Another exciting evening at New West Council, We got through all of the agenda, if not the few extra items added during the meeting. We also have a new trend of some Councillors wanting to write a bunch of policy on the fly in the meeting, which means that I don’t necessarily have the exact text of every resolution passed or defeated until minutes are approved a couple of weeks from now, so this report comes with the caveat that everything is based on notes I take during the meeting and my not-flawless memory. A good reminder that these reports are my immediate impression, and not the official record: that is what the video and meeting minutes are for.
We started with one piece of Unfinished Business:
Sustainable Housing for Seniors Experiencing Homelessness
Submitted by Councillor Henderson
WHEREAS the number of seniors who are homeless has increased five times over the last 10 years, with the most recent Point-In-Time Homelessness Count suggesting that the percentage of people experiencing homelessness who are seniors could be up to 30%; and
WHEREAS the SHINE program has proven to be an effective and essential solution for seniors experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness by assisting over 6,300 seniors in 2024 in various communities across BC, including New Westminster, to find supports and permanent housing; and
WHEREAS sustainable, long-term funding is necessary for the SHINE program to continue operating in the 12 current municipalities and is necessary to expand the program to additional communities; and
WHEREAS members of City Council who attend the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) convention often meet with members of the Provincial Cabinet;
BE IT RESOLVED that the Mayor, on behalf of Council, send a letter of support for sustainable funding for the SHINE program to the Minister of Health and the Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that where appropriate, Mayor and Council share their support for the SHINE program in meetings with Provincial Ministers at the UBCM Convention in September 2025
The second clause here was removed because UBCM just passed (we had some delays getting this in front of Council for scheduling reason and the moment passed), but the advocacy is important, and something the community has been raising to Council on a few occasions. We know that every dollar spent keeping people out of homelessness saves the government orders of magnitude more money in addressing the impacts of homelessness, and seniors in our community deserve better than to be priced out of their homes with no supports or place to land. This program saves lives, and should be supported.
We then moved the following items On Consent
Fenton Streetscape Project – Sole Sourcing of Eagle Valley Excavating
Fenton Street is one of the lower (elevation wise) residential streets in Queensborough, and has seen periodic flooding during protracted rainfall events or atmospheric rivers. Staff did some work to evaluate the cost and complications of significant upgrades of Fenton to bring it up to an elevation where flooding would no longer be a concern for the road – but the implications for adjacent properties (homes that in some cases would now be lower than the road) were problematic. In the meantime, staff are moving ahead with a significant ditch maintenance program, including lowering the invert of several culverts to improve off-street water storage and improve the general drainage regime. This should help!
Licence of Occupation of a Portion of Brunette Avenue with BC Transportation and Financing Authority for Construction and Use of a Pedestrian Bridge Connection to Sapperton Station
As Wesgroup continue to work on the last building in the Brewery District and are working on delivering the new public plaza with accessible access to the existing SkyTrain overpass, a part of the access will extend over City-owned right of way along Brunette Ave, which requires a licence agreement with TransLink, because it is actually TransLink infrastructure, built by Wesgroup over City land. This is that agreement.
Temporary Licence Agreement with MRSL (New Westminster) Nominee Ltd. for Construction of Dike Shoreline Rehabilitation at 350 Gifford Street
The City is doing on-going dike maintenance and upgrades as part of our regular business in Queensborough, something the province used to do until 2003 when Gordon Campbell decided to get out of the business of flood control on the Fraser River and downloaded the responsibility to cities. One of the areas needing some repair right now is located on private property, requiring us to get a licence to do this work on their property. The work is funded through a UBCM Grant received a couple of years ago, so this report isn’t about cost, just about us needing to get an access licence.
We then covered the following items Removed from Consent for discussion:
2025 Council Remuneration Policy Review
This is a follow-up report on a July 2024 resolution of Council (passed unanimously, I note) that the remuneration of Council be reviewed by an external consultant and recommendation made to Council to revise it based on comparator cities across the region. In short, we try to set our remuneration as equal to the average of the eight most similar cities in the region, and we found that we are slightly (2.3%) below the regional average for Mayor and Council wages, and a few other adjustments are recommended to bring us closer to regional norms.
Transportation allowance numbers were a big difference, with the Mayor’s TA way below the regional average, and Councillors’ at a third of the regional average, but Council all agreed that the New Westminster transportation regime is different than most of our comparators, and agreed that this Allowance should be a limited to a one-zone transit pass. That is about where the agreement ended.
