Vancouver Island industry runs on big, spread-out sites: sawmills on the water, planer mills and chip piles, fabrication shops in Nanaimo and Langford, and equipment yards up the Island Highway. Many of them run one shift or sit idle for weeks when markets turn. Secure Defence provides industrial and manufacturing security systems on Vancouver Island built around live video monitoring. Trained, licensed operators watch your cameras 24/7 and step in while a theft or fire is starting, not after the damage is done.
Secure Defence has been in the security business for 11 years. Live video monitoring is what we do. Our own operators work from our command centre in Richmond, BC, and Vancouver is our main market. We serve all of Western Canada, including BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and the Island has its own salesperson and installation technician who know the roads, the weather and the mills.
We are award-winning and were named the Fastest Growing Security Company in Canada by The Globe and Mail and BIV in 2025 and 2026. We protect 500+ customers and 1,000+ sites across Western Canada.
Western Forest Products closed its Chemainus sawmill for all of 2026 after first curtailing it in July 2025, and announced short curtailments at its Ladysmith and Saltair mills (CHEK News, Jan 2026). A mill with no crew is a mill nobody is watching. Copper, tools, fuel and spare parts all become easy pickings.
BC Hydro reported 11 copper wire thefts from its equipment on Vancouver Island since January 2024, most in Greater Victoria, with repair costs across BC estimated at about $1.2 million (NanaimoNewsNOW, Dec 2025). In May 2026 thieves took copper grounding wire from an electrical substation in Parksville and damaged the fence, with repairs estimated at $40,000 (Nanaimo News Bulletin). Industrial sites with cable reels, scrap bins and electrical rooms are the same kind of target.
Police on the West Shore recovered more than $140,000 in property taken from multiple communities across the Island, including two pickups, a flat-deck trailer, a cargo trailer of construction equipment, scaffolding and a 35-ton wood splitter (Victoria News, Jan 2026). Gear stolen in Langford can be in Port Alberni by morning.
Cameras with smart detection pick up people and vehicles moving on your property during the hours you choose. An operator checks the live picture straight away. A shift worker coming back for a lunch kit is noted and left alone. Someone climbing the fence by the scrap bin hears a live voice warning through the speaker. If they ignore it, the siren and strobes go off, and when a crime is confirmed we call for Verified Police Response with what we can see: how many people, what they are driving and which way they went.
Each alert is checked by a person, so you get a 1-minute verified response and zero false alarms. Clients see 98%+ overall crime reduction. See how it works on our live video monitoring page.
Log yards, finished lumber, chip and hog fuel piles, maintenance shops and fuel tanks. Thermal and long-range cameras cover large yards and long fence lines in the dark, and an operator checks every alert they raise before acting.
Loading bays, raw material storage, the fence line and the parking lot. Biometric access control records who enters the plant after hours.
Multi-tenant parks where one camera system can cover shared lanes and each tenant's doors.
Excavators, loaders, trailers and attachments. LPR (licence plate recognition) logs vehicles coming and going, and GPS tracking can be added to high-value units.
Industrial security is not only about theft. Our early fire detection adds fire and smoke detection to the cameras, which matters around sawdust, chip piles and battery chargers. Operators can spot a fire on an empty site and raise the alarm.
Many sites also need a record. Incident reports include operator notes and HD video, we keep 30 to 90 days of footage, and our operators can search all your cameras in under 5 seconds when an environmental officer, insurer or WorkSafeBC asks what happened at a given time. Video of a spill, a dumped load or an unsafe entry helps you show what you did about it.
Our equipment is rated to -40 C, so cold snaps are no issue, and the cameras see in heavy rain and low light. Every powered site gets a 24-hour backup power system, which matters when winter storms knock out power up and down the Island.
If you already have cameras, they can usually connect to our command centre the same day. New pole cameras are live in 5 to 7 days. For a remote log sort, gravel pit or staging yard with no power, we use solar camera towers that go up in 24 hours and run on a 2-week battery that holds in winter. More on off-grid solutions.
Live monitoring covers the whole site at once, every night, and clients save up to 70% compared with on-site guards. If you need a guard during a shutdown or a turnaround, guards are available as a secondary option. Our service is insurance-approved and backed by a 30-Day Performance Guarantee.
"Over the year we have had countless jobsite robbery attempts, and Secure Defence's equipment and trained staff handled everything promptly and professionally resulting in no property theft or damage. There are not enough companies out there like Secure Defence anymore. Highly recommended."
For yards and warehouses that move freight, see warehouse and truck yard security on Vancouver Island. You can also visit our Vancouver Island security hub and commercial and industrial security.
Our local team will visit your mill, plant or yard, look at the weak spots and send a recommended setup and quote within 24 to 48 hours.