Local elections are usually fought over taxes, roads and public safety. Climate change can feel like someone else’s job, left to Ottawa, Victoria or the next generation.
It isn’t.
Cities decide where homes go, how streets are built and whether people can get around without a car. When Langley City adopted its emissions plan in 2010, cars and trucks on the road made up about half of community emissions. Those are local choices.
That is why we want to recognize something in this election. Of the four major slates running in the Langleys, only Langley City First makes cutting emissions an explicit commitment in its platform.
This is not an endorsement. We hold every slate to the same values, and we have raised real concerns about this one. But on this issue, it is doing what every slate should.
A promise with a history
In January 2021, Langley City council unanimously declared a climate emergency. It asked staff to report back on a plan to reach net-zero emissions before 2050, and on updating the City’s Sustainability Framework, which dated back to 2010. The motion also pointed to the City’s commitment to the region’s emissions targets. Nathan Pachal, Paul Albrecht and Rosemary Wallace all sat on that council.
A year later, council added an Environmental Sustainability Coordinator to the 2022 budget. Two councillors had opposed adding it, and the mayor at the time proposed cutting all new staff positions from that budget, including this one. A majority kept it in.
Now Langley City First is promising to carry that work forward.
What the slate is proposing
The platform commits to a “sustainable development and climate change mitigation framework.” Mitigation is the key word. It means cutting the emissions that cause climate change, not just coping with the damage.
The framework itself is one line. But read as a whole, the platform does more climate work than its labels suggest. In our reading, these items all make it easier to live with less driving:
- a growing walking and cycling network, and wider paths across the City
- a pilot seniors’ shuttle to the City’s two SkyTrain stations
- car, bike and scooter share to help people reach transit
- below-market rental homes in new buildings near the stations
- zoning changes so more residents live within a short walk of a corner store or coffee shop
- the Innovation District, which puts homes and jobs near SkyTrain
The slate also points to a new tree bylaw and urban forest strategy, which help keep neighbourhoods cool as summers get hotter.
What it still needs
A framework is a promise to make a plan. The platform gives no targets, timeline or budget for this one. The new framework should show, in numbers, how the City will meet the regional targets that 2021 motion pointed to, and report progress every year.
The platform also keeps saving for a downtown parkade. If that parking is free, it will pull against everything else on this list.
Langley Strong: ready for the weather
In the Township, Langley Strong deserves real credit too. Its “Respect for Our Air, Trees & Streams” pillar promises to design stormwater, roads and facilities for floods, heat and extreme weather. It ends that promise with “Focus on being climate-ready.”
The platform also promises stronger tree retention, encourages rain gardens and bioswales in new development, and backs stream restoration along five waterways. Its seniors pillar treats extreme heat as a safety issue, with cooling centres and help for low-income seniors to get air conditioning. Some of its promises would also cut driving, like a seniors’ shuttle pilot, sidewalks and bike lanes built in with new construction, and daily needs close to home.
That is mostly climate adaptation, and Langley needs it. But the platform never commits to cutting emissions, and it has no climate framework.
A plan already on the shelf
The Township does not need to start from scratch. In January 2021, Township council unanimously approved a Climate Action Strategy. It aims to cut emissions 45 per cent by 2030 and reach carbon neutrality by 2050, through more than 140 actions.
The council that approved it included Eric Woodward and Steve Ferguson, now running with Progress for Langley, and Kim Richter and Blair Whitmarsh, now running with Langley Strong.
Langley Strong’s platform does not mention that strategy or its targets.
Not even a mention
Two slates never mention climate change in their platforms at all.
Achieving for Langley City, Councillor Delaney Mack’s slate, is running for mayor and council in Langley City. Its platform does include some environmental items, like protecting environmentally sensitive areas, expanding the tree canopy and listing flood mitigation among the basics. It also backs a seniors’ shuttle and more bus service.
But the words “climate change” appear nowhere in it. It promises to reduce investment in bike lanes while it reviews its strategy, and to “not exceed densities outlined by the Province” as SkyTrain arrives. In our view, both pull in the wrong direction.
Progress for Langley, Mayor Eric Woodward’s slate, holds a majority on Township council. Its new nine-part plan promises new parks, natural spaces and fewer gaps in sidewalks and trails. It does not mention climate change either, even though Woodward and Ferguson sat on the council that approved the Township’s own climate strategy.
The council it leads also has climate action to point to. In December 2023, Township council unanimously added Zero Carbon Step Code requirements for new homes, which the Community Energy Association says made it the first community south of the Fraser to do so. That makes the silence in its plan harder to understand, not easier.
Not a target. Not a promise. Not even a passing line.
In our editorial opinion, that is irresponsible.
Climate change is not a side issue. The 2021 heat dome and the floods that followed that fall showed it is already here, and the next council’s choices will shape how bad it gets.
A slate asking to govern for four years owes voters at least a plan, or an honest reason it has none. Given how severe and urgent this crisis is, leaving it out entirely is negligent.
The floor, not the exception
We are glad one slate has put climate mitigation in writing, and that another is planning for the weather ahead. The choices councils make about land, streets and buildings will shape Langley’s emissions for decades.
We deeply wish every slate in both Langleys had taken the threat seriously enough to make it a core part of their platform. Voters deserve to know how each one would meet the climate commitments their own councils have already made.
Disclosure: On publication date, the author sits as a member-at-large on Langley City’s Environmental Sustainability Committee.
References
Platforms
- Langley City First, Our Platform, 12 September 2026
- Langley Strong, Our Plan to Restore Respect (full platform), September 2026
- Achieving for Langley City, Our Platform
- Progress for Langley, A Plan for Langley, 2026
Langley City
- Nathan Pachal, South Fraser Blog, January 11 Council Meeting: Climate Change Emergency Declared, 12 January 2021
- Nathan Pachal, South Fraser Blog, After much discussion, Langley City Council gives third reading to its 2022 budget, 14 March 2022
- Nathan Pachal, South Fraser Blog, Langley City Official Community Plan, 1 June 2010
Township of Langley
- Township of Langley, Climate Action
- Township of Langley, Climate Action Strategy 2020–2030
- Canada in a Changing Climate, Township of Langley: Climate Action Strategy
- Township of Langley, 2021 Annual Report
- Township of Langley, Council acts to reduce energy emissions, December 2023
- Community Energy Association, Industry engagement key to Township of Langley’s accelerated adoption of Zero Carbon Step Code, 16 October 2025
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