This Monday we had the second of two back-to-back Council evenings, a result of us having to reschedule a meeting because of the Federal Election. The presentation and delegation session once again took up much more time than the rest of the Agenda, but it was also an evening with some pretty good feelings around important work the City is doing. The first items on the Agenda were some Presentations:
Community Advisory Assembly Evaluation Results and Recommendations for the Future
The Community Advisory Assembly was a pilot project that arose out of a recommendation from the Public Engagement Task Force the City ran a few years ago. Namely:
Pilot Deliberative Dialogue as a model for collaborative decision-making, where participants who reflect the diversity of their community receive background information and work in small groups to develop recommendations for Council.
My any measure, this pilot was a success. It also identified the resources needed and a few adjustments we can make to how the Assembly worked to make it more successful, more useful for the community and for Council.
The magic part of this Assembly model was well explained at the Lower Mainland LGA meeting two weeks ago where different cities were discussing challenges and opportunities to improve community dialogue. The assembly model piloted in New Westminster along with similar topic-focused models in Gibsons and Burnaby were held up at the new best practice. The unique part besides the effort to match the demographics of the community is that it causes people to engage in dialogue on topics that are not in their wheelhouse, which requires them to talk to one another and learn from one another. Participants get to hear opposing ideas from their neighbours in a constructive way and try to seek consensus about the advice they send to council. This allows issues to be addressed with a group thinking of and discussing the needs of the whole, not just about their own needs or personal concerns.
Council agreed to continue with this model. The Assembly was funded by a one-time grant, so Council needs to now establish a fund to support it more permanently, because it is a model that requires moderation and management. This is not unlike the investment we make in any of the other dozen subject-matter committees the City runs from Heritage to Economic Devleopment to Accessibility.
Mayor’s Youth Climate Leadership Team 2025 Project Plan
For the last few months, a group of youth in the community have been meeting to talk about something they can do locally to address climate change. They have been discussing ideas around mitigation (reducing the amount of CO2 going into the atmosphere), adaptation (making changes that help prepare us for a climate disrupted world), education (talking to other citizens about climate change) and advocacy (talking to decision makers about climate change). Through these discussions, they came up with two projects that will dovetail together to address all of the first three, and are asking the City now for the resources to make their project happen this year. Council was happy to approve this funding, and it feels good to empower the next generation to learn about building community.
We then moved the following items On Consent:
2024 Filming Activity
Film is still a booming business in New West, with significant spin-off value for the community not to mention the thousands of jobs, but there are also impacts that need to be managed in the community, which is the job of our Film Office. They supported 8 feature films, 28 TV series, 10 TV commercials, 5 independent films, 2 TV movies and 3 student productions in 2024, representing a cumulative $900,000 in permit revenue.
This report is a reporting out on activity and revenues, with a recommendation for some minor changes in our film policy that reflects updated practice around how cancellations are managed when city service call-outs occur.
Easement Agreement for the Encroachment on the Lane Adjacent to 614 Fourth Avenue
The owner of this property in the Brow of the Hill has a small retaining wall and stair landing that encroach on City lands. The wall has encroached for some time, but recent improvements by the property owner expanded the encroachment of the landing which brought it to everyone’s attention. The encroachment is pretty thin and doesn’t have a significant impact on the operation of the laneway, so Council is granting an encroachment for the nominal cost of $1. Best real estate deal ever.
Licence Agreement with SOCAN and RE:SOUND
The City has to pay artists for their work. That sounds reasonable, but the process of paying Wilco if we play “The Late Greats” so that Matt can air-piano during a cycle spin session is a complicated one. In Canada, SOCAN and RE:SOUND are the organizations that manage public performance royalties for artists and assure they are compensated. Previously we would track our music use and submit reporting, now their joint venture does evaluations of how music is used in City facilities, and come to an agreement with the City about fair compensation, which is just over $18,000 in 2024 and are subject to review every couple of years.
New Westminster Grant Funding Summary from Bloomberg Philanthropies Youth Climate Action Fund Program
Last year, the City was one of 100 world-wide that was granted up to $50,000USD to support youth-led climate action projects in the City through micro-grants. In the end, eight youth groups were empowered to complete ten small projects, form a new community garden at NWSS to supporting Environmental and Cultural Health Outreach through the Umbrella Multicultural Health outreach and two projects by the Sigma Program at SD40 to improve local ecology. Again, youth in the community doing great things with a little help from the City, and not just thinking about Climate Action, but activating around it.
And this single item was Removed from Consent for discussion:
Business Regulations and Licensing (Rental Units) Bylaw Cooling Amendments and Next Steps
As we continue to develop policy to support residents during extreme heat events, the challenge of finding an effective regulatory approach to rentals is something staff is working on. We continue to work on the goal of a previous Council Motion to regulate “maximum habitable temperature” in a way that fits within our jurisdictional limits in light of the Provincial management of Building Code and the Residential Tenancy Act.
However, in the meantime one thing we can do is stop landlords from forbidding air conditioning units when that may be the only tool keeping people alive in an extreme heat event. We will be amending our Business Regulations and Licensing Bylaw to address both new and existing buildings to prohibit the prohibition of cooling units (be they air conditioners or heat pumps) where they can otherwise be fitted. There is a provision where landlords can be exempted if they can demonstrate safety or building issues that strictly prevent the use of cooling, but the onus will be on them to demonstrate this issue and the City will work with them to rectify the issue if possible.
