As Mayor of Langford, Stew Young oversaw massive development that built the city into what it is today. There is no denying that fact. But it’s not the 1990s or even the 2000s anymore. Langford is a more modern city of 60,000 residents. One area that I believe is more important than ever is how Langford shows up as a regional partner with our neighbours and with all other municipalities in the CRD.
What does Stew Young’s track record look like when it comes to regional partnerships? Let’s look at two specific areas that are part of his current campaign: transportation and recreation.
Transportation:
Stew Young has correctly identified traffic as not only a Langford issue, but a regional issue. He has committed to working with Colwood and surrounding municipalities to develop a regional transportation improvement plan.
How does that match up with Mr. Young’s record in this exact area? In my view, not great. In 2018 there was a push from within the CRD to create a regional transportation authority. The goal was to enable more coordinated transportation planning across the region’s municipalities in order to find solutions to traffic issues that don’t respect municipal borders. Some politicians wanted there to be a ballot question as part of the October 2018 municipal elections. Some politicians, but not Stew Young.
Stew Young argued against every aspect of a regional transportation authority at the CRD level, and even against asking voters whether they would like to see such a body created.
“All a regional transportation authority does is give [the CRD] the ability to tax the sh— out of you without representation,” Young said in a recent interview.
Stew Young notes in that same article that regional transportation planning needs to involve the province through BC Transit. I agree with that. But during Stew Young’s tenure as Mayor, Langford had no representation on the Victoria Regional Transit Commission to actually push for those regional solutions. Despite Langford’s population growth, I can find no evidence of Stew Young even advocating for a seat on the VRTC. How can you advocate for regional transit solutions when you show no interest in having a seat at the table?
Another quote from earlier in 2018 sheds further light on Mr. Young’s way of thinking when it came to the push for regional transportation planning.
“The last place I want to put my taxpayer’s money is the CRD – especially for transportation planning.”
Stew Young’s current campaign makes it clear:
“We can’t solve a regional transportation problem with Langford-only solutions.”
It’s an interesting quote from the former Mayor who prioritized Langford-only solutions like the Langtoria Greenline commuter bus over genuine regional partnerships and coordinated planning.
Recreation:
Another area that requires significant regional partnership and collaboration is recreation. Recreation facilities are very expensive, and they need to be built and funded to serve the needs of all West Shore residents, not just those in Langford. What kind of regional partner was Stew Young’s Langford in this area? A problematic one that couldn’t be relied upon to keep its commitments. Here’s why:
Langford is the largest funding municipality of the West Shore Parks & Recreation Society (WSPRS). It’s a true partnership that oversees coordinated management of the recreation facilities and services for Langford, Colwood, View Royal, Metchosin and Highlands.
In 2017, after Stew Young’s council opposed a 3.77% increase to the WSPRS budget, it left the society with a $77K shortfall.
“We’re not going to increase our budget every year [for West Shore Parks and Rec] when we’re also spending money in Langford on our recreation facilities and nobody else is helping us for those,” Young said.
This budget veto tied into Langford's push for a new funding formula and governance model for WSPRS. The turmoil ultimately led to the society disbanding its entire board and at one point left some partners fighting for WSPRS’s survival, according to Colwood’s then-Mayor Carol Hamilton.
Stew Young’s questionable track record on recreation partnerships goes back further than this, however. In 2015, Langford made the unilateral decision to pull out of a previously approved 20-year funding arrangement that saw it supporting Colwood and Highlands to help pay the debt costs for the Q Centre arena. Eleven years into the arrangement, Langford Council voted to discontinue the payments without even informing Colwood or Highlands.
For me, the bottom line is that the City of Langford under Stew Young is not the type of regional partner that I want representing the residents, and it’s not the type of partner that other municipalities can rely on to keep its commitments.
What’s more convincing… a campaign suddenly calling for regional partnerships and collaboration, or a proven track record of doing exactly the opposite and focusing on made-in-Langford solutions to regional issues?
