Esquimalt: Grade C

Esquimalt earns a C as the region’s most disciplined spender, with low crime severity and the lowest business tax multiplier reviewed, held back by housing delivery that all but stopped in 2025 and the highest residential tax rate of the six municipalities.

Strengths

Esquimalt is the most disciplined spender in the region and the only municipality of the six whose spending growth came in below the inflation benchmark. It has the lowest business tax multiplier reviewed, among the lowest crime severity in the region, and is improving housing diversity within a compact urban footprint.

Areas for improvement

Housing delivery all but stopped last year, falling to a fraction of what it had approved in each of the two years before, a drop the municipality has not publicly explained. It also has the highest residential tax rate of the six, among the largest cumulative increases since 2022, alongside one of the lowest median household incomes in the region.

Core takeaway

One of the region’s most disciplined manager of public money. The housing pipeline is the open question, and residents deserve to know why it stalled.