We know you’re busy and may not be able to watch or attend regular council meetings so we thought you might like a bi-monthly recap to keep you abreast of New Westminster politics.
Here’s a recap from our latest New West council meeting on Feb 26th.
EVENING COUNCIL MEETING 
Nearly half a million dollars to rebrand Royal City Moniker Underway 
While Community First was busy designating a 60-year old tree as heritage, it was also simultaneously getting rid of the Royal City moniker and the crown on our official logo. Staff indicated the crown had only been associated with New Westminster’s brand since 2008 – as the City previously used the Coat of Arms as our official logo.
The total cost of the rebranding exercise to ‘decolonize our logo’ will be close to half a million dollars. A new committee is being set up to help guide the process as this project was not deemed appropriate for review by the new Citizens Advisory Committee. A yet to be determined amount of staff hours will be used to help the rebranding process – the total cost has not been quantified.
PS Don’t forget the Community First majority also approved spending almost half a million dollars to deconstruct the Queen’s Park Petting Zoo and replace it with a new mushroom wall!
2024 Operating Budget 8% tax hike one step closer to reality 
City Council is one step closer to implementing a record high 8% property tax increase in New Westminster. The 2024 Operating Budget came back to Council for another vote and both Councillors Minhas and Fontaine once again voted against it.
Property taxes are set to rise an incredible 14% over the first two years of this term of Council. If this were to continue at the same pace, property taxes will have increased by 28% prior to the 2026 municipal election. Just wondering, has your paycheque gone up by the same?
Councillor Fontaine was able to use the debate to clarify that the BC Hydro $100 rebate will also be passed along to New West Electrical Utility customers.
Crime Report Drafted and Delivered to Council 
Councillors Fontaine and Minhas kept their promise by drafting and submitting a report on the recent crime forum they hosted back in November 2023. Both councillors used this as an opportunity to thank the panelists and the over 120 people who attended.
Mental Health and Drug Rehabilitation Amendment Fails
The following motion was brought forward by Community First reps asking for Council support:
BE IT RESOLVED that the Province of British Columbia increase funding for Health Authorities to augment existing and to open new supervised consumption and overdose prevention sites, including related inhalation services, across British Columbia and including municipalities which do not currently offer this service to residents. Councillors Fontaine and Minhas were prepared to support the original motion, but moved an amendment to ensure the motion was more comprehensive.
Our amendment included the addition of the following wording:
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that in the spirit of a 4-pillar approach to dealing with the health crisis of toxic overdoses which has grown significantly over the past 5 years, the BC Minister of Mental Health and Addictions allocate a portion of the contingency funds announced in the 2024 Budget to implement new and significantly augment existing mental health services as well as substance abuse treatment and recovery programs in communities with an identified need for these services
The NWP amendment was voted down 4-2 as the Mayor ruled the motion as ‘out of order’. The original motion (sans the reference to mental health and drug treatment) was then voted in unanimously by Council.
Metro Vancouver’s Only Indigenous City Councillor Passed Over – Yet Again
Mayor Johnstone provided only a few minutes notice to the New West Progressive Councillors when he announced that he was recommending to Council a number of committee appointments. These appointments were being made to fill the vacancy triggered by the medical leave of Community First Councillor Jaimie McEvoy.
Incredibly, once again Mayor Johnstone passed up the opportunity to apply an equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) lens to his appointments. In 2022 Johnstone failed to appoint Councillor Fontaine, Metro Vancouver’s only elected Indigenous representative, to an external committee. The Community First majority unanimously voted against Fontaine’s appointment to the Metro Vancouver Board of Directors.
Johnstone continued this trend in 2023 by excluding Fontaine from any appointments. This week he did it – once again – by failing to appoint Fontaine to replace McEvoy on any internal city committees.
As both Fontaine and Minhas so aptly pointed out during the debate, if the Mayor walked-the-walk and actually applied an EDI lens on his appointments, Fontaine should have made the cut. As they say, actions speak louder than words when it comes to meaningful Truth and Reconciliation at City Hall.
