Council – July 8, 2024

It was a bit of a marathon day for Council on Monday, as isn’t uncommon as we try to get things done before the summer break. Its a long one, but trust me there’s some juice down there for those willing to scroll! We had a busy afternoon workshop with lots of items – so much so that I might break tradition here and post about a workshop in a follow-up, but first let’s try to get through the evening agenda!

We started the meeting with a Public Hearing:

Official Community Plan Amendment (801 Boyd Street) Bylaw No. 8448,2024
Zoning Amendment Bylaw (801 Boyd Street) No. 8449, 2024
The owner of Queensborough Landing wants to convert some unused buildings to self-storage, which is a slightly different land use designation, but different enough in class that it requires an OCP amendment to make happen, and therefore a Public Hearing. The request is to subdivide off the 1 acre corner of the much larger lot, and apply the OCP change to only that lot. OCP amendments are a bit of a complicated process, including significant consultation, which has been ongoing for more than a year now.

The New West Design Panel and Advisory Planning Commission approved the application. The Ministry of transportation expressed no concerns, and First Nations were consulted with no opposition to the application. The community meeting was not attended by anyone, and sparse feedback on the community survey had very low response, almost all negative. We received one piece of correspondence in favour of the application and had no-one present to the Public Hearing.

Council moved to approve third reading of both the OCP amendment and the rezoning.


We then had a Presentation from the CAO:

Presentation of the 2023 Annual Report
Unlike the Mayor’s State of the City Address, this is the *Official* annual report of the City. It is a summary of everything the City got done in the last year, and to me the best part is the numbers pages: 3,236 SeeClickFix requests responded to; 257 staff hired; 271,000 Library visits; 156,000 registered recreation participants; 240 Anvil Centre events; 3,890 Business licenses issued; 3% population increase; 600 large trees and 4,000 seedlings planted in City lands; 520 Street lights repaired; 64,000 QtoQ trips; it goes on and on, because there is a lot happening in the City every day. You can read the annual report HERE.


Council then moved the following items On Consent:

2024-2034 Canada Community- Building Fund Agreement
The City receives a little over $300,000 a year through the Canada Community-Building fund, and we need to sign an agreement with UBCM (who help administer the fund for the Feds and Province). This used to be called the Federal Gas Tax Fund, but has been rebranded as it isn’t really linked in any meaningful way to the gas taxes collected by the Federal government. We are a little limited on what we can spend it on (basically, infrastructure only), and will have that conversation during our budget deliberations. For now, we are signing the agreement to get the money.

Community Excellence In Service Delivery Award Application
We are applying for an award, in recognizing some great work our EMO is doing as a follow-up to coordination and communications challenges during the 2021 Heat Dome disaster. Cross your fingers!

Construction Noise Bylaw Exemption Request: 220 Salter Street (Metro Vancouver Sewer Inspection – Fraser River Crossing Project)
Its Sewer maintenance season, and some work needs to happen at night when sewer flows are low. Sorry, folks, but this should not really be very noisy work other than a few vehicles and generators running.

Construction Noise Bylaw Exemption Request: 252 Brunette Avenue (Sapperton SkyTrain Station)
There is going to be some upgrade work at Sapperton Station this summer, and some of that work has to happen when the trains are not running, which means night work.

New West Pride Municipally Significant Event Designation LCRB Resolution
At risk of repeating myself, I’m just going to quote my comments from a couple of weeks ago, with a few words changed: “Our provincial liquor licensing regulations are ridiculous and archaic, and everyone involved (manufacturers, retailers, events coordinators, even cities) are always trying to find a way through or around them to make things happen while keeping letter-of-the-law legal. For festivals, especially, this can be daunting. For a festival, not only does the Province regulate the size of a glass of beer or wine that can be served, they regulate a maximum price it can be sold at – a maximum price that has not been raised in 9 years. So if a festival wants to charge a little more and make a bit more money from alcohol sales to pay for other aspects of the festival (like hiring talent, security, advertising, etc.), they can’t do that. Unless they are designated a “Municipally Significant Event”, whatever that means. The request here is to designate Uptown Live PRIDE as “Municipally Significant” so they can charge a little more for beer to help offset the other costs of a free to the public festival.

Proposal to Change Liquor Licence for The Royal Canadian Legion Branch No.2
More on liquor laws, this one is a bit easier to understand. The Legion has a private club liquor license that requires guests to sign in, and wishes to shift to a regular liquor primary license. There are no issues identified with the change, and the City is endorsing this application that needs to go to the Province for approval.

Riparian Areas Protection Miscellaneous Amendment Bylaw No. 8468, 2024
These Bylaws are required to keep the City complaint with the Provincial Riparian Areas Protection Regulation and regulate how development happens in the riparian areas (upland dry areas where plants, shade, and slope provide ecological function to the stream) of streams and rivers in the city. We are updating them to address a typographic error in the earlier adopted versions. Because law.


The following items were then Removed from Consent for discussion:

2024 Capital and Operating Quarterly Performance Report
This is a regular update on our budget. No surprise to anyone dealing with capital projects right now, costs are going up, and some things we budgeted for in previous years are costing more to deliver in 2024 than we expected. However, the biggest change here (92% of the change) is carryforward adjustment for projects we simply didn’t get to completion in 2023. The money we didn’t spend in 2023 needs to be budgeted for in 2024, so we are therefore adjusting our $180.4M 5-year capital budget to $199.1M, though only $1.5M is an actual increase of overall costs. There are a few new capital item included in that $1.5M, like the need to reconfigure some City Hall spaces to deal with a space crunch ($250k), upgrades to the Columbia Station elevator to address chronic repair issues ($138k). One of the complications of Capital budgets is that we need to include things here that won’t cost the taxpayers anything, like a donation we received for the library to purchase an electric vehicle ($60K), upgrades to the QtoQ dock infrastructure to be paid by DAC funding form the province ($800K), and spending money to support development projects ($175K) that will ultimately be paid to us by the developer.

On the operating side, we are running a little ahead of forecast on both revenue and expenditure, with the combined variance leaning on the revenue side, which is good news. We are in good shape financially.

2024 Council Remuneration
Council gets paid. Our remuneration policy provides a cost-of-living increase every year, linked to CPI. This year, that means a 4% increase, which is essentially the same as the collective agreement the City has with union staff. This is policy driven, so Council doesn’t need to approve it. If they want to make changes, they need to change the policy.

It’s not a great system, elected people choosing their own salary, but it’s the system available to us under provincial regulation. Previous Council set up a process where changes to that policy be reviewed every term (so, every 4 years), to be implemented after the next election, so there is a bit of a political check-in around this policy before the elected receive any benefit of changes. We skipped the least review in 2022 because we were severely short-staffed in HR coming out of COVID, so we are overdue for a review. This report asks if Council wants to continue that practice – do a review before the next election to be applied after the election – or wants to follow a different path.

The big question Council needed to address – do we want to do the review now, recognizing that any change we implement won’t be applied until after the 2026 election, or have the review immediately before the election, which made me paraphrase Kim Campbell “an election is not time for serious public policy discussion”. Council agreed with the former Prime Minister, and agreed to start the review sooner

Bus Speed and Reliability Study
New West is a Transit City – likely the highest transit mode share of any municipality in BC. Alas, there is still too much through-traffic slowing the buses down, and TransLink has a region-wide program to boost “speed and reliability” of bus service through the region to make the system run smoother, and ultimately save the system money. They will cost share capital programs (up to 100%!) with the City to build infrastructure that improves BSR, and we have been successful in applications for BSR funds, so Staff are ready to get moving, because it will never be less expensive than now to do this work.

This report identifies 12 projects that can be implemented in the next 5 years to address bus delay hot spots. It is important to note many of these align with our Bold Step to re-allocate road space from car-primary use to sustainable transportation. It’s also the right thing to do, when Translink data shows 62% of the people travelling on Sixth Street during peak times (when there is congestion) are in a bus, and getting them out of the traffic of single passenger cars is a priority.

The majority supported moving this forward, though the two “progressive” members of council voted against it for unclear reasons, an indication of a trend on the night.

E Columbia Street/Brunette Avenue Road Safety Review
There has been a lot of engineering work looking at East Columbia by Cumberland for the last year. It’s a difficult spot that has been an uncomfortable bone of contention for active transportation users for a decade or longer, but with no easy answers because of a variety of engineering constraints.

One interesting aspect of why it took so long to do this analysis once Council asked for it last year, and it has to do with conflicting ideas about what the real safety challenge is here. Statistically, it is not an “unsafe” piece of sidewalk, and data would suggest the highest safety priority here is reducing risk of car-truck collisions. However, it definitely “feels” unsafe on that sidewalk, and that creates a barrier to use for many people. Engineering stats also have a hard time counting “near miss” data, which is typical of many safety system analyses, but lacking in most road safety planning. So staff did some work to collect “near miss” data in this area using video-based conflict analysis.

As suspected, there are some short-term measures we can take to make the space a little more comfortable for active transportation users, but it is not going to be the big solution that some folks would like to see. We don’t have the authority or permission to close the sidewalk-adjacent lane to trucks, speed enforcement along here is difficult and only acts as a short-term measure (bring on speed cameras!) and there simply isn’t room to put in a physical barrier without increasing the risk of vehicle-vehicle collisions. Real change is going to come with a complete intersection redevelopment, which will cost millions, and involve partnerships with TransLink and the Ministry of Transportation as this is a Major Road Network corridor and a designated regional truck route.

Grant Review
The City has a generous community grant program, about $1 Million a year given to city organizations and groups to encourage community building, provide social services, support the arts and youth sports – more than any other surveyed City in the lower mainland. The program was last reviewed in 2018, and needs another review as things are changing fast in this space in the post-COVID world, and aligned with Council’s strategic plan to build “community belonging & connecting.” This has been run though the ACEDAC, community survey, a municipal scan, a focus group, and personal Interviews with people connected to the granting programs.

Through this engagement, a few changes to the grant program are going to be rolled out gently over a couple of years, not a big shock change all at once, starting with a non-line registration platform and tiering the reporting requirements based on the size of the grant received – instead of the same reporting for a $500 grant that we might expect for a $15000 one. A bit of a “small community Grant model for smaller grants for less sophisticated applicants will also be coming. Longer grant terms, earlier payment, and improved mentorship for emerging initiatives are things that will come a little later. We also need staff to do this work, as it has been off the side of desks for some time, and needs to be given proper support if we are going to properly serve the many organizations doing great work in the community.

Mobile Food Vending Licence Bylaw Amendment – Temporary Locations
Our Food Truck program is one of those things that got a little sidelined by COVID, in part because of the uncertainty around impact on existing brick and mortar restaurants during the health restrictions, and in part because staff were really busy with other COVID and Recovery work. However, they have spent some time over the last few months looking updates of our licensing to provide more flexibility and more locations for food trucks based on community feedback. This includes near park spaces, TACC, and a few others. This will be a change for 18 months, which gives enough time to test it out. Let us know how it works out, as even the “food truck” thing seems hit and miss these days, as the boom times of the early 2000s may be passing?

The majority supported moving this forward, though the two “progressive” members of council voted against it after their attempts to re-write the bylaw in the middle of the meeting surprisingly couldn’t come up with a better output than the professional work of Economic Development staff working with the business community to determine a practicable bylaw.

Parks and Recreation 2025 Fees Bylaw Amendment
Every year, we review Parks and Recreation fees, based on inflationary increases and year staff analyze how our fees compare to other neighboring municipalities in a public report, to assure we, as best as possible, balance cost recovery with service and accessibility while managing the amount of subsidy we provide to recreation programs. We do this a bit out of cycle with other budget work and review of engineering or development fees, because of the seasonality of program development and registration that doesn’t really line up with the budget process.

Not much changed this year in our regional comparison except that Burnaby reduced their recreation centre fees by almost 27%. This might be hard to compete with, as we have a brand new recreation facility that is already seeing huge crowds, while Burnaby is delaying of cancelling their recreation centre expansion projects. That said, we will still be within the regional means for recreation passes.

Report on Council Motion: Cooling Bylaw in Rental Units
The first really warm weekend just passed, and this has again raised the conversation about the work the City is doing to address the 2021 Heat dome disaster. The response form staff in the Emergency Management Office and other departments, working with external partners like Fraser Heath, has been impressive (communications to vulnerable communities, one cool room program, subsidized air conditioner program for vulnerable people, a connect and prepare program, a new Emergency Monitoring Centre and improved medical responder training, etc., etc.). We are better prepared to respond to the emergency now, but it would be preferable if heat events didn’t constitute an emergency, because our housing stock was resilient enough to manage what will be a more common occurrence.

Every rental building is required, by law, to have a heating system than can maintain a life-reserving temperature in residential units. No such requirement exists for cooling, and during the heat dome we learned that many apartments were so hot that they were deadly. The question arises: shouldn’t life safety be a rental license requirement? The BC government is taking action here with updates to the BC Building Code to require one cool room in new buildings, and are developing a path to encourage the updating of existing buildings. That’s a big challenge. In New west we have started a vulnerable building inventory and are going to push the province to accelerate their building renewal program. We are also going to ask staff to do some further work on regulatory approaches available to us as a City, because when people die in your city, you need to take action.

