The claim: In a Facebook reel posted September 15 by Eric Woodward and Progress for Langley, the mayor stands on 36 Avenue at 205 Street in Brookswood and says: “We have Council incumbents in this election that have lived in Brookswood for years, saying that they love Brookswood. But if you love Brookswood, how do you do this to it?” He says the subdivisions there and on 208 Street “were approved five years ago by the last council. I voted against them. And I did everything I could to stop them.”
The verdict: FALSE. The subdivision he is standing in front of got its final approval on June 10, 2024, from his own council. The motion was moved by his slate member, Councillor Pratt, and seconded by his slate member, Councillor Baillie, and it carried – with every member of his slate approving. He was the only no vote. The mayor who says he “did everything he could to stop” it could not get one member of his own slate, the councillors whose campaign money he manages as financial agent, to vote with him. As for “five years ago by the last council”: the project got third reading on June 27, 2016, ten years ago, two councils back, before he was ever elected. Kim Richter voted no that night. Langley Strong did not exist. The video blames unnamed “incumbents” for a record that belongs, start to finish, to other people, and its final chapter to him.
Key Points
- Final approval came from his council, on his slate’s motion, in 2024.
- He was the lone no vote. His slate carried it. That is not “everything I could.”
- “Five years ago by the last council” is wrong on the date and the council.
- Kim Richter voted no in 2016. He was not there.
1. Final approval came from his council, on his slate’s motion, in 2024.
The subdivision at 36 Avenue and 205 Street is Rezoning Application 100440, Copper Canyon Holdings Inc., 20450 – 36 Avenue. A rezoning is not law until council gives it final reading.
That happened on June 10, 2024, under “Bylaws for Final Adoption,” at a regular meeting of the council Eric Woodward chairs. The minutes read: “Moved by Councillor Pratt, Seconded by Councillor Baillie, That Council give final reading to ‘Township of Langley Zoning Bylaw 1987 No. 2500 Amendment (Copper Canyon) Bylaw 2016 No. 5205’. CARRIED. Mayor Woodward opposed.”
Michael Pratt and Tim Baillie are Progress for Langley candidates. Baillie (and his fellow slate member Ferguson) lives in Brookswood/Fernridge. The same motion abandoned the phased development agreement that had sat over the project since 2016, clearing the last hurdle. This is not the last council’s record. It is the Woodward council’s record.
So when he says, “We have Council incumbents in this election that have lived in Brookswood for years, saying that they love Brookswood. But if you love Brookswood, how do you do this to it?” – he should start by asking his own endorsed slate mates Baillie and Ferguson.
2. He was the lone no vote. His slate carried it.
“I did everything I could to stop them.” Here is what he had in June 2024: the chair and a five-seat slate majority, the same councillors he now endorses. Instead, he cast one vote, alone, while two of his own candidates moved and seconded the bylaw and the rest of his slate voted it through.
The vote was 8–1. Everyone but him voted yes, Langley Strong’s councillors included. The four Langley Strong votes were a minority; his five were the majority, and two of them moved and seconded the motion. And he knows how to stop a project at this stage. In December 2022 his slate reversed third reading on the Gloucester rezoning to reopen the amenity deal. On January 29, 2024, his slate reconsidered third reading on 18 in-stream applications at once and sent them back to staff.
Five months later, on June 10, 2024, the same council gave this one final reading on his own slate’s motion. He had the majority, the precedent and the chair. He used none of them. He cast one no vote he knew would lose, and two years later filmed a video misleading people about it.
A mayor who wants a bylaw stopped needs four more no votes. He had five slate members to ask. He did not get one. Either he did not ask, or he asked and they refused. Both answers end the “did everything I could” story. The first means the vote was for show. The second means his slate does not follow him on Brookswood, and the video is aimed at the wrong councillors.
3. “Five years ago by the last council” is wrong twice.
Five years ago was 2021. The last council sat from 2018 to 2022. Nothing about this project happened in 2021. It got third reading in June 2016, under Mayor Jack Froese, on the council before last. It got final reading in June 2024, under Mayor Eric Woodward. Ten years, or two years. Pick one. Neither is five, and neither is the last council.
The Township’s own file number gives it away: “Bylaw 2016 No. 5205.” The year is in the name.
4. Kim Richter voted no in 2016. He was not there.
On June 27, 2016, council gave third reading to the Copper Canyon subdivision (40 homes on 36 Avenue) and a second Brookswood proposal (43 homes on 205 Street). Both passed 5–4. The Langley Advance Times recorded the four opposed: Kim Richter, Petrina Arnason, Michelle Sparrow and David Davis. Richter told council that night: “Getting rid of trees does not protect aquifers or promote water conservation. In fact, it damages the environment and there has been nothing done… to work around those trees — nothing.”
Eric Woodward was elected to council in October 2018, more than two years later. He did not vote against this project in 2016 because he was not on council. On this project, the only vote he cast was in 2024, and his own slate outvoted him.
