Sorry for the late report, still working on some issues here, but it looks like we have a clean bill of health, though fixing some of the older broken links might take some time, so some old pages are still missing. In the meanwhile, here’s the first half of my report on the work we did last week at Council – it was a long agenda so I’m breaking it in two again. This first part will just be the things we approved without debate or discussion, mostly updates of good work going on, and I’ll follow it up with a post about the more… uh… deliberated items. The Agenda started with an Opportunity to be Heard:
Metro West Inter-Municipal Business Licence (IMBL) – Expanding to include the Township of Langley
The Inter-Municipal Business Licence agreement allows contractors and folks who do work across the region to have one business license for all member municipalities – saving them hassle and money. Langley Township wants in, which requires some Bylaw changes by us members, which (because it is a business bylaw) requires that we have an opportunity for those impacted to comment. We had no-one come to comment, and Council adopted the bylaws.
We then approved the following items On Consent:
2025 Annual Water Quality Monitoring Report
The City tracks water quality as part of our requirements under Provincial Regulations, and we report out every year. We test for bacteria that might make you sick, along with metals, chlorine, turbidity and temperature that impact aesthetic quality and might possibly create longer-term health impacts. Almost 1,200 sample were collected and analyzed in 2025 and we met all Canadian Drinking Water Guidelines and typical system indicators. The water is safe, folks!
Fenton Street Streetscape – Community Engagement and Project Update
Queensborough has some older streets that are, even by Queensborough standards, low elevation, and more prone to flooding during big rain events. The City is working systematically though addressing these, starting with Fenton Street. The challenge is that the periodic-flooding fix means making significant streetscape changes, and potential impact on some older properties – including even moving some of the flood risk from the street to private property, which is a bad thing.
Staff have been doing some engineering work, and engaging with the community to find a course that meets as many people’s expectations as a possible. At the same time, drainage improvements have been undertaken, but hampered somewhat by fish-protection legislation as a result of environmental monitoring and discovery of fish and amphibians in the watercourse. The good news is that episodic flooding on Fenton is significantly reduced.
Staff now want to move on with some roadway improvements, but went back to the community first to see what option the neighbourhood preferred. It looks like the preferred approach is side along one side with preservation of much of the road parking on the other side of the street. So that is the direction we are moving.
Research Findings: Placement Strategies for Drinking Water and Cooling Stations
This is just one more component of our ongoing heat preparedness work, identifying where water fountains and misting station currently exist, and identifying areas where there is increased need. We installed a bunch of these in 2022, and after tracking success, two locations have been identified for new misting stations, which were installed in 2025 along with new fountains in some parks, By using map analysis, we are able to identify well-served and under-served neighbourhoods to set future priorities for more fountains and misters.
Massey Victory Heights Streetlight – Update after Consultation and Re-Design
Staff are working with the Massey Victory Heights neighbourhood to upgrade the inadequate street lighting in the neighbourhood while meeting some of the heritage/aesthetic wishes of the community. The solution arrived at includes preservation of some of the existing heritage-style light standards in key locations, and a modified design of the replacement standard with ones aping a heritage look. This comes with a substantial price premium (almost $1 Million) which we will finance for now by moving some later-phase funds forward.
2025 Statement of Financial Information
Every year we put out a Statement of Financial Information report, as required by Provincial regulation. This include all the regular financial information (reserves balance, debt levels, etc.) along with information on City salaries (staff and elected folks) and a list of all of our external payments above $25,000. The financial position of the City is strong which makes us more resilient for the challenges ahead.
Submission to the Green Municipal Fund 2026: Growing Canada’s Community Canopy
Talking about planning ahead, we have been pretty successful at getting senior gov’t grants for the City’s Urban Reforestation program – to the tune of multiple millions of dollars – and are applying to the GMF for more! Some of these application require a council resolution to even put the application in, so here we are!
Interim Development Review Framework Update
As the City works through the various provincial housing regulation change, it developed an interim development review framework – a clear policy and process though which development projects already underway are managed and clearly defining how timing of development approvals overlap with dates when provincial regulation changes come into effect.