There was an attempt to refer this report beck to staff with a bunch of recommendations, but the idea of referring back after staff provided the report we asked them to produce last year seemed a redundant next step. In the end Council decided to keep the CPI increases and transition fund as is (and as recommended by the report), not increase Acting Mayor stipend, and limit the Transportation support to a transit pass (which is much less compensation than the report recommended).
Active Transportation Network Plan Year 2: London Street and Eighth/Ninth/Tenth Street Routes
I wrote a previous post about this, but in summary we had a spirited pubic engagement on the London Street bikeway improvements, staff have come back with a revised plan that best as they could, reduces impacts on street parking, helps address community concerns about through-traffic, and makes some prioritized safety improvements for active transportation users. Though we received less feedback on the Eighth/Ninth/Tenth Street routes, staff nonetheless made some adjustments based on feedback received.
Metro Vancouver Liquid Waste Management Plan – Follow-Up from March 17, 2025 Open Workshop
Metro Vancouver has a Liquid Waste Management Plan – a master plan outlining how they plan to collect, treat, and dispose of one billion litres of wastewater every day. This plan is required by provincial regulation, and Metro has offered local governments an opportunity to provide feedback on the draft plan. We offered no feedback, it’s a good plan. However, Council decided to once again express concern about cost overruns on the North Shore wastewater plant.
Provincial Electric Kick Scooter Pilot Program
Council had previously asked staff to look into joining the BC government “Pilot Program” on e-scooter regulation. Staff have talked to participant cities and done a bit of analysis, and concluded the program does not demonstrably increase safety, all communities report enforcement is difficult (nigh impossible), no education supports are provided, and significant staff time may be required to manage the pilot and public interactions related to them. So the Pilot seems to offer several costs and challenges and very little benefit. So staff recommend against joining.
Still this is an item of increasing interest in the community, so Council supported Councillor Henderson’s motion to advocate to the Province to stop kicking this issue down the road and bring in province-wide regulations that focus on safety, that we advocate to UBCM, and that we work internally on and education and enforcement campaign to address community safety concerns bereft of provincial movement on this.
Response to Council Motion on Community Grants Program
Back in August, Council agreed (unanimously, I again note) to ask Staff to add 50% to the community grant budget envelope, this is the follow up with staff analysis and timing, based on the recent opening of the community grants application window. Supporting everything from Hyack Festival to Pride to the Royal City Musical Theatre, May Day, Hospice, and many other community groups, New Westminster is on a per capita basis one of the most generous communities in empowering community organizations. This is one reason we still have such a connected and engaged community, and we know that the money invested in these programs is returned to community many times over, as it is empowered by volunteer energy and matching grant and sponsor money. This is a good investment in community.
It also aligns with our Strategic Plan, aligns with the recent recommendation of the Community Advisory Assembly on building community connections, and reflects what the arts community and community festival groups have been asking of the City in delegations and other reports over the last few months. This also reflect recommendations made in the recent review of the grants program that staff have been undertaking as of late.
We had one Motion from Council to consider:
Community Policing Office in Queensborough
Submitted by Councillor Campbell
WHEREAS Queensborough community members have expressed interest in having a community policing office in the Queensborough neighbourhood;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the City of New Westminster provide feedback heard from Queensborough Residents Association to the New Westminster Police Board and requests that the New
Westminster Police Board consider and work with the city to plan a satellite station and/or explore how to address community safety needs in Queensborough.
THAT staff report back regarding the circumstances which led to the closure of the satellite policing office in Queensborough;
The Queensborough community has been raising concerns about the level of policing service in Queensborough, and are curious about the decision years ago for the NWPD to stop staffing the satellite office in the Queensborough Community Centre. This is 100% Police Board jurisdiction, but the motion asks us top advocate to the police board and is not worded in a way that directs them to act, which would be outside of our jurisdiction. The response, I suspect, will be framed by the discussion we had earlier in the day about resource levels at the Police Department and the provisional Police Board budget coming to Council, which will see a request for increased staffing supports.
With that, we reached 10:30 when a 2/3 vote of Council is required to continue the meeting, and that vote failed. Members had put two late items on the agenda earlier in the evening, but the vote to not continue the meeting means those die on the floor. Council member may bring them back as a noticed of motion in future meetings. But this raises again the issue that we are not spending out time at Council wisely, and are not getting through agenda again, which will cause me to reflect on my chairing and what I can do to get us though our business in a better way.