With Langley City Council meetings wrapped up for the year and Christmas just around the corner, I will be taking a break from blogging. I’ll be back blogging on January 5th.
I hope you are able to spend some time with the people who are important in your life this holiday season.
Do you love Langley City and are looking for a way to help contribute to making our community the place to be? Do you have a passion for improving our environment and parks, enhancing community safety, making our community more accessible, ensuring buildings have great design that fits the context of our city, growing economic opportunities, providing more opportunities for the arts and artists, or helping people discover our history?
If you answered yes, volunteering on a Langley City Council committee may be a good fit for you. You can have a direct say in influencing the direction of your community and get to meet other like-minded folks.
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| Environmental Sustainability Committee members at Community Day operating the waste sorting station. |
I was involved in various versions of Langley City’s Environmental Sustainability Committee, and it helped influence my decision to eventually run for City Council.
If you’d like to learn more about how to volunteer for a Langley City Committee, please visit Langley City’s website. You must apply by January 9, 2026.
Yesterday evening, Langley City Council gave final reading to our 2026-2030 Financial Plan Bylaw, adopting the budget for next year. I’ve posted about the cost drivers for maintaining current service levels, one-time capital projects for 2026, and enhancements to municipal services for Langley City.
This is the last budget for this term of Council. The next budget will occur after the 2026 municipal elections. We do a lot of talking as politicians about what we think is important; a budget is what really separates “just talk” from action. With these two things in mind, I wanted to share where we’ve invested over the last four budget cycles.
In total, the budget has grown by about $13 million or 38.5% over the last four years. $6.6 million, or about half of that, is to maintain current service levels. Of the $6.6 million, about half was to maintain current policing levels.
Langley City Council has invested significantly in public safety, including getting more “boots on the ground” to meet the needs of our growing community.
We have funded 9 new suppression firefighters and one new fire prevention officer. This has enabled us to go from operating one 24/7 firefighting crew to two 24/7 firefighting crews.
We have funded 5 new police officers with a focus on the arrival of SkyTrain and one new bylaw officer position.
We’ve also stood up our own Emergency Program, with people ready to respond when disaster strikes.
This is an additional $2.8 million in public safety investments.
One of the basic responsibilities of a municipality is investing in infrastructure such as roads, paths, parks, water, and sewers. Langley City Council has increased our transfer to reserve accounts to pay for these projects from $1 million to $2.4 million annually over this term, an increase of $1.4 million to help slowly bring down our infrastructure debt.
We’ve also invested $1.2 million to support purchasing land to help prepare for the arrival of SkyTrain. We invested $410,000 to expand our recreation and cultural offerings, including extending Al Anderson Pool operations from 4 months to 6 months.
Council has also invested $197,000 in back-office support, such as IT and HR. To address some of the long-term social challenges in our community, including homelessness, we’ve set up a new department for $180,000. We’ve also hired additional people to help maintain our urban forest for $140,000.
There are some smaller items we’ve invested in as well, such as funding the annual McBurney Plaza aerial display and enhanced Christmas lights in our Downtown for $35,000, which bring a little joy to people's lives, and I wanted to call those out.
The following interactive chart shows the breakdown of investments over this term.
When you look back on this term, our budget shows Council’s commitment to public safety, investing in the basics, and preparing for the future while maintaining the current services that people need. These investments will also ensure that the City is in a healthy financial position for the next Council.
In the same meeting, Council also adopted an updated fees and charges bylaw, solid waste fees, and an updated Intermunicipal Business License bylaw.
The Metro Vancouver Regional District is responsible for air quality in our region. As part of this responsibility, the Regional District monitors air quality and issues alerts and warnings when conditions are compromised.
The summer is typically when we have air quality warnings, either due to wildfire smoke or local air pollution. This summer, the Regional District issued seven warnings, including one on August 24th due to local pollution and wildfire smoke, and on August 26th due to local pollution. Between September 3rd and 7th, the Regional District issued warnings due to wildfire smoke.
The following chart shows trends in air emissions warnings over the last two decades.
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| Number of air quality warning days in the Lower Fraser Valley airshed. Select the chart to enlarge. |
Of note, this year saw the second-highest forested area burned on record in Canada due to wildfires, with 8.9 million hectares burned as of the end of September. The Regional District's goal is to issue zero local emissions warnings, though there hasn’t been a year without one since 2019. Ground-level ozone is harmful to human health and is what triggers these local emissions warnings. Ground-level ozone is created when emissions, primarily from internal combustion vehicles (marine and ground), interact with sunlight.
