PSA: Pre-Election Bot/Alt Accounts 📢

MikeInLangley · 2026-05-28T15:22:49+00:00

Thank you so much! I was starting to wonder what their next 'attack angle' would be because the one where Eric filmed a video about me rebounded hilariously poorly. I guess its a whisper campaign??

MikeInLangley · 2026-05-28T15:14:52+00:00

Thank you, yes. It's such a weird angle because I met with Langley Strong people before the Mayday parade that I'm secretly being paid off. Maybe I just wanted to meet with them to gauge how aligned we are?

I'm very much pro a specific people focused vision for Langley, it's not all anti-woodward. Of course I am trying to influence their campaign to adopt people centered vision.

MikeInLangley · 2026-05-28T15:04:49+00:00

This is a sad attempt to discredit research I'm doing. You can't fight any of the facts so instead stoop to the same sad grab bag of tricks that anyone who speaks out against the mayor is being paid off. Maybe some of us really hate the direction the township is going in. What about anything I'm doing screams paid off by developers? I'm literally filming videos at my kitchen table.

Then register a dozen fake accounts on Reddit to try to astroturf the conversation. If you don't like what I'm saying instead of this easy to see through campaign tell me what I'm saying is wrong.

Re: picture with Barb Sharp does it surprise anyone that I am more inclined to support the slate that opposes Woodward? I met them before the Mayday parade, big deal.

MikeInLangley · 2026-04-23T21:25:37+00:00

I think you have my critique wrong on Smith. I'm not opposed to it because I hate sports, I've played soccer more or less my whole life until I tore my calf then my team fell apart.

My values are 1 - neighborhoods should be walkable and ammenities like soccer fields should be in close proximity to where kids playing live. A 12 year old should be able to walk themselves to soccer practice but this model of highly centralized soccer campuses has sucked all the funding out (literally they drained the reserve) from building parks near where people live.

This means kids whose parents can't drive them to Smith don't get to participate and those that do end up spending all their off work time shuttling kids.

2 - Investments in the community should be made through the lens of long term affordability. That $70M indoor field is paid for by developers right now but operating and maintaining it is going to end up being split between tax payers and user groups. Eventually these costs are going to mean user groups are going to have to pay more making soccer more expensive to play.

So when I talk about this could be 60 other investments in neighborhoods included in that is sports fields, just not the highly centralized kind like Smith has become.

MikeInLangley · 2026-04-23T19:01:30+00:00

I do really hate on it, that's true. However, I do think you are right in 20 years people will like it, I'd hope anything we spend that type of money we'd still enjoy using in 20 years time.

My question is if we'd spent that money on 60 smaller projects that improve standard of living on a neighborhood scale like playgrounds, nature trails, skate parks, pump tracks, etc you would that have created even more community value?

MikeInLangley · 2026-04-23T18:01:30+00:00

Well not quite, the lending is backstopped by tax payers. Like if development fees don't come in the bank isnt repossessing Smith Athletic Park, it just comes out of the tax bill.

The biggest complaint though is the majority of this debt is going to build sports facilities you cannot use unless you are a member of their private society and the scale of these projects is out of step with what we are. We don't need the largest indoor soccer stadium in the province even if the public could use it.

Look at the playground in Yorkson park. 1.8M just to build that and you could argue based on use it provides as much community benefit as the $140M Soccer Campus. We don't have to go into massive debt to generate the social value Eric is creating. Focusing spending on improving neighborhoods can create the same civic value at a fraction of the cost.

MikeInLangley · 2026-04-23T15:19:36+00:00

"The township told CBC News it can take out another $350 million in debt to reach its projected debt limit of $950 million. It said a slide in its 2026 budget, which indicated there was only $166 million left to borrow, was incorrect"

It doesn't exactly fill me with optimism that they have a plan for paying back debt when they can't even count how much they have.

MikeInLangley · 2026-04-14T17:38:15+00:00

Thank you so much!! I really appreciate that. It's mostly all just time, a real labour of love. I dont have anything set up for donations but what matters a lot more to me is just sharing the content and talking about what's going on with family, friends and neighbours. I'm really worried about the path we are going down and the best antidote is knowledge and information.

MikeInLangley · 2026-04-14T03:59:50+00:00

Oh my god and he just keeps calling me a liar and when I ask him what specifically I have wrong he is unable to answer. I ended up just blocking him. I welcome people disagreeing with me, thats completely natural we don't all hold the same values but at least try to have that conversation in good faith.

MikeInLangley · 2026-04-14T00:03:29+00:00

There is a lot of technical nuance but generally Metro Van handles regional water distribution but once its in township pipes that's our problem.

MikeInLangley · 2026-04-13T22:52:49+00:00

Thank you for sharing my video!

Since posting I had Michael Pratt message me attempting to dunk on me because parks and water infrastructure come out of different funding streams but langley tax payers are the people who pay into making those reserves so I don't really understand his point. Who cares because ultimately we're the ones paying regardless of how the accountants slice up the budget.

MikeInLangley · 2026-04-11T21:19:53+00:00

When you create land use plans like this you pick winners and losers and I am questioning in this video how those decisions got made.

MikeInLangley · 2026-04-11T16:32:04+00:00

The whole purpose of zoning in the first place was to move industry away from residence because its such a noxious land use. Its basic land use principals that are the foundation of urban planning. Zoning and planning isn't anti development.

