B.C.'s capital city and Saanich holding amalgamation plebiscite during civic election | Daily Hive

B.C.'s capital city of Victoria and Saanich to hold amalgamation plebiscite during the civic election

Victoria Inner Harbour. (Gagliardi Photography/Shutterstock)

Voters in the City of Victoria and the District of Saanich will be asked this month during the civic election on whether their municipalities should become one, although the outcome will not automatically lead to a merger.

Both municipal governments are putting the exact same plebiscite question before voters during the civic election on Oct. 17, 2026: “Do you support Saanich and Victoria becoming one municipality?”

The plebiscites are non-binding, meaning even a majority in favour in both communities would still lead to further studies and provincial government involvement ahead before a legally binding referendum could be considered further down the road.

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According to the District of Saanich’s explanation of the process, a majority voting yes in each municipality would signal clear public support for the newly elected Councils after this civic election to pursue that additional work. If voters in either community reject the proposal, any further work on amalgamation would stop.

Amalgamation would bring the two municipalities’ local governments and operations under a single larger municipal government.

According to the provincial government’s statistics bureau, both municipalities combined had a population of 230,000 residents in 2025, including 126,000 in Saanich and 104,000 in Victoria. This combined population is comparable to the City of Burnaby.

By 2046, their combined population is expected to grow to 257,000, including 135,000 in Saanich and 122,000 in Victoria.

The City of Victoria spans a small geographical area of 19.5 sq. km., making it slightly larger than the City of New Westminster. On the other hand, immediately to the north of Victoria, the District of Saanich spans an area of 104 sq. km., which is comparable to the size of the City of Vancouver. The District of Saanich is the largest and most populous of the 13 municipalities that make up the Capital Regional District.

If both jurisdictions were to amalgamate, the resulting new city would have a total land area of nearly 124 sq. km.

City of Victoria (blue) and the District of Saanich (green). (Victoria-Saanich
Citizens’ Assembly on Municipal Amalgamation)

This month’s plebiscites follow a lengthy process that gained initial public backing in the 2018 civic election, when voters in both communities supported spending creating a Citizens’ Assembly to examine a possible amalgamation. The provincial government also provided some funding to help support that process.

After delays due to the pandemic, the assembly carried out its work in 2024 and 2025, which included conducting extensive public consultation. It recommended amalgamation and presented its final report to the two Councils in July 2025.

“Having considered the costs, benefits, and disadvantages to the best of our abilities and with the information available to us, we recommend the amalgamation of Victoria and Saanich,” reads the assembly’s recommendation in the final report.

“In the course of our deliberations, we ultimately concluded that amalgamation as a unified city would be the best form of government for our two municipalities. The administrative border between the two municipalities is invisible, our lives as residents of Victoria and Saanich are intertwined, and it’s time for the governance structure to reflect this reality. We found no significant barriers to amalgamation in the materials presented to us.”

Assembly members concluded that a unified municipality could improve coordination and long-term planning for housing, transportation, infrastructure, and emergency services, while making responsibility for decisions clearer.

Additionally, the assembly did not recommend a specific name for the resulting single city — whether the new city should inherit the “Victoria” or “Saanich” names — stating that choosing a name or naming process was outside its mandate. However, its final report suggests that amalgamation could provide an opportunity for a renaming process in partnership with First Nations. That remains a potential future step; it remains to be seen whether B.C.’s capital city could get a new name, if the amalgamation process is ultimately carried out.

However, major financial questions remain unanswered. The District of Saanich noted that the assembly’s report did not provide a comprehensive estimate of merger costs and the potential impacts for property tax rates.

Following a recommendation by the assembly to do so, the two mayors of the municipalities formally asked the provincial government in October 2025 to permit a legally binding referendum during the October 2026 civic election. However, the provincial government rejected that request, asserting that more work was necessary before a binding public vote.

In an April 2026, in a letter to the mayors, B.C. minister of housing and municipal affairs Christine Boyle said the provincial government needed more detailed information about the financial consequences, the transition to a merged municipality, governance changes, and the effects on municipal services. She also required consultation with the First Nations that would be affected.

Boyle noted that both municipal governments could hold a non-binding vote during the October 2026 civic election without provincial approval to further gauge public opinion.

During this civic election, City of Vancouver residents will also be voting in a non-binding advisory public safety plebiscite on enhancing enforcement against hard-drug use in public spaces, and creating a new secure medical treatment facility — with both voluntary and involuntary care — for people with severe mental health and addictions issues.

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