The majority of Council supported moving this three-prong approach, though the two “progressive” members of council voted against it for unclear reasons, continuing the trend of the night.

Response to Council Motion Regarding Fee Summary for Development Applications
In a previous meeting, Council asked that all rezoning applications include a comprehensive list of all fees, charges, and levies related to that project. I tried to make the point that we already get such a report as best as staff can estimate at the time of rezoning, because there are other steps in the development process (development Permit, Building Permit, etc.) that include fees and levees, and every project is different, meaning that a separate report would have to be generated for each project based on myriad of factors – how many trees are on the site, what is the grade? Is the available sewer connection on the upslope or downslope side of the property, does the builder want fiber optic connection, and does that require trenching across a city road? It’s complicated, and the cost and complication of providing this report ahead of time (for what reason exactly?) will doubtlessly increase the cost of development, because someone has to do the work, and on principle, this is a cost that should fall on development, not on taxpayers.

So the best we can do is estimate fees and apply deposits on the cost-for-service parts that are less certain at the time of rezoning, like the current Engineering and Service Memo attached to every rezoning already does. But as is common of motion made up on the fly in the heat of a Council meeting, those complications could not be fully considered by Council prior to voting on the motion, and that is a recipe for bad decision making.

In this report, staff are recommending that the recently-completed Development Application Process Review output of moving to more electronic approvals might give us tools to better estimate these numbers, at least as far as fixed fees go, this work will be rolled into that.

The majority of Council supported this sensible approach that best utilizes staff resources, though the two “progressive” members of council voted against it for unclear reasons, keeping the trend alive.

Westburnco Reservoir License of Use Agreement Renewal
There is a big underground water reservoir belonging to Metro Vancouver on the top of New Westminster called Westburnco. On the roof of this reservoir are some sports courts that were installed more than a decade ago by the City, under a license agreement with Metro Vancouver. It’s time to update that license agreement.

That said, the courts are looking pretty beat up, and I asked staff to initiate a conversation about updating the offerings in those courts, and my mind is on Pickleball. There is a unique opportunity here for us to build a multi-court pickleball facility to serve the growing community. As we are currently undertaking the Parks and Recreation Comprehensive Plan process, I confirmed with staff that is the appropriate channel through which to develop this idea, especially as there is likely to be a significant capital component in renewing the surface treatment on the reservoir. Staff will also check timelines around the membrane replacement or other renovation at the reservoir to determine if the timing or this type of capital investment is good.

Cross your fingers, there is a pickleball opportunity here

Zoning Bylaw Amendment: 1923 & 1927 Marine Way – Bylaw for Three Readings
Aunt Leah’s society wants to build a 90-unit affordable and supportive housing building on a couple of lots where land assembly is occurring near 22nd Street station. The project looks exceptional in how it meets a pressing housing need identified in our community, providing three levels of affordability (50% Rent geared to income, 20% deep subsidy at shelter rates, 30% below market) to serve the needs of youth aging out of care and young moms with families. This is within the Transit Oriented Area designation from the Province’s Bill 47, so the thought here is to rezone to that density (12 storeys/4 FSR) which is a bit bigger than Aunt Leah’s is trying to build (5 storeys / 2.2 FSR). There are tight funding deadlines here (the project has been approved by BC Housing to receive financial support!), and the project aligns with the OCP, so we are did our best to fast-track to third reading through our Affordable Housing Acceleration Initiative to meet those deadlines.

The majority of Council supported this much needed and already-funded affordable housing development, though the two “progressive” members of council voted against it for reasons, as best as I could interpret, because they were afraid it might reduce the profitability of future land speculation on adjacent properties.


We then read several Bylaws, including the following Bylaws for Adoption:

Development Cost Charges Amendment Bylaw No. 8456, 2024
This Bylaw that makes inflationary increases to our DCC bylaw – the infrastructure costs we put on developers for new growth – was adopted by Council.

Street and Traffic Bylaw Amendment Bylaw No. 8459, 2024
Engineering User Fees and Rates Amendment Bylaw No. 8458,2024
These Bylaws that will facilitate the launch of a Shared Mobility Service (Bike Share!) in New Westminster were adopted by Council.

Zoning Amendment Bylaw (310 Blackley Street) No. 8450, 2024
This Bylaw that rezones a portion of the Eastern Node in Queesnborough to facilitate the building of townhouses was adopted by Council.


Then we launched head-first into Motions from Council:

Improving Public Safety through a Community Ambassador Pilot Program
Submitted by Councillor Fontaine

Whereas the City of Vancouver previously partnered with Business Improvement Areas to implement and expand an Ambassador Program whereby Community Ambassadors provide assistance to business owners, customers, residents, and visitors in the BIA area by providing hospitality services and addressing community safety; and
Whereas Community Ambassadors’ primary functions include connecting those in need to resources, conducting community patrols, contributing to increased safety and order on the streets, and contributing to social responsibility; and
Whereas Community Ambassadors can work closely and collaborate directly with the City’s bylaw officers as well as the New Westminster Police Department and can become an integral part of a proactive recruitment strategy;
BE IT RESOLVED THAT the City of New Westminster prepare a business case to determine the feasibility of piloting a made-in-New Westminster Community Ambassador program by 2026;and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the local Business Improvement Areas be consulted regarding their potential role in supporting or operating a fully funded Community Ambassador pilot program on behalf of the City of New Westminster.

At first glance, this appeared to be  a repeat of a motion brought by Councillor Nakagawa this time last year about emulating the Chinatown Stewards model, a motion that led to a decision by Council to instead advance the I’s on the Street program, both motions that the mover of this motion voted to support at the time.

But at second glance, it appeared this was a very different program, one that is a resurrection of a failed program from Sam Sullivan’s Vancouver mayorship, the City’s partnership in it abandoned after complaints about it violating the human rights of targeted indigenous people, people with addictions, and those suffering mental and physical disabilities in a way that constituted discrimination according to a BC Supreme Court ruling, resulting in costs being awarded against the City and the BIA. Of course, Mayor Sullivan and his Chief of Staff were voted out of office before those costs were ever awarded, so out of term, out of mind, I guess.

Council did not vote to support this initiative.

International Travel by Members of Council
Submitted by Mayor Johnstone

BE IT RESOLVED: That international travel by members of Council to attend conferences, events, and meetings on behalf of the City of New Westminster be subject to Council approval which includes a summary of request to Council in an open meeting including:
• projected travel and other expenses related to attendance to be charged to the City;
• name of the attendee(s) and relevance to Council or Committee roles; and
• a statement of expected value to be derived as a result of attending the function from the attendee; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED: That any participation by members of Council at conferences, events, and meetings (aside from LMLGA, UBCM, and FCM) which require overnight accommodations or travel outside of the province but otherwise fall within allowable Council expense limits shall require a written summary to Council by the attendee(s) in an open meeting within 3 months of the completion of travel which includes:
• a summary of actual expenses incurred; and
• a description of participation, learnings, and value derived from participation at the event; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED: That staff be directed to bring back to Council for consideration revised travel policies for Council members that is consistent with the above resolutions, including any recommended changes to existing policies, expense limits, or reporting requirements that recognizes the benefit of Council participation in exchange and learning.

I think the motion speaks for itself. There is more interest in public transparency around these types of events than in the past, and it is a good idea to update our policies to reflect that. I have always had the practice of reporting out publicly on my attendance at conferences, including UBCM and FCM, the Canadian Association for Police Governance and the Local Climate Action Summit last year, even local conferences like the recent Active Transportation Summit, because I think they are valuable learning opportunities, and I think the extra l value found in them is being able to share your experiences and things you have learned with your colleagues and the community.

This parallels a motion I sponsored at Metro Vancouver that was referred back to staff. Here it was amended by Councillor Campbell to include considerations around travel funded by third parties or by the member themselves, as I have travelled to attend Municipal Finance Authority meetings and the City doesn’t pay for that, so our policies need to reflect those types of situations. The next step here will be for staff to conduct a review of existing policies and integrate the changes as proposed for Councils consideration.

Paradoxically, though the majority of Council supported this amended motion, the two “progressive” members of Council who have spent the last 6 months bombarding the regional media calling for this kind of transparency and accountability, voted against it for apparently not understanding the term “third party”, despite staff’s repeated attempts to clarify that a third party is anyone other than the City or the traveling member. It was a sight to see.

Increasing Accountability and Transparency regarding Travel for Municipal Elected Officials
Submitted by Councillor Fontaine

WHEREAS Mayor and Council have an interest in the information and outcomes of member-attended conferences, events, study tours, and meetings; and
WHEREAS transparent and equitable policies should be created for use of all City resources applied to Mayor and Council representation at such functions; and
WHEREAS the above is in service of good governance, transparency, and strong relationships between Mayor and Council, our community, and the public they serve in the disposition of limited resources;

BE IT RESOLVED THAT international travel to attend conferences, events, study tours, and meetings on behalf of the City of New Westminster by the Mayor or Councillors be subject to prior approval by Council which includes a summary of the request to Council in an open meeting including:
• Name of the attendee and relevant Council or Committee role(s);
• A statement of expected value to be derived because of attending the function from the attendee and staff;
• Projected travel expenses;
• Projected remuneration expenses; and
• Projected amount of other expenses expected to be incurred; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT any participation by the Mayor or Councillors at conferences, events, study tours and meetings that would incur overnight accommodation outside of British Columbia shall require a written report of the function by the attendee(s) in May or October of each calendar year. This report shall be provided at an open meeting of Council, and include:
• A summary of the event and key activities;
• The value to the City of New Westminster because of
• the attendee’s participation in the event; and
• A summary of actual expenses incurred; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT this new policy would apply to all city-paid travel or travel incurred as part of a ‘sponsorship’ intended to be paid for by a 3rd party; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT in the case of any sponsored travel, the attendee would be obliged in an open meeting to seek prior approval from Council to receive these funds and this would include full details regarding the source of funds and financials related to the entire sponsorship package being offered.

I’m not sure what cliché to use first – deja vu all over again? Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery? The member here literally cut and pasted my Metro Vancouver motion, with some minor amendments, and put their name on it. For the record, they were informed that the motion above was on the agenda, but still chose not to withdraw the notice of motion, wasting a bunch of staff time, because every notice requires staff policy and legal review prior to going onto the agenda. Then after NOT voting to support the almost exact same motion above, they decided during the meeting to withdraw this motion. I simply cannot explain this behavior, but am no longer interested in trying.

Increasing Council Oversight and Involvement in the Issuance of Official Public Statements
Submitted by Councillor Minhas

WHEREAS excluding any statutory powers provided to the Mayor through the BC Community Charter Act, all other authority is delegated to the Mayor by Council; and
WHEREAS the Mayor is designated by Council as the chief spokesperson who will speak on behalf of the entire Council on matters relating to City business; and
WHEREAS not all members of Council are routinely notified in advance nor consulted regarding non-emergency communications issued by the Mayor through the City of New Westminster Communications Department;
BE IT RESOLVED THAT the effective immediately the Mayor and the Department of Communications conduct timely, adequate and thorough consultation with all members of Council in advance of the issuance of any public statements, media advisories or media releases that are non-emergency related.

At one end of the spectrum, this appears to be a censure measure against the Mayor that seeks to silence me and keep me from doing the job I was elected to do for reasons I can only assume are political. At the other end, it appears to put an unreasonable block on all City Communications, severely limiting the City’s ability to talk about what is happening in the City. There is no City in the world that waits for Council approval before posting (to quote the motion) “any public statement” because it would not allow the City to function in the modern sense. This Council meeting is July 8th, our next official meeting is August 26th. We can’t have the City wait 6 weeks for “thorough consultation with all members of Council” before putting out their regular daily communications or responding to media inquiries. It boggles the mind to think how this would work, never mind the extra communication resources it would require to work.

The majority of Council did not support the motion, so conversations like this one can go on.

Shelter Aid for Elderly Renters
Submitted by Councillor Campbell

WHEREAS between 2016 and 2021, the number of seniors living in New Westminster increased by 17.2%. By comparison, the overall population increased by 11.2%; and
WHEREAS In 2021, 24.1% of New Westminster’s seniors lived in unaffordable housing (30%+ of income spent on housing costs) including 42.8% of senior renters and 16.9% of senior owners; and
WHEREAS the Office of the Seniors Advocate Report Ageing Matters: What We Heard From BC Seniors released in June 2024 states the Provincial Government’s Shelter Aid for Elderly Renters subsidy program does not address the financial pressures experienced by seniors who rent;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT Council write a letter to the Premier of BC, Minister of Housing and Minister of Health asking for immediate financial relief for low-income senior renters by redesigning the Shelter Aid for Elderly Renters program so that seniors’ rents are 30% of their income and rent ceilings are adjusted to reflect the current reality of the rental market.

