The public was told the mayor’s base pay from Esquimalt will be hiked by 20% to $84,776 after the fall election.

The mayor of the township also automatically sits on the CRD board in a separate role as a director which significantly boosts overall compensation. After all, Esquimalt taxpayers help pay for the salary indirectly through regional requisitions from the CRD.

In 2025, the current mayor was paid $34,538 including expenses by the CRD, according to the annual statement of financial information. But following a recent remuneration review, the next mayor will receive an additional annual stipend of $3,069 to the base pay.

Councillors will also see a pay hike of 13% to $33,910 in November, based on 40% of the mayor’s salary.

In 2025, councillors were paid $31,658 plus expenses, according to the annual statement of financial information.
But the story fails to mention that on top of these pay hikes, mayor and council will receive cost of living adjustments annually for the next several years.

Of particular concern is the methodology used by the consultants in setting pay recommendations. In 2024, eight of the 13 comparators had greater populations,10 of the 13 had greater annual expenses.

So, these communities have budgets and populations in excess of Esquimalt which inflates the pay recommendations.

Its true council is following some of the Union of B.C. Municipalities best practices, although they effectively continue to ratchet up other municipal council salaries.

Esquimalt did not seek any feedback through a citizen committee or resident consultation. Setting aside self-interest for a moment, the validity of the pay recommendations are called into question when public input is not considered in the process.

Why does Esquimalt council bury information on remuneration and expenses on its website? How easy is it for the public to find clear, complete and consolidated information?

Ahead of the fall civic election, frustrated Esquimalt taxpayers will judge if these pay hikes are justified and if there’s sufficient transparency.

The pay hikes may be a hard sell following this year’s overall tax hike of 11.32 %, the highest surge in the entire region. It added an estimated $420 to the average tax bill in 2026.

Instead, the Province declined to authorize one.

In this interview, Trevor Barry, President of Amalgamation Yes, discusses:

• Why the Citizens’ Assembly reached such a strong recommendation
  • Why the Province’s response disappointed many residents
  • Why the upcoming non-binding referendum still matters
  • How one unified municipality could improve regional governance
  • Why voters should continue the conversation by voting YES this October

Whether you support amalgamation or not, this discussion is an important look at the future of local government in Greater Victoria.

After more than a decade of public consultation, petitions, municipal referendums, and a provincially funded Citizens’ Assembly, the Province of British Columbia rejected a request for a binding referendum on Victoria-Saanich amalgamation.

John Treleaven of the Grumpy Taxpayer$ and Colin Nielsen examine the history of amalgamation efforts, the Citizens’ Assembly recommendation, the Province’s response, ongoing Freedom of Information requests, and what these events may mean for local democracy and governance in Greater Victoria.

Topics include:

• The history of amalgamation efforts

• Citizens’ Assembly recommendations

• Provincial decision-making

• Freedom of Information requests

• Municipal governance

• Regional accountability

• The future of local government in Greater Victoria

How would you feel if your boss changed 16 times and the company name changed eight times during the last 25 years?

That’s the unfortunate reality at the municipal affairs department in this province. It’s a reality that does little to help local and regional governments faced with the immense challenges of aging infrastructure and escalating property taxes in Greater Victoria.

For decades, there’s been a revolving door of 16 ministers in this portfolio. Some stay a few months, some leave after a few years, and often inexperienced politicians are appointed as another minister in charge. But, for all intents and purposes, the minister is effectively in charge of the ‘junior’ ministry of municipal affairs.

The local government moniker has been renamed and shuffled around eight times during the last quarter century.

Historically the department has been combined or buried with other responsibilities for housing, community, rural development, sport, aboriginal, long term and home care, women’s services, or cultural development.

For many taxpayers and councils, the constant changes of ministers and regular name changes sends a clear message: local government is not important.

That’s curious when you consider the 53 cities, 48 district municipalities, 14 towns, 46 villages, and 27 regional districts were created by and are answerable to the province.

Does the government need to be reminded that this Ministry oversees vast, crucial responsibilities for taxpayers, such as community infrastructure, zoning, legislation, and local finance? It demands a steady and familiar hand, especially during these trying times.

So, perhaps if the government elevated and viewed municipal affairs as a senior-level, stand-alone portfolio it would go a long way to fulfilling provincial responsibilities.

For how much longer can our provincial leaders’ interest in local government only focus on party political considerations?

It’s very likely a shift from largely disregarding local government would result in improved governance and better value for our municipal tax dollar.

But rather than supporting or voting for a familiar name or pleasant personality, we prefer candidates who believe in driving improved governance and better value for our tax dollar.

