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The one-page summary · Victoria, 17 October 2026 · 46 days to go

The whole framework, on one page.

Travellers already rank Victoria among the best small cities in the world. By 2030, it is also the best run.

Independent, non-partisan, and costed. What Victoria's record is, what this framework commits to instead, how it is paid for, and what is actually on your ballot. Free for any candidate to adopt, and free for you to print and hand out.

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The minute · four things, then where to go next

01 The record Victoria is running on

31%
Operating budget, three years
9.34%
Residential tax, 2026
$598
Per-capita policing, 2023
61
Missing-middle permits, 2024
59%
Feel safe downtown by day (was 83%)
$25M+
Homelessness since 2023 — no published outcomes

02 What leads each pillar

One flagship measure per pillar, out of more than a hundred costed ones. All fifteen are below, each with its number, its cost and a named source.

  1. Published permit times, by category M7 — your permit answer in writing, by date.
  2. A Downtown Public Order Team M26 — one integrated command for the blocks that need it most.
  3. One signature public-space project, chosen by residents M45c — shortlisted, then put to a referendum.
  4. A zero-based review of all 200+ programmes M65 — the engine that pays for everything else.
  5. You vote on the big spends M77, M78 — a binding referendum on new capital over $25M.

03 How it is paid for

$8.2–14Ma year in operating savings at steady state
$4.3–14.0Mnet fiscal headroom, after every new cost
≈ break-eventhe pessimistic case, published beside the central one

And the tax glide path: 9.34% as levied in 2026, then a cap of ≤ 6.5%, then ≤ 5%, then about 3.5% — CPI plus population growth. The arithmetic, line by line · the full analysis.

04 What is on your ballot, 17 October

A mayor and eight councillors, three CRD directors, School District 61 trustees, and a non-binding question on a Saanich–Victoria amalgamation study. Nominations close 11 September; advance voting is 7, 13, 14 and 15 October. The detail, and the one question to ask every candidate.

That is the minute. Three places to go next:

See where the candidates standWho has a written answer, and the grades behind it Read every measureCosted, sourced, filterable by pillar Find my neighbourhoodWhat lands on your streets, measure by measure
The 30-second write-up — same figures, in sentences
Where Victoria is today

Victoria's operating budget went from $300.0M adopted in 2023 to $394.1M adopted for 2026, a 31% increase in three years, plus $160.1M in 2026 capital improvements (City of Victoria, 2026–2030 Financial Plan). Four consecutive years above inflation plus population growth, every one of them closed with one-time measures rather than structural savings.

The 2026 budget opened at 13.3% in November, was adopted at 7.28% on May 7 — and only after roughly $7M of late cuts, including a cancelled $2M debt-reduction payment and a $2.8M parking-reserve contribution.

7.28% is not what a homeowner paid. Council distributed it at 9.34% to residential and 4.78% to business, about $323 more on an average home assessed at $1,015,000 (City of Victoria; Victoria News). In 2025 the split was 8.18% residential against 5.6% business, and the gap widens every year by design as council moves the business-to-residential ratio from 3.67:1 toward 3:1 by 2030. The headline number is not the number in your mailbox.

And the property tax rate is not the whole bill. On top of it sit water, sewer, solid waste, and a stormwater fee of $218.42 per property per year. The CRD's own five-year forecast for regional water rates is 7.6%, 9.4%, 10.9%, 12.3% and 12.6% through 2030 (Times Colonist, November 2025), compounding to roughly 65% in five years against a nearly $2 billion thirty-year capital program.

What the money bought. VicPD costs $598 per resident, the highest of any municipal police department in BC (2023, BC Ministry of Public Safety report, cited by CBC News), and 5.06 of 2026's 7.28 tax points were policing. Missing Middle delivered 61 permits in 2024 against a target of 150 (CHEK News). 48% of downtown businesses would consider leaving if their lease expired (DVBA 2025 survey, via CHEK News). More than $25M has gone to homelessness response since 2023 with no published outcome metrics, plus $11M repairing encampment damage (Globe and Mail).

