‘This is our moment’: New Canterbury Ambition lays out how region will keep its edge

Thursday, 12 February 2026

Business leaders and the region’s mayors have taken the unusual step of writing their own vision, arguing the region needs a plan of its own rather than waiting for decisions from Wellington.

The new Canterbury Ambition document is a two-page vision with three priorities: early investment in energy, transport and infrastructure, protecting Canterbury’s edge in housing and lifestyle, and simpler rules so it is easier to build and do business across council boundaries.

Those behind the project say it is a vision for the whole Canterbury region – from Kaikōura to Waimate – not just Christchurch.

Business Canterbury chief executive Leeann Watson said the chamber pushed the project because the region had strong numbers – fast job growth and relatively affordable housing compared with other main centres – but no single story about where it was heading or how it would protect those advantages as population and investment rise.

“We see businesses every day with really strong ambitions, doing amazing things, but there hasn’t been a collective, unified vision,” she said.

“We didn’t want to sit around waiting for someone in Wellington or a council office to tell us what Canterbury’s future should be. The private sector drives the economy, so it needs to help define the vision and the conditions for businesses to thrive.”

She described the last 18 months as “robust and sometimes contentious”, as mayors, council chief executives, iwi representatives and large employers argued over what should make the final cut.

The document, to be launched in Christchurch on Thursday night, is not a detailed funding plan. Instead, it is intended to sit alongside any future “regional deal” – a long-term funding and powers package between central and local government – and act as a test for which projects should go into that bid.

“When councils are deciding what goes into a regional deal, we want them asking: will this invest ahead of demand, will it protect our housing and lifestyle edge, and will it make it easier to operate across the whole region?” Watson said. “If the answer is no, it probably doesn’t belong there.”

Urban Intelligence chief executive Mitchell Anderson, whose Christchurch-based resilience firm has backed the work, said his main concern was that Canterbury did not slip back into reacting to crises after the fact.

“We can’t be prosperous or a great place to live if we’re constantly being disrupted and reacting to major events,” he said. “After what we’ve already been through with the earthquakes, it would be ridiculous not to use those lessons and plan proactively for very different decades ahead.”

He pointed to fast-growing districts such as Selwyn as examples of where the region needed to “invest ahead of demand” rather than scramble to catch up once roads, pipes and services were already under strain.

“Selwyn is one of the fastest-growing districts in the country, but there’s a real risk if we don’t build ahead of that demand. If we miss the boat, people will simply choose to invest somewhere else.”

Anderson said Canterbury’s current reputation for liveability and relative affordability was not guaranteed.

“You only have to look at how quickly perceptions of liveability can shift in any New Zealand city to see how fast things can turn. That’s exactly what we don’t want to see happen in Canterbury.”

Backers of the work include some of the region’s biggest employers and infrastructure players, including Christchurch Airport, Fabrum, ANZCO, Urban Intelligence, Fulton Hogan, Fonterra, 2degrees, Beca, the University of Canterbury and Orion.

Fabrum managing director Christopher Boyle said the process had forced leaders to be honest about what already set Canterbury apart.

“There aren’t many regions in New Zealand that have two deep-water ports, an international airport and several tertiary institutions all producing talent. Once you put that on the table, you get a much clearer sense of the strengths we should be playing to as a region.”

Boyle said Fabrum chose Canterbury as its base precisely because of the region’s deep pool of manufacturing skills and supporting industries.

He nodded to a line often credited to George Bernard Shaw – that hell is to drift and heaven is to steer – and said Canterbury Ambition was about the region steering its own future rather than being pushed along by decisions made elsewhere.

Fonterra central South Island operations general manager Peter Murphy said the co-operative’s fortunes were closely tied to the region’s.

“We’ve been here at Clandeboye for about 120 years and we’re a farmer-owned co-operative, so the success of the region and the success of Fonterra go hand in hand,. We need Canterbury to be an attractive region with the right skills and supporting industries if we’re going to keep growing.”

Murphy said Canterbury Ambition’s focus on energy resilience matched Fonterra’s own plans. “Investing in resilient energy is a big one for us,” he said. “We need the transmission and infrastructure in place so we can make the right calls.”

Canterbury Ambition has so far been driven through workshops with businesses and councils rather than direct public consultation, something Watson accepts will draw questions about whether “big business” is calling the shots. She argues the interests of households and firms are closely linked.

“Some people will say this is just big business deciding what’s good for the region, but you can’t have strong community outcomes without a strong economy,” she said. “A strong economy comes from the business community, and our job is to explain that connection.”

Thursday’s launch is being pitched as the starting line rather than the finish.

Business Canterbury and the Mayoral Forum now plan to agree baseline measures for housing affordability, consent times, foreign investment and infrastructure activity, then work through which projects – and which mix of local, central and private money – will be needed to shift those numbers.

“Canterbury is in a really strong position right now, but this is our moment and we can’t get complacent,” Watson said.

“We need to unite around a shared vision and write the next chapter of the Canterbury story, not just hope things carry on as they are.”