Local government is arguably the most important level of government and touches many aspects of our lives. Here is an action-orientated checklist of questions for residents to ask aspiring local politicians prior to nomination:

Are they presenting a specific platform or spouting empty generalities? Few candidates bother to share a meaningful and detailed platform of their priorities.

Are they able to understand and critique a budget worth tens or hundreds of millions of dollars? By law municipal budgets must be balanced so difficult choices must be made despite inflation and limits on revenue.

Are they prepared to reduce staff and share more services across the region in order to balance a budget? As many as 25% of staff in some regional municipalities earn $125,000 or more excluding benefits. Operating costs for some municipalities are as high as 57%.

Are they prepared to attend countless council and committee meetings? If they are standing for re-election their attendance records can be checked through council minutes.

Are they a one-or-two issue candidate? There’s probably another few dozen other major issues before most councils which need attention.

Are they of good character? The province has just introduced legislation requiring every municipality to adopt a code of conduct that includes penalties.

Are there potential conflicts of interest? Candidates may receive election donations from unions, developers and others which eventually become part of the public record. Candidates may be running independently or on a slate as part of a political party.

Are they genuinely interested in improving your community or are they motivated by making politics their new career? In recent years many councils have received substantial pay increases for what is usually a part-time job.

Are they focused on renewing infrastructure deficiencies for the next generation? Some municipalities focus more on bright, shiny objects rather than core responsibilities such as improving services such as sewer, water and roads.

Are they supportive of an open municipal government and the taxpayers right to transparent governance? Underlying legislation governing municipalities speaks at length about respecting and honouring the public’s right to know.

Are they prepared to represent and be accountable to the entire community including the business sector, not just those who voted for them? The Community Charter (Sec. 115) states clearly that “every council member must consider the well-being and interests of the municipality and its community.”

Are they supportive of tax rate hikes of three or four times the rate of inflation? The annual rate of inflation in Victoria sits at 2.8%, yet some municipalities are hiking taxes by a multiple of 300 to 400%.

So, what questions will you be asking? Are they up to a challenging job? Do you really want to nominate or vote for that candidate?

-30-

If you thought the residential property tax increase of 9.34% was startling this year, consider there may be hikes of more than 40% before the next elected council finishes their term.

It doesn’t take an accountant to predict that taxpayers are in for a few more body blows.

If initial estimates are any indication, the 2026-2030 Financial Plan for Victoria forecasts municipal tax increases of 13.43% in 2027, 9.77% in 2028, 8.68% in 2029, and 7.5% in 2030. What’s often overlooked is the compounding impact of those increases.

On top of that, residential homeowners will again see a percentage added annually to the tax increase as a result of shifts to reduce the amount business pays. Last year there was a shift of burden in the tax rate of 1.2% and 2.1% in 2026.

These are very preliminary city estimates. They are based on various assumptions such as assessments, inflation, revenue, cost projections and other factors.

Remember, these forecasts exclude other items that comprise your total tax notice. It’s unlikely those taxes collected on behalf of schools and levies collected for five other agencies will decrease.
A case in point, for some unexplained reason this scribe’s new ‘residential school tax’ increased year-over-year by 500%. And that’s not a typo.

There’s clearly resonance in Steve Orcherton’s rant “Truth, truthfulness and property tax notice shock” when he argues that Victoria homeowners deserve the full truth about soaring tax increases.
The new council will be faced with tough choices and require an entirely new and frugal approach to governing to retain quality critical services. The fractured governance model across the region we are forced to endure is unsustainable.

Maybe the only council candidates to elect are accountants who can read a financial statement and demand more fiscal discipline?

-30-

Long after this fall’s municipal election bike lanes will continue to be a passionately debated topic attracting varying and compelling opinions in the media on what seems like a daily basis.

It would be helpful if our municipal luminaries and leaders joined together to conduct a third-party review of the existing bike network across all jurisdictions.

Do we know if bike lanes meet their stated objectives? Is traffic congestion increasing and causing pollution issues? Going forward, are there maintenance and cost issues to resolve? How about a cost-benefit analysis? Can the network be better integrated?

The CRD and its newly created Regional Transportation Service is ideally positioned to reach across the municipal borders, conduct an analysis and work-up a broader perspective.

The service, designed to coordinate regional transportation, trails, and funding allows for an annual requisition of up to $20 million. Only a few hundred residents opposed the CRD funding request so there’s wide acceptance of the need to improve our transportation system.

The increased prevalence of e-bikes, e-mopeds and e-scooters, adds urgency to the task.

Good municipal governance demands that local authorities acknowledge the issues from the perspective of cyclists, pedestrians and drivers. For many supporters, the existing network has considerable merit, but think it’s ‘a good idea ridden too far’ especially in the downtown core area.

It’s believed an independent postmortem would mitigate issues, result in some tweaks and keep more residents in better humour.

