Conductor Woodward just picked up another passenger onto the Langley Township’s debt runaway train. During the February 3rd meeting, which was rightfully packed with tense exchanges and political friction, council approved yet another $10 million in borrowing, pushing the township’s total approved debt to a staggering $685.76 million. The vote, spearheaded by Mayor Eric Woodward, adds $9.76 million for the Facilities Renewal Reserve Program, a fund aimed at fixing long-neglected infrastructure. 

This latest approval comes just weeks after The Langley Monitor warned that Woodward’s borrowing spree was turning into a financial sinkhole. Having already identified the massive borrowing as a problem in our article Woodward’s Sinkhole of Debt Threatens to Swallow Langley Township. In this article, we lay out how the Township’s debt has ballooned under Woodward’s direction. Instead of slowing down, Woodward’s team is throttling up, approving even more borrowing with no clear repayment plan.

Councillor Richter questioned whether Langley’s borrowing spree had any brakes left. The Facilities Renewal Plan outlined a $22.5 million backlog in 2025, with a projected $86.2 million needed over the next five years. 

It did not stop there; Richter pushed for answers on how the debt would be repaid and accused Woodward of muzzling staff when they attempted to respond. Councillor Ferguson had to pause his feeding from the trough to chime in and call for a point of order against Councillor Richter’s concern. Meanwhile, Councillors Baillie and Pratt voiced their support for the plan, arguing that past councils had failed to spend enough. Woodward and Councillor van Popta were emboldened further by this support. Clearly, continued borrowing at any cost is the only option on the Woodwardian agenda.

Choo Choo and the train continues, and then came another loan. This time, Woodwardians approved $14 million for the Culvert Infrastructure Loan Authorization Bylaw, meant to fund drainage projects proposed in the 2025-2029 capital plan. Again, Richter grilled staff for a breakdown of Langley’s total approved borrowing and got the confirmation: a tear-inducing $685.76 million. Roughly 80% of that staggering number was approved since Woodward’s team took control.

What’s fueling this borrowing spree? Woodward and his allies allege that much of this debt is backed by yet-to-be-collected development cost charges (DCCs) and future revenues from growth. Basically, spending money the Township does not have. There are no guarantees those funds will ever materialize at the scale needed to pay off these gigantic debts. Woodward’s best chance of repayment will be through these added costs being passed on in the form of taxes onto homebuyers. Worse still, if development slows, as it has because of his excessive DCCs, or if costs rise beyond projections, we the taxpayers pick up the bill.

True to his heavy-spending ways, the debate over the Five-Year Financial Plan Bylaw followed the same pattern. The bylaw allows for $82.87 million in expenditures to cover debt repayment and new projects for 2025. Richter demanded clarity on these matters, warning that while council had approved temporary borrowing bylaws to cover costs for up to five years and at a rather high percentage rate, it had never actually approved a permanent repayment plan. She was quickly muzzled by Woodward and her request to defer the motion was swiftly ignored.

This pattern is impossible to ignore. This council, under Woodward, has approved unprecedented amounts of borrowing, banking on development fees and future revenue to cover the growing debt, money the Township does not have. Woodwardians say this is bold, necessary investment. Other councillors warn it’s reckless to mortgage Langley’s future without a clear repayment strategy and that it will be future generations of residents who are left to pay for it.

At what point does “investment” turn into a financial hole that taxpayers can’t escape? At this point. Woodward keeps steam-rolling his reckless spending plans through, thanks to complacency from most of his council. And now because of him, current and future residents are going to have to pick up the bill.