This is advocacy that grew from work Councillor Campbell has been doing with seniors in the community, and based on calls from the Seniors Advocate, and a report they released last month. Council voted to send this advocacy to the Provincial Government.


And that was all the work done during the evening meeting. As I suggested, I might follow up with a report on the workshop, because is covered interesting things, and continued a bit of the trend of the evening meeting. Until then, go outside and enjoy some sun, we miss it when it’s not here.

Council – June 24, 2024

Better than Game 7, we had a Council meeting on Monday! And it again went a little longer than necessary, considering the length of the Agenda. But it started the most fun way ever, with issuance of a Development Variance Permit:

Development Variance Permit No. DVP00730 for 602 Agnes Street (68 Sixth Street)
Last meeting, Council agreed that BC Housing doesn’t need to provide a Letter of Credit for offsite works related to this already-approved affordable housing development, but that an Indemnity Agreement would be sufficient. After all, we don’t think they are going to fold their company and abscond with what they owe us. Since those terms of the agreement are tied up in the Development Permit language, we need a DVP to make things legal. This is that DVP, which Council unanimously approved.

We received some supportive correspondence from folks in the area who were statutorily informed of the application. We also received a few notes in opposition to the project itself, mostly from lack of information about the project. This is a problematic result of a three year delay between the City’s approval of this project and the builder getting started on the breaking of ground.


We then approved the following items On Consent:

Construction Noise Bylaw Exemption Request: Metro Vancouver Utility Construction – 1900 Block Stewardson Way
A utility hatch needs replacing on Stewardson, and Metro Vancouver is asking to do that work when the sewer levels are low enough, and the work requires closing two lanes of Stewardson, so that means a night project, requiring a construction noise exemption. This is also means trucks will be detoured around the site one night, having impacts on traffic on 12th Street, 10th Ave and 20th Street on that night. Sorry, folks, sewers gotta work.

Council Authorization of the Province’s Short Term Rental Information Sharing Agreement
There are new provincial regulations around Short Term Rentals (AirBnB and VRBO type operations). The City’s regulation has not changed as we discussed in Council back in May. You still need a Bed and Breakfast Business License to operate legally, but the Provincial rules give us new tools to enforce these regulations along with enforcing the Provincial regulations, should we choose to do so. For us to use the Province’s tools, we need to sign an Information Sharing Agreement, and we will start sharing info in July to understand how many listings we have ion New West.

Currently, staff estimate there are 225 STR listings in the City, but only 23 approved B&B licenses and 17 applications pending, totaling about 17% of the inferred listings. A question arises on whether this has a meaningful effect on rental availability. Considering these numbers represent a little more than 1% of the 16,000+ rental households in the City, it’s not sure that there would be a meaningful effect on the long-term rental market if even half of the STR operations convert over. As a comparison, the latest purpose built rental building we approved on Agnes Street (currently under construction) includes more than 300 rental units. This is much more meaningful to the market, I think, but it is useful for Staff to get the real data.

Fair Wage Policy at the City of New Westminster
The City has been a Living Wage Employer since 2011, and are now taking the next step to become a Fair Wage Employer. Staff reviewed the experiences of North Vancouver City and Burnaby, which have both been FW Employers for some time, and found that it does not meaningfully increase contracting costs, and is relatively simple to administer. Staff are recommending using the North Vancouver City policy as a framework and will bring back a policy for our approval.

New Westminster School District’s 2024-2025 Eligible School Sites Proposal
The School District provides a report every year to the City outlining their anticipated school needs. Mostly as a check-in between City planning staff and the School District planning staff. We are basically agreed on the projected need, and have a consistent voice to the Provincial Government about these numbers. The plan in the next decade includes no less than four new school expansion projects: expanding Queensborough Middle School, new Elementary and Middle Schools in the Fraser River Zone (central New West), and a new Elementary in the Glenbrook Zone (east New West). Yes, New West is growing fastest in the young-family-having demographic.

One interesting thing in this report is the review of School Site Acquisition Charges, which are development charges the City collects from developments and turns over to the province to (ostensibly) pay for purchasing land to put schools on. The amount we collect is limited by provincial regulation, and we currently collect the maximum amount permitted (between $600 and $1,000 per new unit depending on density). And in the financial Report earlier in the meeting, it is noted New Westminster residents paid almost $44 million in school taxes this year. We need to get some schools built.

Street and Traffic Bylaw Amendment (Bylaw No. 8459, 2024) and Engineering User Fees and Rates Bylaw Amendment (Bylaw No. 8458, 2024)
The City is ready to bring forward an e-bike share program. In order to administer it, we need to amend a couple of City Bylaws to make it happen. One is the Street and Traffic Bylaw to align with the Provincial Pilot Program we talked about in a previous meeting. The Engineering User Fees Bylaw needs to be adjusted so we can charge a fee to the proponent providing shared mobility services in order to recover our costs for help in administering the program.


The following items were Removed from Consent for discussion:

2023 Statement of Financial Information
This is our annual Financial Statements as audited by KPMG. Overall, it is a story of a City in good financial shape investing in infrastructure and Asset Management at an unprecedented pace. Compared to our budget for the year, our revenues were quite a bit higher, mostly because of a large insurance settlement on the Pier Park and interest earned on our reserves. Spending tracked within a few % of budget across the board, with an overall surplus of almost $40 Million more than budgeted (again, more than half of this in the form of an insurance settlement that we will need to stuff away for eventual Pier Park replacement work). Our accumulated surplus for the first time exceeded $1Billion, but most of this is in the form of capital assets, boosted by us bringing the $114 Million TACC online.

We have about $280 Million “in the bank”, earning interest at between 3 and 6%, depending on which fund it is in. We also have $167 Million in loans, which cost us about $8.5M a year to service (a manageable 2.4% of our annual revenue). We made a lot more on interest than we paid last year, which is always a good thing. That said, opening of TACC in 2024 and paying the balance of those bills will adjust these numbers for 2024.

Official Community Plan Amendment and Rezoning: 801 Boyd Street – Bylaws for First and Second Readings
The owner of Queensborough Landing wants to re-purpose a small portion of their site to install a new self-storage business. This is a significant enough change that it warrants an OCP amendment and rezoning. This report is about reviewing the application to send the OCP amendment to Public Hearing. Council gave the Bylaw two readings, and a Public Hearing coming, I will hold my opinion until after that Public Hearing to respect that process, but if you have opinions, let us know!

Public Hearing Prohibited for Residential Development Applications
One of the new provincial regulations affecting how cities regulate land use (Bill 44) includes a prohibition of Public Hearings for rezonings that are residential and align with the Official Community Plan (note, the Public Hearing in the item above is not residential, so it doesn’t apply). This is generally consistent with the way we have been addressing residential Public Hearings since we introduced changes to speed up the approval of affordable housing a couple of years ago, however, now that the Province has a specific and strict regulation, staff have identified a gap in our Procedure Bylaw that does not align with the Provincial Regulation.

We have likely the most unrestricted Public Delegation practice in the region, likely in the province. Allowing anyone 5 minutes on any topic every meeting gives the public a large platform to speak to Council. However, if a few people come to speak to a land use application where Public Hearings are banned by Provincial Regulation, that may constitute a de facto Public Hearing, which could put the City in a perilous legal position if someone wishes to challenge an approval or denial of a permit. So we are following the lead of many municipalities around the province, and are adjusting our Procedures Bylaw to give staff the authority to not permit delegation on those specific topics.

Response to Council Motion: 2026 FIFA World Cup
No surprise, doing community events around FIFA will take resources, which is why I brought a motion two years in advance of the World Cup arriving so we could plan and budget accordingly. We will consider bringing in a program coordinator as part of the 2025 budget considerations. There is some very preliminary numbers here on the scale of $200,000. I would not put too much faith in those as they are very preliminary at this time, but give Council and idea of what to expect during our future budget considerations. There is an interesting part in here about LED screens as potential legacy infrastructure, and a synergy opportunity to update the scoreboard at Queens Park Arena, but I’m putting carts ahead of horses here. This report is really only a temperature check to Council to make sure we still want to ask staff to develop and budget these plans.

Uptown Live Municipally Significant LCRB Resolution
Our provincial liquor licensing regulations are ridiculous and archaic, and everyone involved (manufacturers, retailers, events coordinators, even cities) are always trying to find a way through or around them to make things happen while keeping letter-of-the-law legal. For festivals, especially, this can be daunting. For a festival, not only does the Province regulate the size of a glass of beer or wine that can be served, they regulate a maximum price it can be sold at – a maximum price that has not been raised in 9 years. So if a festival wants to charge a little more and make a bit more money from alcohol sales to pay for other aspects of the festival (like hiring talent, security, advertising, etc.), they can’t do that. Unless they are designated a “Municipally Significant Event”, whatever that means. The request here is to designate Uptown Live as “Municipally Significant” so they can charge a little more for beer to help offset the other costs of a free to the public festival.


We then read some Bylaws, including a couple of Bylaws for Adoption:

Transit Oriented Area Designation Bylaw No. 8460, 2024
Zoning Amendment Bylaw (Transit Oriented Area and Small-Scale Multi-Unit Housing Amendments) No. 8453, 2024
These two bylaws amend the Zoning Bylaw to implement the requirements of Provincial Bill 44 (Small Scale Multi-unit Housing) and Bill 47 (Transit Oriented Areas) and bring us in compliance before the June 30th deadline set by the province. These were adopted by the province.


We then covered a couple of Reports for Action:

Permanent Free-Standing Toilet – follow up from Workshop on June 17th.
I wanted to give council and opportunity to revisit the Free-standing Public Toilet discussion from workshop last week, in recognition of the feedback we have been receiving from the community, and a general feeling that our discussion in workshop last week raised a lot of issues that were a little aside of the specific capital project that staff were presenting. A challenge we always have with capital projects like this is this chicken-and-egg issue of informing the public before you have a discussion with Council or vice versa. Having a public conversation about a project without Council being informed about it is obviously problematic. So the report in last week’s workshop was both Council and the public being informed at the same time. Staff did ask at the workshop about how we wanted to engage the public about this, but looking back at the tape, that conversation was lost a bit on Council getting engaged in operational and budget discussions.

I have had some great conversations with the community over the last week, and it is clear people see the need to public toilets, and have good questions about how to make them more effective. I have heard stories of challenges people have had with needing to go – some pretty uncomfortable – and about how travelling to other parts of the world outside of North America, public toilets are just the standard. We have such a strange puritan mindset about toilets here, and imagine only the negatives about them in a way we rarely do with provision of other basic public services.

In the conversation at workshop last week, I heard clearly that Council hears that public call for better public toilet facilities, but that council wants to better understand the operational needs related to how those toilets operate, both the existing ones and any new ones we add. To get there, we need to ensure that we have a comprehensive plan around public toilets, both to ensure that we have enough in every neighbourhood and also a plan to ensure that they are really well maintained and lack of maintenance is not a barrier to use. We need to have that plan in place before we move ahead with these much needed capital investments.

There was a wide-ranging discussion, including several attempts to delay this work, but in the end Council agreed to ask Staff to rapidly bring back a workplan for a City-wide and comprehensive public toilet strategy and report back, to engage the community and community partners in that discussion, and to revisit locations and operational needs for 24/7 service.

Presentation of the 2023 Annual Report
Unlike the Mayor’s State of the City Address, this is the *Official* annual report of the City. It is required by regulation to be received by Council by June 30th. We were running quite late by this time, so we forwent the presentation by the CAO and moved to just receive the report, and asked the CAO to present on it at the next meeting. I’ll talk about it more then, but you can read it now!

Appointment of Council Member to the New Westminster Police Board
Due to changes in the Police Act, the Mayor is no longer automatically the Chair of the Police Board. Instead, the Council must appoint from its membership a representative to the Board, and the Board then elects a Chair from tis members. Of the Municipal Police Boards in the province, it looks like about half have appointed a member other than the mayor to the board, and of those that appointed the mayor, not all kept the Mayor as the Chair. So there is no “typical” here.

Council decided to appoint Tasha Henderson to the Board, and I have no doubt she will do an excellent job. She really has the most experience of anyone on Council working within the criminal justice system, and has the policy chops to help the Board with its ongoing Governance review, and a drive to do what is best for the community.


And that brought us to the end of the meeting. Yes, I failed to put out a Newsletter last week (thank you for those who asked if they missed it). It has been about as busy as possible the last couple of weeks, I’ll try to get one out tomorrow, but you need to subscribe!

Council – June 10, 2024

Our Monday Council meeting was another long one with a fairly short agenda, but aside from a full list of public delegates, there were also quite a few speeches that needed to be made, so there we are. We started with a Development Variance Permit for consideration:

Development Variance Permit No. DVP00697 for 114-118 Sprice Street
The owner of these properties in Queensborough is rezoning to build 10 compact lot detached homes. Nothing unusual here, in fact when it came to Council for a comprehensive review almost a year ago, Council approved it on Consent without comment. The Bylaw also saw three readings by Council and adoption this year, all without comment. So I was a little surprised when this DVP (required only because the lot dimensions are such that that the frontage is less than 10% of the total lot circumference, which the Local Government Act says staff can’t approve without a Development Variance Permit) resulted in numerous questions from a single member of Council that were more related to the previous-approved rezoning than the DVP, but here we are. Nonetheless, Council approved the DVP.