60 year old Oak Tree makes history 
A resident living in Queensborough made history this week when he used the Heritage Revitalization Agreement process – normally only used to revitalize and restore heritage homes – to secure support from Council to build a 6-unit townhouse project on his property. The home that currently sits on the site will be demolished and the new townhomes will be built soon. The entire project was predicated on the saving of a ‘heritage tree’ on the site.
In exchange for the owner committing to not cutting down the tree (which is next to near impossible with the current Tree By-law protection), the Community First councillors allowed the extra density on the site.
This was the first time an HRA application was based on saving vegetation and not a heritage structure. Needless to say a near unanimous group of speakers at Council spoke against the initiative – which we learned was initially spearheaded by City staff.
One of the main concerns was that our existing Tree By-Law was put in place to protect trees and the HRA By-Law should not be used in this manner. The vote was 4-2 with both NWP Councillors voting against the project.
Community First Motion Excludes Non-Profit Care Providers 
A motion introduced by Community First Councillor Ruby Campbell landed with a thud. That’s when Councillor Fontaine pointed out that her motion excluded additional funding for not-for-profit care providers in BC. Campbell’s motion originally read as follows:
BE IT RESOLVED THAT the Province eliminate financial and accessibility barriers by investing in more public home care services and social supports required to age in place, and by further investing in public long-term care to ensure seniors are well supported in the continuum of care.
Coun. Fontaine pointed out that if passed, Campbell’s poorly worded motion only covered government owned & operated care homes and home care service providers.
Fontaine then moved a motion to add more appropriate language which states government should invest more funds in ‘publicly-owned-and-operated and not-for-profit’ care providers.’
Given Campbell’s motion was silent about investing additional funds in other non-government care providers (where thousands of care workers are currently employed in BC – many of them belonging to various unions such as BCNU, HEU and BCGEU) Fontaine clarified that these workers were also valued and shouldn’t take offence to Campbell’s motion.
Report Highlights Significant Infrastructure Deficit in New Westminster 
A new report provided to Council this week exposes just how significant the infrastructure deficit is in New Westminster. An independent report reviewing the status of all major facilities owned by the City of New Westminster shows that 1/3 of all our assets are listed as either in poor or very poor condition. It should be noted that even facilities listed in ‘fair condition’ require significant investments to bring them up to community standards.
Councillor Fontaine noted during the workshop that the significant infrastructure deficit was one of the main reasons why he ran for public office. He has noted in the past that the current council has its priorities in the wrong place – especially when it is investing almost $1M for a new logo and a mushroom wall at Queen’s Park.
The almost 100-page report is a must read if you want to see just how badly many of our recreation facilities and other buildings are crumbling due to political neglect over the years. Some of the assets that were listed as ‘very poor’ include.
- Mercer Stadium Grandstand and washroom
- Queen’s Park bandshell
- Queen’s Park stadium
- Sapperton Park dressing rooms and washrooms
- Terry Hughes washroom
Some of the ‘poor’ condition assets include:
- Queen’s Park Arena
- Hume Park – pool and dressing room
- Queen’s Park Centennial Lodge
- Moody Park Little League Stadium and Fieldhouse
- Queen’s Park greenhouses
- Moody Park Lawn Bowling Clubhouse
City Maintains Commitment to Trim the Trees
Trees were once again on the agenda at Council with a report indicating that an agreement had been reached between the City and the strata at K de K Court.
Residents at the strata had previously been promised by Council – a number of years ago – that a regular tree trimming program would be implemented after a number of trees had been planted.
Those trees were supposed to remain small, but have since grown wild and are much larger than the local residents had been advised.
The staff recommendation to support a compromise agreement passed 5-1 with only former Community First Councillor Nadine Nakagawa voting against it. Nakagawa indicated she didn’t want to support a ‘special treatment to one area’ like the Quayside waterfront.