Kim Richter for Township Council

Because I don’t like the direction we’re headed. Taxes and the cost of living keep climbing, our debt servicing costs are rising fast, and residents are being asked to pay for growth that was never properly planned in the first place.

I’ve watched this Township grow from farm roads to a community of more than 165,000 people, and I know the difference between growth that is orderly and growth that is rushed. Someone at that table has to keep asking what we’re spending, what we’re getting for it, and who was consulted before the vote. I’d like to keep doing that work.

Bob and I moved here from Calgary in 1986 and settled in the Salmon River Uplands, right in the middle of farming country. We raised three children here, and this community is where our life happened: swim club, soccer sidelines, school concerts, hospital board meetings, and a lot of kitchen-table conversations with neighbours about what was going up down the road.

So when farmland comes up at the council table, I’m not reading about it in a staff report. I live on it. When someone calls about a rezoning two streets over, I know that street. That’s the whole reason I stay in this.

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

• Co-sponsored the Long-Term Fiscal Responsibility Plan adopted by Council, requiring debt reduction targets and timelines, a reserve replenishment schedule, a revenue diversification plan and a contingency plan for a development slowdown
• Brought forward the Debt Financing Summary Report motion documenting the Township's escalating long-term and temporary borrowing, and called for a dedicated Council workshop on current and projected debt levels
• Requested a provincial audit and governance review of the Township’s 2024 and 2025 budget and reporting cycles for compliance with legislation and public sector accounting standards
• Supported a staff presentation on the draft 2026 Universal Budget and pressed for a public open house before the budget bylaw received first reading
• Called for a public presentation on the new Township of Langley Housing Trust Society before it proceeded
• Passed the More Great Playgrounds motion directing staff to report on up to five new or substantially improved playgrounds across the Township, built to the quality of Yorkson Community Park
• Stopped the 84 Avenue development permit in a streamside protection area, blocked the 224 Street soil deposit application from reaching the Agricultural Land Commission, and held minimum rural parcel sizes on Smith Crescent
• Led Council’s advocacy letter to the federal Fisheries Minister and every Langley MP and MLA defending river conservation and the public’s right to fish, and secured advocacy support for the Bedford Channel dredging window
• Required tree canopy loss be disclosed on proposed child care sites, added canopy loss and tree replacement to the Fraser Highway Employment Lands Terms of Reference, and won urban forest retention on the 32 Avenue rezoning
• Secured raised, signed and marked crosswalks with pedestrian-activated flashing beacons in the 207A Street improvements, and a full review of the Township’s crosswalk policy
• Moved the motion requiring timely and equal Council access to critical decision-making information, and defended residents' right to appear as delegations on zoning, heritage and development matters
• Fast-tracked the building permit for the School District's 76 Avenue project so school construction could proceed, and secured a further report on eligible Willoughby school sites; directed annual funds to Gateway of Hope and proposed Township food banks as the multi-year Holiday Lights beneficiary

Six things I’ll keep pushing for:

• Affordability and responsible spending. A budget residents can actually afford, a debt trajectory that gets explained plainly before it gets voted on, and spending decisions tested against what families are already paying.
• Farmland and green space protected. The Agricultural Land Reserve, our forested areas, and our green space defended from encroachment, because once it is gone it does not come back.
• Growth that is planned, not rushed. Orderly, human-scaled development with the roads, utilities, parks, and schools sequenced alongside it, instead of approvals first and infrastructure later.
• Transparency and accountability. Decisions made in the open, reports released before the vote and not after, and the highest standard of ethics for everyone at that table.
• Real public input. Public hearings that are more than a formality, plain-language information ahead of time, and every point of view heard before a decision is made.
• Seniors, health, and climate resilience. Health and seniors’ services that keep pace with an aging and growing community, and preparation for the flooding and severe weather we already know is coming.

Three careers that all point the same direction. I’ve been a full-time business management instructor at Kwantlen Polytechnic University since 1993, which means I read a budget for a living and I teach other people how to do it. I hold a Bachelor of Arts, a Bachelor of Science, and a Master’s in Health Administration from the University of Ottawa.

In health care I’ve chaired the South Fraser regional health board and Langley’s community health council, and I served as a trustee at Langley Memorial Hospital. On Council I’ve co-chaired the Agricultural Advisory and Economic Enhancement Committee, the Seniors Advisory Committee, and the Economic Development Advisory Committee, and I’ve sat on the Mayor’s Standing Finance Committee. From 2018 to 2022 I represented the Township on the Metro Vancouver Regional Board, including its water, sewerage and drainage, and housing boards.

Because on the fundamentals we already agree: affordability, protecting farmland, orderly growth, and open decision-making. Working alongside people who share those commitments is simply more effective than working alone.

What hasn’t changed is how I vote. Every member of this team keeps their own judgment on every item, and I’ve never given mine to anyone. I’ll still read the whole report, still ask the hard questions, and still vote the way I think serves residents best.

Our three children are grown now, but for years our calendar belonged to the Langley Flippers Swim Club, where I served as vice-president, and to girls’ soccer, where I managed a team. Bob and I raised Stafford, Sterling, and Graecen here, and they are the reason I care what this place looks like in twenty years. I was a founding president of the North Otter Performing Arts Association and a director of Langley Family Services.

I still teach at Kwantlen, which keeps me around young people who are about to inherit whatever we build. And I volunteer at LAPS as a dog walker and a cat cuddler, which is exactly as good for me as it is for the animals.

Because experience is the thing this Township keeps paying for the lack of. I can tell you what was promised when a piece of land was rezoned two decades ago, what the traffic study actually said, and which commitments quietly disappeared. That memory is worth something when a staff report lands on a Friday and the vote is Monday.

The day I stop reading the whole agenda, or stop being willing to be the only vote in the room, is the day I should go. That hasn’t happened yet.

Protectively, and without apology. I co-chaired the Agricultural Advisory and Economic Enhancement Committee for multiple terms, and my own neighbourhood is surrounded by working farms. The ALR is not a land bank waiting for the right application. It is food security, it is flood management, and it is the reason this place still looks like Langley.

There is more than enough land inside our urban boundaries to grow sensibly. When an exclusion application comes forward, the burden of proof belongs to the applicant, not to the residents who have to live with the result.

You can always reach out to me. I’ve answered my own phone and my own email for twenty-seven years, and I still do. You may not always get the answer you were hoping for, but you are owed a real one, and you are owed the reasoning behind it.

I try to debate the issues and not the personalities. That applies to residents who disagree with me too.

The unglamorous work. Chairing health boards and Langley’s community health council, co-chairing the Seniors Advisory Committee, and keeping health services and seniors’ needs on the agenda in a community that has aged and grown enormously since I arrived.

And the farmland. Every acre still in the ALR represents a decision that could have gone the other way. I’ve been in the room for a lot of those decisions, and I’d like the next generation to be able to drive out here and still recognize the place.