We then had the following items Removed form Consent for discussion:

Building Safer Communities Fund Program Update February 2023 to March 2024
The City received BSCF funding (up to $1.7 million) from the federal government to implement a plan to address youth being at risk for gang involvement of violent crime. The working group established by the City to implement the plan, and incredible partnerships in our community – NWPD, the Lower Mainland Purpose Society, Dan’s Legacy, the School District and many others. Between the Situation Table model that is aligning agencies to address very specific and emergent needs to the Youth Hub at Purpose, we are building resiliency in our community here. This report is long, because there is a lot happening. I’m really proud of our community for doing this work, but it was effectively just an update for our consideration, not an action item for Council.

Development Variance Permit for Works & Services Security – 602 Agnes Street (68 Sixth Street) Affordable Housing Project – Notice of Consideration of Issuance
68 sixth street is moving forward, now addressed as 602 Agnes. This is a bit of government sausage-making, but the short version is we need a services agreement to connect any new building to City services (electrical, water, sewer) and usually collect a Letter of Credit to secure any unexpected costs the City may suffer from this connection. With a regular developer that is an important piece of security in case the development goes insolvent so the city (taxpayers) doesn’t get caught holding the bag. With BC Housing, we are pretty sure they are not going to go bankrupt, so we are asking for a letter of indemnity (a promise to pay, effectively) instead of freezing up their capital. This needs Council approval, which we are doing, because we want affordable housing built.


We then address several Motions from Council:

Tenant Protections
Submitted by Councillor Campbell and Councillor Nakagawa

WHEREAS new provincial legislation is creating a path for increased development density around transit areas which will impact many more affordable New Westminster neighbourhoods due to our abundant transit services; and
WHEREAS Bill 16 (Housing Statutes Amendment Act) allows municipalities to enact tenant protection bylaws related to redevelopment, including within transit-oriented areas; and
WHEREAS tenants—especially those in older and more affordable rental housing— may be disproportionately impacted due to this new development; and
WHEREAS New Westminster has previously shown leadership in protecting vulnerable renters with strong actions to curtail demoviction and renoviction; and
WHEREAS the regional housing market is reaching new levels of crisis, increasing the risk that existing tenants will lose access to adequate housing through displacement related to redevelopment;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT the City of New Westminster update our tenant protection and relocation policies, using Burnaby’s as a model to provide support for tenants who may be displaced from their homes, including by redevelopment.

We had several people, including folks from the New West Tenants union delegate to Council about this issue, all in support of the motion. There is significant concern that the unanticipated impacts of the new Transit Oriented Development regulations from the province may impact our ability to enforce demoviction protections in the same way we have previously at the same time as it puts increased pressure on redevelopment near transit centers. Time for a review. This was also timely as Tasha and I had returned from FCM, where we both saw protesters calling for basic rental protections for Alberta (where there is almost none) and met with Councillors from Ontario that were using New Westminster anti-rennoviction bylaws as a model for their own similar regulatory approach to protecting the most affordable homes in their community. The contrast was shocking and reminded me of what side of this fight I want New Westminster Council to be on. Council voted to support this motion.

Making the Annual State of the City Address More Inclusive to Our Youth
Submitted by Councillor Fontaine

Whereas a recent series of State of the City addresses by the current and past Mayor have taken place at a private venue that restricts entry only to those 19 years and older; and
Whereas the most recent State of the City address held on May 7th, 2024 was a ticketed event which also required people show government issued identification to enter the premises; and
Whereas the City of New Westminster is committed to supporting our youth and embracing inclusivity; and Whereas other Mayors within our region ensure their State of the City address is held in an open, no-cost, low-barrier venue such as at City Hall;
BE IT RESOLVED THAT Council prohibit the Mayor from hosting future State of the City events that are not fully accessible to all members of the public free of charge.

I cringe whenever we use possessives to describe a group of people, but we don’t debate the titles of these motions.

This motion seemed to be based on a strange idea about what the State of the City is, as an event. The word “official” kept getting applied to it by the mover for unknown reasons. There is nothing “official” about it. It isn’t in the Local Government Act or any other legislation in the City. This is not the Annual Report of the City (which is “official”, prepared by staff and delivered by the CAO of the City in Council Chambers).

Instead, the State of the City in New Westminster (like in almost every other City in BC where such a thing takes place, including Surrey, Vancouver, Delta, White Rock, Langley, North Vancouver, Burnaby, etc…) is a partnership with the Chamber of Commerce in the form of a ticketed business luncheon sponsored by valued local businesses. I think the participation by the Mayor in a Board of Trade or Chamber event of this nature is a win-win.

There are many events that I am asked to take part in where I talk to select groups of the community about the City. That’s one of the roles of Mayor. Last week I gave a (shortened and looser) version of the STOC to seniors at a registration-required event at təməsew̓txʷ, I have also met recently with several elementary and middle school classes to talk about local government and the City. Net month, I will be talking to the (Members only!) Rotary Club and next week providing a Keynote to the (registration required!) Active Transportation Summit. None of these were open and accessible to all for a variety of reasons, but are facilitated to address a specific group. I don’t think there is anything wrong with the Mayor taking part in these types of events, and I can only speculate why some members of Council want to limit my ability to talk to different groups of the public.

Anyway, Council defeated this motion. And for those curious, the State of the City is recorded and streamed on the City’s website, anyone can watch it any time they want, which I think is a nice benefit for every one of the Chamber providing their partnership for this event.

Undertaking a review of the City’s outdoor events policies, procedures and permit fees
Submitted by Councillor Minhas

Whereas the process, procedures and policies linked to the establishment of outdoor events in New Westminster has been described at complex, costly and a challenge to overcome; and
Whereas there is a desire on the part of the City to encourage more outdoor events on a regular basis throughout the year; and
Whereas it is good practice to regularly seek feedback from the community regarding whether there are opportunities to streamline our processes in order to reduce red tape;
BE IT RESOLVED THAT Council establish a citizen-based taskforce to review our policies, procedures and permit fees regarding how they may be impeding the development of new and/or putting into jeopardy existing outdoor events; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the taskforce make recommendations to Council regarding how we can streamline our processes and reduce red tape to help facilitate more outdoor events on a regular basis.

This resolution seemed to be a solution looking for a problem. Rather like some recent discussions about businesses abandoning New Westminster while our business license count shows we are growing new businesses faster than ever, this motion seems to be about a nostalgia for events that no-one in the community was interested in running (Show and Shine) without recognizing that we have organizations running literally dozens of events in the City, from well-established events with long history like the Hyack Parade and Nagar Kirtan, to the new traditions of Uptown Live, Pride Week, and Recovery Day, to emergent new events like On Your Block, National Indigenous Peoples Day, and Blocktober Fest. The best part is to see the recovery after COVID and how people in the community show up for these events.

It seems the mover didn’t speak to the organizers of these events putting this together, or otherwise did not recall the work the City is doing in this space, endorsed by Council in February. The mover is a member of the Arts, Culture and Economic Development Advisory Committee, where much of this work is being coordinated (as Festivals are the perfect interaction od Arts, Culture, and Economic Development), and would have benefited from getting caught up on what’s happening at that committee.
Staff have created a FEST team to coordinate though a one-stop-shop the fire, police, engineering, traffic and Fraser Health requirements that are often the biggest logistical step for festivals. There are other concerns related to policing and safety costs, which is where the City’s current work on updating our Grants process has a role. We are also building back our volunteer coordination resources after COVID, as volunteer support is one of the areas where many festival organizers are feeling pinched. I don’t want us to take people off of those work areas to coordinate another task force. It seems that adds to instead of reducing complication and bureaucracy.

Council did not support this motion.

Requesting that Metro Vancouver conduct an independent review of the North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plan cost overruns
Submitted by Councillor Fontaine

Whereas Metro Vancouver’s North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant project is now estimated to cost nearly $4 billion dollars, a massive cost overrun compared to the original $500 million dollar budget; and
Whereas the specific circumstances that led to one of the largest cost overruns of any public infrastructure project (on a percentage basis) are still mainly unknown; and
Whereby given Metro Vancouver is about to undertake several other mega projects that will cost Metro Vancouver taxpayers billions of dollars;
BE IT RESOLVED THAT Mayor Patrick Johnstone, as our representative on Metro Vancouver, be asked to submit a motion to that governing body calling for a full, independent public inquiry into the North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant cost overruns.

This motion may have benefitted from the mover talking to their colleagues on Council or on the Metro Vancouver Board instead of spending all their time talking into various TV cameras. And the conversation about it in Council was equally frustrating, because it never seemed to get through that the motion (if approved) was not going to deliver what the mover seemed to insist would be the result. On that failure to understand the situation, I prefer to invoke Hanlon’s Razor.

Like the mover, I also have significant questions about how the North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plan was approved at just over $700 million, and the conditions that led to the firing of the main contractor in 2021 – events that presaged the current budget on the order of $3.8 Billion – because I was not on the Board when those events occurred. But I do know (and it has been widely reported) that we are currently in the middle of a legal fight with that contractor – suit and countersuits that will no doubt preclude any full public disclosure of the conditions that led to those lawsuits until people get their day in court, because that is how legal processes work. One would expect Metro Vancouver, having several hundred million public dollars at stake in those legal proceedings, do not want to do anything that might jeopardize them. So, calls for a public inquiry at this time will not be heard by anyone in a position of responsible governance.

I know that isn’t a satisfying answer to anyone, it isn’t a satisfying answer to me. But that is where we are, and when I serve on the Board of Metro Vancouver, I have a legal duty of fidelity to that organization, and cannot ask for things that would threaten that.

What I can say is that this situation is not representative of how Metro Vancouver delivers large infrastructure projects. Metro is commonly delivering numerous large and complex infrastructure projects in the hundreds-of-millions scale, from water treatment to major region-spanning pipelines, and has a strong record of delivering on time and on budget. The Metro board has also committed to internal review and addressing concerns that led here so they don’t end up in the same boat on future major capital projects. There is no reason to believe that this is a new normal, or a situation that will be repeated in future capital investments.

In the end, Council did not support this motion, as it would not deliver what the mover wanted to insist it would deliver. However, this is not the last we will be talking about this project.

Supporting families, people with mobility challenges and/or a disability to access New Westminster’s waterfront
Submitted by Councillor Minhas

Whereas access to our City’s waterfront should be something accessible to all residents, regardless if they have mobility challenges or not; and
Whereas there are several City owned-operated elevators that connect our downtown to the waterfront which have been out of service for periods of several months at a time; and
Whereas a lack of elevator access can prove challenging for people with mobility difficulties to access our waterfront
BE IT RESOLVED THAT staff report back to Council regarding the status of our City owned-operated elevators (connecting our downtown to the waterfront) over the past year including how many days they have been out of service; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT staff report back with an action plan to ensure that at least one City owned elevator always remains operable to ensure a minimum level of access to our waterfront.

This is an email, not a resolution. In fact, this comes on the heels of an email provided to Council on the status of the McInnes elevator (repaired and still under warranty). We don’t need an “Action Plan” developed on elevator maintenance for two elevators, this is an operational item that is not something Council needs to meddle in. We are a policy body, not managers. Our goal as a City is to maintain assets in a way that best applies our limited resources, and our goal is to have all of the elevators operational at all times. Recognizing that, maintenance of elevators is complex and outdoor elevators do occasionally break down, and as anyone who lives in a high-rise knows, when things go wrong, there is sometimes a wait for parts and people who can fix them. I have confidence that staff take this work seriously, and are doing all they can to be responsive to maintenance challenges.

That saying, we also recognize that broken elevators are problematic for access, and this is why we made the decision to not rely on an elevator for the west Pier Park access built for the City by Bosa, but invested instead in the bigger, more expensive, and maximally accessible ramp. It is also why we put so much emphasis on assuring the new access across the tracks at Begbie will be fully accessible.

This resolution was amended to change from a report to an email (saving staff time and energy) and asked that other issues regarding accessibility to the waterfront be referred to the Accessibility Committee. The Amended motion was approved by Council.


And to wrap we had one piece of New Business:

EComm AGM representative
New Westminster is member of the EComm “syndicate” and we need to assign a member to attend the AGM and vote on our behalf. Council appointed Councillor Fontaine to be this representative.

This Happened (in Calgary)

Last week was mostly spent in Calgary, attending the annual Federation of Canadian Municipalities meeting. This is the annual get-together of local governments from all across Canada to network, share, learn, and advocate. It is not my favourite conference (I find UBCM more relevant) and I have not attended in a few years, but this year brought the opportunity to have some meetings about some specific issues important to New West (more on that later), so packed the bags and booked the flight.

