2025: Year in Review


2025 Year in Review

As we wrap up 2025, we’re celebrating a year of progress, collaboration, and community spirit in Central Saanich. Thank you to residents, partners, and staff for making these achievements possible!

A few of the highlights include:
Phase 1 of the Mount Newton Pathway is complete, creating a new multi-use pathway to connect Lochside Drive with the Lochside Regional Trail. 

The Brentwood Bay Sewer Project, one of the largest capital projects undertaken by the District in recent years, reached substantial completion.

The District selected a plan for new municipal facilities, including a police station, fire hall, and municipal offices on Hovey Road and is working with Peninsula Recreation Commission on designs for a 10,000 sq ft recreation facility.

The Keating Flyover is almost finished! This new overpass will eliminate the need to turn across busy highway traffic, reducing congestion and improving safety and efficiency for everyone.

The Saanichton Water Main Replacement on Wallace Drive—from Blossom Park to Lisnoe Avenue—is complete. Work included a new water main, crosswalk with flashing beacons, bike lanes, bus stop accessibility upgrades, and a new sidewalk. 

The District launched a new EnerGuide Home Evaluation Subsidy and workshops that help residents identify energy efficiency upgrades to make their home more comfortable and climate-resilient while saving on energy costs.

The District unveiled a new sign at HEL,HILEȻ, which showcases custom artwork by W̱SÁNEĆ Leadership Secondary School student LIQIŦIÁ Elliott.

Thanks to a partnership between the District and the CRD, a new 17,000 sq. ft. Centennial Park multi-sport box opened in September, offering year-round play for lacrosse, pickleball, ball hockey, and more. 

A new splash pad at Centennial Park opened in May in time for summer fun. The $250,000 splash pad was made possible in part by a generous $50,000 donation from the Central Saanich Lions Club.  

Two new kiosks were installed in Centennial and HEL,HILEȻ! The kiosks include bulletin boards for community posting.

A new Welcome to Brentwood Bay sign was recreated by the original artist, with the addition of a land acknowledgement.

Tsawout First Nation artist Bear Horne is in the process of restoring five nine-foot-tall welcome signs in Saanichton Village, originally created with his father over a decade ago. 

Residents hosted six Meet Your Street block parties this year! The program offers funding to bring neighbors together, emphasizing emergency preparedness and fire safety. Thank you to Panorama Recreation Centre for lending games for the gatherings.

Events and fundraising

Over 300 students teamed up to plant trees and shrubs at Brentwood Elementary for Tree Appreciation Day—Lance Norris, Indigenous Support Liaison at the school, led a drumming ceremony to celebrate the new mini forest.

Together with Habitat Acquisition Trust (HAT), Friends of Oak Haven Park, and Central Saanich staff, volunteers pulled invasive plants to help protect the endangered Garry Oak ecosystem at Oak Haven Park on Earth Day.

During Spring GoByBike Week, 255 community members stopped by our Celebration Station to play road safety games, register their bike or check out the brand-new Mount Newton Pathway.

The first Central Saanich Flavour Trail was a success, with the self-guided festival celebrating local food and drink, with farms, wineries, cideries, and gardens and showcasing the very best of our community.  

The Saanichton Village Association's hosted two community movie events at the Saanich Fairgrounds, the annual Community Spaghetti Super and Saanichton Community Christmas.  The District supports these events.

The District is a proud contributor of Brentwood Community Association events Music in the Park and Brentwood Bay Festival.

Once again, we sponsored bike parking and a safer route to walk, roll or bike to the Saanich Fair! This year, a guided community ride saw residents join at meeting points from Marigold Cafe to the Fairgrounds.

Central Saanich’s famous Halloween bonfire and fireworks display was thanks to dedicated effort by the Fire Department and Parks staff.

The 2025 Central Saanich Backyard Ultra raised $6,400 for the Saanich Peninsula Youth Clinic, showcasing strong community spirit. 

Peninsula Firefighters raised $22,800 and 15 pallets of food during their annual Peninsula Firefighter Food Drive. Central Saanich Fire, The Firefighter's Association and Local 4428 supported the Constructing Kindness Food drive which raised $63,000. All of these proceeds were donated to the Saanich Peninsula Lions Food Bank. $2610 was raised towards the Living Edge Food bank.

Central Saanich Firefighters raised $7,771.52 for Muscular Dystrophy Canada in their annual boot drive.

Central Saanich Police Services 9th Annual Cram the Cruiser Toy Drive filled multiple cars with toys for local children.

Shoreline Medical Society launched 2025/26 Building Primary Care Together campaign with a community light-up Glow Together 2025 at Centennial Park. Donations can still be made at shorelinemedical.ca/donate.

Central Saanich began rolling out speed limit updates to improve safety for all road users and predictability for driving around the Peninsula. For details, visit LetsTalkCentralSaanich.ca/SpeedLimits.

Road safety pop-ups  at elementary and middle schools helped students learn how to walk, roll, bike and bus safely. Thank you to Police, Capital Bike and BC Transit staff for joining us! 

Hundreds of Grade 4-7 students received on-bike safety training through Capital Bike programs funded by the District.

The address project for Tsartlip and Tsawout is now complete, with over 500 reflective signs installed and 1,700 addresses integrated in emergency response systems to help quickly locate homes. Funded by the Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness, this collaborative effort between First Nations and the District helps improve safety for years to come.

Emergency preparedness & FireSmart

At the Saanich Fair, Wətanmy Powwow and other community events, Emergency Program and FireSmart staff raised awareness about emergency preparedness and wildfire prevention. 

FireSmart helped over 140 residents remove flammable debris from their yards with chipping events near forested areas.

The Emergency Program and FireSmart ran workshops on topics like extreme heat, wildfires, winter storms and emergency kits—including sessions specifically for older adults and local businesses.

Hundreds of students from across the Peninsula learned about fire prevention and emergency preparedness at the annual Fire Prevention Week Grade 5 Expo!

Awards

The District received the 2025 GFOA of North America Distinguished Budget Presentation Award. This is the ninth year in a row (2017-2025) that the District has received the award. 

Central Saanich was voted one of BC’s most economically resilient cities in 2025 . For the third year in a row, Central Saanich has been named one of BC’s most economically resilient cities by BC Business Magazine!