• Politics

Chamber of Commerce gives Victoria a D in municipal report card

The Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce gave the City of Victoria a D in its municipal report card, which grades six councils on their 2022 to 2026 term. ² Oak Bay and Colwood received a B, Esquimalt and Saanich a C, and Victoria and Langford a D. ²

Who is grading, and through what lens

The Chamber is a business group. Its report describes the Chamber as representing employers, but says the measures were chosen because they affect residents first. ⁴ Island Social Trends described the cards as "reviews through a business lens with a focus on tax levels, public safety and the production of housing." ⁶ Coverage in Business Examiner describes the report as aimed at employers and investors weighing operating costs and workforce attraction. ¹

The Chamber's stated framing is that "every decision a Council makes has a price tag that people in the region pay." ⁶ It also calls the report "a discussion tool, not an audit, a legal finding, or a determination of fact." ⁴

The review scores four areas: housing affordability and supply, economic opportunity, public safety, and governance focus and role clarity. ⁴ The letter grades were informed by an advisory panel. ⁴ Members include Carson Binda, B.C. director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, former Oak Bay mayor Christopher Causton, former Liberal MLA Ida Chong, former Conservative MP Gary Lunn and former Colwood mayor David Saunders. ³

Why Victoria got a D

The Chamber assigns one overall grade per municipality. Its Victoria summary says the city is a leader in housing supply, but that crime severity, the weakest affordability relative to income and some councillors' attention on matters outside municipal authority outweigh that. ⁵ "Leading on housing wasn't enough to offset what we found on safety, affordability and governance focus," it says. ⁵

Housing affordability and supply. Victoria was strong on supply and weak on affordability. The Chamber says Victoria "deserves real credit on housing," and that it led the region in approvals last year. ⁵ Victoria and Langford were the region's approval leaders, with Victoria ahead in 2025. ⁹ Victoria authorized 3,392 residential units between 2023 and 2025, against 3,845 in Langford, 764 in Esquimalt and 151 in Oak Bay. ⁴ The Chamber also credits Victoria with the strongest apartment and multifamily mix of the six. ⁵ On affordability, Victoria is the least attainable ownership market in the region at 14.7 times household income, which the Chamber attributes as much to the region's lowest median household income, $85,000, as to price. ⁹ Condominium prices run at 5.9 times income in Victoria, the highest of the six; Colwood is lowest at 4.1. ⁹

Economic opportunity. The Chamber describes Victoria as having a mid-range business tax multiplier and spending growth closer to inflation than any of the region's other larger municipalities. ⁵ The multiplier compares the business property tax rate with the residential rate; across the six municipalities it ranges from 2.5 in Esquimalt to 4.7 in Saanich and averages 3.4. ⁴ Victoria and Oak Bay sit near the regional middle on tax rates. ¹⁰ Municipal taxes rose faster than inflation everywhere in the region since 2022. ¹⁰ The Chamber also found that real operating spending outpaced population growth in all six municipalities between 2010 and 2024. ⁴

Public safety. This was the Chamber's most pointed finding on Victoria. It is the only one of the six above the provincial average on both the crime severity and violent crime severity measures in every year from 2022 to 2025, averaging 63 per cent above the benchmark on overall severity and 64 per cent above on violent crime. ¹¹ Both measures worsened over the term while the provincial index fell from 100.32 in 2022 to 92.37 in 2025. ¹¹ By comparison, Oak Bay recorded the lowest severity, at roughly 28 per cent of the provincial benchmark. ¹¹ The Chamber says five of the six municipalities outperformed provincial benchmarks throughout the term. ¹¹

Governance focus and role clarity. The Chamber says this area looks at how councils used time, budget, staff direction, public assets and policy attention, and whether that matched municipal authority. ¹² It does not grade service quality or staff performance. ¹² For Victoria, it says council time was directed to matters outside municipal authority while residential rates rose sharply. ⁵ Its area page cites extended council debate on provincial legislation and international conflicts as consuming time and staff resources on questions no municipal council can decide. ¹² The Chamber also says Victoria has the lowest household incomes of the six and the least affordable housing measured against those incomes. ⁵

Scope of the report

The Chamber says it graded six of 13 municipalities because the indicators "do not have the same scale or regional impact" in smaller communities. ⁶ It told Island Social Trends that whether the report card recurs will depend on member feedback. ⁶

Langford's rebuttal

Langford's mayor and council called the report "biased and incomplete." ⁷ The city said the Chamber's claim that Langford has the highest crime severity outside Victoria is misleading, citing a Statistics Canada 2025 Crime Severity Index of 61.52 against a provincial average of 92.37 and 161.18 for Victoria. ⁸ Mayor Goodmanson said residents can judge the city on results, "not so-called report cards adjudicated by a committee with political affiliations." ⁸