{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "bskyPostRef": {
    "cid": "bafyreic6byvzmcego3rearwmysjqa6pjdvdbdyljzvoxsucfwjceplzx7a",
    "uri": "at://did:plc:xkz32c6cte4uowstz3cl433p/app.bsky.feed.post/3mmpj3bqh7p52"
  },
  "coverImage": {
    "$type": "blob",
    "ref": {
      "$link": "bafkreigmcwckwq2sxlg7rquo7eewqdudgrrquymtqeajvq7qolesthuuia"
    },
    "mimeType": "image/png",
    "size": 188541
  },
  "description": "Township tenants have hours to push back on a Tenant Protection Bylaw that exempts the municipality from its own rules. Plus: MP Tamara Jansen names a grandchild for Charlie Kirk, western premiers meet as Alberta eyes separation, and Rise FC, Vancouver FC, and the Bandits all in action.",
  "path": "/langley-roundup-news-for-may-25th-2026/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-25T22:18:32.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.langleyunion.ca",
  "tags": [
    "Register here.",
    "Learn More",
    "Scott Umstattd",
    "Unsplash",
    "Read More",
    "Taylor Vick",
    "Take the Survey"
  ],
  "textContent": "Happy Monday, Langley! We're under a grey ceiling and 14°C with a 65% chance of rain today, though the warm-up arrives mid-week with sunshine and a 25°C high by Thursday.\n\nBring an umbrella to council chambers tonight, because the Township's first Tenant Protection Bylaw hits a public hearing at 7 p.m. complete with a glaring exemption the municipality carved out for itself.\n\nElsewhere in today's roundup: MP Tamara Jansen welcomed a grandchild named after the late white-supremacist and MAGA social media influencer Charlie Kirk, the western premiers gathered in Alberta as separation talk looms large, hyperscale AI data centres drew sharp criticism over their downtown Vancouver footprint, and home teams Rise FC and the Bandits both kept rolling while Vancouver FC dropped points in stoppage time. We're also flagging free Indigenous History Month events to mark at salishan Place by the River.\n\n### Tenant Bylaw Hearing Tonight: Township Exempts Itself (and its Housing Trust)\n\nThe Township of Langley holds a public hearing tonight on its first Tenant Protection Bylaw, and renters have only hours left to push for stronger rules.\n\nBylaw 6214 would require private landlords with five or more units to compensate displaced tenants, designate a Tenant Relocation Coordinator, and offer a right of first refusal in the new building.\n\nFor the renters it covers, that is a meaningful step forward. But the bylaw has serious gaps.\n\nThe Township has exempted itself and its wholly-owned Housing Trust, which is building 368 rental units backed by an estimated $177 million in publicly-guaranteed debt and $29.3 million in direct public commitments.\n\nA municipal landlord operating on that scale should be held to a higher standard than the private market, not a lower one.\n\nThe 2021 eviction of five tenants from an 80 Avenue rental home the Township purchased near the Langley Events Centre is a preview of what happens when this principle is reversed.\n\nThe five-unit threshold also leaves out single-family rentals, duplexes, triplexes, four-plexes, secondary suites, and the older rental homes developers have been quietly assembling across Willoughby and Murrayville for years.\n\nCompensation lags Langley City, which offers vulnerable tenants up to 16 months. The Township maxes out at 10 months and includes no enhanced tier for seniors, people with disabilities, low-income households, or recent immigrants.\n\nThe right of first refusal is pegged to CMHC average rent rather than market rent in the new building, and an in-stream exemption excludes any redevelopment application already filed.\n\n**What speakers can ask council to fix:**\n\n  * Drop the Township and Housing Trust exemption so the municipality is bound by its own rules\n  * Lower the threshold from five units to two\n  * Add a vulnerable tenant compensation tier of up to 16 months, matching Langley City\n  * Remove the in-stream exemption so existing applications aren't grandfathered in\n  * Peg the right of first refusal to market rent, not CMHC averages\n  * Require one-for-one rental replacement so demolished stock doesn't disappear into condo inventory\n\n\n\nThe Public Input Opportunity and Public Hearing begin at 7 p.m. tonight at the Fraser River Presentation Theatre, 20338 65 Avenue.\n\nWatch online at tol.ca/councilstream. Register to speak at tol.ca/speakers before 6 p.m. Written submissions to legservicesinfo@tol.ca become part of the public record.