{
  "geography": "City of Victoria",
  "scope": "city",
  "period": "Q2 2026 (April to June)",
  "period_start": "2026-04-01",
  "period_end": "2026-06-28",
  "refresh_frequency": "Quarterly (City economic dashboard)",
  "id": "business-licences-issued",
  "category": "Economy",
  "title": "Business licences issued by the City",
  "levels": [
    "Business owners",
    "Municipal (licensing)"
  ],
  "plain_question": "How many business licences had the City issued, compared with the same point a year earlier?",
  "value": 7215,
  "display_value": "7,215",
  "unit": "licences (Q2 2026)",
  "comparison": {
    "previous_period": "Q2 2025",
    "previous_value": 7004,
    "change_percent": 3.0
  },
  "since_text": "Was 7,004 in Q2 2025 (+3.0%)",
  "trend": "roughly_flat",
  "direction_good": "up",
  "trend_basis": "7,215 business licences in Q2 2026 compared with 7,004 a year earlier (+3.0%), as reported in the City's economic dashboard.",
  "right_direction": "A higher number means more businesses hold a City licence.",
  "caveats": [
    "A licence shows a business is registered to operate in the City; it does not show its size, whether it is open daily, or storefront vacancy.",
    "Licences include home-based and non-store businesses and some rental categories, not only storefronts.",
    "The City also publishes licence records as open data, but they carry no neighbourhood field, so a downtown-only count is not shown."
  ],
  "series": [
    {
      "period": "Q2 2025",
      "value": 7004
    },
    {
      "period": "Q2 2026",
      "value": 7215
    }
  ],
  "source": {
    "name": "City of Victoria, Victoria's Economic Dashboard, Q2 2026",
    "url": "https://www.victoria.ca/media/file/ec-dev-data-report-q2-2026",
    "dataset_url": "https://www.victoria.ca/media/file/ec-dev-data-report-q2-2026",
    "download_url": "https://www.victoria.ca/media/file/ec-dev-data-report-q2-2026",
    "publisher_page": "https://www.victoria.ca/building-business/economic-development",
    "page_url": "https://www.victoria.ca/media/file/ec-dev-data-report-q2-2026#page=4",
    "page": 4,
    "locator": "City economic dashboard, Q2 2026, page 4, “Business licences issued”",
    "reads": "Business licences issued: 2025 7,004; 2026 7,215 (3%)"
  },
  "licence": {
    "name": "Public data, not under an open licence. Used with attribution.",
    "url": "https://www.victoria.ca/legal-disclaimer",
    "open": false
  },
  "verified_text": [
    "Business licences issued Business licences by neighbourhood 2025 2026 7,004 7,215 3%"
  ],
  "data_published": "2026-08-21",
  "retrieved_at": "2026-11-12T04:17:37Z",
  "attribution": "Source: City of Victoria, Victoria's Economic Dashboard, Q2 2026. Public document, used with attribution; not endorsed by the publisher.",
  "licence_type": "public",
  "source_tier": 1,
  "measure_kind": "activity",
  "better_measure": null,
  "status_rule": {
    "rule": "One rule for every measure: a change smaller than 5% of the earlier value, or smaller than the agency's own margin of error, is “About the same”; no change is calculated across a marked break in a series; homelessness estimates, prices, staffing and comparison pages are shown for context without a label.",
    "reason": "The change is 3.0% of the earlier value, below the 5% threshold.",
    "threshold_percent": 5.0
  },
  "changes": {
    "year": {
      "period": "Q2 2025",
      "value": 7004,
      "text": "vs Q2 2025: +3.0%"
    },
    "five_year": null
  },
  "direction": {
    "type": "outcome",
    "rule": "Outcome measures read Better, Worse or About the same; published government targets read Ahead of, On or Behind target; value-judgement measures read Rising, Falling or Steady in a neutral colour. A change smaller than the agency's own margin of error, or otherwise smaller than 5% of the earlier value, is About the same (or Steady). No change is calculated across a marked break in a series.",
    "key": "same",
    "label": "About the same",
    "arrow": "▲",
    "rel": 3.0,
    "delta": null,
    "vs": "Q2 2025",
    "cur": "Q2 2026 (April to June)",
    "why": "The change is 3.0% of the earlier value, below the 5% threshold.",
    "change": "3.0%",
    "one_year": "+3.0%",
    "long_why": "The series starts in Q2 2025, so there is no reading longer than one year yet."
  },
  "data_published_basis": "file dated",
  "benchmark": {
    "rung": 4,
    "rung_name": "Context measure: no target expected",
    "as_of": "2026-11-12",
    "items": [
      {
        "kind": "context",
        "label": "Context measure: no target expected",
        "area": null,
        "source": null,
        "documents_checked": null,
        "text": "Context measure: no target expected. A count of licences issued, shown as activity."
      }
    ],
    "drawn": [],
    "rule": "Highest rung found is shown; the site never sets a target. Methods, Targets."
  },
  "no_target_expected": "A count of licences issued, shown as activity.",
  "benchmarks": [],
  "highest_rung": null,
  "decided_by": [
    {
      "body": "COV",
      "name": "City of Victoria Council",
      "decides": "Regulates businesses and runs the City’s business licence system by bylaw.",
      "laws": [
        {
          "key": "cc8b",
          "label": "Community Charter, s. 8 (6)",
          "url": "https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/03026_02#section8"
        },
        {
          "key": "cc15",
          "label": "Community Charter, s. 15",
          "url": "https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/03026_02#section15"
        }
      ],
      "last": null,
      "next": null
    }
  ],
  "main_decision_maker": "City of Victoria Council",
  "label_1y": {
    "key": "same",
    "label": "About the same"
  },
  "label_long": null,
  "target_line": {
    "form": 7,
    "text": "No target expected",
    "target": null,
    "gap": null,
    "comparison": null,
    "applies_here": false,
    "note": "A count of licences issued, shown as activity."
  }
}