No competitive benchmarking. No published permit times. No zero-based reviews. No quarterly dashboard. No published household bill.

Victoria does not need to spend more. It needs to spend smarter.

Victoria in 2030

Travellers already rank Victoria among the best small cities in the world. By 2030 it is also the best run.

Pandora is a linear park, and nobody was pushed to the next block to build it. Housing came first, the province paid its share, and the City published the count every quarter until the unsheltered number fell by half. Then residents voted for the park on a ballot, and it opened on time and on budget because every invoice was public.

Victoria is the city that refunds you when it over-collects your taxes — the credit lands on your notice, not in a reserve. It is the city that puts your permit answer in writing, by category, and publishes every quarter how often it hit its own target. Every capital project over $25M goes to the voters. A bylaw officer answers at 9 PM, graffiti is gone in 48 hours, the streets are lit all night, and downtown storefront vacancy sits near 5%.

The budget grew 31% in three years and the city did not get 31% better. That gap is the mandate. Close it, and everything above is paid for without a single new tax.

The Five Pillars, and What Leads Each One

Fifteen flagship measures out of more than a hundred costed ones. Every measure carries a number, a cost, and a named source in the full Program.

Foundation — the host Nations. Standing government-to-government working tables with the Songhees Nation and the Esquimalt Nation on a quarterly cadence, an Indigenous procurement standard, and lək̓ʷəŋən place names (M1–M5). Relationship precedes every other commitment, so it is a foundation and not a pillar.

A Liveable City

  • Published permit times, by category (M7) — simple under 6 weeks, complex under 6 months, rezoning under 9 months. Your permit answer in writing, with AI pre-screening and a published quarterly variance report
  • 12,000+ net new homes by 2030, and the right ones (M6, M7b, M8b) — 25% missing middle, 20% three-bedroom or larger, 15% non-market, 30% purpose-built rental, delivered through a pre-approved pattern book with an automatic fast lane and a 24-month life-safety amnesty that legalizes the suites Victoria already has. Composition is the problem, not volume
  • Cut unsheltered homelessness by half (M11) — Housing-First with STEP throughput so supportive units free up rather than only multiply, capacity-first enforcement, and a published quarterly count

A Safe City

  • Downtown Public Order Team (M26) — VicPD, bylaw, sanitation and outreach under one daily briefing, for the blocks that need it most
  • Bylaw enforcement 6 AM to 10 PM, seven days (M27) — against today's 7 AM to 4 PM. Disorder does not keep office hours, and enforcement should not either. Every action published quarterly, including how much of it survived adjudication
  • Modern smart streetlighting (M30) — the Kelowna and Halifax model: LED, IoT, lit all night, self-financing in three to four years. No cameras. No behavioural AI. No audio surveillance. That commitment is permanent and it is in writing

A Beautiful City

  • One signature public-space project, chosen by residents (M45c) — three costed concepts shortlisted (a Pandora linear park, a continuous Inner Harbour promenade, a full Centennial Square renewal), all three visualized before the vote, decided by referendum, with a senior-government cost-share secured first. Sequenced after the safety and capacity work, not instead of it
  • 5,000 new trees by 2030, and a canopy target of 35% by 2035 (M61) — from roughly 30% today, with free seedlings for homeowners because 75% of Victoria's canopy sits on private land. A planting count measures effort; a canopy percentage measures result
  • Seismic and coastal resilience (M64b) — the hazard Victoria actually faces. A published vulnerability inventory of City buildings and of pre-1975 downtown stock, a costed retrofit programme for City-owned facilities, and no promise of a private retrofit mandate, because the Building Act does not permit one