\n\nA bylaw with this many exemptions, starting with the one the Township carved out for itself, is closer to a press release with fines attached.\n\nCouncil can do better, and council can be pushed.\n\n### Free Indigenous History Month events at salishan Place\n\nsalishan Place by the River is hosting two free events this June for National Indigenous History Month, both led by Karen Gabriel, a Traditional Knowledge Keeper and Elder from the Kwantlen First Nation. The workshops offer community members a chance to learn directly from a Kwantlen Elder whose nation has stewarded these lands for generations. Advance registration is required for both.\n\n**Scats and Tracks** Saturday, June 6, 1 to 3 p.m.\n\nGabriel will walk participants through identifying wildlife by their scats, tracks, and skulls, showing how these signs reveal animal species, behaviours, and diets. Register here.\n\n**Edible Plants** Sunday, June 14, 1 to 3 p.m.\n\nGabriel will share how to identify edible and medicinal plants found in the region, along with which ones to avoid. Register here.\n\nNational Indigenous History Month is observed every June across Canada as a time to recognize the heritage, cultures, and ongoing contributions of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples.\n\nLearn More\n\n### MP Tamara Jansen welcomes grandchild named for Charlie Kirk\n\n __Exasperated sigh...__\n\nCloverdale-Langley City MP Tamara Jansen announced her 23rd grandchild on Facebook this weekend, welcoming Charlie Kirk Jansen to the family.\n\nCongratulations to the Jansens on the new addition, though the choice of namesake is harder to celebrate.\n\nCharlie Kirk, the late Turning Point USA founder, built his career on racist talking points, anti-immigrant rhetoric, and loyal service to a MAGA movement whose leader is now threatening Canadian sovereignty through annexation talk and a damaging tariff war.\n\nThat a sitting Conservative MP would publicly embrace the name while urging Canadians to \"work through\" tensions with a hostile Trump administration tells you exactly where her party's loyalties sit.\n\n### Why train whistles still sound in Langley City\n\nPhoto by Scott Umstattd / Unsplash\n\nLangley City Mayor Nathan Pachal explained this week why residents still hear train whistles in town.\n\nThe city signed a whistle cessation agreement with Canadian Pacific Railway back in 2004, requiring trains to stay silent at most crossings under Transport Canada rules.\n\nBut crews can still sound the whistle whenever they see a safety concern, and weather conditions like cloud cover can carry sound in from crossings outside the city.\n\nPachal noted that one of the busiest rail corridors in the country runs through Langley City, and safety will always come before quiet.\n\nRead More\n\n### Western premiers meet in Alberta as Smith pushes separation vote\n\nCanada's western premiers meet in Kananaskis today, hosted by a province whose leader may soon ask voters about leaving the country.\n\nPremiers from BC, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, the Northwest Territories, and Yukon are attending the two-day conference, with Nunavut Premier John Main joining virtually.\n\nAlberta Premier Danielle Smith announced last week that an October referendum will ask Albertans whether they want to begin the process of separating from Canada.\n\nBC Premier David Eby pointed out the irony of meeting on Canadian unity in a province where the premier \"appears to be setting the table to leave the country.\"\n\nRead More\n\n### Hyperscale data centres a poor fit for downtown Vancouver\n\nPhoto by Taylor Vick / Unsplash\n\nThe federal government and Telus have unveiled three \"AI factory projects\" for British Columbia, with two of the hyperscale data centres planned for densely populated parts of downtown Vancouver.\n\nAccording to a new analysis by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, the project raises serious questions about community impact, public consultation, and the absence of binding commitments from the corporations involved.\n\nThe two Vancouver sites are a 100,000 square foot repurposed facility in Mount Pleasant and a 400,000 square foot development at 150 West Georgia, next to BC Place.