Every local purchase is more than a product; it’s an investment into a vibrant local economy and community.
It’s easy to say that small local businesses are more than just storefronts. Many town centres, from the smallest communities on the rural islands to larger centres on Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast, are filled with local businesses that create a unique identity for the community.
When you consider your own community, are you more likely to rave about the local café or the coffeeshop chain that’s nearly identical in every town? Beyond suggesting that local businesses are vital for intrinsic values like community pride and tourism appreciation, it’s also easy to illustrate their value to the economy.
To celebrate Buy Local Week, which runs December 2-8th, BC Buy Local shared that for every $100 spent, local businesses recirculate $63 back into the local economy compared to just $14 by multinationals.
During the Vancouver Island Economic Alliance annual Summit, the Trust presented a gift basket featuring products from six local businesses that have benefited from our community and nonprofit organizations investments. Highlights included a handcrafted mug from Tin Can Pottery Shop and sustainably caught tuna from Natural Gift Seafoods, reflecting the importance of local businesses in fostering economic growth, and innovation.
Tin Can Pottery Studio was one of four initial stores in Campbell River’s Rail Yard Market, a small business incubator supported by an early investment from the Trust’s Capital and Innovation program. The City of Campbell River initiative provides short-term, affordable leases, helping entrepreneurs transition to brick-and-mortar spaces.
“I am so grateful for this opportunity,” said Emma Heitzmann, artist and owner of Tin Can Pottery Shop, “because this gives me a chance to put my ideas to the test and see it happen.”
Because she has the confidence to pursue her new business without the risks typically associated with a new business startup, Heitzmann is already thinking about helping other local artists expand their careers.
“One of the biggest things for me was to support other artists and support showcase their work” said Heitzmann. “I started with four other artists when I opened, and I am now up to 12 from all over North Vancouver Island. By keeping costs low, I can pass on that savings to them through commissions. It’s been special to see that impact.”
Natural Gift Seafoods is a family-owned and operated sustainable seafood business in Nanoose Bay. Although Ian Bryce and Lynne Yamanaka launched the business 20 years ago, they attended the Seafood Business Accelerator at the Centre for Seafood Innovation in 2023.
“We weren’t exactly a start-up,” said Bryce, “but it was a great program to meet like-minded people. We gained a sense of direction for what we’d like to do next.”
When asked to consider the importance of Buy Local Week, Bryce didn’t hesitate.
“When you are in the world of producing and selling things locally,” he said, “that’s just automatically where you turn when you go shopping. We earn all the proceeds with our business, and we spend almost all of it in our local community.”
The business continues to serve a gap between the hands-on commercial fisherman and customers seeking sustainable products. They are proud to only offer tuna and lingcod from marine stewardship-certified fisheries.
Yet Natural Gift Seafoods is more than just a business. It’s an opportunity to build something together.
“It would have been more lucrative to continue practicing law,” said Bryce, “but it couldn’t have been as rewarding as working with my family and growing our business together.”
Other items in the gift basket included sea salt from Salt Spring Sea Salt, a book and scarf from Shawnigan Lake Museum gift store, and jam from Forest for Dinner.
This Buy Local Week, consider how your spending choices can uplift businesses like Tin Can Pottery and Natural Gift Seafoods. Together, we can build a thriving, resilient local economy—one purchase at a time.
Reflecting on your own community, what local business is your favourite? Help promote them, using #BCbuylocal across social media this week and in the future.
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The businesses highlighted in our Vancouver Island Economic Alliance annual Summit gift basket positively benefited from Trust-partnered investments through the Capital and Innovation program. These projects include:
- Tin Can Pottery Studio is one of four debut businesses at the Rail Yard Market in Campbell River. In 2023, City of Campbell River and the Trust invested in a micro-unit retail market that serves as a new business incubator.
- Natural Gifts Seafood participated in the first Seafood Business Accelerator program in Deep Bay. This initiative launched in 2022, when the Trust invested with Vancouver Island University. The project, now hosted by the T Buck Suzuki Foundation, recently began phase two in 2024, with a renewed focus on empowering Indigenous entrepreneurs across the coast.
- Salt Spring Sea Salt participated in a Circular Economy Accelerator Program. In 2022, Vancouver Island Coast Economic Developer’s Association collaborated with Synergy Foundation, with an investment from the Trust, to identify opportunities for applying circular principles to its operations.
- Shawnigan Lake Museum and Gift Store is currently undergoing a significant expansion. In 2020, the Trust partnered with the Shawnigan Lake Historical Society to redevelop and expand the museum.
- Forest for Dinner is an anchor tenant at The Dock + in Port Alberni. In 2019, the Port Alberni Port Authority partnered with the Trust to develop Dock+, which is the Alberni Valley regional food hub.
