In December, Langley City Council passed the City’s 2026 budget. While you can read my previous posts on the ongoing service enhancements and capital projects, the short of it is that the budget included:
- Funding 2 Additional Firefighters
- Funding 2 Additional RCMP Officers
- Extending Al Anderson Pool to Open April 13
- Increasing the Annual Amount Contributed to Capital Projects
- Maintaining Current Service Levels
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| Council approved replacing the end-of-life City Operation Centre in the 2026 capital budget. |
This required increasing the city’s expenditures by $2.54 million, resulting in an overall 5.82% property tax increase across all property types.
While the budget has been passed, Council still must pass an annual tax rate bylaw to enable property tax collection by the beginning of July.
Council gave first, second, and third readings to the 2026 tax rate bylaw last night. The tax rate bylaw sets the mill rate. To learn more about mill rates, please read a previous post I wrote titled, “One residential mill rate causes uneven property tax changes in Langley City. Find out why.” One important thing to note is that mill rates should never be used to compare efficiencies or service costs between municipalities; you need to compare average municipal taxes and utility fees.
The bottom line is that detached home (single-family) owners will see their annual property tax increase by 3.12% or $99.55, on average, compared to last year. Attached home (apartments and townhouses) owners will see their annual property tax increase by 6.15% or $83.35 on average.
I believe that local government continue to deliver excellent value for money. For example, my strata fees increased by $1,020 per year this year for the same level of service. I live in a 1,600 sq. ft. townhouse.
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