As usual (see here and here for example), I will provide a more detailed report on my FCM take-aways in a follow-up post here. In my Wednesday newsletter (link here to sign up and get the juice into your mailbox), I’ll write a little more about my thought on the political part of the conference, where we had very different addresses from the Prime Minister, the shadow minister from the Conservatives, and the leader of the NDP. In the meantime, here are a few pictures of the Calgary FCM experience:

Tasha showed up with a specific message for any Federal Government types we met at the conference!
This emergency alert arrived in our inbox as 1000s of local government delegates arrived in Calgary. Infrastructure Funding Anyone?
The Mayor of Edmonton and I had a significant difference of opinion on the value of bandwagons, but all in good fun!
The challenging regulatory environment in Alberta has not prevented the City of Calgary form investing in solar infrastructure at various scales.
Wherever you go, there you are! With Councillor Dominique O’Rourke of Guelph, Ontario.
In Calgary, the ultimate virtue signal is a cowboy hat in a convention centre.
I had a lunch discussion with Sam Trosow, a Councillor from London Ontario who sought me out at the event, because his City has studied New Westminster’s anti-demoviction regulations, and wanted to chat about challenges and successes.
My view for most of FCM was some version of this. The weather was always fine inside the conference sessions.
Streetscapes in Calgary are a study in contrast. Some nice public spaces, some serious car sewers.
Being a geologist, I know a few people who work in Calgary. I had a chance to catch up with a couple of old University friends I had not seen in something like 25 years! Good times. And yes, Calgary has craft beer.

Council – May 27, 2024

As Mayvember moves in Juneuary, we spent Monday cozy and warm in Council Chambers with a regular agenda we moved through relatively quickly.

We started with moving the following items On Consent:

Construction Noise Bylaw Exemption Request: 330 East Columbia Street (Royal Columbian Hospital Redevelopment Project)
The RCH project has been operating at extended hours on Saturdays for some time, and it has only resulted in two noise complaints, both resolved. They are entering a phase where deliveries may need to occur as early as 7:00am on Saturdays to keep things moving, and council is granting them a construction noise exemption to permit this.

Construction Noise Bylaw Exemption Request: 612 Seventh Avenue – Marcon Construction
A large slab pour is required for the new mixed use tower being built Uptown. This work site had a few early noise complaints where the operator paid fines, but not complaints have been received in some time. Council is granting them a one-time expansion of work hours to facilitate a single large pour.

Development Cost Charge Bylaw – Inflationary Amendment Resubmission
DCCs are funds we collect from developers to help cover the cost of supplying infrastructure related to growth resulting from their developments. They are strictly regulated by the Province, and the money must pay for the specific infrastructure we identify as being needed to support that growth. As the cost of building that infrastructure goes up, we are able to do inflationary increases to our DCC rates. This Bylaw does that. We passed a similar one back in March, but the Provincial inspector of these things didn’t like the language we used around the date the change becomes effective, so staff have redrafted a version to the inspector’s liking, and we are moving it again.

Zoning Amendment Bylaw for 310 Blackley Street: Bylaw for First, Second, and Third Readings
The “Eastern Node” is a long-coming and slow –developing project in Queensborough. There is a master plan for townhouses, apartments, and commercial spaces in the area just west of Port Royal, and this single lot is part of “Phase 3”. The property is included n the land assembly, and is now coming to us for rezoning to match the masterplan.

Zoning Amendment Bylaw for 1005 Ewen Avenue: Bylaw for First, Second and Third Readings
This 23- unit townhouse project in Queensborough came to council for three readings back in 2019, but has been somewhat redesigned to better fit the site, so those three readings are being discarded, and a new bylaw to reflect the new alignment of the property is being brought to council for three readings.


The following items were Removed from Consent for discussion:

Queensborough Transportation Plan
Transportation staff have been engaging the Q’boro neighbourhood on the first transportation plan specific to that neighbourhood, recognizing it has unique transportation challenges. The first being that there are no plans to replace or expand the (provincial) Queensborough Bridge any time soon, and much like the adjacent Hamilton neighbourhood of Richmond (and downtown, for that matter), moving around within the community is challenged by twice-a-day through-commuters. The new Plan includes priorities to address some of those unique challenges of Q’Boro, and identifies some of the pains of growth in the community.

The depth of consultation here is something to behold: lots of info on the Be Heard New West project page, direct outreach to 25 identified interest groups, community pop-ups, social media, advertising in the record, on the digital billboards and at community bulletin boards, and 4,000 direct mailings. The resulting report is a really good read, and identifies strategies to address the walkability and transit access on Lulu Island.

One of the key issues in Queensborough is the intersection of Howes and Highway 91A, which is statistically one of the most accident-prone intersections, is a comfort and safety barrier to pedestrians walking to Queensborough Landing from south of the freeway, and has abhorrently bad bus stop conditions for such a key bus stop location. The City has little more than advocacy power on the intersection, because it belongs to the Ministry of Transportation, but we need to be taking that advocacy to a new level to get this gap fixed.

One other key topic in Queensborough is the general lack of sidewalks in many of the residential neighbourhoods. This is a long-standing grievance, and though the City has had preiovus plans and policies ot address this gap (mostly waiting for redevelopment of older neighbourhoods, or doing a special assessment to share costs with homeowners), it is complicated by Lulu Island’s special conditions – soft soils and open ditches. Very long story made much shorter it costs a LOT to cover ditches, and it is simply not possible in some areas, and traditional road-curb-sidewalk structures would need enclosed storm drainage, meaning $500/m sidewalks become $10,000/m infrastructure programs.

We asked staff to come back to Council with some updates on how we might prioritize some of this work. “It’s expensive” is a good argument against making a quick commitment to just do it, but I think folks in the ‘Boro have reasonable expectations that at least one side of a road has a sidewalk of we expect the neighbourhood to be walkable and safe for everyone.

This report also talks about a commitment the City is making to the QtoQ ferry, and though it’s cost is increasing (diesel and staff costs are not going down!), its ridership is rebounding a bit after COVID. Some folks rely on this service, but we are going to have to continue to keep an eye on costs. The provider contract is running out this year, and we will have to go to RFP for a new contract, and that process should give us some clarity on the future of the service.

Report Back on Provincial Electric Kick Scooter Pilot Program
Electric kickscooters and other forms of new electric mobility are, for the most part, illegal in BC. This is because the provincial Motor Vehicle Act has not been updated to recognize them, and the City can’t really overrule provincial rules. The Province is running a Pilot Program in some communities to legalize them, with the local government committing to amending its local street and traffic bylaws, and aligning requirements with the MVA. Essentially, the scooters have the same rights and responsibilities as cyclists, except the rider must be 16 years old, and cannot exceed 25km/h.

The recommendation that New West join the Pilot is one I nominally support, but some good questions were raised around how enforcement works now, and how it will change if we enter the Pilot Program that could not be answered in the meeting, so we referred the decision here to allow more consultaiton with NWPD.

Response to Council Motion: Ensuring that ground level retail spaces in new developments prioritize community-supporting businesses and organizations
This is a follow-up to the discussion Council had regarding (ugh) dentist offices at retail grade. Staff are reporting back that they are prioritizing this component of the Retail Strategy, and will come back with some policy options in later June. There was a bit more instruction provided to staff from Council to not just report back on the Retail strategy components, but our planning and development policies and bylaws.

Response to Council Motion Regarding “Supporting Child Care Development Across the City”
This is also a follow up to an earlier motion from Council asking about opportunities to expand the range of properties in the City where childcare will be permitted without rezoning. It is noted here that New Westminster is already a regional leader in childcare-supporting policy, and as a result has one of the highest levels of childcare availability per capita in the Metro region (34.4 per 100 children, compared to a regional average of 25). The last time we expanded childcare zoning was 2011, and a re-look seems timely, especially as we are the fastest growing Metro Vancouver City in the “having kids” demographic of 25-44 years old.

Staff are going to review permitted childcare spaces as they implement the new Provincial housing regulations, as the pretty substantial zoning rewrite resulting from that regulation is a great opportunity to get it right at the same time. There are, notably, some (provincial) building code barriers to larger childcare facilities in typical residential buildings, but we want to make sure there aren’t municipal barriers if people want to make that investment.

Rezoning: 88 Tenth Street (Columbia Square) – Introductory Report
The owner of Columbia Square wants to redevelop the site to provide a significant number or residential homes, while maintaining the existing volume of retail and commercial spaces. We had a preliminary look at this back in April, and now staff want to work with the applicant to go to public consultation and move a more detailed design forward, so that rezoning can be considered by Council within this year.

This is a slightly different process, in that rezoning (which defines landuse, density, heights, and amenities) would be read three times, and if approved, some of the more detailed Development Planning part would come after. This two-phase process is more common in some other cities, but not as common here.

The challenge on this site is that the retail preservation and redevelopment and cost of building on the site do not provide economic viability if a significant below-market housing component is included. It being within the Province’s Transit Oriented Development Area defines in Bill 47 also complicates our ability to require affordable housing on the Site. We can receive Density Bonusing, which is money the developer pays the city to exceed the maximum density granted as right on the site, and the City can invest that DB into amenities.

The request from staff here is to work with the applicant to proceed with public consultation and the work needed to frame a rezoning Bylaw, which council will in turn be asked to consider some time later in the year.

Train Whistle Cessation Resolution at the Furness Street Rail Crossing
Whistle Cessation is complicated process. Once the engineering is done to make the crossing safe enough for the Railway and Technical Safety BC to agree whistles are not necessary, Council must pass a resolution deeming that whistles are not sounded. After significant engineering work (funded by an adjacent developer), and the City’s commitment to maintaining the engineering controls, we are ready to pass this resolution for a high-profile crossing in Port Royal. The train operator can still sound a whistle if they see a track intrusion or other hazard, but won’t sound it every time they cross, which should slightly improve the quality of sleep for a few folks in Port Royal.


We then read some bylaws including the one Bylaw for Adoption:

Zoning Amendment Bylaw (114-118 Sprice Street) No. 8387, 2023
This zoning amendment to permit 10 new houses on compact lots in Queensborough was adopted by Council.


We then addressed a single Motion from Council:
Encouraging the BC Government to Terminate the Failed Decriminalization Experiment
Submitted by Councillor Fontaine

BE IT RESOLVED THAT the Mayor write a letter to the Premier and Minister of Mental Health and Addictions requesting they immediately halt the failed decriminalization experiment pilot project in BC.

This motion was, for anyone paying attention to the news, redundant when it landed, but the mover decided not to withdraw it, but to instead take some Council time to have their say on the topic. Because of this, we were treated to several well-worn BC United fearmongering speaking points, and an argument that instead of harm reduction, we need to equally fund all pillars in a “four-pillar approach”, which demonstrates a stunning ignorance about the very “Four Pillars” the mover is advocating towards.

This is not just because harm reduction (every aspect of which the mover steadfastly argued against for five minutes) is not only one of the four pillars – it is consistently the least funded of the four pillars. Don’t take my word for this, the Government of Canada tracks these things. So how do we unpack what the mover is actually arguing for? Clearly he is not asking that we increase by 7 times the funding we put into Harm Reduction (safe consumption, safe supply, etc.) to bring it up to the amount we spend on enforcement, so I have to read it as a radical Defund-the-Police motion advocating to cut by 80% our drug enforcement budget in order to bring it down to where harm reduction spending is. I’ll have to remember to ask the mover about that.

I have more to say about this entire debacle of a motion, and will perhaps follow up in another post if I can stomach it, because not only were people stigmatized by the comments in council, there was a woefully unfirmed argument in favour of stigmatization. Ugh. I’ll just wrap this report by saying Council wisely voted against supporting this redundant and ill-considered motion.

Council – May 6, 2024

Monday’s meeting was long. Much longer than it had to be, frankly, considering the short length of the Agenda, but again we got the work done. We went a little off schedule as far as which items were covered when trying to accommodate the public and staff time as best we could, so the list below may not be in order, but you can always watch the video here and select the agenda item on the left that you are interested in, and the video should skip right to that item. Pretty slick.

It started with three Reports to Council:

2023 Consolidated Financial Statements
These are the annual financial reports detailing the financial results of the previous year (as opposed to forecasting the next year, which is the budget). It is also when we received the Audit Report based on the Audit Plan we approved back in January. The audit report is pretty simple: “no problems found”.

The Financial Statements show we are in solid financial shape. We are in a period of significant investment in the city, both in getting infrastructure built (our $78 Million capital spending in 2023 included $33 Million towards təməsew̓txʷ , $5 Million in sewer separation work, $5 Million in pavement management, aka. “filling potholes”, $4 Million toward our on-time-and-under budget Q’boro substation, $3 Million toward waterman replacement, and more) and in solidifying our capital reserves to assure we can continue to maintain what we build.

We also did pretty well at getting senior government investment in the City – more than $25 Million between the feds and Province, to help pay for that work. With that support, we had a an “operational surplus” of $105 Million, which is how we finance that capital plan, and is key to our meeting our longer-term Asset Management plans.