This report also outlines some new resources staff are requesting to deal with increased calls to address life safety and livability concerns among renters. Council voted to approve this investment in community, recognizing that the funding mechanism for these resources (new taxes, external grants, fee for service or re-allocating existing resources, or some combination of the above) will arise in 2026 budget discussions.
We then had two Motions from Council to debate:
Developing a more Open and Transparent Budget Accounting Methodology for City Operated Services, Programs, and Projects
Submitted by Councillor Fontaine
WHEREAS transparency in municipal spending is essential for maintaining public trust and accountability;
WHEREAS the full costs of city projects, including internal costs such as staff time, administrative overhead, and resource allocation, are not always clearly attributed or visible to the public;
WHEREAS providing a comprehensive breakdown of project costs will allow New Westminster citizens and business owners to better understand the true financial impact of municipal initiatives;
WHEREAS ensuring that all internal costs are properly accounted for will support informed decision-making by Council and enhance fiscal responsibility;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT Council direct staff to develop a methodology for attributing internal costs to projects, ensuring that all relevant expenditures—including staffing, administrative, and operational costs—are accounted for in project budgets and financial reporting;
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the proposed methodology be designed to be transparent, practical, and written in plain language accessible to both Council and the public;
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT staff report back to Council with a proposed framework and implementation plan within six months of this motion’s adoption;
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the finalized methodology and project cost breakdowns be published on the City’s website in an accessible format.
This motion is based on some good feeling ideas, but seems completely uninformed about how municipal budgeting and accounting work. A Local Government is already strictly regulated and operate as transparent as functionally possible. We follow Public Service Accounting Board (PSAB) guidelines and other regulated accounting principles. There are already systems in place to provide oversight of how capital project costs are managed, and the assertion that we are not already properly accounting for project spending is simply false. Just last meeting we received a reporting of a clean audit received in Council, demonstrating that our financial controls are appropriate and sufficient to meet public accounting standards, yet this this motion would suggest yet another layer of report on top of our externally audited cost control measures and public service accounting procedures.
Our Capital Budget has about 300 separate capital projects that will be funding partially or wholly in 2025, totaling $92 Million, ranging from the $24 Million we are projected to spend at Massey Theatre this year to some capital projects at the $1,000 lower limit of where accounting requires us to differentiate “capital” from “operating”. Every year Council reviews this capital budget, and can review with staff any of the 300 line items. Once approved, staff are given the agreed-upon budget to deliver that project. If they come in under or over budget that comes to Council in our quarterly financial report, and Council is against asked to review these changes. Within those approved budgets, I strongly feel we need to trust our staff to deliver the project and our established financial controls to keep an eye on how they do that.
All that to say, I don’t know why we would ask staff to develop a new methodology to oversee this, when we have a well established methodology based on public accounting standards and best industry practices. If we tasked staff to develop a methodology, it is very likely they would propose the one we already have, as that’s what the PSAB and our Auditors and anyone who works in local government finance would recommend. This motion looks to me like a solution being proposed that doesn’t actually identify what the problem is. So Council did not support the motion.
Advocacy for Increased Investment in Public Transit
Submitted by Councillor Campbell
WHEREAS public transit is vital for the mobility, economy, and sustainability of New Westminster, providing residents with essential access to work, education, and services; and New Westminster’s Seven Bold Steps for Climate Action aims for 60% of all trips within the City to be by sustainable modes of transportation by 2030;
WHEREAS reliable investment is essential to maintaining and expanding transit services especially as TransLink faces a projected $600 million annual funding gap starting in 2026 and the City has received numerous urging elected officials to advocate against potential transit service reductions, which could result in significant service cuts impacting New Westminster residents;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT the Mayor, on behalf of New Westminster City Council, write to the provincial and federal government calling for the establishment of a permanent and stable funding source for public transit; and
THAT New Westminster City Council reaffirms its commitment to collaborating with regional and senior government partners to enhance public transit for all New Westminster residents.
I know this resolution was written before the announcement of a ratified Investment Plan for TransLink, and though that plan is good news and gets us back to expanding transit instead of cutting, it only puts off the need for new funding tools until 2027. So the Province, the TransLink Board, and the Mayor’s Council have work to do over the next year to get the Access for everyone plan funded, and resolve the long-term funding issue – meaning this resolution is still apropos and useful.
There was a proposed amendment brought to the meeting by a member of Council with a long list of ways we shouldn’t pay for transit, that was notably bereft of any offsetting proposal for how we should fill the funding gap. This based on some imaginary model where public goods are not paid for by taxation, but Council wisely decided we should let the TransLink Board, Mayors Council and Province work out a funding model given that they have the actual tools to make that determination.
Finally, we adopted a couple of Bylaws:
Tax Rate Bylaw No. 8516, 2025
This Bylaw that sets property tax rates for 2025 was adopted by Council. Notices going in the mail soon.
Water Shortage Response Bylaw No. 6948, 2004, Amendment Bylaw No. 8521, 2025
This Bylaw that made minor changes to our water shortage sprinkling regulations to align with Metro Vancouver requirements was adopted by Council.