\n\nBoth sit in dense residential areas, and the US experience with similar facilities offers a clear warning. Residents living near data centres report sleep disruption and other health problems from the constant low-frequency drone of industrial cooling fans, which run 24/7 and routinely exceed what conventional noise bylaws can address. Backup power adds another layer of risk: a 100MW facility may require 25 to 50 diesel generators on site, emitting fine particulate matter linked to respiratory illness.\n\nVirginia, home to the world's largest concentration of data centres, has concluded that \"the industrial scale of data centers makes them largely incompatible with residential uses.\"\n\nThe consultation gap is just as striking.\n\nWhen the City of Vancouver rezoned 150 West Georgia in 2023 to allow \"bulk data storage,\" only six people submitted comments during the online engagement period, and a single written submission appeared at the September public hearing before the rezoning passed.\n\nThe only legally binding public benefit secured was a $295,425 community amenity contribution, less than the cost of a single affordable housing unit in Vancouver.\n\nThe headline figures of $9 billion in projected economic activity, 525 permanent jobs, and renewable energy commitments are not in the application. They are promises at a press conference.\n\nThis is precisely the gap that Community Benefit Agreements are designed to close.\n\nUnlike standard rezoning, a CBA is a legally binding contract negotiated with the affected community before a project proceeds, and it can require commitments on local hiring, living wages, noise mitigation, environmental monitoring, and ongoing oversight.\n\nFor infrastructure with this kind of footprint, CBAs are one of the few tools that actually shift bargaining power toward residents rather than investors. Voluntary commitments are only as strong as the incentive to keep them.\n\nBC Green Party Leader Emily Lowan has called for a moratorium on new data centres in the province until stronger regulation is in place, accusing the government of a \"build-first regulate-later\" approach.\n\nMinister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation Evan Solomon, meanwhile, has described the announcement as \"how you build right.\"\n\nThe CCPA analysts suggest the question is not whether one project can be designed to a high standard, but why governments are not regulating to ensure every project does.\n\nRead More\n\n### Rise FC down AFC Toronto 2-1 for back-to-back wins\n\nVancouver Rise FC picked up their second straight victory on Saturday with a 2-1 home win over AFC Toronto at Swangard Stadium.\n\nLatifah Abdu opened the scoring in the 11th minute, thundering a shot into the roof of the net after a Toronto defender misplayed a pass.\n\nCaptain Quinn doubled the lead from the penalty spot in the 33rd minute, and a late consolation goal from Cloey Uddenberg wasn't enough to spoil the result.\n\nRise FC travels to Montreal next Saturday before returning home to face Ottawa Rapid FC on June 14.\n\nRead More\n\n### Stoppage-time goal denies Vancouver FC in draw with Montreal\n\nVancouver FC came within seconds of a home win Saturday before Montreal's new expansion side stole a point.\n\nMohammed Amissi put the Eagles ahead in the 81st minute at the Stadium at Langley Events Centre, finishing a sharp pass from Nicolas Mezquida.\n\nBut FC Supra du Quebec answered in the 93rd minute, when defender Matisse Chrétien buried a rebound off a late corner to make it 1-1.\n\nVancouver FC sits seventh in the Canadian Premier League and travels to face the Halifax Wanderers next Saturday at noon.\n\nRead More\n\n### Bandits cap undefeated home weekend with win over Calgary\n\nThe Vancouver Bandits closed out an undefeated home opener weekend at Langley Events Centre with a 111-101 win over the Calgary Surge on Sunday.\n\nNew signing Jarkel Joiner, fresh off a stint with the Raptors 905 and inked Saturday, slotted in for 22 points and seven assists in his Bandits debut.\n\nJaelen House led the team with 27 points and nine assists, while Tyrese Samuel added 21 points and 10 rebounds, capping the game with a dunk in Target Score Time.\n\nThe Bandits improve to 3-1 and head east for three games in five days before a June 6 matchup against Saskatoon Mamba in Kelowna for HOOPFEST.\n\n* * *\n\n###  What did you think?\n\nHelp us improve! Take a quick 60-second survey to share your thoughts on this article.\n\n Take the Survey ",
  "title": "Langley Roundup: News for May 25th, 2026",
  "updatedAt": "2026-05-25T22:18:33.922Z"
}