A Well-Managed City

  • Zero-based review of all 200+ programmes (M65) — every programme justified from zero on a rotating cycle. This is the engine that pays for everything else on this page
  • The Taxpayer Guarantee (M66–M66d) — a glide path capped on the residential rate (≤6.5%, then ≤5%, then CPI plus growth), over-collection refunded as a credit on your next tax notice rather than swept into reserves, a debt rule that stops a scheduled debt payment being used as a shock absorber, and one published Household Bill covering property tax plus water, sewer, solid waste and stormwater with a five-year forward view
  • Competitive testing for waste and street cleaning (M15) — City crews and private bidders on the same specification, tested in both directions, the cheaper competent option wins, workers protected by mandatory re-employment. About $2.4M a year (Phoenix precedent: $25M+ saved 1978–1988)

A Democratic City

  • You vote on the big spends (M77, M78) — a binding referendum on every new, non-lifecycle capital project over $25M, under BC's existing Assent Voting framework, plus the 5-step process for every major project
  • The Integrity Package (M79b–M79f) — an Integrity Commissioner, a public lobbyist registry for development files with no exemption for the mayor, the $10 FOI application fee abolished, published mandate letters, and council pay changes that take effect only after the next election
  • Quarterly performance dashboard (M67) — permits, potholes, crime, housing, budget variance. Published green or red, no spin. You do not have to trust anyone; you can check

The Math

2026 rate, held flat (reference) Committed caps
Residential tax increase, committed glide path The 2026 residential increase as levied is 9.34 percent. The committed caps are 6.5 percent or less in Year 1, 5.0 percent or less in Year 2, and about 3.5 percent from Year 3 — CPI plus population growth. 0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10% 2026 rate held flat 9.34% ≤ 6.5% ≤ 5.0% ~3.5% 2026 Year 1 Year 2 Year 3+ as levied CPI + growth
The 2026 increase of 9.34% meant +$323 on a median home assessed at $1,015,000. That figure is not carried forward — what a capped rate costs in Year 2 or Year 3 depends on assessed values nobody can responsibly predict, so only the rates are shown.
ItemNumber
Council's 2026 tax increase13.3% opening draft → 7.28% adopted → 9.34% residential / 4.78% business
What that meant on a median home+$323 on $1,015,000 assessed
Glide path Year 1 (cap on the residential rate)≤6.5%
Glide path Year 2 (cap)≤5% residential
Glide path Year 3+ (target)~3.5% residential (CPI + growth)
Competitive testing (waste / cleaning)+$2.4M/yr
Zero-based budget review+$3–6M/yr
Admin efficiency (attrition + technology)+$1.9–4M/yr
New property tax (12,000 homes, peak by 2030)+$8–15M/yr
Smart streetlighting ROI+$500K–1M/yr
Gross savings and new revenue at steady state$17.7–32M/yr
Less all new recurring cost this framework creates, plus capital debt service−$13.3–18.0M/yr
NET fiscal headroom at steady state, central+$4.3–14.0M/yr
Net fiscal headroom, pessimistic (low savings against high costs)about −$0.3M/yr, published deliberately

Year one is a fraction of steady state, and the glide path is honest about that. Net fiscal headroom after every operating cost this framework creates is $4.3–14.0M per year on central assumptions, and approximately −$0.3M on pessimistic ones, pairing low savings and revenue against high costs. The pessimistic figure is published deliberately: on central assumptions the glide path is funded with room to spare, and on pessimistic ones it is funded by nothing and Year 1 slips. Six cost-bearing commitments, worth roughly $0.95–1.55M a year, are gated on verified Year 1 savings rather than booked — because a framework that spends its own projected savings before they arrive is doing what it criticizes the current council for doing. Full line-item math in the Savings & Revenue Analysis.

12 Commitments, measured every quarter

Twelve numerical targets, each with a published baseline, each reported quarterly — the target on the left, where Victoria starts on the right.