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| The future end (or start) of the Expo Line in Langley City. Select the image to enlarge. |
As you may know, I am a bit of a transit nerd, so I was absolutely thrilled when the folks from Transportation Investment Corporation invited me for a tour of the Langley City Centre Station construction site. I had no choice but to say yes.
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| I was having a good look around the construction site with our tour guides. Select the image to enlarge. |
It was an extremely rainy day yesterday, but even in the pouring rain, ironworkers were still busy at work.
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| Ironworkers are building columns to support the Langley City Centre SkyTrain Station. Select the image to enlarge. |
One thing I learned from the tour is that much of the infrastructure supporting the SkyTrain stations and guideway is underground. For example, in the Serpentine River valley, they have to drive pilings down 100 metres (about the same height as a 30-storey building) to reach firm ground. Langley City is also on mucky ground, so they have to pile-drive down to about 30 metres (about 9 stories).
The station columns themselves are also connected together below ground to prevent them from shifting or twisting.
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| The interconnected columns for the Langley City Centre SkyTrain Station. Select the image to enlarge. |
Work is currently underway on Fraser Highway to support the SkyTrain in Langley City. They are running the power ducting and cabling to support the SkyTrain. This work is expected to be finished next summer. Next year, you will start to see sections of guideway along Industrial Avenue in Langley City. The first guideway section will be near 203rd Street and on the old ICBC site at Fraser Highway and Production Way.
There will be impacts on travel patterns, and you may notice vibrations from pile driving as guideway construction kicks into high gear. To stay up to date on construction, you can sign up for email notifications on the project’s website.
This is a once-in-a-lifetime project in Langley City, and it will have a profound impact on our community by connecting people to more opportunities. For the City’s part, we have been preparing for SkyTrain’s arrival for close to a decade; we will be ready for opening day.
Langley City Council and staff are continually looking for ways to improve, and one area of focus is updating our Community Grant policy. The City provides up to $168,000 in community grants to nonprofit and neighborhood groups annually, funded by casino revenue we receive. On Monday night, City staff proposed updates to the policy for Council's consideration. At a high level, the updates include setting a $10,000 cash limit per application, providing $500 grants to neighborhoods (informal groups of Langley City residents) to host community-building events, and streamlining the application process. While Council was generally supportive of these changes, they want to see further streamlining of the process for low-dollar-value grants and an increase in the cash limit. Staff will take Council’s feedback to provide a revised policy for Council’s consideration at a future meeting.
Council addressed some land-use matters, including giving final reading to adopt an update to our Official Community Plan. You can read more about this in a previous post.
Council also gave third and final reading to adopt an update to our zoning bylaw to allow a medical clinic with an in-clinic pharmacy, no larger than 1,076 square feet, at 20334 56 Avenue. Our zoning bylaw prohibits a new pharmacy from being located within 400 metres of another pharmacy. As this medical clinic with a pharmacy would be within 400 metres of another pharmacy, it needed an exemption. The applicant stated that this would not be a full-service retail pharmacy and would be a service for their medical patients. Council required that the pharmacy's operating hours match those of the medical clinic. The applicant also agreed to keep the pharmacy exterior signage to the minimum required by the College of Pharmacists. We need more doctors in our community, and the restriction around pharmacy provides assurance that this isn’t a sneaked-in full-service retail pharmacy. You can read about the public hearing in a previous post.
Council also gave first, second, and third reading to update our intermunicipal business licensing bylaw. It added “health care professional or health care service provider who only provides services by visiting clients in their homes” to the program. This allows mobile businesses from Pitt Meadows and Delta, east to Hope, to operate with only one business license in participating municipalities, not up to 12.
Council referred a letter from the Metro Vancouver Regional District seeking feedback on a regional land-use change from Agricultural to Employment lands at the corner of 64th Avenue and 152nd Street in Surrey to staff for comment back to the Regional District. You can learn more about this in a previous post.
Last night, Langley City Council considered several matters that form the 2026 budget for our municipality. Council gave third reading to the 2026-2030 Financial Plan last night. I’ve posted about the financial plan extensively over the last few months, and I invite you to read a previous post for more information. One of the recruiting discussion points is the thought that the City should use the previous year’s end-of-year surpluses to fund ongoing operating costs.
