Barb Martens for Township Council

Because the work isn’t finished. Over this term, we added RCMP and bylaw officers, hired more firefighters – including a fire safety educator – and upgraded the Langley RCMP Detachment . But there is more to be done.

Growth in this Township has also stretched the roads, parks, and services families depend on, which means someone has to keep asking hard questions about what we're spending and what we're getting for it. I'd like to keep doing that work.

It means I’m not reading about these neighbourhoods in a staff report. I’m driving and walking them, shopping in them, and running into the people affected by every vote I take. I raised two kids here, and this community carried us through some difficult years. I’ve never forgotten that. When someone calls my office about a dark intersection or a break-in on their street, that’s not a file number to me. It’s my neighbourhood too.

I’m proud to have achieved the following work and key contributions as Councillor in 2022-2026:

• Brought forward and delivered three memorial crosswalks at the Aldergrove Legion's Fraser Highway entrances, with annual funding to maintain them and add more across the Township; secured equal Remembrance Day funding of up to $5,000 for all ceremonies.
• Strengthened extreme weather planning by requiring a corporate communications plan with proactive public messaging and emergency preparedness content.
• Moved a motion within 11 days of a tragic January 2026 Glover Road rail crossing death calling for fencing, pedestrian gates and improved warnings, with costs and a timeline.
• Secured a full-time Fire Life Safety Educator position in the 2026 Budget for fire prevention and public education in schools, seniors' homes and the community. Backed the hiring of 11 new career firefighters year over year.
• Spearheaded the addition of 15 RCMP officers to the Langley detachment and pushed detachment improvements to completion, including site security upgrades and a members' gym.
• Co-sponsored the motion adding 10 bylaw enforcement officers, phased in year by year.
• Advocated for quarterly attendance by the Langley RCMP Officer in Charge at Council to report on policing priorities and service levels.
• Championed a Community Police Office in Brookswood-Fernridge as a listed community amenity in the neighbourhood plans.
• Stood with residents to keep the Patti Dale Animal Shelter under LAPS operation through a ten-year agreement.
• Supported $2.1M in additional funding for Donna Gabriel Robins Neighbourhood Park and delivered nearly $8M in upgrades to Noel Booth Community Park.
• Advocated for consultation with the Langley School District throughout the 76 Avenue traffic impact study to protect students at Smith Middle and Smith Secondary; completion of the Yorkson Creek Pathway, and the $23.7M construction of 208 Street.
• Established a $100,000 annual grant to The Salvation Army Gateway of Hope and redirected $10,000 to Dry Grad, delivering $1,500 to each of Langley's 8 secondary schools.
• Called for a long-term debt reduction and financial stability plan with targets and timelines, a reserve replenishment schedule, and a contingency plan for a development slowdown; advocated for a public open house on the 2026 budget before first reading.

Six things I’ll keep pushing for:

• Safe streets and safe neighbourhoods. I spent 20 years as a police officer. I know what keeps a community safe, and it isn't luck. It’s presence, prevention, and a Township that backs its police and firefighters as it grows.
• Respect for your tax dollars. Every dollar the Township spends came off somebody’s kitchen table. I'll keep asking the plain questions about debt and spending, and pushing for answers residents can see before decisions are made, not after.
• A Township that keeps up with its people. Walnut Grove has been my home for 29 years, and I’ve watched services fall behind growth here and across the Township. Roads, fire halls, parks, and recreation should match the number of families who actually live here.
• Looking out for people who need it. My career was spent with people on their hardest days: victims of crime, seniors, families in crisis, women and children at risk. I’ll keep working for a community where those folks are protected, housed, and treated with dignity.
• The everyday stuff done right. Safe crossings near schools, sidewalks that connect, streets lit at night, help that arrives when someone's in crisis. Small things aren’t small when it’s your kid, your mom, or your street.
• A council that answers to you. Decisions made in the open, explained in plain language, and a councillor who returns your call. You shouldn't have to fight Township Hall to get a straight answer.

It teaches you that almost nothing gets solved by one person acting alone. My most effective work at VPD wasn’t enforcement — it was getting housing operators, residents, businesses, and officers in the same room and working through priorities that seemed to be in conflict. Nine years in social services taught me the same lesson from the other side. I bring that to council: listen first, get the facts, then decide and be willing to explain the decision to anyone who asks, whether they agree with me or not.

Four years at the table taught me how much easier it is to get things done when councillors trust one another and share a set of commitments. Langley Strong is a group of people who agree on the basics — safer communities, responsible spending, and open decision-making. But on every issue, I will continue voting with my own conscience based on the facts presented. That’s the arrangement Langley needs, and it’s how I’ve always served.

Family comes first. I’m a mom of two young adults, and our life here in Langley has always been rooted in community. I’m involved with the Langley Sunrise Rotary Club, where I serve on the executive as secretary and help deliver Starfish Backpack food packs to North Langley schools. Separately, I chair the SASSY Awards committee, helping provide bursaries to deserving young people. I also support fundraising initiatives for military members and first responders living with PTSD.

It means the answer I give you on your doorstep is the same answer I give in the council chamber. I’ve spent my whole career in public service, and the one thing that makes any of it work is trust — people telling you the truth because they believe you’ll do something with it. I’d rather take a hard vote and explain it plainly than take an easy one I can’t defend to my neighbours. I live here. I’m not going anywhere. That has a way of keeping you accountable.

With twenty years of first-hand experience and very little patience for slogans. I was VPD’s liaison to low-income housing models across downtown Vancouver — I know what works, what fails, and how quickly a badly-run building can turn a neighbourhood against the whole idea. Langley needs supportive and affordable housing, and it needs it done properly: the right operators, real accountability, and services for vulnerable residents; the seniors, young families, renters, and women and children at risk who need it most.

Call me anyway. Not every answer will be the one someone wants, but everyone is owed a real answer and a reason behind it. Responsive local government is the whole job.

I was a founding board member of BC Women in Law Enforcement, which started as a handful of us wanting a support network for police women in this province and is now more than 500 members strong. And I'm the two-time recipient of BC Borstal Association awards for community crime prevention, for my work with the homeless community and with Vancouver's hotel and housing operators. I've also received two Chief Constable commendations, one of them for talking someone off a bridge. That one I think about the most.