  1. Residential tax rate
    Target≤6.5% Year 1, ≤5% Year 2, about CPI + population growth Year 3 onward. Capped on the residential rate, not the total levy
    Where Victoria starts9.34% residential in 2026 (7.28% total levy, 4.78% business). Four straight years above inflation plus growth
  2. Verified annual savings
    Target$8–14M per year verified and banked by Year 4, published line by line against the year it was promised
    Where Victoria starts$0 currently reported. No competitive benchmarking, no zero-based review, no published savings register
  3. New homes, and composition
    Target12,000+ net new units by 2030 — 25% missing middle, 20% 3BR+, 15% non-market
    Where Victoria starts2,359 net new units in two years, against a five-year provincial target of 4,902
  4. Rental vacancy rate
    Target5%
    Where Victoria starts3.3% (2025, highest since 1999)
  5. Unsheltered homelessness
    Target−50%
    Where Victoria startsAbout 320 people
  6. Crime severity
    Target−15%
    Where Victoria startsCSI 152.65 (2024, down 11%)
  7. Graffiti removal
    Target90% within 48 hours
    Where Victoria startsNo current standard
  8. Permit speed, by category
    TargetSimple under 6 weeks, complex under 6 months, rezoning under 9 months
    Where Victoria starts3 to 18+ months by type, and no benchmark published at all
  9. Downtown storefront vacancy
    Target5%
    Where Victoria startsAbout 11%
  10. Dangerous intersections redesigned
    TargetAll 10 of the top 10 by collision history, redesigned or reconstructed within the term
    Where Victoria starts0 redesigned, and no published collision inventory exists, so the top 10 has never been named
  11. Transparency delivered
    TargetLobbyist registry live, FOI application fee abolished, Integrity Commissioner appointed, and all 16 quarterly reports published within 30 days of quarter end
    Where Victoria starts0 of 3 in place, and no quarterly performance report is published at all
  12. Climate and canopy
    Target−50% GHG by 2030 against 2007; 35% tree canopy by 2035
    Where Victoria starts−31% achieved, 19 points to go; canopy roughly 30%

Row 11 is the one that makes the other eleven checkable. A framework that demands quarterly outcome reporting from a council, and does not put its own reporting record on its own scorecard, is asking for a standard it has not accepted.

Every commitment with its source and the measure that delivers it →

How Every Major New Project Gets Decided

  1. Consult locally — what residents say needs to improve
  2. Design with experts — engineers, planners, affected residents
  3. Visualize and analyze impact — AI imagery (M53b) and GIS analysis (M53) show the future before construction
  4. Referendum if over $25M in new, non-lifecycle capital, under BC statutory process
  5. Report quarterly during construction — on time, on budget, or explain why not

What This Is — And Isn't

✓ Is

Non-partisan and open
Costed and sourced
Measurable, quarterly-reported
Adoptable by any candidate

✗ Isn't

A political party
A candidate slate
City surveillance cameras
A machine deciding about a person
Ideology dressed as policy

What Is Actually on Your Ballot, October 17

You elect a mayor and eight councillors, three CRD directors, and School District 61 trustees. The same ballot carries a non-binding question: "Do you support Saanich and Victoria becoming one municipality?"

Nominations close September 11. Advance voting is October 7, 13, 14 and 15 — all four are weekdays, which is one of the access gaps Measure 82b closes.

◆ The ask

It is one question, and it works on every candidate including the ones this framework did not come from: which of these measures will you adopt, by number? Then check the answer against the 12 Commitments above.

Take it with you — the printable PDF
The whole framework on two printable pages: the problem, the twelve commitments, the fifteen flagship measures, where the money comes from, and what the glide path is worth at your address. Version 1.11 · 172 KB · free to print, post and hand out.
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Read More, and Get Involved

Suggest improvements. Every measure is open to correction by anyone with expertise — info@acitythatworks.ca for corrections, contributions, and endorsement enquiries. Print and share it: the printable PDF is free to reproduce, post on a noticeboard, or hand out at a door.

Read every measure See where each candidate stands → Download the printable PDF Endorsement Pack

Version 1.10 — reconciled to the Program on August 5, 2026. Every change to this framework since May 2026 is dated and explained, including the corrections, in the version history.

No copyright. Attribution to A City That Works — A Citizens' Framework for Victoria 2026 appreciated but not required.

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