Sunday January 21, 2024 | LANGFORD, BC
Editorial commentary by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
While naturally ahead of any municipal council meeting people in the room will say hello, engage in conversations and perhaps share some key information about their interests.
Ahead of last month’s City of Langford council meeting there was a bit more of a welcoming push, with social media invitations and some tasty refreshments for residents, by which to chat with mayor and councillors in council chambers.
Mayor Scott Goodmanson, Councillor Mary Wagner and others from council said it was a bit of an experiment, a way to have more informal conversations with residents aside from what might be in the formal agenda.
The January 15 pre-meeting mixer lasted 45 minutes, ahead of the 7 pm meeting start. It was a good gesture on the part of this ‘new’ council that is in some ways still finding their rhythm in the ‘little city that grew’.
Old and new:
Under the sheer force and momentum of the previous 30-year mayor and a fairly consistent council all those years quite naturally the ‘old guard’ surrounded the success-builders. That group (with some light revision) remains embedded in Langford politics, particularly in some areas of social media (notably Facebook).
Langford Council is now comprised of Scott Goodmanson as mayor, with councillors Kimberley Guiry, Colby Harder, Mark Morley, Lillians Szpak, Mary Wagner, and Keith Yacucha.
Only Szpak was on the previous council; the clean sweep has been a matter of some fascination for over a year now. Even NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh made a point of visiting the new council last year with some fascination as to the political shift, accompanied by local MP Alistair MacGregor (Cowichan-Malahat-Langford).
Councillors Colby Harder and Mary Wagner have been working particularly hard at ‘welcoming back’ the disenfranchised who didn’t quite fit the momentum and style of the previous council. That’s not just friendly but it’s strong politics to not waste the range of human talent and potential in the community.
Most of the nearly 100 minglers last Monday evening were folks vying for new runways in the new Langford reality as well as those just keen to stay in the loop in real-time; most of the same folks also showed up for a tree management presentation last fall. Few if any from the development community was at Monday night’s meeting, though there are some regulars from the local NDP constituency realm. The next Langford public meeting opportunity is the Official Community Plan Refresh event this week (on Tuesday January 23).
Financial decisions:
The council elected in October 2022 and sworn-in in November 2022 has — like the mythical Atlas — been shouldering much weight that is heavy and shifting; they were left with some raw and some yet-to-be-unravelled scenarios to deal with (e.g. figuring out the YMCA lease and dealing with the realities of misshapen revenues by using contingency funds — both of which led to a big property tax increase in 2023).
It’s worth noting that holding the tax increase to about 2% for many years has now come home to roost, with significant impacts on not only Langford’s prominent real estate investment sector but also the renters who pay the mortgages for those property owners (spillover effect to higher rents but also resale evictions).
New directions in Langford:
Everyone can see now that a new direction in Langford politics emerged in 2022 in response to strident moves by the previous leadership in some directions while leaving others unattended.
But without the work of Stew Young’s team Langford wouldn’t be the thriving metropolis that it is today. The town has emerged as a city of population 55,000+ that seems to call to a wider range of people, and with that a wider range of requirements for social and physical infrastructure.
It was surprising to discover how tremulous the current council (perhaps it could be called Langford Council 2.0) was in having a meet and greet ahead of their meeting last week. They seem unduly sensitive for having been challenged over restricting public input (though no different than the previous council — and many other councils across BC, just in a different perhaps less strategist way). The voters brought them in — that’s reason enough to have full confidence.
The Monday evening informal chat was a good move that demonstrated leadership and openness; they needn’t fall victim to political machinations from some that might try that tack.
Upcoming meetings:
The next Langford community get-together will be at the upcoming Official Community Plan Refresh presentation on January 23 at the Langford Legion.
Langford council and committee meeting agendas, minutes and videos are posted on the Langford.ca website.
===== ABOUT THE WRITER:
Island Social Trends Editor Mary P Brooke has been covering municipal and school district news of the west shore since 2014 (the printed weekly West Shore Voice News ran 2014-2020 before re-emerging in the pandemic at IslandSocialTrends.ca).
Ms Brooke began her publication series in 2008 in Sooke with MapleLine Magazine (2008-2010) and the weekly printed Sooke Voice News (2011-2013) before relocating to Langford in 2017 to expand West Shore Voice News to covering broader aspects of the west shore including the Premier being from the west shore neck of the woods.
Mary P Brooke ran for school trustee in the west shore (SD62) in 2022.
Since covering the daily COVID news in 2020-2022, Ms Brooke now reports with the BC Legislative Press Gallery. In 2023 she was nominated for a Jack Webster Journalism Award that recognizes the contributions of a woman journalist to her community through journalism.
In 2024, Ms Brooke has launched the Urban Food Resilience Initiatives Society (UFRIS) to bring leadership to the important work of municipal support for food-growing capacity in local neighbourhoods.
In 2024 the biweekly print edition of Island Social Trends is launching in the west shore and other parts of Greater Victoria. Advertisers and subscribers welcome.