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Editorial: Co-operation beats competing

Langford Mayor Stew Young’s push to attract major employers and government offices to his city makes a lot of sense. Instead of plugging highways with commuters every day, bring the work closer to the people.

Langford Mayor Stew Young’s push to attract major employers and government offices to his city makes a lot of sense. Instead of plugging highways with commuters every day, bring the work closer to the people.

But if he succeeds, it would be at the expense of other communities.

Langford has not been shy about using strategies to encourage growth, and the city’s population grew 7.2 per cent to 37,275 between 2014 and 2015. That’s good for Langford in many ways, but as the West Shore continues to grow, the traffic congestion will only get worse. The interchange at McKenzie Avenue and the Trans-Canada Highway might ease the problem, but it won’t erase it.

So bring the businesses to Langford, says Young, who wants to pursue a 10-year tax holiday for any provincial office or tech company that opens in Langford. He says he will put his proposal on the next Langford council agenda.

Tax holidays and similar incentives are nothing new for municipalities trying to encourage growth. But they have their negative sides.

Langford’s gain could mean a loss for Saanich, Victoria or Sidney, if businesses or government offices are enticed across municipal boundaries. To compete, especially in an area like Greater Victoria with its multiplicity of cheek-by-jowl municipalities, other towns might be compelled to offer ever-better incentives, and so begins the race to the bottom.

There’s also the danger of setting up taxpayer inequality — you get a tax holiday, but that means your share is paid by your neighbours, at least in the short term.

That doesn’t mean Young’s plan is a bad idea. It’s a good idea, and he is doing what he does best — looking out for the growth and vibrancy of his city. It has worked. For example, Langford welcomed big-box stores when others did not, adding to Langford’s tax base and its reputation as a business-friendly place.

And not all government offices need to be clustered in downtown Victoria. It makes sense to spread them throughout the region, if the nature of the work done in those offices doesn’t require being in close proximity to the legislature.

But there are also drawbacks to Young’s plan. In many households, family members tend to go in different directions. While one might work for a company based in Langford, another might work downtown. A son might have a job in Saanich and a daughter might go to the University of Victoria. That’s a fairly normal scenario, not an extreme case.

Don’t fault Young for looking after Langford — that’s exactly what he was elected to do, just as other mayors and councillors were elected to look after the interests of their own communities. They must first look inward, not outward.

But the capital region is not a series of disconnected islands. It is, in effect, a medium-sized city, but one hampered by a maze of boundaries, differing regulations and competing interests. It was not Young’s intention to make a case for amalgamation, but his plan underscores the need for more regional strategies, particularly in transportation.

That doesn’t mean amalgamation is necessarily the solution. There is no single solution to the region’s growth and transportation issues.

In the 2014 municipal elections, a majority of those voting favoured studying some form of amalgamation or closer regional co-operation. While it might be argued that municipal politicians should heed the voters’ wishes, they must look first to the interests of their respective municipalities. It is up to the province to conduct a governance study, as promised after the 2014 referendums.

We need less competition and more co-operation in tackling regional issues.