Are there any aspiring local politicians that want to pick up the torch in time for GoByBike Week?

Videos

May 21^st – Ryan Windsor Reflects on 13 Years of Leadership in Central Saanich 

https://youtu.be/bCdIWO17Tx8

May 18^th – Karen Harper on Taxes, Efficiency & the Future of Saanich 

https://youtu.be/Z9cZpbx-dfM

May 5^th – Why Greater Victoria Needs More Curious Citizens 

https://youtu.be/-yVqlYF_vQU

May 4^th –  Who Really Pays the Price? Municipal Reality with Mayor John Henderson 

https://youtu.be/E2dm31AJPjg

Articles

May 29^th – The Mayor’s Reconciliation Fundraising Ask 

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7466359023852834816

May 23^rd – ‘Sunshine List’ keeps growing and growing – One-quarter of Central Saanich staff earn $125,000 or more 

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/sunshine-list-keeps-growing-one-quarter-central-saanich-3rprc

May 1^st – LETTER TO THE EDITOR – Your municipal council is the problem 

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7456042754960281600

But how much more are you paying for all the municipal services combined compared to four years ago?

The answer can be found in the little-known Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs’ Schedule 704, Taxes and Charges on a Representative House. document. This comprehensive data compares taxes, fees and charges for every municipality in BC. It includes costs for the police, regional government, schools, hospital, BC Transit, and user fees for sewer, water, garbage, and so on.

It’s presented in one handy-dandy chart allowing you to compare all your municipal costs in neighbouring communities.

A so-called ‘representative property’ is calculated by using the assessment value of all single-family residential properties divided by the number of single-family homes. It’s considered more-or-less the average house in a municipality.

For 2022-25, eleven municipalities on the South Island saw those total taxes and various charges increase anywhere from 19.4 to 24.7% and that’s without considering the compounding impact. The outliers for this four-year period were Esquimalt at 26.3% and Langford at 34.2%.

During that same period the consumer price index (CPI) increased 15.5% in Victoria.

So, homeowners will need to decide if they are getting good value for their precious tax dollars in light of the most recent increases. The complete information for 2026 is available later this year, just nicely prior to the fall municipal election.

Escalating wages are making it more and more impossible for B.C. municipalities such as Central Saanich to control budgets.

Labour costs including municipal police in the municipality of 18,000 residents now add up to more than $18 million in 2026. Those costs are the main budget driver amounting to a staggering 60% of the operating budget.

Nearly one-quarter of the 90 municipal and fire department staff in Central Saanich earned more than $125,000 in 2024, the most recent year available. Salaries however were not available for the municipal staff at the Central Saanich Police Service.

Central Saanich is just an example of a much larger problem of a flawed budgeting process across 161 municipalities in the province.

So when you consider membership in this so-called ‘Sunshine List’ doesn’t include benefits such as pension, medical and dental estimated at 25% of salary, it’s alarming. When you consider the average individual income in B.C. is about $65,000, that’s even more alarming.

A ‘Sunshine List’ is a listing of salary, benefit and severance information, a colloquial name referring to the goal of illuminating government expenditures. To be included on the “Sunshine List’ critics suggest hiking the salary benchmark of $100,000 to $125,000 considering wage escalations in recent years.

If this was done, 20 of 90 employees in Central Saanich earned in excess of $125,000. That includes the CEO, the top paid employee, at $212,000 in 2024.

Council recently approved property tax increases of 7.37 per cent for this year. The budget includes funds for the planned replacement of the district’s municipal hall, fire station, police station and municipal yard.

Figures are sourced from the 2024 Statement of Financial Information (SOFI) and the 2026-30 Draft Financial Plan for Central Saanich. Again, figures exclude the Central Saanich Police Service.

Critics of the budget and Central Saanich council recently registered with Elections BC as an elector organization named Sustain OUR Central Saanich. This indicates their plans to run candidates in the fall election.

READ MORE

Opinion: As a taxpayer and citizen, I’ve given enough, Vancouver Sun, May 7, 2026.
https://vancouversun.com/opinion/pete-mcmartin-as-a-taxpayer-and-citizen-ive-given-enough

2024 Statement of Financial Information (SOFI), Central Saanich.

Click to access 2024%20Statement%20of%20Financial%20Information%20Jun%2023.pdf

Draft Financial Plan 2026-30, Central Saanich, May 2025.

Click to access Draft%202026%20Central%20Saanich%20Financial%20Plan_1.pdf

Central Saanich considering 7.37% property tax increase, Times Colonist, Mar. 3, 2026.
https://www.timescolonist.com/local-news/central-saanich-considering-737-property-tax-increase-11952092

Sunshine List, Wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunshine_list