Local governments must run balanced budgets and cannot run an operating deficit. Because we set tax and utility fee rates once a year, municipal financial plans must be budgeted conservatively. If revenue comes in under budget, it would have a significant impact on a local government's operations. Langley City Council used to approve the budget in February/March of the budget year. This means that any new position wouldn’t be hired until partway through the year. The City also collects fees, gets interest from reserve accounts, and receives grants. These revenues are variable and can be hard to predict. Between mid-year hiring, temporary staffing vacancies, and revenue variability, all these factors can lead to an operating surplus. Between 2013 and 2024, we had surpluses that ranged from $160,000 to $5.3 million. To help reduce surpluses caused by job vacancies and get hiring started earlier, the 2026 budget process is now underway, with adoption expected in December rather than March (as in previous years). Surpluses are hard to predict and cannot be relied upon to fund permanent expenditures or to reduce taxes. Council’s policy is to allocate any surplus to our capital reserves for one-time projects to be invested back into the community.
Council gave first, second, and third readings to a bylaw to adopt the 2026 solid waste fee. The City provides garbage and organics collection services to detached homes and non-strata townhomes. The flat fee for 2026 is $432.00, an increase of $41.00 or 10.5% over 2025.
Council gave final reading to adopt the water fees for 2026. You can read more about this in a previous post.
Finally, Council adopted other various fees and charge increases to keep up with inflation for 2026. You can read more about these fees and charges on the City’s website.
As a note, all bylaws require three readings and an adoption. With the exception of zoning bylaws and amendments to a zoning bylaw, there must be at least a day between the three readings and adoption. Council can choose to have three readings at once or split them apart.
As I posted in early November, Langley City Council and staff are always looking for ways to improve, including how we run our meetings. We are currently looking at ways to improve our decision-making process and have asked staff to review Best Practices for Efficient and Effective meetings to identify improvements we could potentially incorporate. As part of the process, City staff asked Council what areas we should focus on. They are as follows:
Order:
Focus:
Efficiency
Equality
Decorm
Safe Meeting Environment
As I noted in my last post on this topic, these focus areas can also be useful if you are in a strata or non-profit and looking to improve the decision-making process for the organizations you are part of. Langley City staff will now be looking at best practices, approaches, or tools that Council could incorporate. Council would then have the opportunity to decide if, and to what extent, we want to incorporate them.
Back in 2022, the Langley Housing & Homelessness Table created an action plan, which called, among other things, for a public awareness program to help people understand the experiences of people who are victims of gender-based violence. In September, Council also received a presentation from Battered Women’s Support Services and their #DesignedWithSurvivors campaign.
Council passed a motion to incorporate gender-based violence public awareness, prevention, and education into the upcoming National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women on December 6th. There will be an event at McBurney Plaza between 10am and 11am on Saturday, December 6th, which will include a moment of silence to honour women who have died due to gender-based violence.
Currently, a private member's bill, M216 - 2025: Professional Reliance Act, is making its way through the provincial legislature. Sometimes, local governments require a peer review of construction designs due to risk. For example, Langley City used to accept certified geotechnical designs for building parkades without double-checking them. As you may recall, we had a cave-in or partial cave-in during the construction of two parkades in December 2022 and August 2024. One almost took out an adjacent building. As a response, the City now requires a peer review of these designs to reduce real risk to public safety. Bill M216 would strip local governments of the ability to require peer review or challenge designs. This bill will make our communities less safe. As such, Council approved the City to submit input to the BC Legislature about this dangerous bill.
Council also addressed some financial matters. As part of the budget process, Council needs to set the fees for water, sewer, and solid waste collection services for 2026. Council gave first, second, and third reading to update the water fees. The water fee is increasing by $0.17 per cubic meter to $2.06 per cubic meter. The flat base fee of $75.00 remains. The average detached homeowner will see their water charges increase to $754.80 in 2026, an increase of $56.10 or 8% over 2025. The average strata homeowner will see their water charges increase to $466.40, an increase of $32.30 or 7.4% over 2025.
Council also gave first, second, and third reading of a bylaw to update various fees and charges to account for inflation. You can view these fees on the City’s website.
As I’ve been posting about, Council gave third reading to both the Official Community Plan update and the new zoning bylaw. Council also adopted our 2026 meeting schedule. You can view the schedule of meetings on the City’s website.
