Young put taxpayers behind a pool they didn’t own.

A bad deal for taxpayers. A guarantee for the landlord.

Young’s council agreed to subsidize an aquatic centre while leaving Westhills with ownership of the building. The YMCA leased and operated it. If the YMCA stopped operating or defaulted, Langford agreed to assume its lease. Taxpayers could lose the recreation service and still owe rent on a building they did not own. The original agreements and 2023 staff report¹ set out that exposure.

The original annual City service payment started at $750,000, rising with population to a maximum of $950,000. That subsidy sat alongside the lease guarantee. Young’s deal committed public money to a private asset and made the City responsible if the tenant failed. It was poor deal-making with taxpayers’ money.

Young’s administration failed at basic accountability.

Young’s administration went years without collecting the reports its own agreement required. Section 4.8 required two operating reports every year. By February 2023, staff said the City had received none since the pool opened in 2016. No required reports on use, membership, programs, challenges or trends—despite an annual public subsidy and a long-term lease guarantee.

YMCA leadership told the new council that informal communication and meetings with the former mayor had occurred. In the February 27, 2023 council recording, around 18:50–19:20², leadership described those contacts while acknowledging that formal reporting had not been supplied. Informal meetings did not provide the documented operating reports the agreement required.

That was a failure of basic oversight under Young’s leadership. His administration had committed taxpayers to the risk, then failed to secure the reporting intended to monitor the operation. The new council had to demand five years of missing reports, a governance and operational review, and a comparison with other facilities’ operating models.

By January 2023, the YMCA said losses since opening exceeded $10 million. Its board threatened to begin closing the facility unless Langford provided another $950,000 a year. The next council faced the consequences: double the annual support to $1.9 million or confront the closure threat and the City’s lease exposure.

Residents’ benefits shrank while the City’s risk remained.

Young’s council found time to amend the agreement while the required reporting remained absent. On February 3, 2020, it approved changes that halved the Langford resident drop-in discount from 20% to 10%, removed holiday free swims and removed the resident discount for subsidized memberships. It also allowed the agreement to be revisited every five years. The staff report⁴ lists the changes; the signed minutes⁴ record their approval.

The next council had to clean up Young’s deal.

Young left his successors with a pool they did not own, an operator threatening closure and a guarantee to pay the lease if that operator failed. Continuing the arrangement meant paying into a privately owned building. The new council chose to buy the aquatic centre and parking for $35 million to gain ownership and control. It announced the purchase in December 2024; ownership transferred on March 31, 2025.

The City’s purchase announcement identified approximately $1.9 million in annual support, mostly covering rent, and $14.8 million in unbudgeted building lifecycle costs over the remaining 17 years. The original guarantee had left Langford exposed to those lease obligations without ownership. Buying the facility was the next council’s response to that inherited risk.

The purchase used a $20 million five-year loan, $9.5 million from the Province’s Growing Communities Fund, and the remaining $5.5 million from taxes collected or to be collected in 2023–2025. Young had also left a strained funding position: the General Amenity Reserve lost roughly half its balance in 2022, and recurring services depended increasingly on reserve subsidies. His successors had to address those funding problems alongside the YMCA obligations.

Bad deal-making. Failed oversight. A costly cleanup.

Young’s council protected the developer’s rent while exposing taxpayers to the operator’s failure. His administration then failed to secure even the basic reporting the agreement required. He left office with the public carrying a long-term financial obligation, no ownership of the building and years of missing accountability. The next council had to confront the closure threat, restore oversight and finance the purchase that finally put the asset in public hands.

Sources

1. City of Langford, Committee of the Whole agenda package, February 27, 2023Staff report on the YMCA's finances, original agreements, lease guarantee, and reporting history.
2. February 27, 2023 Committee of the Whole recordingYMCA reporting discussion around 18:50–19:20. YMCA leadership described informal communication and meetings with the former mayor; those contacts did not supply the formal reports the agreement required.
3. City of Langford, March 6, 2023 agenda, including February 27 Committee of the Whole minutesCarried recommendation for additional funding, five years of missing reports, governance and operational reviews, and potential purchase negotiations.
4. City of Langford, February 3, 2020 staff report, and signed council minutesChanges to resident benefits and five-year reviews; council approval of the amended agreement.
5. City of Langford, 2013 audited financial statementsDisclosure of the service-payment commitment.
6. City of Langford, Westhills YMCA FAQCity explanation of the original arrangement and later choices.
7. City of Langford, 2024 purchase announcementPurchase price and City's stated rationale.
8. City of Langford, 2024 audited financial statementsTransfer date, end of the service obligation, and financing.
9. Times Colonist, 2013 coverage of the aquatic centre dealContemporary reporting on how the project was presented to the public.
10. The Westshore, 2023 reporting on the YMCA funding requestContemporary coverage of the operator's financial trouble and the City's lease exposure.