We are also taking in debt to pay for some larger items, including təməsew̓txʷ and the Substation. This is purposeful, and we can get into debates about how local governments finance infrastructure like this (as I have in the past – wow – reading that now, I used to be so wordy!). Our debt payments are in the order of $8 Million a year, of which about $6.7 Million is interest (representing a very manageable 2% of our revenue). At the same time, we had a significant increase in the interest earned on our reserves (up to $13 Million), which is due to some great treasury management work by our finance staff.

Council approved the Financial Statements, which allows staff to submit them to the province by the statutory deadline of May 15th.

Train Whistle Cessation – 2024 – Q1 Update
This is just the quarterly report on whistle cessation. It looks like one of the most prominent intersections in Q’Boro is very close to completion, and we are continuing to be challenged by CN on the key crossings in Sapperton. Not a lot to update here.

Recommendations for Council on Belonging and Connecting from the Community Advisory Assembly
This was the first presentation from the Assembly, and it could not have gone better. The first item they were asked to look into is our perhaps vague Strategic Plan pillar around “Community Belonging and Connecting”. The Assembly members provided a report with a lot of ideas around making better spaces for public participation in art and performance, the need for outdoor weather-adaptable gathering spaces, and public toilets. They highlighted the need for sports facilities in Queensborough, in updating our Renter Protection bylaws, and had an idea around a different kind of Community Ambassador program.

There was a lot there, and I appreciated they way they were open about recognizing this is a lot. They balanced well the desire to tell us what they want with leaving it to us as Council to determine what is feasible and what is not, and to set the budget and timelines. Most importantly, I liked how they spoke of the deliberative and consensus-building model they used. I am absolutely enthused about how this report came, and am even more excited about what is to come next.


The following item was Moved on Consent:

Construction Noise Bylaw Exemption Request: 220 Salter Street
Inspection of major sewer conduits under the Fraser has to happen at night when flows are lowest, and a bit of noise is generated at the ends of the inspection routes meaning we need to issue a Construction Noise Bylaw Exemption. Gotta keep the poop flowing!


We then adopted a LOT of Bylaws:

Tax Rates Bylaw 8445, 2024
The Bylaw that sets the property tax rates for 2024 was Adopted by Council.

Code of Conduct for Council Members Amendment Bylaw No.8457, 2024
This bylaw that amends our recently-adopted Code of Conduct to facilitate the hiring of an Ethics Commissioner was adopted by Council.

Riparian Areas Protection Bylaw Amendment Bylaw No 8413, 2024
Bylaw Notice Enforcement Bylaw Amendment Bylaw No 8421, 2024
Municipal Ticket Information Bylaw Amendment Bylaw No 8422, 2024
These three Bylaws that update our RAPR Bylaw to align with provincial changes was adopted by Council.

Zoning Amendment Bylaw (812 Twentieth Street) No. 8443,2024
This rezoning bylaw to permit a liquor store on Twentieth Street was adopted by Council.

Official Community Plan Amendment (909-915 Twelfth Street) Bylaw No. 8399, 2023
Zoning Amendment (909-915 Twelfth Street) Bylaw No. 8400,2023
Road Closure, Dedication Removal, and Disposition (909-915 Twelfth Street) Bylaw No. 8401, 2023
These Bylaws that support the building of a 40-unit residential building on Twelfth Street was adopted by Council.


Then we had a couple of Motions from Council:
Supporting increased openness and transparency at City Hall
Submitted by Councillor Fontaine and Councillor Minhas

BE IT RESOLVED THAT Council commit to publicly releasing all in-camera minutes on the City’s website as soon as practicable and once a decision or discussion is no longer required to be secured as confidential.

This motion is asking us to commit to doing something we already do, in that decisions Council makes in closed under Section 90 are effectively released to the public once we those decisions result in public expenditure or new Bylaws. We may discuss a property purchase of sale in Closed under section 90(1)e – because it would be terrible for our ability to get a good deal with public money if we negotiated in public – but we cannot actually close the purchase or sell a property without publicly disclosing we did it. We may discuss HR issues in closed under Section 90(1)a to protect people’s privacy, but cannot hire or fire people without disclosing this publicly. Excepting legal issues that require client-solicitor privilege covered by Section 90(1)g, everything we discuss in closed either goes nowhere, or if it goes somewhere, ends up in an open meeting.

I look at the City of Vancouver’s releases over the last few months, and what do I see? A decision made three years ago about a lease of public land that was already public, an agreement to a collective bargaining agreement made a year previously, a Corporate Officer hiring from a year ago that was already announced on the City webpage. There is nothing here that wasn’t public information already, so the level of transparency this offers is questionable.

Of course increased transparency is a good thing (I mean, I’ve written hundreds of these blog posts now), but I have a bit of a concern about the extra bureaucracy required to track and process item-by-item closed decisions over several years so they can be released in a systemic way. Is this a good use of staff time, considering the item has already, by definition, become public? So in Council approving this motion (with the minor edit of changing “minutes” to “decisions”), we also asked staff to report back on the resources needed before we make the change.

Appointment of new Chair of the Arts Culture and Economic Development Advisory Committee
Submitted by Councillor Minhas

BE IT RESOLVED THAT Council recommend to the Mayor that Councillor Daniel Fontaine be appointed as the new Chair for the Arts, Culture and Economic Development Committee

This is, frankly, a bizarre political attack at one of our hardest-working City Councillors. There is currently a Chair of the ACEDAC, and it is Councillor Campbell. Councillor Minhas also serves on that committee, but has (according to the publicly available minutes) failed to appear at a meeting. Why I would take the recommendation of a non-participant to replace the one Council member who is actively doing the work on that committee is… not clear to me. Council did not vote to replace the Chair.


Then we had one item of New Business:

Community Vancouver Canucks Viewing Feasibility
This arose out of a suggestion made by Councillors Fontaine and Minhas that we find ways to support viewing opportunities for the Canucks playoff run. We are starting a bit late at this, but over the last two weeks, staff have burned a bit of midnight oil and come up with a bit of a menu of options for us, but we have to move fast.

I have been told “all this takes is political will”, and nothing could be further from the truth. I hate to break it to you, but politicians don’t do the work of making things like this happen, staff do, and our staff already have full work plans. We say “we should have a public viewing party”, and staff have to scramble to find screens, broadcasting rights, facilities, security, staff, public bathrooms, etc. There is work to do here, and real costs.

That said, Council was generally supportive, and staff did a good job bringing us a scale of options, giving us the opportunity to start with round two, ramp it up for round three, and ramp it up again for the finals (because Vancouver has never lost in the third round). Of course, we want to do this in a way that supports our businesses, not taking away from them, and in a way that our police are confident will result in a safe time for families. So it is happening, and you can get info here.

Go Canucks.

Council – April 22, 2024

We had a long meeting this week, but it is a busy time in the City, so nothing to surprising there. We started with a somewhat uncommon thing, the Parcel Tax Roll:

Parcel Tax Roll Review Panel: Confirm and Authenticate Local Area Service Parcel Tax Roll
This is a bit of a ritual we go through with the Business Improvement Areas Bylaw. BIAs are not your regular business organization, they are constituted under Section 215 of the Community Charter, which permits the City to charge building owners in the designated area a special parcel tax (a tax based on the size of the parcel, not on the assessed value), then return that tax revenue to the organization to spend on business-benefitting activities. Because the parcel tax is based on measurement of area or length of street frontage, we need some sort of process to assure those numbers are accurate, and for folks to appeal if they feel they are being over or undercharged (like the service BC Assessment offers for normal property tax). Once we have provided the opportunity to appeal, the Council needs to sign off on the Parcel Tax Roll. We do this every 5 years for each BIA, and this was us closing off that work for the Uptown BIA.


Our Regular agenda was mixed up a bit by moving items around so public delegates who signed up to speak to items were able to prior to us considering them, so I’m going by original agenda order here, not the actual order we did things at. As always, this starts with items Moved on Consent:

Construction Noise Bylaw Exemption Request: 81 Braid Street (Braid Street SkyTrain Station)
They are doing maintenance at the Braid SkyTrain station, parts of which needs to occur when the trains aren’t running, so they need a bylaw exemption to do that work. ELMTOTS don’t believe this.

Riparian Areas Protection Amendment Bylaw No. 8413, 2024
There is a provincial law called the Riparian Areas Protection Regulation. It is meant to protect riparian areas (areas adjacent to fish-bearing streams, like the Brunette River) form encroachment from development. It requires setbacks from streams be incorporated in new development, though older developments from before the 2005 adoption of the RAPR are generally exempt. The language and regulations change over time, and the City is required to update its bylaws to reflect these changes.


The following items were Removed from Consent for discussion:

2024 Tax Rate Bylaw No. 8445, 2024
The City’s budget and 5-year financial plan prepared, we now need to approve a Bylaw that reflects the needed taxation revenue to get that work done. This is procedural, but there is some good data in here about how land values impact taxation. I’ll maybe write a follow-up, but with the 7.7% increase in taxes this year, your residential mill rate (the amount you pay per $1,000 of home value) went from 2.50046 to 2.262767. Yes, it went down 9.5%. This is because property values are increasing at a much faster rate than taxes.

Community Advisory Assembly Terms of Reference and Membership Update
The Community Advisory Assembly has had several meeting, and are already working on their first reports for Council. Their first task was to agree to a Term of Reference (which we are approving here). And as is typical with Community Committees there is a bit of attrition as some members have life circumstances that change and don’t allow them to commit their volunteer time to this kind of thing. We have had three members drop off, but have a quiver of applicants from the first call for volunteers. Staff used the same selection process as used originally to assure we are as closely as practicably matching the demographics of the City, and are providing a proper supportive environment for all volunteers.

4.4 Council Code of Conduct Amendment Bylaw No. 8457, 2024
We have adopted a Code of Conduct, and hiring an Ethics Commissioner is fundamental to making the Code of Conduct operable. He position remains vacant, and this amendment will hopefully allow us to resolve the vacancy.

Zoning Amendment and Housing Agreement (51 Elliot Street) – Bylaws for First, Second and Third Readings
This project has been working through approvals for some time, slightly delayed by COVID, by some extensive revisions since initial application, and work to secure operators for the non-profit part of the project. This is a new 37-storey residential tower on a vacant property downtown. It will include 13 non-market homes to be operated by Metro Vancouver Housing Corporation and a childcare to accommodate both toddler and pre-school ages to be turned over to the City to be operated by a non-profit.

It meets all city requirements regarding parking and active transportation measures, is consistent with our OCP and other city policies including meeting Step 4 in the Zero Carbon Step Code (fully electric), though the number of non-market units is lower than we aspire towards with our Inclusionary Zoning policy. The non-market unit count is lower than ideal, as there was a desire to provide larger (more family-friendly) units and to achieve the deep subsidy level of affordability. Having done the economic analysis here, it’s clear the IZ policy cannot be fully applied at this site and still have a viable project. Metro Vancouver Housing knows the affordable housing market, and backs us up on this assessment. There has been consultation on the project, and many of the residents of the adjacent condo tower (built in 2017) about proximity to the tower, shadows and views. The Design Panel support the project.

In the end, Council supported this project going to Third Reading, and made a further request that staff work to enhance the width and comfort of the public walkway on the north side of the building to make for a better connection to Albert Crescent Park.

Zoning Bylaw Text Amendment: 408 East Columbia Street – Bylaw for Three Readings
This application was previously discussed at Council, now it is time for Council to make a decision, and it speaks directly to my previous post where I wrote about the desire to find balance between office/service and active spaces on our retail streetscapes. The new 6-storey mutli-use building in Sapperton has residential above commercial and office space. The original intent was for 30% office at grade, perhaps with a restaurant, but a tenant has not been found, and a dentist wants to open up moving that office ration to 50%. I don’t want to go over my other post too much, but Council had a good discussion about this. Dentists do actually drive foot traffic, but don’t generate the kind of space “stickiness” that experiential retail does. In the end Council unanimously decide to NOT support this change, perhaps reflecting that the zeitgeist of the times has got ahead of our ability to bring in policy changes. No surprise here.


We then read a bunch of Bylaws, though none were for Adoption, so no need to belabor those readings here. We then moved on to Motions from Council:

2026 FIFA World Cup
Submitted by Mayor Johnstone

Whereas the FIFA World Cup is the most widely viewed and followed single sporting event in the world, and for the first time ever Vancouver will be a host city for seven games in the 2026 event; and
Whereas association football is a truly international sport, with 48 nations from 6 continents participating in the 2026 World Cup, and represents a unique opportunity for a community like New Westminster with its rich diversity of cultures and nations of origin to bring community together and celebrate our diversity through sport and cultural exchange; and
Whereas there are economic and other barriers to direct participation in FIFA events related with the World Cup for many members of the New Westminster community; and
Whereas New Westminster Council has identified Community Connecting and Belonging as a Strategic Priority, including community-building activities that bring the diverse community together for shared events and experiences;
Therefore Be It Resolved that Staff report back to Council with opportunities to activate public spaces across New Westminster, to apply for external funding, and engage local cultural, youth, sports, and business organizations for free and low-barrier public gathering, public viewing, and community celebration to coincide with the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

The World Cup is going to be a big event for the region, and for a City like New Westminster where there is a huge cultural diversity and many first- and second-generation Canadians who still carry a cultural torch for their homelands, it is an exciting time to celebrate and share culture. With all respect to the Olympics, it might be the greatest international multicultural festival on earth. So let’s celebrate.