We are making more iterative changes to this framework, including guidelines around lot consolidation, minimum lot size and separation for Transit Oriented Development, along with guidelines around ground-oriented forms (townhouses) within these areas, continuing to support the “special study areas” like 22nd Street that have (frankly) been dragging a bit due to this other unexpected work the province has required of us. We are also applying Inclusionary Housing to more rental properties, and other changes. There is a lots of work to do yet to assure the regulatory changes fit in to the New Westminster context.
Crises Response Pilot Project Status Report
The CRPP team reports back to Council on the progress of the pilot, and they last reported a year ago. The thousands of interaction referrals and responses of the CRPP teams are catalogued here, as are the advocacy efforts to senior governments and funding secured to support this work. Though the referrals and contacts are positive outcomes on their own, the independent evaluation of the program being completed by academics at Douglas College will come in a subsequent report.
We can report out stats (the Crises Response Team had 2,349 client interactions and made 2,107 referrals connecting people to needed services ,form health care to housing to hygiene and food services), but each of those interactions are a human connection helping someone get though their day and for many of them onto a path towards healing. The number of interactions and referrals are not going down, but are also no going up, consistently 200 or so per month, though the unsheltered persons responses have gone down quite a bit from the peak in summer 2025. A work in progress!
Official Community Plan Amendment: 22nd Street Vision Implementation – Consultation Requirements
Now that we are past some of the heavy lifting with the Provincial housing regulations and our Housing Accelerator Fund commitments, there is a bit more room on the front of Staff’s stove to get to moving the 22nd Street vision work forward. This is a check-in from staff to Council on the consultation breadth as this vision will result in some OCP amendments, which have some statutory consulting requirements, which are outlined here.
Issuance of Development Variance Permit for 230 Keary Street (Brewery District Building 8)
The builder of the Brewery District is finishing up the final tower, and as it is a mixed-use building with several stories of commercial space under residential, they would like reallocate some parking from residential and visitor uses to office and retail uses to support operational demand associated with the healthcare and retail uses. The reduction (13%) in residential paring still meets our modern requirements which makes it a pretty reasonable request. We asked, and received no feedback from the community on this, and the DVP was granted.
Issuance of Development Variance Permit for 800 Queens Avenue (Simcoe Elementary School)
The proposed Middle School at Simcoe Park needs a Development Variance to increase its height from four storeys (permitted) to 6 storeys, (to meet future growth needs in the community). There are also some set-back variances and adjustments to parking reasonable for fitting an urban school in a constrained site. We received some correspondence from neighbours expressing concerns about the height and parade issues, but Council decided to approve the DVP as the demand for expanded school space in New West is one of the biggest concerns this community has expressed in recent years.
Funding Received from Senior Levels of Government 2020 to 2026
This is a bit of an update report from our Intergovernmental Relations team, and speaks to a narrative created by some that the City has not been successful at securing financial support and capital investment from senior governments. Since 2020, the City has received almost $150 Million in direct funding from the Province ($71 Million), the Feds ($30 Million), TransLink ($27 Million) and other external funders like philanthropic organizations ($19 Million). Further, local infrastructure investment that hasn’t flowed through the City but has a direct impact on the livability of our community – from bridges and hospitals to affordable housing and schools has totaled over $3 Billion in the last decade.
At a time of government austerity, re-paced projects provincially and a federal government that likes to announce funds more than actually hand them out, we are doing pretty well.
2025 Annual Report
Finally, every year the city puts out an Annual Report outlining the work that we have got done over the previous year, summarizing our finances and telling a bit of our story. As I say in the opening of the report itself which you can read here, this report reflects the hard work and dedication of City staff, community partners, volunteers, businesses, and residents who continue to help shape New Westminster.
And the best part is in the back third of the report: all the numbers! Always fun to see how much work is happening in the City, how many people are being served, and the metrics towards our service goals. I’m proud of the work we get done here in New West, and have nothing but kudos for the amazing staff teams we have serving the residents and businesses of this town every day.
And i’ll be back in a few days with Part 2. Inshallah.