Version History
How the framework has changed through ongoing input, collaboration, competitive-intelligence cycles, and contributions from sitting councillors and declared candidates.
← Back to the frameworkVersioning principles
- Snapshots preserved before substantive change. Each version is duplicated to a dated archive before the live master is edited.
- Dated changelogs appended to the live master, not deleted. The history of why a measure changed lives next to the measure itself.
- All prior versions remain accessible at their snapshot locations. Nothing is lost.
- Major-version bumps (v1 → v2) are reserved for re-numbering and structural changes that would break existing cross-references.
- Sub-version bumps (v1.1 → v1.2 → …) for content additions, sourcing corrections, expansions, and refinements that preserve numbering.
- Anyone can contribute ideas, corrections, or new measures by writing to info@acitythatworks.ca. Every contribution is reviewed; accepted contributions are credited in the changelog.
Current version
Eleven new sub-measures and three in-place strengthenings, for approximately $15–30K/year recurring and $175–290K one-time. New: M7b pattern-book housing, M8b suite-legalization amnesty, M26b civilian crisis response, M28d community paramedicine, M31c community-safety performance contract, M73d Strategic Economic Plan, M78b material change rule, M79d lobbyist registry, M79e FOI application-fee abolition, M79f remuneration deferral, M80c Local Area Plans. Strengthened in place: M7 tenure priority queue, M61 canopy target, M79 draft-back standard.
A further conditional tier of roughly $500–850K/year is excluded from every headroom figure: M26b, M28d and M80c. The first two proceed only with a confirmed provincial or health-authority cost-share partner, because municipally funding a clinical service outright is the downloading M70b exists to refuse; absent a partner both are advocacy at zero cost. Roughly two-thirds of v1.9's substantive value by dollar sits in that tier, which is the honest place for it.
This set was built to the post-v1.8 rule rather than around it. Every other item is cost-neutral or offset by name. Net headroom moves to approximately $4.27–13.99M central — inside the rounding of the v1.8 range rather than a movement of it. That is the design, not a coincidence: after v1.8 there was almost nothing left to spend.
No measure added, no cost booked, no commitment changed. Nine internal contradictions found in a full-document review and closed. The two largest: The Method still opened with the superseded $384.1M / 29% / 10.44% diagnostic while the Well-Managed pillar carried the corrected one; and every fiscal rule was protected by a "supermajority of Council (6 of 8)" when Victoria's council has nine members — which Measure 79c stated correctly in the same document. Both fixed, the second in all six locations.
Also: the three-year growth figure is now 31% with both endpoints verified against the City's own adopted plans ($299,976,550 for 2023, $394,060,040 for 2026, same envelope, like for like); the Balance Sheet now leads with net headroom of $4.3–14.0M rather than the gross $12.5–27.8M; the unsourced 53% salary-share claim and the unsourced "lowest unemployment in the country" are removed; the canopy baseline is stated once; and both notes-to-self were resolved rather than deleted.
The 2027 question, answered from the plan. The adopted 2026–2030 Financial Plan contains no 2027 tax-increase percentage, so neither Gardiner's "roughly double" nor Dell's rebuttal was quoting a published figure. What the plan does show for 2027 is roughly $13.8M of new pressure against a $209.1M tax base — about 6.5 points before any wage, contract or police growth: the $2M debt-reduction contribution resuming, debt servicing up 32%, the capital transfer up $5.0M, and the parking contribution down $3.7M. Stated as arithmetic, not forecast.
Second pass, same day. Added a cost statement to all 35 measures that had none, every one $0, cross-referenced, or absorbed within an already-reconciled line. Added "Victoria in 2030". Reconciled the Savings & Revenue Analysis across 46 recurring, 9 capital and 8 one-time lines, with all 16 previously missing measures booked and net headroom restated at $4.3–14.0M central and about −$0.3M pessimistic. Brought the FAQ, One-Page Summary, Endorsement Pack and City Hall guide current. Added the CRD as a fourth row in the orders-of-government table. Resolved the tagline conflict in favour of "Proven ideas. Measurable results."
Two findings not on the defect list, disclosed rather than quietly fixed. First, "absorbed within" appeared 11 times with no running total anywhere; Savings Part C1 now totals every offset envelope, and the M68 attrition envelope carries $0.34–0.49M against a $1.9–4.0M saving, so 9% to 26% consumed. Second, Measure 26 and Measure 67 were absorbing costs from other measures while stating no budget of their own, so costs were charged to envelopes nobody could size. Both now costed explicitly — which moved the pessimistic case from roughly break-even to about −$0.3M. Worse-looking, more honest, correct direction.
Measure 66 now caps the residential property tax rate, not the total levy. Council raised total 2026 revenue 7.28% and distributed it at 9.34% residential / 4.78% business, so a cap on the total would have permitted a 9% homeowner bill described as 6.5%. Added a ratio rule preventing the business-to-residential split being moved to manufacture the number, an assessment caveat, and a commitment to publish both figures annually with the dollar change on a median home.