I intentionally didn’t want to prescribe too much about what we can do here in New West, and I want to start the conversation now, 781 days prior to kick-off, so we can engage our community (such as representatives from the Latina American and African Communities who delegated to Council on this), and give staff the time to plan and budget for an appropriate suite of events. Of course, we also need to engage out BIAs, Chamber, Tourism, and other organizations in the City, to see if and how they want to partner with us. New West is uniquely placed to be a “second hub” of World Cup activity after Downtown Vancouver where the local gems will be held. I want to see us grab this opportunity, and consistent with our Council Strategic Priority Plan, find the opportunity to bring community together in celebration of our diversity and our common spirit of fun.

Council supported this motion.

Improving the public’s access to trees during the City’s biannual tree sale
Submitted by Councillor Fontaine

Whereas the City has a goal of a 27% canopy coverage within New Westminster by 2030; and
Whereas by partnering with residents, the City aims to reach its goal of planting 3,300 trees on private land, and a further 8,500 on public land by 2030; and
Whereas the total trees available for purchase as part of our biannual tree sale regularly falls well short of demand from local residents
BE IT RESOLVED THAT staff be directed to assess whether the Climate Action Reserve Fund decision-making framework can support the purchase of up to an additional 3000 trees over the next three years (2025-2027) to be sold as part of the City’s bi-annual tree sale

The City does two tree sales a year. We buy in bulk and sell at a deeply discounted price of $10. We do this because the our Urban Forest Management Strategy includes an increase of 3,300 trees on private property over 10 years. By selling 300 trees a year for 10 years this solves 90% of our problem, with other strategies (like replacement policies under our Tree Protection bylaw) providing the balance.

Of course, the cost isn’t just buying the trees and selling at a deeply subsidized cost (after all, anyone can go down to the Nursery and buy a tree if they want, we are just giving them a cheaper option). There is also a significant logistics and staffing cost to getting 150 trees together to distribute on the distribution day. I don’t know the total cost of the program but it is tens of thousands of dollars a year.

I actually like that this motion is asking to apply the CARF decision-making framework to determine if increasing the number of trees is an appropriate way to spend CARF money. Council supported this motion.


Then we had two items of New Business

Programs to Serve Isolated Seniors Funded by the United Way British Columbia
This is an announcement (and Council endorsement) of three externally-funded programs to be delivered in the City to support vulnerable and isolate seniors. There are three programs being rolled out – one to coordinate free community meals – three per month in three City facilities in different neighbourhoods, which will not only help with food security, but will also help isolated seniors to build social connections in their community. He second is enhances volunteer coordination staff to improve Century House and Seniors Services Society’s ability to deliver their services in community. The third is a Community Connections coordinator to connect older adults to supports and services through referral. This is all possible though $225,000 in grants from the United Way, and is coordinated by our incredible staff at Century House. External funding leveraged to activate the community on an identified priority topic. This is good news

New Westminster Grant Funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies Youth Climate Action Fund Program
This is another announcement (and Council endorsement) of an externally-funded program to be delivered in the City to support Youth in taking Climate Action. This will provide between $70,000 and $206,000 (depending on program success and need) to activate local youth, provide them resources to engage their community in actions that make a difference, while learning skills and building capacity. New West was selected along with 100 cities across the world who all attended the Local Climate Action Summit to be part of this new program to activate the energy and ideas of youth to move local climate solutions. External funding leveraged to activate the community on an identified priority topic. This is good news

And with all that good news in our back pockets, we called it a night.

Council – April 8, 2024

Back at it after Spring Break and Easter and all of those things, we had a full agenda on Monday, but got through it pretty quickly, partly because we got through this many things On Consent:

Active Rehabilitation Lease Agreement at 65 E. Sixth Avenue (təməsew̓txʷ Aquatic and Community Centre)
Part of the new TACC is a lease space for a commercial physiotherapy business. This is not uncommon in community recreation centres, drives a bit of revenue for the City, and provides a service for the community. The City is regulated in its interactions with private business, so we did a public call for proposals, and staff selected a successful lessee for the spot. This is the real estate agreement, with rates aligned with industry (and a little bit higher than we anticipated in the early part of the term, indicating we had a motivated lessee), and the tenant paying for fitting out of the site. This is a 5 year lease with an option to extend for a second 5 year term. Getting excited about getting this place open!

Appointment of Corporate Officer
The Corporate Officer is a legislated position in the City that has some very strictly defined legal authorities. Our previous CO was “scooped” by another local government last year, and we spent some time doing a proper regional search during which time we had a couple of experienced Interim COs to cover off. We are now appointing a new CO with significant experience that we “scooped” form another local government, as is the nature of the industry right now. So you will note a new person sitting to my right during Council Meetings, and helping guide me through Roberts Rules and the Procedures Bylaw, along with doing many statutory duties that fall on the CO. Welcome, Hanieh!

Construction Noise Bylaw Exemption Request: 230 Keary Street
The last building at the Brewery District is a hole in the ground, and they are going to put a tower in, which for traffic disturbance reasons is better to happen on the weekend in this location, which requires a Construction Noise Bylaw exemption.

Crises Response Pilot Project Update
This is an update on the implementation of the Crisis Response Pilot Project. I don’t need to delve too deep into what this is, you can read about when we approved it here, and get more details on the City website here. Staff are also doing outreach to the Downtown Residents Association and the downtown businesses about this, and I have had a few very good meetings of late with downtown businesses about their experiences, and ways we can assure this response makes visible change to their situation. The big take-away is that the community supports this approach and this work. I am still chagrinned that some on Council would rather make political hay about the challenges facing downtown businesses instead of voting to support the work to address these challenges, but that’s the situation we are in.

Part of the commitment we made to the community is to report out on this pilot on a regular basis, and this is that report. As this program is just being launched (we had to approve budget, then do some hiring and training to set the program up, so it will not be fully implemented until the summer) so this is more a report about the progress on setting up than on the results. We are also receiving great support from Fraser Health and other partner agencies. More to come!

Metro 2050 Amendment Application: City of Maple Ridge
This is inside baseball, but a Type 2 Amendment of the Regional Growth Strategy requires consent from the member municipalities of Metro Vancouver. This is a change in the configuration (usually an expansion) of the Urban Containment Boundary, a planning tool designed to limit sprawl into greenfields and ecological lands, and to concentrate growth in higher density for a variety of good regional planning reasons. Maple Ridge is asking to reconfigure the boundary in an area called Yennadon Lands (which to people like me only vaguely aware of Maple Ridge geography, falls under the category of “out there by the Black Sheep Pub”). This would move the UCB line, add about 18 hectares to job-generating land use (light industrial) where it is currently rural residential, and permanently protect 7.4 Hectares of ecologically sensitive land which is currently designated rural residential.

I serve on the Metro Vancouver Regional Planning Committee, and we had a good review of this proposal, and approved it going to consultation, and Metro Vancouver planning staff see this as an acceptable tradeoff. Therefore Metro is asking New West (and the other municipalities) to comment, and Council agrees unanimously that we don’t oppose.

Parcel Tax Roll Review Panel
This is one of those procedural things we do that almost fall under the category of ritual as the self-defined areas of the BIAs in the City are approved by Council so that the BIA levies can be assessed and we can collect money from the businesses to fund the BIAs. Here we appoint the panel (ourselves), next we sign the review.

Zoning Bylaw Text Amendment: 812 Twentieth Street – Bylaw for Three Readings
The property owner of a commercial building on 20th Street wants to shift to a liquor store. Our zoning bylaw only permits this use adjacent to a Liquor Primary location, and that is not the case here, so a zoning Amendment is required. They need a provincial Liquor Retail license, which they plan to relocate here from the Interior of BC because the Province hasn’t been handing out new licenses since the 1990s. Council agreed to give this Three Readings.


The following items were Removed from Consent for discussion.

2023 Filming Activity and Proposed Updates to Filming Policies and Procedures
New Westminster hosts a fair amount of filming for TV and movies. This drives a bit of revenue for the City (almost $300k in permits with about $50k surplus in 2023), and a bit of income for residents and businesses that host filming on their property. There are also hundreds of New West residents who work in the film industry. Tough the Hollywood Strikes of last year put a dent in this activity after a peak in 2022, it is back in force this year.

Staff are suggesting some minor changes in our procedures and Bylaws around filming to align better with regional and industry standards, mostly around special effects and safety.

Bill 28 – Property Tax Relief Legislation
This is an interesting development. The City sets tax rates, but the tax paid on property is based on BC Assessment Value, determined by “Highest and Best Use” – not necessarily the current value of the property, but the value the property would have if the owner sought to maximize its value. This could be thought of as an incentive for property owners to maximize their property value, or conversely to not let property value degrade. That said, there is a bit of a disconnect in commercial properties, as the owner of the property doesn’t necessarily pay the property tax, but passes it on to the lessee through a Triple Net Lease. The Province brought in Bill 28 which allowed Municipalities to direct property tax relief to commercial properties that see a large increase in value due to “development potential” for up to 5 years. I will write up a follow-up on this, but we are going to get staff to investigate if this approach is helpful for New West.

Construction Noise Bylaw Exemption Request: 78 Jamieson Court (Metro Vancouver Glenbrook CSO Gate Replacement)
Metro Vancouver will be doing some important sewer maintenance work near the top of Glenbrook Ravine this summer. This application is for a Construction Noise exemption (granted) but the bigger story buried in here is that the top access to the Ravine will be closed for much of the summer. This will be pretty disappointing for much of the neighbourhood, as it is a valuable public space for residents. The City asked Metro Vancouver to do more analysis last year to see if this work could be done safely while maintaining access to the trail, or if an alternate trail could be built, but we were not able to engineer an acceptable solution. So closure is the only responsible path. Council approved this, but also asked to assure that Metro Vancouver let people know this was coming through appropriate signage prior to the work proceeding.


We then did some Bylaw Reading, including the following Bylaws for Adoption:

Zoning Amendment Bylaw No.8429, 2024 and Housing Agreement Bylaw No. 8434, 2024 (145-209 East Columbia Street)
These Bylaws to permit 6-storey building with at-grade commercial, second-story office use, and 99 secured market rental housing units was adopted by Council. New PBR for Sapperton!

Zoning Amendment Bylaw (1032 and 1036 St. Andrews Street) No. 8402, 2023
The Bylaw that rezones this assembly for a 12-unit townhouse development was adopted by Council. More Missing Middle for the West End!

Zoning Amendment Bylaw (Miscellaneous Amendments) No.8436, 2024
This Bylaw that made a few “housekeeping” changes to language of our zoning bylaw to correct administrative errors, remove redundancy, and such was approved by Council.


We then had a single Motion from Council:

Ensuring that ground level retail spaces in new developments prioritize community-supporting businesses and organizations
Submitted by Councillor Nakagawa

Whereas the City of New Westminster has developed a retail strategy; and
Whereas community-serving businesses are essential for meeting our climate goals
Therefore be it resolved that the City review and refresh current policies relating to ground level retail to ensure that they are responsive to current market forces; and
That the City develop a policy to ensure that future ground level retail spaces in new development are built to prioritize community-supporting businesses and organizations in alignment with the retail strategy.

There is some chatter in the community around, and I cannot simplify this more: “why do we have so many dentist offices”? Lack of water fluoridation aside, there are complex economics around how service retail operates in the community, and it doesn’t seem the situation now is delivering the kind of streetscape uses that the community wants. I’ll write a longer post about this after, but for now, I’ll just say that there are two discussions to have: what can the city/council do about it, and what should the city/council do about it? This motion, which was endorsed by Council (though not unanimously, which is notable for notable reasons), will allow staff to guide us into those conservations and hopefully develop some useful policies.


And one late addition of New Business to the Agenda:

88 Tenth Street (Columbia Square)
Council read and approved the following resolution:

That Council direct staff to work with the applicant for 88 Tenth Street (Columbia Square) to
a) Revise their proposal for the 7.2acre site, as outlined in the Council Report of June 12, 2023, to include 20% secured market rental, a non-profit childcare, and 0% affordable rental units or related land dedication, in exchange for which the future density bonus charge would apply across the entire site, generally consistent with the City’s Interim Development Application Review Framework, and which Council could use to fund future affordable housing development in the City; and
b) Prepare a basic zoning bylaw to authorize that revised proposal for consideration of Council within 2024, and which secures requirements to complete a master planning process prior to construction.

There is quite a bit to unpack here, and if you love the details, you should look at our June 12, 2023 Workshop Agenda available here. or even watch the video there, and see what the proposal for Columbia Square was wat that time. There has obviously been some work since then, and the landscape has shifted a bit with the new Provincial housing regulation that both provides certain density by right at Transit Oriented Areas (which clearly applies to this site, being within 400m of New West SkyTrain Station) along with other restrictions on how cities charge development for amenities and other costs.

