Judy Brownoff and Susan Brice both say they were aware of growing public unrest prior to their election defeats.
Judy Brownoff can read a room.
It’s the kind of skill that’s honed over time, and over the last 33 years as a Saanich councillor, Brownoff has learned to see trouble brewing miles away.
It’s part of the reason she wasn’t going to run for re-election in 2026.
She said she could see the unrest and frustration among residents, who were feeling ignored by a system that no longer seemed to care about public input.
She saw it start during the pandemic, when people pulled back from interacting with each other and the district, and the district did the same. But she said it deteriorated further when the provincial government, in the name of getting housing built more quickly, decided in 2023 to introduce legislation that would govern land-use planning provincewide, and in so doing eliminated public hearings for most new development.
“That just did me in,” Brownoff said this week in the aftermath of her first-ever election loss, as she prepared for her final council meeting on Oct. 26.
“I really believe you get better decisions with good public engagement. When you don’t have it, there’s the fear of what are you creating?”
Brownoff said councillors were left feeling a little helpless in the wake of the province’s Bill 44, which required municipalities to allow four to six units on single-family and duplex lots and outlawed public hearings except in very specific circumstances.
The legislation meant that council was no longer able to require parking in new developments in transit-oriented areas, and four units could be allowed on even the smallest lots, which meant the loss of trees.
“It all caused such terrible feelings in the community, and the community blamed it on us,” she said. “It didn’t matter how I tried to explain to [residents] that we have no authority over provincial legislation.”
Initially leaning toward not running, she only changed her mind at the last minute at the urging of a few residents.
“So, on the last day of filing papers, I filed,” she said with a laugh. “I just love working with people. For me, it’s all about community service. I never had a desire to climb political ladders. I just think local government is the best order of government to deal with the people directly.”
After first taking office in 1993, winning a seat at the council table on her first attempt, Brownoff will attend her final council meeting Monday night.
She’s not the only long-time councillor bidding farewell.
Susan Brice, who was first elected to Saanich council in 2005, is also bowing out after falling short in this year’s election. Brice admits she saw trouble brewing as interest grew in the Save Our Saanich slate of candidates, who were urging a slowdown in new development, so while disappointed, she wasn’t shocked by her election loss.
“I underestimated, I guess, the interest,” she said, adding aside from voter anger at the pace of development, rising costs and property taxes also likely played a role.
“It was probably a bit of everything,” she said.
Combined, Brice and Brownoff have 54 years of experience as Saanich councillors, which will leave a hole at the council table.
Outgoing Mayor Dean Murdock, who did not seek re-election, said it’s hard to imagine Saanich council without Brice or Brownoff.
“In my entire elected life, I have worked with them around the table — they were there before I arrived and I expected that they’d be there after I was gone.”
Murdock said he often relied on Brice — who previously served as mayor of Oak Bay and MLA for Saanich South — for advice.
“She served in every elected capacity in this region and has seen probably every type of political trend and machination, and I relied on her guidance a lot of times,” he said. “It was nice to have someone in the room who’d been through it.”
He has known Brownoff even longer, from before he was first elected to council.
“She has been so consistent on the environment, on climate change and has evolved into someone who’s been a big advocate for age-friendly communities and for older adults in our community,” he said.
“The wealth of experience and knowledge that Judy brought to the table was so eminently valuable.”
Brownoff said she is pleased with her environmental work, noting that in one of her first terms in the 1990s, she helped get Saanich to develop a plan to reduce emissions, start talking about density around transit areas, plant more trees and invest in cycling infrastructure.
“That was 1995-96, but it could just as easily be today,” she said.
Both Brownoff and Brice agree the district has changed — it’s bigger and busier — and the job has changed with it.
Brownoff estimates that in the early 1990s, serving on Saanich council and as a Capital Regional District director would require about 30 hours a week.
That has now doubled, she said.
“I don’t think you can do the job without doing it almost full time,” she said. “The days in the week I wouldn’t have any Saanich issues or regional issues to deal with are very rare. The workload has really changed.”
Now that work is shifting to a new group.
The only incumbent councillors returning to the council table are Colin Plant, Nathalie Chambers and Teale Phelps Bondaroff.
Councillors Zac de Vries and Karen Harper are gone after running unsuccessfully for mayor against the SOS slate’s Rishi Sharma.
Murdock and councillor Mena Westhaver opted not to run for re-election.
Newcomers to council are SOS’s Nancy Di Castri, Lorne DeLarge, Matt McGeachie, Laurie Lidstone and Graham Wright.
Brice said she wishes the next council well in its work.
“We’ll see how things unfold. I’m hoping for the best. I’m a Saanich resident, so I want the best for us,” she said.