PRESS RELEASE

Langford Petition Group successfully obtains over 2250 signatures in 30 days, representing more than 10% of eligible voters, showing strong community support for a referendum on the municipality borrowing $25 million dollars.

Monday, February 11, 2008
Langford

For thirty days (January 12 to February 10, 2008) over 50 canvassers braved winter weather in Langford asking voters if they support a referendum on whether the municipality should borrow $25 million dollars on behalf of local developers to build a highway interchange project.

During that thirty days, over 2250 signatures were collected on the canvassers’ petition.  This result is well in excess of the 10% threshold that would normally trigger a referendum, and was achieved despite winter weather that made canvassing a challenge.

Under provincial regulation, municipalities are normally legally required to put loans to referendum, or to at least allow a counter-petition which asks voters if they want a referendum.  However, Langford Council has circumvented this public approval process, so canvassers chose to mimic the counter-petition process.  The petition’s intent is to show the city of Langford and the province’s Inspector of Municipalities (which must approve Langford’s borrowing bylaw) what would have happened if Langford residents had been consulted by their civic government.  Read the rest of this entry »

Dispute over building of interchange in Langford at Spencer Road and Trans-Canada
Bill Cleverley, Times Colonist
Published: Wednesday, February 13, 2008

LANGFORD – In the false light of a pre-dawn Wednesday more than three dozen RCMP officers – some dressed in riot gear and carrying assault rifles – surrounded and rousted about a half   dozen protesters from their camp in the woods between the Trans-Canada Highway and Leigh Road in Langford.

Some, told they’d be charged with mischief in they didn’t vacate, agreed to move. They were cuffed and moved out to Goldstream Avenue where they were released.

At least one and perhaps as many as three protesters, however, remained in their tree-top platforms while police blocked media and other access to the woods – stringing yellow tape along the highway and erecting saw-horse barricade at Leigh Road and Goldstream. Read the rest of this entry »

Here are some more radio interviews that you can find online:

CFUV Interview Jan. 22nd – short version (musical interludes removed,
dialogue sped up 20%). Click here for audio file.
CFUV Interview Jan. 22nd – full version. Click here for audio file.

CFAX Interview Jan. 25th. Click here for audio file.

Petition organiser Steven Hurdle was interviewed in late January by Joe Easingwood on CFAX.  Here is the interview in its entirety including many calls from members of the community and commentary from
MP Keith Martin.

Click here to listen to the audio file.

Three more days until the petition process reaches its deadline!

Canvassers are working hard to make sure they knock on enough doors to meet their target number and Steven Hurdle reports that they are not that far off. The petition calls on council to hold a referendum regarding the City of Langford’s request to borrow $25 million from the province to build the Spencer Road Interchange.

Canvassers have reported that a high percentage of residents are wanting to sign the petition. “80% of the people I talked to chose to sign the petition because they were opposed to Langford’s decision making process on this issue. Of them, the majority were actually opposed to the interchange. The biggest challenge was finding people at home,” says Sol Kinnis, a Victoria resident who supported the call to help with the canvassing. “It has changed the face of Langford for me. Now I would say that Langford residents really do care about the speed of development and the impact it’s having on their municipality.”

The goal of canvassers has been to gather enough signatures to satisfy the provincial regulation that requires municipalities to hold a referendum – should 10% of the municipalities’ eligible voters sign a petition calling for one – before borrowing large sums of money from the municipal loan fund. While Langford hopes it has found a way to get around this regulation by creating a local service area, residents are determined to demonstrate their desire for due process.

For those who haven’t signed the petition, this weekend will be your last chance, so make sure to download a copy off this site, pass it around to your friends and neighbours and hand deliver it to the address on the petition by Sunday, Feb 10th.

A new bylaw, “Spencer Road Interchange Local Area Service Establishment Bylaw No. 1156, 2008″, is going up for first/second/third reading tonight at Langford City Hall. The big question is, why? There are are only a few ammendments that differenciate it from bylaw No. 1147. Read the rest of this entry »