The Year 1 claim got stronger by getting more honest — 6.5% is a three-quarter-point reduction against the aggregate and nearly three points against the residential rate. Three factual corrections from the City's adopted figures: operating budget $394.1M adopted (not the $384.1M draft); opening draft 13.3% (not 10.44%); and the residential split now shown for two years.
Eight new sub-measures written against the categories Victoria candidates will actually be questioned on, and the gaps neither this framework nor the incumbent field addressed: M13d standing School District 61 agreement, M20b a walking city, M23b transit control and funding, M50b arts and culture funding floor, M53d municipal AI standard, M66d the Household Bill, M70c the regional bill and Victoria's CRD representation, M82b turnout and ballot access.
Five in-place strengthenings and one correction of an internal contradiction: M24 committed the City to street-level computer vision while the framework committed to no City cameras. Booked cost −$110–200K/yr with named offsets; three further commitments worth $450–700K/yr were deliberately gated on verified Year 1 savings rather than booked, because the pessimistic headroom case had no room in it. The public "100 active commitments" framing is retired.
No new measures and no new spending. Measure 81 rewritten because the prior text proposed creating a Citizens' Assembly that had already sat, reported, and closed; the measure is now scoped to finishing the file against the Minister's April 2026 conditions. Measure 66's Year 1 claim re-benchmarked against the 7.28% council actually levied rather than the 10.44% draft. v1.7.1 followed with the headroom line-item rebuild to $4.5–14.2M/yr central and roughly −$0.1M pessimistic.
- v1.3.1 — M11 outcomes discipline
- v1.3.2 / v1.3.3 — M80b rewritten, then re-scoped to Canada's official languages
- v1.4 — ten prioritized edits including the M66b over-collection refund
- v1.5 — five new sub-measures: M45c, M55b, M58b, M73b, M79c
- v1.6 — six new sub-measures, the M30 gating decision, and four explicit declines
- v1.6.1 — Measure 68 attrition target raised from 10% to 12–15%
Prior versions
Honest cost-benefit re-examination of Measure 53. Demoted the full city-scale Digital Twin from a Year 1–2 commitment to a Year 3+ aspirational measure contingent on specific gates: M53/M53b delivering measurable value, federal or provincial co-funding of at least 50%, and at least one Canadian peer city at Victoria's scale demonstrating successful deployment first.
Replaced with three smaller, Canadian-peer-precedented measures: M53 GIS and underground utility modernization, M53b AI consultation imagery reframed as a permanent measure on its own merits, and new M53c a one-time LIDAR scan of the downtown core. Net headroom widened from v1.2's $4.9–14.1M/yr to $5.4–14.9M/yr. Roughly 101 active commitments.
Five new sub-measures (city land bank, youth services 18–25, public bathrooms, pedestrianization pilots, universal accessibility), 13 measure expansions, and sourcing corrections — Phoenix replaces an unverified C.D. Howe figure, and Calgary is updated to the verified $74M / $60M numbers. Roughly 100 active commitments, with an honest budget correction: v1.2's incremental cost had been understated and was corrected to about $2.5–3.5M/yr above v1.1.
Integrated the May 2026 Competitive Intelligence Audit. Added 12 new sub-measures absorbing the strongest individual proposals from across the political spectrum: STEP supportive-housing throughput, Integrity Commissioner and MNP governance, regional policing review, heat-protection rental bylaw, STR licensing tightening, vacancy control advocacy, family-doctor recruitment, business-security cost-spreading, drug-use buffer zones, SUV hood-height advocacy, cultural-venue preservation, the provincial-downloading ledger, AI consultation imagery, and non-English accessibility. Cross-bloc attribution made explicit in the changelog. Total: 94 active commitments.
The original 82 measures across five pillars plus one foundation. First synthesis of the framework, before competitive-intelligence integration.
How to read the history
Each release above lists what changed, why, and where, with measure numbers. Cross-bloc attributions are tagged, so anyone who proposed an idea first can find their contribution credited. The dated changelogs for every step are appended to the working master alongside the measures themselves, and archive snapshots preserve the verbatim state of the framework at v1.1, v1.2, v1.3.3, v1.4, v1.5 and v1.7.1.
Upcoming
- Savings & Revenue Analysis — reconciled to v1.8.2 across 46 recurring, 9 capital and 8 one-time lines. The next checkpoint is the first published quarterly variance report.
- Comparison Matrix fairness defect — inference-based alignment marks against named candidates, against the matrix's own stated standard requiring a public source for every score. Open since v1.7 and now inside the pre-campaign period, which began July 20, 2026.
- Elections BC written opinion — on whether framework policy content constitutes third-party advertising in each period, and how the independence test applies. The independence test is the real exposure, not the registration.
- v2.0 will trigger if accumulated additions warrant a full re-numbering, if structural changes become necessary, or if the Year 3+ Digital Twin gates are met and the full city-scale Digital Twin re-enters as a confirmed commitment.
Any addition after v1.8 must be genuinely cost-neutral, carry a named offset against a specific existing line, or be gated on verified savings. The pessimistic headroom case is at break-even, and v1.9 was the first test of that rule.