Good afternoon, Langley. Partly sunny skies and a high near 24 C today, with more of the same tomorrow before Friday cracks 28 C. Here is what is in the roundup.
Langley City Councillor Paul Albrecht has apologized after being caught on video swearing while Councillor Delaney Mack's was speaking during Monday's council meeting, another very public rupture in an already fractious council. Township council, meanwhile, has directed staff to study whether grazing goats and sheep could replace some mowing to cut wildfire risk in parks and greenbelts.
Langley Pride Day returns to Creekside Hall on Aug. 8 with a free, all-ages festival, and Langley City is inviting Lower Mainland artists to submit designs for its Fall Street Banner Program.
On the provincial file, Premier David Eby confirmed he personally helped Emergency Management Minister Kelly Greene write her statement denouncing the Tilbury LNG expansion, an unusual break from cabinet solidarity as the NDP base splits over fracked gas and a new Alberta pipeline.
BC Conservative Leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay is denying a Business in Vancouver report that her office directed MLAs to drop the term "First Nations," with Langley-Walnut Grove MLA Misty Van Popta among those pushing back. And a look at Alberta's proposed West Coast oil pipeline finds the economics, climate math, and consent picture all cutting against the pitch.
In sports, the Vancouver Giants have added six-foot-five defenceman Rhys Pederson from the Edmonton Oil Kings and signed 15-year-old Colorado forward Spencer Wilmot to a WHL Scholarship and Development Agreement.
Councillor Albrecht apologizes after F-bomb during Mack speech
Langley City Councillor Paul Albrecht has apologized after being caught on video swearing at Councillor Delaney Mack during Monday's council meeting.
Albrecht, attending remotely, said "you're a f____" while Mack was explaining her vote on a multi-use pathway and bike lane. He later said he did not realize his microphone was unmuted.
Mayor Nathan Pachal called the remark "completely out of line" during the meeting.
Mack said she will not file a code of conduct complaint, citing past experiences with the process. In a written statement Tuesday, Albrecht called his comment "disrespectful" and said he will offer each councillor a restorative justice process at his own expense.
Call for artists: Langley City Fall Street Banner Program
Langley City is calling on Lower Mainland artists, designers, and creatives to submit original artwork for its Fall Street Banner Program.
Submissions are due by 3:30 p.m. on Oct. 29, 2026. The City is looking for two complementary banner designs that celebrate the fall season and reflect the character, diversity, and creativity of the community.
The selected artist will receive a $1,000 honorarium for the completed left and right banner pair. Fabrication, printing, and installation costs will be covered by the City, and the winning designs will be displayed on street banners throughout downtown Langley City each fall for several years starting in Fall 2027.
The program is open to artists aged 18 and older working in illustration, painting, photography, printmaking, mixed media, and digital art.
Langley City says it particularly welcomes submissions from communities that are underrepresented in the arts.
Questions can go to arts@langleycity.ca.
Township weighs grazing goats and sheep for wildfire risk
Langley Township council has directed staff to study using grazing goats and sheep to reduce wildfire risk in parks, road allowances, and utility corridors.
The motion, brought by Councillor Rob Rindt at Monday's meeting, passed 7-1. Rindt, whose family owns a turf farm, pointed to targeted grazing programs elsewhere in BC that have cut invasive plants, reduced fire fuel loads, and lowered reliance on mowing and herbicides.
The feasibility report will identify suitable sites, estimate the wildfire risk reduction, compare costs against current mowing practices, and look at potential partnerships with local farmers, conservation groups, and Indigenous communities. It will land on the desk of the next council, which residents will elect on Oct. 17.
Councillor Kim Richter cast the lone dissenting vote, worrying the program could conflict with the Township's ban on dogs at sports fields over concerns about feces. Mayor Eric Woodward noted that policy predates the current council.
The proposal is a small but sensible move. Targeted grazing is a well-documented land management tool that reduces reliance on carbon-intensive mowing equipment and chemical herbicides, and it opens a possible revenue stream for small local farms at a time when farmland viability across the Township is under pressure from land speculation and rising costs.
A few open questions are worth flagging for the report stage. Whether grazing sites can be located and fenced so they do not conflict with active park use, whether partnerships with Indigenous communities will be developed as genuine co-management or bolted on late, and how the program interacts with the Township's broader wildfire preparedness work as fire seasons intensify, will all matter more than the headline idea.
The next council will inherit the details, and those details are where a good idea either becomes good policy or quietly stalls.
Langley Pride Day returns Aug. 8 with free all-ages festival
Langley Pride Day returns on Saturday, Aug. 8 with a free, all-ages festival at Creekside Hall.
The event runs from 12 noon to 9:30 p.m. at 20605 51B Avenue, on the unceded traditional territories of the Matsqui, Kwantlen, Katzie, and Semiahmoo First Nations. It is co-presented by the Langley Pride Society and the Langley Senior Resources Society.
More than 30 local vendors and community groups will be on site, with drag bingo, educational panels, live music, and performances throughout the day.
