We all know that cities play a vital role when it comes to managing our global environment. The Climate Emergency is real – our city could and should be doing more to address the issue of climate change. We also know that we must work harder to ensure that New Westminster remains a livable community. As a team, we commit to:
- Develop and implement an integrated green infrastructure strategy that supports climate change adaptation and strengthens natural asset management.
- Establishing a minimum standard of green/park space required around the city that will support the needs of a growing population living in more dense neighbourhoods.
- Establishing new “pocket park” green spaces in priority areas that are accepting a higher proportion of density.
- Working with the Province of B.C. and rail companies to secure infrastructure investments which will support complete whistle cessation by no later than 2026 in all the key targeted crossings identified by the city. A commitment will be made to the residents of Sapperton living in high density residents that their community will have whistle cessation measures in place by 2026 at the latest.
- Ensuring our city is adequately prepared to support our most vulnerable citizens struggling to deal with future climactic events such as ‘heat domes’, snow and ice events. New Westminster had the highest death rate compared to other Metro Vancouver cities during the 2021 ‘heat dome’ event. One such strategy may be to activate the New West Fire Department in emergency response.
- Supporting the implementation of a new program encouraging single family residents to open up their backyards to those interested in growing their own food.
- As part of this initiative, identifying and making available more underutilized city-owned land that can support neighbourhood-based initiatives to develop community gardens.
- Actively encouraging private landowners to offer their land up to community-based groups for the planting of edible fruit trees and vegetables.
- Support Metro Vancouver 2040 Shaping Our Future regional growth strategy which will help to reduce the impact of future climate change by:
- Accelerating the development of more compact and walkable neighbourhoods which make people less dependent on fossil fuels.
- Creating a new “Industrial and Commercial Land Reserve” policy which will strengthen the protection of jobs-producing land for future generations and reduce the impact of urban sprawl.
- Getting people out of their cars by working with TransLink to further expand bus service within the city.
- Eliminating the need for plastic water bottles and increasing better access to fresh local drinking water by converting fire hydrants into drinking fountains throughout the city.
- Decreasing wait times for neighbourhoods to access the city’s boulevard street planting program.
- Establishing clear performance targets for the removal and replacement of dead or dying street trees in a timelier fashion. Expand the city’s public tree watering program to help ensure mid and larger trees are given the water they need to survive periods of extreme heat.
- Continuing to make investments in beautifying our high pedestrian traffic public spaces as part of an overall Garden and Horticulture Tourism Strategy.
- Conduct an independent review regarding the effectiveness of the City’s tree removal by-law.
- Become the most electric vehicle friendly jurisdiction in Greater Vancouver. Increasing the overall use of city-owned electric vehicles to support our efforts to limit future climate change. This would include:
- Establishing a target of having 50 per cent of our city fleet of vehicles no longer using fossil fuels by 2030.
- Developing a capital plan for the New Westminster Police Department which would eliminate the purchase of fossil-fuel based vehicles by no later than 2030 – assuming access to cost-effective technology is readily available.
- Work with the New Westminster Fire Department to determine operational feasibility of utilizing more environmentally-friendly vehicles.
Read our News Release HERE.