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MAYOR OF LANGFORD RESPONDS TO BIASED AND INCOMPLETE VICTORIA CHAMBER “REPORT CARD”

Langford, B.C. – The City of Langford is responding to a recent Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce “report card” that presents a selective and misleading picture of one of British Columbia’s fastest-growing and most vibrant communities.

“The Chamber’s report card is deeply disappointing,” said Mayor Scott Goodmanson. “It presents a biased and incomplete picture of Langford, provides little transparency regarding its methodology, and relies on conclusions that are not supported by the facts. Further, the City was never contacted to verify information, provide context, or correct inaccuracies before publication. As a result, the report card reads more like a politically motivated exercise than a serious assessment of municipal performance.”

The City of Langford believes it is important that its residents and businesses hear the facts, rather than the picture that the Victoria Chamber of Commerce chose to present.

Langford’s housing starts have significantly surpassed the provincial first-year housing target of 449 net new housing units. Within the first six months of reporting, Langford had already delivered 794 net new units, prompting the Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs to acknowledge the City’s “strong start” toward meeting its housing targets.

Langford’s new Official Community Plan has also received recognition for planning excellence, reflecting the City’s commitment to responsible growth, housing affordability, transportation choice, environmental stewardship, and focused economic development initiatives.

At the Tuesday, September 8th Council meeting, Langford Council approved a comprehensive long-term asset management strategy that is expected to save taxpayers approximately $1 billion over the next 75 years. The strategy increases the City’s asset-funding sustainability level from approximately 20% to approximately 80%. This can be achieved within the tax increases already identified in the City’s Five-Year Financial Plan and does not require additional asset-management tax increases beyond 2030.

“Responsible government means looking beyond the next election cycle,” said Goodmanson. “This Council has focused on protecting future taxpayers while continuing to invest in the services and infrastructure that our community needs today. This is responsible planning, which often comes with difficult decisions. This Council has always done what is in the best interests of the community, not for political favour.”

The Chamber’s treatment of taxation also lacks critical context. For many years, Langford’s tax rates were kept artificially and unsustainably low, and did not adequately fund long-term infrastructure renewal, protective services, or the needs of one of British Columbia’s fastest-growing communities.

Since 2023, Council has added 27 firefighters and increased the authorized strength of the RCMP serving Langford from 61 officers in 2022 to 76 officers in 2026, ensuring police and emergency services keep pace with rapid population growth. These investments, together with E-comm 911 costs and other protective services, account for a significant portion of recent tax increases.

“Much of recent taxation pressure results from provincial downloading, contractual obligations, population growth, and the need to address years of underinvestment in some protective services,” said Goodmanson. “Council has made the responsible choice to address those challenges directly rather than defer them to future taxpayers and future generations to sort out.”

Even after these necessary investments, property taxes on a representative single-family home in Langford remains comparable to the West Shore average and other nearby municipalities. In 2026, the average total property taxes for a single-family home in Langford was $5295, compared with an average of $5145 in all West Shore municipalities, $6726 in Saanich and $6923 in Victoria.

Concerningly, the Victoria Chamber’s statement that Langford has “the highest crime severity outside Victoria” is misleading. Statistics Canada’s 2025 Crime Severity Index for Langford was 61.52, compared with the provincial average of 92.37 and the City of Victoria at 161.18. Further, according to the Province of British Columbia’s Police Resources in B.C. 2024 report, Langford’s crime rate was 52 Criminal Code offences per 1,000 residents, substantially below the provincial average of 79 for RCMP municipal police units serving populations over 15,000 residents. Langford’s crime rate also compares favourably to many municipalities throughout the Capital Regional District.

“The Chamber’s irresponsible characterization of public safety in Langford is simply wrong,” said Goodmanson. “Langford’s crime rate and crime severity index are significantly lower than the provincial average. Residents deserve facts, complete context, and meaningful comparisons, not selective statistics that insight confusion and fear.”

Independent third-party organizations continue to recognize Langford’s success. In March 2026, BC Business Magazine ranked Langford as the second-most economically resilient municipality in British Columbia and the highest-ranked municipality in Greater Victoria. The ranking considered nine economic indicators, including population growth, housing starts, employment trends, economic diversity, residential sales, rental vacancy rates, and residents’ sense of belonging. As noted above, Langford’s new Official Community Plan has also received recognition for planning excellence, reflecting the City’s commitment to responsible growth, housing affordability, transportation choice, environmental stewardship, and economic development.

“While the City welcomes constructive criticism and meaningful dialogue, any organization claiming to evaluate municipal performance has a responsibility to ensure its analysis is factual, balanced, driven from public open-source data, and based on a complete understanding of the community it seeks to assess,” said Mayor Goodmanson. “This Council is proud of its record. We will continue focusing on housing, public safety, infrastructure, economic development, and sustainable financial management. Residents can judge our performance based on results, not so-called report cards adjudicated by a committee with political affiliations.”

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