Platform

Community Engagement

Listened to, understood, and most of all, respected. You cannot have responsible development and positive growth without active and continual community engagement.

  • Engage residents immediately, to raise the voter turnout from 18.5% to at least provincial average of 42% (CBC October 2, 2022).

  • Reach out to seniors, minority groups, and those under represented to understand what the barriers are for them in voting.

  • Create a positive culture from top-down in city hall that allows residents to feel safe and comfortable to bring up comments and concerns to Council and staff.

  • Residents should be listened to, understood, and most of all, respected.

  • Encourage and actively engage with residents to develop a renewed Official Community Plan.

  • Continually engage with regular and ongoing avenues for public participation to create responsible development in Langford.

Collaborative Leadership

Rulers rule - leaders lead

  • Adopt a Code-of-Conduct policy to guide Council and staff to work together respectfully and effectively, to serve the residents of Langford.

  • Foster a creative process that focuses on the skills, experience, and knowledge of each Council member and uses those attributes toward positive growth in Langford.

  • Facilitate a process allowing Council members to air their own feelings and beliefs, absent of any top-down pressure towards a specific end.

  • Encourage active participation from City Hall staff in all areas appropriate to their skills, experience, and knowledge.

  • Recognize that we all have unique visions for the future of Langford. The future of Langford's growth is not the idea of any one individual, or even that of the council. The future of Langford is to be decided by you, the residents of Langford, through participation in planning and community feedback.

  • Ensure co-operative efforts with other levels of government.

Community Planning and Responsible Development

Responsible Development incorporates the needs and wants of the effected residents, while equally taking into account the needs of the environment and the economy.

  • Foster the growth of community associations and under-represented networks to learn the needs and wants of those groups and individuals who are currently under represented at City Hall,

  • Instead of expecting people to always come to City Hall, bring City Hall to the people through the use of outreach groups and participation in community group meetings.

  • Create a schedule to update the Official Community Plan that is open to the public and encourages public participation. This allows all stakeholders, development and community groups alike, time to plan for not only their input, but to respond to adjustments to the OCP and responsible development.

  • Approach and encourage development groups to actively build community developments, based on the feedback taken in for the OCP that meets the needs and wants of the residents in an area, while equally taking in the needs of the environment and the economy. Recognize that development is not a purely altruistic endeavor and that those individuals and businesses undertaking in the development process have to be compensated for their efforts.

  • Ensure that high-value green space is planned out at the beginning of the development process and buildup occurs around it, instead of being an afterthought at the end.

  • Assure that responsible development includes a variety of housing styles and values that allow for the upward movement of individuals and families from wherever they enter the housing market, to the next steps in their housing needs. This allows these residents to stay within a specific community in Langford if they so choose, instead of migrating away from their established social and community networks.

  • Ensure that responsible developments include a variety of small and medium sized economic opportunities that foster a wide range of services, retail, and food service industries.

  • Secure the development of purpose built local medical facilities designed to encourage family physicians and other medical practitioners to come our community.

  • Ensure dedicated spaces are available for community associations, strata meetings, short term commercial (markets, pop up shops), social events, etc.

  • Make certain that responsible developments have a variety of transportation networks that connect the immediate community and through the community as a whole. These networks should include options for walking, running, bicycle, personal electric, etc, while still having sufficient access for needed traditional vehicle transportation. These networks are designed specifically to inter-connect areas of community from the initial design. These should also connect to and facilitate use of existing networks already in adoption.

  • Adopt the 3-30-300 urban forest management plan that is already under adoption in the CRD, across Canada, and in areas around the world.

  • Incorporate existing and new developments into a comprehensive parks plan based both on resident feedback, and adopting best urban forest practices. Responsible development would allow a network of parks and trails that allow people and animals to transit through Langford with minimal on-road travel and fits parks and recreation spaces into existing development niches and new development feature parks.

  • In the end, all new development should be designed for a net positive result to the city, that extends beyond simple property tax.

Truth and Reconciliation

The process of truth and reconciliation is not something that should be brought out once a year, but an ongoing learning and understanding of the lives and experiences of local indigenous community members

Through exploring the stories and lives involved with Truth and Reconciliation, I have come to recognize how little I truly understand about the process and the reasons for the outreach today. While I cannot change what I didn't know in the past, I can alter what I can understand in the future and help foster greater understanding as a whole.

Actions that can aid in a greater understanding of the issues involved can include:

  • Creating a civic outreach to work with indigenous members and groups to work with City Hall directly.

  • Ensuring that indigenous members have an adequate voice on developmental and environmental issues, especially when concerning greenfield sites on their traditional territories.

  • Actively working with local indigenous groups to help create avenues to foster a greater understanding of their past and present experiences.