CRD Watch Homepage

FOI reveals full page of UDI heads, having a conversation between themselves on Saanich Mayor’s Committee in 2019.

By Sasha Izard
Jan 31, 2026


Recently I wrote the following articles about a Chair of the UDI Capital Region serving on the Saanich Mayor Dean Murdock’s Committee.

The Fox in the Henhouse?  Chair of Development/Real Estate lobby Chapter/lobby Director, now reappointed to Saanich Mayor’s Committee, voted in favour of phases 2 and 3 of the District’s Housing Strategy.  Council followed suit unanimously. – CRD Watch Homepage

The House that Mayor Dean Murdock built: Why was a UDI Director/UDI Capital Region Chair, appointed by Saanich’s Mayor, to the Saanich Housing Affordability Standing Committee? – CRD Watch Homepage

————————————————————————————————-

Looking to see the back story of this committee, I subsequently made an FOI about the committee and its predecessor, the Saanich Mayor’s Standing Committee on Housing Affordability and Supply.

What the FOI revealed, is that having top people of the UDI on the Mayor’s committee was actually a tradition going back in Saanich for sometime, and which had flourished during the time of the previous mayor Fred Haynes.

At top is one such page of the FOI showing a conversation going back and forth between former UDI Executive Director Kathy Whitcher and UDI Director at the time Adam Cooper (who would soon afterward become UDI Capital Region Chair).

I’m not sure what maximizing developer’s profits has to do with housing affordability, but it was certainly an issue raised by Cooper on the mayor’s committee:

In of one the documents Cooper had called for an OCP amendment to allow 6 storeys:

See also: “We need to take the approach of all areas potentially supporting up to six storeys to ensure we have a pivotal opportunity to arrive at where we will inevitably need to get by 2050” – Quote from Sept 19, 2024 UDI Workshop on City of Victoria Official Community Plan (OCP) update. – CRD Watch Homepage

—————————————————————————————————

One of the first things that Haynes did upon becoming Mayor was to successfully push for the District of Saanich to not only become a paying member of the UDI, but to allow council members to spend up to $500 annually at UDI events.

One of the results of outcomes of the Mayor’s committee during Haynes’ term was the creation of the Saanich Housing Strategy Task Force, referred to as a “stakeholder task force”, which was stacked with those involved in development and real estate, with a major presence from the UDI, and involved with UDI companies and organizations. The “Task of the Committee” was to “act as an advisory body to support the development of a Housing Strategy”.

—————————————————————————————————

Another topic encountered in the FOI from the Mayor’s committee (during the term of Haynes) was the decoupling of the Local Area Plans from the OCP:

The UDI was a big fan of decoupling the LAPs from the OCP:

The development lobby proposed decoupling the Saanich Local Area Plans from the Official Community Plan. They got what they wanted 2 years later. – CRD Watch Homepage

The day Saanich’s OCP was decoupled from the LAPs on May 7, 2024, fittingly Mayor Murdock was a featured speaker at a UDI event at the Union Club:

FOI Request to BC Transit yields information about the UDI event: “Pathways to Progress: Uniting Land Use and Transit Strategies for Sustainable Growth” which took place the same day that Saanich adopted its new Official Community Plan and rendered its Local Area Plans legally non-binding. – CRD Watch Homepage

FOI Request to BC Transit yields information about the UDI event: “Pathways to Progress: Uniting Land Use and Transit Strategies for Sustainable Growth” which took place the same day that Saanich adopted its new Official Community Plan and rendered its Local Area Plans legally non-binding. – CRD Watch Homepage

More Freedom of Information data surfaces, this time from Saanich, regarding the May 7, 2024 UDI event at the Union Club: “Pathways to Progress: Uniting Land Use and Transit Strategies for Sustainable Growth” – CRD Watch Homepage

—————————————————————————————————

Conclusion:

Having heads of the UDI, a registered lobbying organization for corporate interests involved in development and real estate, on Saanich’s Mayor’s Task Force is an established tradition in Saanich.

During the last election, both Mayor Murdock and Fred Haynes were both supported for Saanich Council by another pressure group for development Homes For Living, one of the founders of which real estate analyst Leo Spalteholz, was one of the members of Saanich’s Housing Strategy Task Force.

From the Homes For Living website:

—————————————————————————————————

Will Saanich’s next Mayor continue in the tradition of having UDI heads in an advisory capacity on the Mayor’s committee? We will find out after this years local government election.

—————————————————————————————————

See also:

Index of articles regarding lobby events and other meetings between government and lobbyists. – CRD Watch Homepage

Index of Articles and other Media Coverage about Homes For Living – CRD Watch Homepage