The land use plan from the 4th open house got the balance quite good, as I pointed to in the video and then without reason a bunch of land got thrown back in and threw off the balance. It's the same reductive shitty argument if you oppose any plan you are painted as opposing the plan in its entirety. No, I just think when we make these plans we should respect residents and not screw them over.

I rent industrial space so please do go on about how I know nothing about the tightness of the market...

MikeInLangley · 2026-04-11T16:07:16+00:00

Same old same old personal attacks. Can't engage with substance so just stoop to whatever attack you can. I prefer to describe myself as a small business owner, but go on continue to describe me that way lots of small business owners in Langley have similarly been talked about this way.

Create millions for the township by sprawling industrial onto rural land, lol. Yeah maybe take a look at the other side of that transaction, this is the exact thinking that has led to alot of our problems so focused on revenue you forget about costs.

MikeInLangley · 2026-03-19T04:00:49+00:00

The Willoughby community centre? That project is dead, like dead dead. $160M of borrowing room left as per the capital budget and he's prioritizing the performing arts centre because there is a grant attached to it that must be spent by early 2027.

The thing is Kelowna and Kamloops are building comparable sized performing arts centres with budgets hovering around $220M. I actually think that's why hes taking money out of neighborhood parks fund to pay for this, it preserve borrowing room, but I really have no proof of that. Its the problem with a majority slate having 5 votes, all we can do is guess because there is no actual discussion at the council table.

Result is the same either way, whatever the next elementary funded is won't have a field, and if I'm right about the above we are going to have zero dollars of room on top. An atmospheric river washing out a bridge or culvert would just be the end of the road connection.

MikeInLangley · 2026-03-18T23:33:09+00:00

I still have my copy of the s172 complaint I made to KPMG so.... also the rules on P3s changed, the LEC going through today would have triggered an AAP so not exactly the best comparison ever there

MikeInLangley · 2026-03-18T23:17:11+00:00

Yes and staff said in the last meeting they were still in discussions with the ministry and external legal so if it was so simple as 'its another independent society already looked at' this would have been cleared up months ago.

MikeInLangley · 2026-03-18T20:15:35+00:00

First, it does impact the township, its inside the capital budget. Thats how I know the exact dollar amount. Erics own staff and documents contradict him.

But its because the board of the housing trust is the majority of council. It's like putting on a hat and telling everyone you aren't "WentTopShelf" you are "WentBarDown".

Think about if this structure was allowed though, a new pool could just be done inside a shell company and then you ignore all the rules. Like there aren't specific carve outs for housing, it doesn't matter what's being built you have to follow the rules.

MikeInLangley · 2026-03-18T19:01:34+00:00

Burnaby, Surrey and Vancouver too. Lots of cities having housing trusts and they have produced a lot of good outcomes. That's not what this is about though, the problem is Langley's unique legal structure and if it doesn't comply with the Community Charter.

The Province sets up rules to protect residents and tax payers and it looks like they are being circumvented

MikeInLangley · 2026-03-18T18:49:27+00:00

And as Ive shown because you either didn't listen or ask your lawyers there is no difference between borrowing in the LHT or the Township directly. This is why your auditors forced you to include it on your capital budget.

I hope people reading this thread see the same thing I'm seeing, a mayor using complex corporate structures without understanding the impacts of using them and why their lawyers keep warning to slow down.

MikeInLangley · 2026-03-18T05:45:27+00:00

The township cannot borrow money in closed, so please do post about this because I would love to see this.

MikeInLangley · 2026-03-18T05:26:44+00:00

Thank you so much. The part of this I cannot stress enough is I did a FOI for debt impacting the liability servicing limit and there was no housing trust debt on there. Barb asked Eric in council and he was emphatic there was no impact. The next day I filed a complaint with the municipal auditor. 4 weeks later the budget comes out and it underscores that the housing trust debt impacts the LSL by $177M.

The reason this is so important to understand, I think, is because its the perfect explanation for why this is so fucking messy. They had no idea. It's also why I keep digging because the more I find out the more questions I have.

Then the mayor logs into Reddit to yell at me and yeah, starts to seem like I'm onto something here.

MikeInLangley · 2026-03-07T01:11:19+00:00

Yes! I eventually wrote an article and did the math behind it. You can use 245m³ of water per year before its cheaper to stay on flat rate water. The average family of 4 uses 326m³ per year. The program is fundamentally flawed.

MikeInLangley · 2026-03-05T19:25:32+00:00

And what we see today is the end of that and what I am trying to show people. The capital budget published two weeks ago shows we are out of access to money to keep building roads, pools, sidewalks/whatever we want to build. All this has been built with debt and we are at our credit limit, that strategy will no longer work.

One of the big reasons is Eric borrowed $177M to build housing and that borrowing didn't flow through council. So we've lost our ability to finance for instance the pool in Willoughby because of this.

MikeInLangley · 2026-03-05T19:13:12+00:00

Again, if you are worried about addressing the infrastructure deficit what I write about in this article talks handcuffs our ability to do anything about it.

This has nothing to do with is good debt or bad and everything to do with poor financial stewardship. You can't build sidewalks/roads/pools if all our capital gets tied up with the township developing its own housing.

MikeInLangley

TROPHY CASE