As I’ve been posting about, Langley City Council is in the process of adopting a new tree protection bylaw. As part of the process, Council gave first and second reading to the new proposed bylaw at Monday’s Langley City Council meeting. The proposed bylaw focuses on the protection of trees on city-owned or managed property, trees during redevelopment, trees in environmentally sensitive areas, and significant trees on all property throughout the City. A significant tree is a tree with a trunk diameter of 75cm or more.
For any trees in the categories noted above, if someone wants to remove a tree, they will need to obtain a tree permit. A tree permit would only be issued for one of the following conditions:
In BC, a tree protection bylaw cannot limit someone building to the permitted density on a property, so the tree protection bylaw would not apply to trees in the footprint of a proposed building. The proposed bylaw also specifies how to protect trees during redevelopment.
The bylaw allows the removal of a tree that is in imminent danger of falling and injuring persons or property without a permit, though evidence of an emergency must be submitted to the City after the fact.
If a protected tree is removed, the proposed new bylaw requires it to be replaced with 2 to 6 new trees, depending on the context.
If someone removes a protected tree without a permit or in violation of the bylaw, they can be fined $3,000 per tree.
As I’ve noted previously, the City is hosting an open house on the proposed tree protection bylaw tomorrow from 5:30pm to 7:30pm.
Last night, Langley City Council held two formal public input opportunities.
The first was a public hearing to receive feedback on a proposed rezoning that would allow a medical clinic with an accessory pharmacy at 20334 56th Avenue. Langley City’s zoning bylaw prohibits new pharmacies within 400 metres of an existing pharmacy, and this proposed medical clinic with an accessory pharmacy would be located within that distance. You can read more about this in a previous post. Langley City Council received four letters from local pharmacy owners regarding this rezoning. Their primary concern was that the proposal would be a full-service, retail pharmacy. Some suggestions in the letters included restricting the pharmacy’s use to clinic-based dispensing, preventing the development of stand-alone retail operations, ensuring access to the pharmacy is available only via the medical clinic, limiting the pharmacy's footprint, and limiting signage, among other suggestions. At the public hearing, the applicant noted that they would limit the pharmacy's footprint to about 1,076 square feet and would consider additional restrictions. Of note, former City Mayor Ted Schaffer expressed his opposition to rezoning, and former City Mayor Peter Fassbender expressed his support for the rezoning at the public hearing. As this was a public hearing and per BC Law, Council is no longer able to receive any further feedback on the proposed rezoning.
Langley City Council also provided a formal opportunity to provide feedback on the 2026 - 2030 Financial Plan. Two people provided their input. The Greater Langley Chamber of Commerce always provides feedback, and this year was no different. They ask that Langley City Council find further ways to reduce the budget, such as by reallocating end-of-year surplus to ongoing operating costs or eliminating unfilled staff positions. Another resident had a specific question about the proposed increase in solid waste costs for 2026 and also asked about reallocating end-of-year surplus to ongoing operating costs.
The use of surplus comes up from time to time, which is why Council adopted an “Allocation of Operating Budget Surpluses” policy last year. The short of it is that year-end surpluses are directed into our reserve account for one-time capital projects. The following excerpts are from the policy:
The City does not budget for a deficit or plan for surpluses. The City shall adopt a balanced budget whereby operating revenues are equal to operating expenditures for each year.
Operating budget surpluses represent one-time funding that, by its nature, cannot be relied on to recur on an ongoing basis.
As operating budget surpluses are non-recurring in nature, they shall not be applied to the following year’s operating budget to fund ongoing expenditures, and/or to reduce the following year’s tax rate.
Langley City’s Magic of Christmas Festival is back this Saturday, December 6th, at Timms Community Centre in Downtown Langley City.
Find your last-minute Christmas gifts at the annual Holiday Artisan Market, which runs from 10am until 5pm inside Timms Community Centre. This market is hosted by the Langley Arts Council.
Outside, from 2pm until 6pm, there will be live music, family-friendly games and activities, an opportunity to meet Santa, and food trucks. One activity is “Ride the Holiday Pandas,” which kids will love.
One of the new food vendors this year is “Soda Rebel,” which offers dirty soda. If you’ve watched a certain reality show that takes place in Utah, you will know what this is about.
For more information about the Magic of Christmas Festival, please visit Langley City’s website. I look forward to seeing you this Saturday!