The organizers describe the day as a celebration of inclusion, resilience, and growth for the 2SLGBTQIA+ community in Langley and surrounding areas.
RSVPs are open through Eventbrite. In a political climate where 2SLGBTQIA+ rights are being tested across North America, a free, all-ages, community-led Pride event in Langley is exactly the kind of visible, joyful gathering the moment calls for.
Premier Eby co-wrote minister's rebuke of Tilbury LNG expansion
Premier David Eby says he personally helped Emergency Management Minister Kelly Greene write her public statement denouncing the Tilbury LNG expansion in her Richmond-area riding.
The admission breaks the convention of cabinet solidarity, under which ministers are expected to publicly back government decisions even when they disagree.
Eby framed it as evidence of a "big tent" NDP, while Royal Roads political theorist David Black said it looks more like a premier trying to manage a widening split in his base after promising Ottawa he will not block another Alberta pipeline or the northern tanker ban repeal.
The province cleared the Phase 1B expansion by order-in-council on Friday, waiving the usual BC Utilities Commission certificate and citing 1,100 construction jobs and $260 million in tax revenue.
Left out of the government's pitch is that "natural gas" is overwhelmingly fracked methane, a greenhouse gas 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide over 20 years, and that the lifecycle emissions from BC LNG expansion undercut any credible claim the province is meeting its climate commitments.
Findlay denies BC Conservatives told MLAs to drop 'First Nations'
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BC Conservative Leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay says there was no directive telling her MLAs to stop using the term "First Nations."
Her denial responds to a July 27 Business in Vancouver column by Rob Shaw, which reported that senior Conservative staff had told some MLAs and opposition staffers to use "Indigenous," "Aboriginal," or "Indian" instead.
Shaw's article said the shift was a reaction to "First Nations" being viewed inside the party as language from the left.
Findlay called the report "mere speculation" and said Shaw presented no evidence. Langley-Walnut Grove MLA Misty Van Popta and Courtenay-Comox MLA Brennan Day also pushed back, saying they were not contacted and know of no such directive in caucus.
The dispute matters because "Indian" is now widely considered offensive outside legal contexts tied to the Indian Act, and the terminology a governing-hopeful party uses signals how it intends to relate to First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities.
With the report and the denials now on the public record, the question of what was actually communicated internally, and to whom, remains open.
Alberta's West Coast pipeline pitch runs into hard math
Alberta's proposed new West Coast oil pipeline is being sold as a nation-building project, but the numbers, the climate math, and the consent picture all cut against the pitch.
The 1,250-kilometre line would carry about one million barrels a day roughly along the Trans Mountain corridor and was submitted to the federal Major Projects Office on July 2 for possible listing under the Building Canada Act.
Alberta pegs the price tag at $35.2 to $43.7 billion, but Trans Mountain's own cost ballooned from $5.4 billion in 2013 to $34.2 billion by completion in 2024, and any shortfall in private investment would land on taxpayers.
The project is expected to enter service between 2032 and 2034, right around the point where credible forecasts see global oil demand levelling off as EVs displace an estimated five million barrels a day by 2030.
Canada is already off track on its 2026, 2030, and 2050 climate targets, and locking in decades of new heavy-oil export capacity makes those targets harder to hit, not easier.
More than 120 civil society organizations have signed an open letter opposing new fossil fuel pipelines to the West Coast, and Tsawwassen First Nation's chief administrative officer Kim Baird says consultation has only recently begun.
Equity offers to Indigenous communities are not a substitute for consent, and with wildfires burning across the country this summer, the case for pouring tens of billions into new pipeline capacity looks weaker with every fire season.
Giants add 6-foot-5 defenceman Rhys Pederson from Edmonton
The Giants have acquired 2006-born defenceman Rhys Pederson from the Edmonton Oil Kings in exchange for a sixth-round pick in the 2027 WHL Draft.
Pederson brings nearly 200 games of WHL experience, alternate captain credentials, and a reputation for reliable penalty-kill work; he averaged more than three shorthanded minutes per game last season.
Off the ice, he took home Edmonton's Humanitarian of the Year Award for his work with the city's food bank, a seniors' society, and Hockey Gives Blood.
Head coach and GM Michael Dyck said Pederson adds size, experience, and reliability to the Giants' blueline.
Giants sign third-round pick Spencer Wilmot
The Vancouver Giants have signed 2011-born forward Spencer Wilmot of Littleton, Colorado to a WHL Scholarship and Development Agreement.
Wilmot, 15, was the Giants' 65th overall pick in the 2026 WHL Prospects Draft and led Okanagan Colorado's U14 AAA team with 62 points in 43 games last season.
He posted a hat trick in the final of January's John Reid Memorial Tournament and was invited to USA Hockey's Boys National 15U Camp this month.
Wilmot becomes the fifth player from Vancouver's 2026 draft class to sign, and the agreement guarantees him a WHL scholarship for every year he plays in the league.
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