Though we have only seen a preliminary application, and will have to consider rezoning once more work has occurred and zoning bylaws are developed, we are sending a signal about expectations around major amenity contributions. I don’t want to go too deep into this, as there will be details worked out as we move forward and I don’t want to pre-empt or fetter the rezoning conversation, but this clearly falls short of our Inclusionary Zoning policy when it comes to Affordable Housing, though time will tell how we can leverage affordable housing development out of the density bonus structure. A few on Council were not happy with that approach, and (though I should not speak on their behalf, so this is only my read) felt we should be getting more commitment for affordable housing out of this site.

All that to say, much more to come here, and I look forward to seeing how this moves forward.


With that, and perhaps the worst rendering of Happy Birthday ever committed to tape for one of our members, we were done for the night.

Council – March 11, 2024

We had a pretty light agenda on Monday, and even with a good collection of public delegations we had a fairly short night by recent standards. Not that it wasn’t packed with quality content!

We started with approving the following items On Consent:

City of New Westminster and Fraser Health Authority Second Responder Program (Post-opioid overdose follow-up program)
This is yet another example of New Westminster leading from the front. This innovative program in partnership with Fraser Health will allow our First Responders to do more than just help a person survive an overdose, but to follow up with them and find out if they are OK, and whether this is the right time for them to seek help so they don’t OD again.

New Westminster has a robust Victims Services program. People who are victims of crime or survivors of a traumatic event are connected with Victim Services to assure they have the supports they need to recover from trauma. As someone who once got the phone call after I was the witness and first aid responder to a traumatic traffic incident a couple of years ago, I remember not being able to sleep that night, and getting the phone call the next day from Victim Services just asking “Hey, that was bad. Are you feeling OK?” meant something. It let me reflect on whether I was OK (I have a great support network!), reminded me that it was OK if I wasn’t OK, and assured me there were people who could help if I needed it.

Being brought back from an overdose is a traumatic event. There is a time in the days after for self-reflection, but right now there are not a lot of clear paths from being resuscitated to connection to services that might prevent future overdoses. This may provide a new path, and may help save lives. Fraser Health and the Public Safety Division of NWFR have worked out a data sharing and partnership agreement to try this pilot out, and will be reporting out on results,

Construction Noise Bylaw Exemption Request: 32 Eighth Street (New Westminster SkyTrain Station) and 2126 Seventh Avenue (22nd Street SkyTrain Station)
TransLink is doing work on both “outdoor” Expo Line stations to increase capacity and safety, and much of this work cannot happen when the trains are running for safety reasons. So we are granting a Construction Noise Exemption. TransLink will be responsible for informing the neighbourhood ahead of time.

Construction Noise Bylaw Exemption Request: 2126 Seventh Avenue (22nd Street SkyTrain Station)
TransLink is also going to paint the 22nd Street Station, and this cannot happen when the trains are running for safety reasons. So we are granting a Construction Noise Exemption.

Construction Noise Bylaw Exemption Request: Metro Vancouver Valve Replacements (660 East Columbia Street)
Metro Vancouver needs to do some water valve replacements on East Columbia by the entrance to Lower Hume. This requires isolation of a part of the water network, and one happens to be coming up to connect the TransLink property on the Coquitlam side to the main, so two bird one stone means sensitive timing, which means they need a Construction Noise Exemption.

Memo re: Bylaw Number Correction
We made a clerical error in numbering a Bylaw. We are fixing this. Heads up in case you followed the wrong bylaw by mistake.


We then adopted the following Bylaws:

Development Cost Charges Amendment Bylaw No. 8444, 2024
This Bylaw that makes an inflationary adjustment to what we change for Development Cost Charges was adopted by Council.

Five-Year Financial Plan (2024-2028) Bylaw No. 8442, 2024
This is the final adoption of our annual budget. I have been writing posts outlining the various parts of the budget: the general fund, how we manage utilities, and the capital plan. One more to come! Watch this space!


Then we had three Motions form Council:

Supporting childcare development across the City
Submitted by Councillor Henderson

WHEREAS the City of New Westminster recognizes a shortage in childcare spaces across the region and is committed to supporting the development of additional local childcare spaces; and
WHEREAS the City will be updating current residential zoning bylaws as part of the work to reflect the Small-Scale Multi-Unit Housing Provincial legislation;
BE IT RESOLVED that staff explore opportunities to amend the City’s current zoning bylaws to increase the allowable maximum of childcare spaces in residential areas.

There have been a couple of recent regional news stories about Zoning and Childcare. In PoCo a vitally needed childcare ran into a hiccup at rezoning that took a bit of work to fix. In Delta, they brought in a sweeping change to their residential zoning to allow home-based childcare (up to 8 children) in all residential zones, which is something New Westminster already permits.

Considering some significant changes are coming with new Provincial regulations, and childcare spaces are still a pressing need in our community as we have become a community of choice for young families, it is a good time to ask if there are way for us to remove obstacles to setting up more childcares across the City. This motion is preliminary, asking staff to do the work to determine what is viable given our staff capacity constraints and the pretty strict provincial regulations around childcare capacity, but I look forward to hearing back from staff. Council moved to approve this.

Closing possible loopholes in BC’s Elections Act as they pertain to municipal elections
Submitted by Councillors Fontaine and Minhas

Whereas to ensure a level playing field the Government of BC banned municipal candidates and elector organizations from accepting any direct financial donations from corporations, unions and non-for-profit entities; and
Whereas the Local Elections Campaign Financing Act continues to allow corporations, unions and not-for-profit entities to actively spend unlimited funds and reallocate internal resources to promote a particular municipal candidate and/or elector organization with their members or staff without any requirements for open and transparent public reporting
BE IT RESOLVED THAT a letter be drafted to the BC Minister of Municipal Affairs requesting that the following changes be made to the Local Elections Campaign Financing Act in time for the 2026 municipal election;
a. Any corporation, labour union or not-for-profit entity actively utilizing internal resources to promote an individual candidate or municipal elector organization within six months prior to the municipal election is required to publicly record and report to Elections BC the total funds expended;
b. Public reporting by the respective corporation, labour union or not-for-profit entity would include items such as the estimated use of staff time, overhead costs and marketing/promotion activities including those accessible to the broader public through social media;
c. A maximum of $500 of resources can be expended by a corporation, labour union or BC-based not-for-profit for the purposes of promoting municipal candidates or elector organizations in British Columbia with their members or staff during an election year;
d. Corporations, labour unions and not-for-profit entities are banned from pooling their resources so as to
effectively increase the maximum limit they can utilize to promote and market a municipal candidate or an elector organization
e. Only BC-based corporations, labour unions and not-for profit entities are permitted to undertake the election related activities listed above with all non-BC-based entities strictly prohibited from actively promoting a municipal candidate or elector organization
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT a copy of this motion be distributed to the Union of BC Municipalities and the Lower Mainland Local Government Association for their information

This motion got a rougher ride. There were a few attempts to amend it, but it was challenged by it being both vague in its intent but queerly prescriptive in its affect. That said, no matter how it is diced up, it seems to be asking the Province to change legislation in a way that would almost certainly face a challenge under the Charter of Rights.

To be clear, the Local Elections Campaign Financing Act already requires organizations who want to promote candidates or issues in local elections to register as Third Party Sponsors and report spending they do in support of promotion during elections. To claim otherwise is a falsehood. But this motion goes much further, in that is seeks to limit how any organization speaks to its own members about elections, and by extension about advocacy issues important to their members. This is not just a chill on free expression (protected undersection 2b of the Charter) but a chill on the fundamental right to organize, which is not only protected under Section 2d, but is a foundation of our democracy. I’m not a constitutional lawyer, but on the face of it, this motion would seem to challenge those protections in a way that is fundamentally undemocratic.

We can infer what legislation like proposed would mean for groups in our community. Would HUB need to register and track staff time spent talking to their own members about how candidates responded to the survey on active transportation issues? Would an LGBTQ or Trans Rights advocacy group being restricted from communicating to their own members their preference for an ally candidate over a bigoted one? Would a candidate who was running for office and happened to own a restaurant be able to hand a staff member a campaign pin without registering that transaction? Besides the policing challenge, the implications set up some pretty absurd scenarios where speech is curtailed during elections.

With turnout less than 30% during the last general election, we need measures that encourage more participation in democracy, not less. And we certainly don’t need legislation that restricts democratic association and expression protected in a free society. Council did not support this motion.

Participating in the Provincial Electric Kick Scooter Pilot Program
Submitted by Councillor Campbell

Whereas Active Transportation and the safety of vulnerable road users are priorities for New Westminster; and
Whereas the Walkers Caucus, HUB New Westminster, and the New Westminster community have expressed concerns around user group conflict between pedestrians, cyclists, drivers and eMicromobility users as we work to build out our Active Transportation Network Plan; and
Whereas the City’s E-Mobility strategy includes actions to incorporate eMicromobility into City planning and outreach and to advance supportive eMicromobility policy; and
Whereas the Province of British Columbia has extended the Electric Kick Scooter Pilot Project for up to four more years and is inviting new communities to join the program with updated terms;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT Council direct staff to evaluate the opportunity for the City of New Westminster to join the Provincial Electric Kick Scooter Pilot Program, and report back to Council with a recommendation on participation.

The Province has extended its kick scooter program, where they are asking cities to evaluate bylaws that permit the use of new mobility devices. This motion is asking for us to evaluate joining the program, as it will take a bit of staff time to write and integrate some appropriate Bylaws, it’s best if we ask staff to report back on the resources and opportunity.


And that ended the Council work for the week, though we also had a poem and other fun in Public Delegation, which you can see on video if that’s your wont.

Budget 2024 – General Operations

It’s Budget time. The City is currently approving its annual budget, which is more accurately and bureaucratically called the 2024-2028 Five Year Financial Plan Bylaw. There is a lot that goes into a budget like this, and a lot to look at, so I’m going to spend a bit of time writing about it, and hopefully opening up the details so you can understand what you are buying when you write those Property Tax and utilities cheques. I’m going to start with breaking down the various part of the budget.

To understand how we budget, you need to understand the difference between the Operational part of the budget, and the Capital part. You also need to understand the difference between General funds and Utility funds.

The Operational part is the day-to-day running of the city and the programs we offer. On the expense side this is mostly paying staff to do the work, but also includes the cost of consumables we go through as part of operations, like gas we buy to run the police cars, paper we buy to feed the photocopy machines, and things like insurance and bank charges. The money going into this part of the budget mostly comes from property taxes, but also includes grants from senior government, sales of services, and other revenue sources. This is the part of the budget people most people pay most attention to, because this is the one that results in that all-encompassing narrative around the “annual percentage tax increase”.

The Capital part is the money we are investing in the things we need to run a city: buildings, roads, sewers and pipes, a vehicle fleet and computers. We have a five-year capital plan that we periodically adjust so staff can plan out purchases and schedule construction. Every year, we take surplus money out of our operational funds and transfer it to reserves that are then, in turn, applied to pay for the things in our Capital Plan. We can also (within some regulated limits), borrow money to pay for these capital investments.

The General fund is how we budget for the general operation of City services that are funded mostly through property taxes. This is how we pay for parks and recreation services, Police and Fire services, running City Hall and the Library, bylaws operations, planning and much of our engineering services.

Separate from this are Utility funds. In New Westminster we have four separate Utilities: water, sewers and drainage, solid waste, and electrical. All of these rely on utility charges for their revenue, and are completely separate from property taxes. We spend utility money on the utility, and it isn’t mixed with “general revenue”, with two exceptions. First, there are transfers from the Utility funds to the General fund related to staff working on utility files (“internal recoveries”), and transfers the other way, because the City has to pay for its own use of utilities (“internal charges”) out of the general fund. The second exception is the annual dividend paid to the general fund from the Electrical Utility.

Here is how the General Operating fund breaks down for 2024:

On the left is “money in”, on the right is “money out”. The things “below the line” like Amortization or our Tangible Capital Assets and Internal Charges (the money our utilities charge to our General Fund account for utility services the city receives) are separated out because they aren’t really money in-out of the City, but money moving between accounts or accounting categories in the City. The biggest of these is the $23.5 million surplus which is transferred to reserves so it can pay for the Capital part of the budget, which I’ll write about later.

Some people like pie, so here are two pie diagrams: where our revenue comes from, where our expenses are allocated:

This diagram shows how some of the narratives we would like to use around our budget are not exactly accurate. Ideas like “15% of your tax dollars go to Parks” belie the idea that your residential property taxes are only 40% of our revenue. And as all of these expense items are total spending of a department, they ignore that many of these departments recover a lot of revenue through their operations through fees or other sources. The Police category is a specifically difficult item, because the NWPD pay for a lot of things (IT support, Finance staff, fleet operations) out of their budget that other departments like Planning don’t – those are captured under Corporate Services for every department that is “in City Hall”. Still , if you want to know how money in the City is spent, the pies are a start, as long as you are comfortable with all of the caveats.

Next post, I’ll write about the Utilities budgets.