Sunday October 19, 2025 | LANGFORD, BC [Posted at 3:21 am | Updated 10:19 am & 12:39 pm]
Community development analysis by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Steady rain on Saturday didn’t keep engaged Langford residents away from a highly anticipated public engagement event.
The City of Langford Ideas Fair on October 18 saw as many as 250 people attend to view five areas of policy development:
- Arts & Culture Strategy
- Economic Development Strategy
- Transportation Master Plan
- Active Transportation Plan
- Parks and Trails Master Plan
Held at the downtown Langford campus of Royal Roads University (aka John Horgan campus), 798 Goldstream Avenue the three-hour engagement activity form 11 am to 2 pm was an opportunity for the public to discuss Langford issues with elected council members and City staff.
Many of those who attended are long-time regulars of the Langford community but there was a range of new faces of the community as well.
The City was anticipating questions, meaningful discussions and feedback.
Staff and elected officials as well as the range of consultants that the City has brought on were there to engage with the public.
The amount of detail is significant both in the strategic plans themselves and the input that is received trhough public engagement.
At Saturday’s event all city councillors attended — Kimberley Guiry, Colby Harder, Mark Morley, Lillian Szpak, Mary Wagner, and Keith Yacucha — and engaged extensively with the wide range of people from the community. Mayor Goodmanson was not in attendance.
There did not seem to be any other levels of government attending (e.g. CRD, MLA, MP); this was for the public to meet face to face with municipal elected officials and to co-mingle with other community members and leaders.
Format:
A series of poster boards were on display around the public space on the main floor of the RRU building. The usual low-tech activities of putting stickers on boards or putting beads in jars was relied upon by some of the consultants at their displays.
Overall, the types of statements that were presented for response were very general, and some almost repetitive. It’s unclear how much meaningful feedback can be determined from this type of format, other than very general impressions of support for pre-established ideas.
For most of the ideas presented on engagement boards, the content was evidently developed from earlier phases of public engagement (surveys and focus groups).
Both the advantage and the risk of working with consultants is, of course, how well they are informed as to the target audience mindset and politics in a mix with their own perspectives on the topic at hand. How tested is the system of assembling a mass of information from short thoughts scribbled on post-it notes into engagement results that indicate a valid profile of community views and needs? How much room does council have in guiding the outcomes to align with their vision for the City?
Apparently the process does recognize that people who show up to participate in a live ideas session are only one segment of the community. The online surveys — if well constructed to allow for reliable and fresh input — provide a different level of detail that be used as a foundation for the sticky-note process.
Political timeline:
Except for one city councillor, the current Langford mayor and council are all new to elected office. Elected in the fall of 2022, they have pursued an ambitious agenda of reshaping the direction of Langford in ways that are fundamental for a growing, urbanizing town.
Once approved by council — much of which is expected to take place by year-end or in early 2026, the City of Langford will have a new framework within which to grow and fulfill the needs of a broader community vision.
Community needs and issues:
The range of topics for the five areas of strategic plans and master plans is wide in scope. Through transportation, economic development, parks, and arts, there is an opportunity to explore much of what a community expects from local municipal governance.
Of course, underlying any of success with those areas of community life are the foundational components of overall economy, housing, recreation and healthy living supports.
People who relocate to Langford from larger cities expect a range of amenities beyond outdoor recreation and sports. In that respect the arts and culture component is key — and yet of the five areas of strategic planning seems to have the least strength of vision so far.
Active transportation seems to have a foothold as a key aspect of mobility within the city, as does the area of parks and trails in response to aspects of recreation and healthy living as well as protecting the environment.
The City’s new economic development strategy could be the most important of all in terms of getting it right. The baseline economy of Langford was for many years about bringing big retail to the west shore region and developing housing as a big support to the construction sector. From those two sectors have been numerous economic spin-offs for tourism, sports, and outdoor recreation.
Now the underpinning of a strong urban economy will need greater support including a wider range of businesses (including home-based business) and developing a business investment area agency (which can enhance economic development beyond the typical range of membership-based Chamber of Commerce model).
There are economic development opportunities for tourism beyond sports and outdoor recreation including small neighbourhood-based art galleries, food-growing initiatives, cosplay community development, and nature-based attractions. Promoting Langford as central to the Greater Victoria region could have enormous economic returns.
Online Surveys:
Over the course of this year, surveys have been running for several of the strategic plans and master plans. See profiles of those surveys at LetsChatLangford.ca. Currently active surveys include:
- Economic Development Survey (open to November 9)
- Arts & Culture (open to November 9)
===== RELATED:
- City of Langford Ideas Fair coming up Oct 18 (October 17, 2025)
- Share your ideas on Arts and Culture – survey open to Nov 9 (September 15, 2025)
- Got ideas on Langford’s economic development? – survey open to Nov 9 (September 15, 2025)
- Strong turnout for Langford master plans Ideas Fair (March 15, 2025)
- NEWS SECTIONS: LANGFORD | WEST SHORE LOCAL | EVENTS NEWS | PARKS & TRAILS