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The Township of Esquimalt decided to discontinue its UDI membership.

By Sasha Izard
March 7, 2026

On March 3, 2026, the City of Victoria withdrew its membership, from the Urban Development Institute (UDI), a registered lobbying organization on the BC Lobbyists Registry that represents billions of dollars of corporate interests involved with development and real estate.

The City of Victoria withdraws its UDI lobby membership. – CRD Watch Homepage

On March 6, 2026 – I emailed, the mayor and councillors of the Township of Esquimalt, asking them to join the almost now complete crescendo of municipalities pulling out of the UDI on Vancouver Island.

Various councillors wrote back to me that the Township will not renew its membership in the UDI for this year, and will not do so again. The only thing missing was a date that this decision was made and precise details. The various elected officials that responded had various contradicting and notably incomplete narratives of how and when this murky decision was actually made, and when pressed for the answer, they themselves didn’t actually seem to know the answer.

A not particularly well known fact is that the staff at the Township of Esquimalt have actually been unusually helpful in regard to transparency around the UDI, something I’ve mentioned previously.

After the UDI pulled down its members directory from public view at the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024 – I asked the municipalities on Vancouver Island, which were listed as members before it was pulled down, to in the interests of transparency – post that they are a UDI member on their website.

I think Esquimalt was the only municipality that actually complied and put it on their website.

It was posted as recently as Jan 28, 2026. The following is the Archive.org WayBackMachine snapshot from that time of the Township’s publicly posted UDI membership:

Professional Associations and Memberships | Corporation of the Township of Esquimalt

As of today, March 8, 2026 the membership is not included in the list anymore.

Professional Associations and Memberships | Corporation of the Township of Esquimalt

The date that the membership was taken down is uncertain. It may have been anytime between Feb 28, 2026 and March 8, but the fact it is down is evidence that it was pulled down during that time.

The same level of transparency, however, doesn’t exist towards publicly posting its meetings with the UDI-liaison committee, something that became controversial in the City of Port Moody, which eventually decided to release details on its previously unlisted UDI liason committee: Port Moody to release details on unlisted development committee – Tri-Cities Dispatch (tricitiesdispatch.com), an item actually posted on Port Moody’s Council agenda this week, for March 10, 2026.

UDI-City of Port Moody Liaison Committee Meeting Summaries – Regular Council – March 10, 2026

When I asked the same staff at the Township of Esquimalt that had been so helpful earlier, they declined to publicly post the information about the UDI Liaison Committee that meets with Township staff.

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Conclusion:

Congratulations to the Township of Esquimalt for finally deciding to end its UDI membership, however that decision actually took place. Unfortunately being the third to last municipality to leave (or perhaps 4th to last, if the chronology is ever sorted out), is not something entirely to be proud of, but it’s still better late than never and it is always worth celebrating when the right decision has finally been made, even if all other possibilities seem close to have been exhausted.

To the people of Esquimalt, you deserve transparency about your local government staff’s backroom dealings with the UDI, but you will only receive it if you demand it, and that isn’t easy. Port Moody managed to get some barebones transparency around those meetings, but ultimately no backroom committee meetings should be taking place between lobbyists and government. The UDI-liaison committee meetings still take place in my own municipality of Saanich, something I have spoken out against for years, but to which they are far too entrenched to be smoked out of easily.

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See also:

Too much heat: The UDI pulls down its list of backroom committees that meet with the Government of British Columbia and Local Governments – CRD Watch Homepage

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

The Urban Development Institute (UDI) Caught Misleading the Public Again – CRD Watch Homepage

LETTER: Local governments should distance themselves from lobbyists | Saanich News