PROPER PLANNING AND RESOURCING REQUIRED TO SERVE ALL IN GROWING NEW WEST
New Westminster (September 20, 2022): Registering your kids for swim programs is like trying to win the lottery! – believe it or not, that is a very common sentiment in our Royal City as our community and social infrastructure struggles to keep up with the growth we are experiencing. “Current Team Cote council has watched idly by as our Canada Games Pool was shut down prematurely before its replacement is built while roads and sidewalks are left in disrepair,” says New West Progressives mayoral candidate Ken Armstrong. “We must do better at taking care of the basics such as maintenance and asset management while putting together a real plan that will address our future needs.”
“New West residents and businesses should be able to expect City Hall to properly manage our infrastructure assets, and that’s why if elected with a majority, the New West Progressives will initiate a ‘future needs assessment’, as well as fixing sidewalks and filling potholes within our first 100 days in office,” says New West Progressive council candidate Daniel Fontaine.
A New West Progressive Mayor and Council will also look to repurpose under-utilized city-owned spaces to provide some immediate relief to the acute infrastructure deficit. “The problem at hand cannot wait for a longer-term plan but if we do not plan properly, we will be right back at the same spot before we know it – which seems to be where the current council have stalled,” continues Fontaine. A new Amateur Sports and Recreation Task Force will be established to meaningfully consult with our local sports groups and ensuring their voices are heard and needs addressed in City Hall’s capital planning.
A glaring deficit that is the legacy of the current Team Cote council is the loss of the city’s own recycling depot. The New West Progressives looks to bring a recycling depot back to the city because we all want to do our part to address the climate emergency, and we should not have to drive out of New Westminster to do so.
NWP mayoral and council candidates continues to share many of their policy ideas aimed to address the concerns and ideas they have heard from New Westminster residents and businesses, leading up to the unveiling of the NWP’s 2022 campaign platform next month. To read the entire housing and homelessness plan, or to learn more about other campaign policy announcements, please visit nwprogressives.ca/platform.