Thursday January 22, 2026 | LANGFORD, BC [Updated January 23, 2026 at 2:49 pm]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
This week Langford’s mayor and a few councillors heard ideas and suggestions from members of the local west shore business community.
The morning roundtable event on January 20 was held at the Langford Legion in collaboration with the West Shore Chamber of Commerce. The event was an idea put forward by Langford City Councillor Mary Wagner who is the City of Langford Council liaison with the local chamber.
Learn about what’s needed:
Wagner introduced the morning challenge to learn more about improvements for the local business community. Wagner participated in the roundtable discussions as did Langford Mayor Scott Goodmanson and City Councillor Kimberley Guiry.
“It was great to get together with local businesses and discuss what they would like to see in Langford,” says Councillor Wagner.
“It sounds simple, but it’s so worthwhile gathering chamber members, other businesses and council members all in a room to share current information and ideas for the future,” says Wagner.
The event was emceed by West Shore Chamber Executive Director Julie Lawlor and Chamber President Kelly Darwin.
Custom format:
Rather than each participant just offering suggestions that they likely came prepared with, about 50 leaders from smaller and mid-size businesses and non-profits were guided to discuss three key questions through group discussion:
- What business services are missing for you?
- How do we attract and retain businesses in Langford?
- What amenities or community assets and services (like parks or day care) do you think are missing in Langford?
Suggestions:
There was a consistent overall theme at Tuesday’s session — that bigger more established businesses are given more supports than start-ups, smaller and online businesses, and non-profit organizations that provide a wide range of services.
There were essentially no participants present on Tuesday from business sectors that are generally already well-served by the Chamber, such as local retail, big-box stores, tourism and sports, and restaurants.
Comments and suggestions from the roundtable groups were read back out to the room by one person at each table.
- Missing services: funding for the non-profits that support city programs and local community services; recognition and exposure for online and home-based businesses; street safety and addressing homelessness; business transition/succession so that some services don’t disappear out of the business ecosystem.
- Attract and retain: Support online and home-based businesses; create more office spaces and supports (like boardrooms); long-term macro planning for downtown and other Langford neighbourhoods; boost the downtown area with a theatre and conference centre; restore the tax-break for start-up or new businesses that was frequently used in Langford when big-box stores were first attracted to the city in the early 2000s; offer incubator or micro-financing to smaller businesses.
- Amenities and assets: An indoor concert theatre; a west shore conference centre; workshops for businesses; a shared business space for non-profit organizations including child care, food supports, meeting space, youth support, library and care clinics; direct the City to apply Amenity Cost Charges (ACCs) toward new community amenities.
New Chamber members:
There were five people at Tuesday’s roundtable who are not currently West Shore Chamber of Commerce members, as determined by a show of hands.
City budget:
The City of Langford is coming up to their Budget 2026 deliberations. The City presents provides about $25,000 to the West Shore Chamber of Commerce each year (figure as of 2025) which encompasses an understanding to taxpayers that the broader business community is served the Chamber beyond their own membership.
In addition to ideally informing the Chamber as to where they could make changes for the benefit of the municipality’s business community, the timing of this week’s session was an opportunity for Council to learn more about what the Chamber is not yet doing for local business.
The Chamber is a membership-serving service. The City aims to be aware of where the Chamber is not yet serving the interests of all businesses in the municipality.
Public input:
In 2025 there was a City of Langford Economic Development survey and a series of focus groups which were intended to inform the upcoming City of Langford Economic Develop strategy. The focus groups were organized by external consultants whose experience was in communities other than Langford.
Comments about business and economic development in Langford can be emailed to comms@langford.ca .
===== RELATED:
NEWS SECTIONS: BUSINESS | LANGFORD | HOME-BASED BUSINESS