The Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce (GVCC) recently released a report card for six municipalities in the area in an effort to grade their economic viability.
After assigning the City of Langford a “D” letter grade, the municipality has responded by calling the assessment “biased and incomplete.”
The City’s position is that the report card presented a selective and misleading picture of the area, which staff believe to be one of BC’s fastest-growing and most vibrant communities.
“The Chamber’s report card is deeply disappointing,” said Mayor Scott Goodmanson.
“It presents a biased and incomplete picture of Langford, provides little transparency regarding its methodology, and relies on conclusions that are not supported by the facts.”
He added that the City was never contacted to verify information, provide context or correct inaccuracies before publication.
Goodmanson stated that he believes the report card to be more of a politically motivated initiative than a serious assessment of municipal performance.
Langford staff say that housing starts have surpassed the provincial first-year housing target by a significant number. Their goal was 449 net new housing units, and after the first six months, the City had recorded 794 net new units.
In addition to this, the City recently passed a long-term asset management strategy that is expected to save taxpayers around $1 billion over the next 75 years.
“Responsible government means looking beyond the next election cycle,” said Goodmanson.
“This Council has focused on protecting future taxpayers while continuing to invest in the services and infrastructure that our community needs today. This is responsible planning, which often comes with difficult decisions.”
The City also called out the GVCC for a lack of critical context when it came to analyzing taxation.
Langford’s tax rates were kept “artificially and unsustainably” low for many years, and staff say that taxes could not keep up with the rapidly-expanding city’s needs.
Further, the City pointed to the increased financial load taken on due to expanding the fire department, adding police officers to the West Shore RCMP staff and taking on the cost of E-comm 911 services, which used to be paid for by the Province.
“Much of recent taxation pressure results from provincial downloading, contractual obligations, population growth and the need to address years of underinvestment in some protective services,” said Goodmanson.
“Council has made the responsible choice to address those challenges directly rather than defer them to future taxpayers and future generations to sort out.”
Langford staff and its mayor and council stated they are concerned with the GVCC’s statement that Langford has “the highest crime severity outside Victoria.”
According to Statistics Canada’s 2025 Crime Severity Index, Langford scored a 61.52.
The provincial average in this report was 92.37 and Victoria was at 161.18.
Staff added that Langford’s crime rate is comparative to many municipalities throughout the Capital Regional District.
“The Chamber’s irresponsible characterization of public safety in Langford is simply wrong,” said Goodmanson.
“Langford’s crime rate and crime severity index are significantly lower than the provincial average.”
This GVCC report card came out just ahead of the October local elections, in which Goodmanson will be running against former Langford mayor Stew Young.
The other five municipalities assessed in this report card and their grades were:
- Oak Bay – B
- Colwood – B
- Saanich – C
- Esquimalt – C
- Victoria – D
To read more about the GVCC report cards for these municipalities, click here.
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