
    • Mining
• Access to lower mainland BC and international markets due to strategic, central location and quality infrastructure
• • Deep sea port at Alberni Inlet
  • Regional airport 
  • Close proximity to the 2 most heavily accessed BC Ferries terminal locations between Vancouver Island and Vancouver
  • Connected to the Island Highway#19 via Pacific Rim Highway #4 

Technology investment in Port Alberni is spearheaded by Tech Island, a joint initiative involving 8 communities located in an area known as the Vancouver Island Corridor. The communities are a gateway to markets in Asia and the entire Pacific Northwest (Cascadia) region spanning from California to Alaska, with Port Alberni located at the center.

Google's Topaz Submarine Fiber Cable

Port Alberni will become the transmission site Google's new undersea data cable, expected to be completed in 2023. The first trans-Pacific cable of its kind, it will connect Vancouver and the west coast to Japan’s Mie and Ibaraki prefectures.

• Global News Article & Video April 2022

Ocean Networks Canada - NEPTUNE Observatory Shore Station

Port Alberni's NEPTUNE shore station sends data collected data its fibre optic cable system to the University of Victoria. The NEPTUNE infrastructure is an 840 km loop of fibre optic cable with five nodes. Each node is instrumented with a diverse suite of sensors that enable researchers to study interactions among geological, chemical, physical, and biological processes that drive the dynamic earth-ocean system over a broad spectrum of oceanic environments.

• Building the World's First Regional Cabled Observatory (PDF)
• NEPTUNE Observatory
• Ocean Networks Canada website

Investment Advantages 

Port Alberni is a viable location to establish a satellite office, back-office operations or company headquarters.

• Affordable commercial spaces to own or lease
• Affordable land available for development
• A cost-effective labour pool
• Modern infrastructure
• Proximity to other tech-related businesses
• Less direct competition in comparison to larger cities
• Opportunity to corner a local/regional market and become a regional leader
• West coast outdoor and waterfront lifestyle and desirable quality of life
• Opportunities to partner with local leaders in the following industries:
  • Agriculture & Aquaculture
  • Manufacturing
  • Transportation
• Access to markets via highway #4, the deep sea port and the Alberni Valley Regional Airport.

The value of the Vancouver Island Tourism Industry is $1.77B Dollars. In Port Alberni tourism is an emerging and growing industry with sound opportunity for development, particularly as the markets in surrounding communities continue to grow and create a more favourable environment. 

Port Alberni is in a strategic location to capture the substantial tourism market of domestic and international visitors travelling to the west coast. The coastal resort communities of Tofino and Ucluelet and access to Pacific Rim National Park are a major draw, attracting domestic and international visitors who must pass through Port Alberni to reach coastal destinations. However, Port Alberni is a tourism destination in its own right with a large volume of tourism assets and high potential for increased product development.

Industry & Market Statistics

• Pacific Rim National Park Reserve (95 km from Port Alberni)  receives 31% of the share of all visits to a national park
• The Nanaimo airport, 99 kilometres away, has experienced a 13.2% increase in passenger volume 
• During June-August 2019 BC Ferries terminals in Victoria and Nanaimo received 4,279K vehicles
• Route 4 (Tofino/Ucluelet junction) received over 760,000 vehicle visits from January to September 2019, with the highest traffic month being August followed by July and June
• In 2018 it is estimated that Tofino hosted 600,000 visitors, a ratio of approximately 300 visitors per resident. The majority of tourists visit by vehicle via Port Alberni and their economic impact generates $57M Dollars. 

Port Alberni Tourism Assets

• Arts Facilities
• Culture & Heritage Facilities
• Food & Agriculture
• Outdoor Recreation (Water-based)
• Outdoor Recreation (Land-based)
• Sports Facilities
• The Waterfront

Tourism Investment Opportunities

• Accommodation (hotel & campsites)
  • Contact the City's Economic Development Manager for details
• Agri-tourism
• Cultural tourism via investment and partnerships with First Nations communities
• Events
• Outdoor recreation suppliers for land or water-based activities
• Marine tourism via the Port Alberni Port Authority at China Creek Marina

Industry Resources

• Alberni Valley Tourism
• Destination BC Regional Profile
• Destination BC - Market Research
• Visitor Information Centre - Alberni Valley Chamber of Commerce
• Visitor Profile - Tourism Tofino

Port Alberni is the largest commercial center on the west coast, the transportation hub between east and west Vancouver Island, the gateway to the Pacific Rim tourism market. It is the only deep sea port on western Vancouver Island with direct shipping routes to Asia and the west coast of North America. Suppliers of goods by road for west coast communities including Tofino and Ucluelet must transit through Port Alberni first. Port Alberni Terminals houses the only deep sea port within a 1,500 kilometre length of coastline between Port Alberni and northern BC. The community also has a regional airport with a 5,000 square foot paved runway.

Port Alberni's location and transportation network are two of its greatest assets. For decades, the city has been engaged in forestry, fishing and mining for the west coast, resulting in a robust local supply of transport companies and skilled, experienced labourers bringing goods to local, regional and international markets via Highway #4.