And this upcoming election is what it all comes down to, isn’t it? I only started looking at Langford because my spidey sense was tingling. There seemed to be parallels happening as we had slates forming, OCP and DPA issues cropping on facebook seemingly every day, and wild accusations of personal attacks and taking sides. History might not repeat but it sure does rhyme, right?
Those first two parts paint a picture of what can happen with a developer backed council. And that’s what led me to look into Langford in the first place. Because surely if we didn’t like how Langford developed, and they were years ahead of us, we could see the pitfalls and avoid them in terms of developing Sooke. And to be frank, when I began looking into Langford I wasn’t expecting to be focused on development ties here in Sooke. I thought the big issues this election were more about taxation and roads. I didn’t think we had any councilors running who were pro unhinged development. But a little following the money and power and the names behind them lead me to developers.
I didn’t love what I found.
Because after all, voting is a values thing. We all of us support councilors who reflect our values and we all have different experiences and priorities, that’s democracy at work. So what does the support of our councilors look like in Sooke? Whose values are our candidates reflecting? Do Langford developers share values with us? With our councilors?
In Langford the financial donations reflected support of developers. Financial support easily reflects values and alignment. Unfortunately we don’t have that information for this election cycle; those financials come out after an election. But we can certainly look at historical data, funding, support, and connections.
I think it’s important to note that Sooke and Langford are sister communities and there will be expected overlap and merging of businesses and interests. Still, following the money is a worthwhile task before we elect a council that might have more values for deep development and personal profit than we may be aware of.
In the previous part we looked at Langford political donations, but let’s see what donations have historically looked like in Sooke and what the overlap is.
The Langford-to-Sooke network
Westbrook Consulting
Sooke candidate connections
- Mike Wignall donated $500 to Herb Haldane’s campaign in 2025. S024
- Jared Steingard, Westbrook Consulting project manager on their Viewpointe (located here in Sooke) development as early as 2010, donated $500 to Kevin Pearson’s campaign in 2018.
Sooke connections
- Michael Volk with iView Project Management (development/project manager for Westbrook’s Viewpointe development): appeared before council in 2017 advocating for removal of a “cease and desist” at Viewpointe due to zoning noncompliance; Volk donated $500 to Herb Haldane’s campaign in 2018. S012S022
- Vimex Contracting, owned by Matt Banner, lists civil work conducted on Westbrook’s Viewpointe development under Verity Construction, alongside multiple Langford projects.
Developments
- Viewpointe, originally called Spiritwood, these are the homes creeping up Broom Hill, the homes on Winfield, Brailsford, and Maple Park Terrace, the development that seems to have been blasting for years on end, and the development that has had multiple environmental violations related to Ella Creek.
- Erinan Estates
Keycorp Consulting
Sooke candidate connections
- Janet Evans worked as Jim Hartshorne’s assistant in March 2012, sometime after her mayoral tenure, though is now retired from that position.
- Hartshorne and Haldane both sat on the Sooke Builders Association for multiple years, both sat on the Sooke Traffic Committee, and jointly represented the SBA before council in June 2023; Hartshorne was a Director on the SBA in 2023. S018
Sooke connections
- In 2013, Hartshorne represented PacificGold Homes Ltd. as an applicant for redeveloping the properties at 6353, 6355 and 6357 Belvista Place and 6325 Sooke Road (behind the Castle Liquor Store). Land titles obtained in 2026 show these properties are still owned by PacificGold Homes Ltd; all five directors of the company are listed with addresses at 957 Langford Parkway, which matches the address of Westhills Development Corp. Hartshorne and PacificGold Homes were proposing redeveloping these properties with townhouses. S014
- Vimex Contracting (owned by Matt Banner) lists various drilling, blasting, clearing, earthworks, and civil work conducted in Langford for Keycorp Developments, Southpoint, Verity, and Seacliff.
- Keycorp is actively involved in Bayshore Village on behalf of Seacliff Properties, including development-permit amendment work for the project. S015
Developments
- Bayshore Village (new apartments under construction across from Chevron/Gadget Tree). S015
- 7095 Cedar Park Place: current application for multiple townhouse development up Broom Hill.
Farrell Estates
Sooke candidate connections
- Farrell Estates Ltd. donated $250 to Herb Haldane’s campaign in 2014 (before corporate donations were banned in 2017). Farrell Estates also attempted to donate $500 to Haldane’s campaign in 2022, but the donation was returned on July 7, 2023 as prohibited. S021S023
Sooke connections
- Representatives from Farrell Estates (including Ross McPhail, VP of Development) lobbied during a November 2021 OCP Advisory Committee meeting for the zoning of West Ridge Trails to be changed from rural residential to community residential to ease future development; their request was approved for the 2025 OCP, despite a 2,500 signature petition against it. S016S017 S019S020
Developments
Vimex Contracting
Sooke candidate connections
- Matt Banner officially endorsed Herb Haldane.
- OnPoint’s Engineering’s “interim” Throup Connector plan endorsed by Sooke First was commissioned by Matt Banner.
Sooke connections
- Vimex Contracting lists various Langford-related blasting, clearing, earthworks and civil servicing work on its website under Keycorp, Southpoint, Verity and Seacliff, including Westhills (where OnPoint is the lead engineering and development management consultant alongside Verity), and civil work conducted on Viewpointe under Verity Construction.
Are there more developers active in Sooke? Absolutely. But my lens ended up being the Langford developer to Sooke connection, and where I see political power meeting personal gain. Funding indicates endorsement, endorsement indicates support, support follows values. So it did make me raise a brow when I saw that Stew Young donated $500 to Herb Haldane’s 2025 election. S024
You’ll note this is a narrow perspective, you might think I’m not being fair to the rest of the candidates running in this election. Well, beyond the Sooke First slate there aren’t any candidates with such close ties to developers. I think since this is edging close 4000 words we can all agree we don’t want me to throw more information on you. Public record exists, look beyond the personal attacks and stated values and follow the money, follow the power.
We don’t want to be the next Langford, but it looks like Langford developers are already here. They’ve been in Sooke for some time. They’ve been building our sprawl, they’ve been donating to our politicians, and they’ve been sitting on our committees. Our question is in this election do we roll out the red carpet for them?
Clarity of platform and goals is a green flag, and being pro discourse and reasonable civil debate is a green flag. Personal attacks, dodging questions, denying associations and denying that personal connections matter when it comes to power and politics are red flags. I believe it should be clear who is benefiting from deep support of developers, and is relevant to our election.
The moral of my little story and foray into a narrow slice of civics history is that the way money flows doesn’t lie. Do with that what you will, see you at the polls.