Friday March 20, 2026 | LANGFORD, BC [Posted 1:43 pm]
News insights by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
At their Council meeting on Monday evening March 16, City of Langford Council passed a motion about sending a letter detailing their concerns about a lack of provincial funding for affordable housing as has resulted from BC Budget 2026.
This was in the context of the municipality being expected to meet strident housing construction targets as part of the BC government’s housing ministry directives to have housing development keep up with population growth demand — and to include affordable housing within that build-out.
If there is any city in BC that has been more strident on housing development than Langford, it would be hard to find.
The City also had concerns about how much staff time it has taken to produce reports related to housing (as to meeting targets for housing including in particular categories and zones), where it was thought by Council that staff time could have been better spent working on other aspects of housing development like grants and permits.
The motion was for the City’s letter to be sent to the Premier (David Eby), the housing minister (Christine Boyle) and the local MLA (Ravi Parmar).
In response to Langford’s concerns, the BC NDP government has this week provided a statement to Island Social Trends, from MLA Parmar.
The statement acknowledges the leadership that Langford provides in the area of housing development but it does not address the funding shortfall of BC Budget 2026 which is the linchpin problem for City of Langford to move forward with affordable housing projects.
Statement from Langford-Highlands MLA Ravi Parmar (March 18, 2026):
“Our Housing Targets are about encouraging municipalities to remove red tape and speed up the delivery of new homes where they’re needed most. I’m glad to say that Langford has already been taking proactive steps towards this goal.
“While our provincial government is adjusting the pace of some affordable housing investments and moving investments in some projects to later years due to fiscal constraints, we remain firm in our resolve to deliver the housing we’ve committed to.
“Our focus is on seeing municipalities doing everything they can to remove barriers to construction, and set the stage for more homes to be built. Any municipality doing this work is leading by example and making good progress, and we are continuing to have conversations with municipalities about how we get there.”
Comment from Langford’s mayor:
Island Social Trends will post any comment available from Langford Mayor Scott Goodmanson on how the City plans to proceed with affordable housing projects and/or the statement received from the local MLA.
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NEWS SECTIONS: LANGFORD | HOUSING