About the Sustainable Victoria Network

It started with a plan nobody heard about

The network grew out of the Official Community Plan process. Residents comparing notes discovered the same experience: a plan that rezoned the whole city was moving to adoption, and almost nobody they knew had heard of it. In September 2025, 275 residents signed our letter to council asking for independent consultation and specific changes. The plan passed anyway, on October 2, 2025.

We decided the answer was not to get angrier. It was to get organized, and to make sure the next council is elected by voters who know exactly what happened this term.

Why we call ourselves a network

We call ourselves a network for a reason. We represent every neighbourhood in Victoria. Many of us do not want a front-facing role or our names made public, for reasons that range from professional responsibilities to plain modesty. The people below have agreed to put their names to this work, and they speak for all of us.

Bill QuinseyJames Bay
Bob JuneRockland
Don GordonVic West
Gabriel GaultierFernwood
Michelle PetersonBurnside Gorge
Pat SimekSouth Jubilee
Suzanne LongpreGonzales

If you support our writing and our actions and want your name on that list, please let us know. We care deeply for this city, and we want to safeguard the things that make it one of the best places on the continent to live.

What we will not trade away

Consultation before decisions, not after them. The city's own 2022 governance review said residents want to be consulted and listened to, not consulted and ignored.
Care with public money. Budgets and land deals deserve the same scrutiny a household gives a mortgage.
A downtown that is safe and alive, for the people who live there, work there, and keep shops open there.
Real protection for renters displaced by redevelopment, including a right to come back at the rent they were actually paying.
Neighbourhood voice in planning, and protection for tree canopy, green space and heritage citywide.
Non-partisan councillors. City hall works better when it answers to residents, not to parties or blocs.

Consult-first governance is our shorthand for that standard: ask residents before deciding, publish the evidence behind projects, give neighbourhoods notice of what is coming, and treat consultation as an input that can change the outcome rather than a box to tick after the decision is made. Every candidate on our tracker gets asked whether they will govern this way.

Four things, every single week

Four things, repeated until October 17, 2026: we watch every council meeting, we translate what happened into plain-language updates, we highlight candidates who commit to consult-first governance, and we help neighbours register and get to a voting place. The longer write-ups live on our blog, sorted by issue.

How to help this week

Join the update list, then forward your first update to two neighbours.
Bring the five questions to an all-candidates event.
Write to councillors@victoria.ca about the issue that moves you. A short personal note beats a template.
Volunteer an hour: reply to any of our emails and tell us your neighbourhood.

Independence, in plain terms

We are volunteers. We are not a political party, we do not run candidates, and we are not affiliated with the City of Victoria or any campaign. Where we state facts we link sources, and where we state opinions we own them.

Where the deep detail lives

the OCP guide walks through the 2025 Official Community Plan clause by clause.
the real tax bill traces where the money went, with every figure sourced.
the media tracker collects what Victorians have written about city hall, sorted by issue.
the glossary explains the terms council uses in plain language.
who we are voting for sets out each name and the record behind it.

Most people who read this were sent it by someone they know.

The work between now and October 17 is simple. There is just a lot of it.

Join the list Start with the OCP guide Who we are voting for