We had a long Council meeting, even though we rather rushed through our lengthy agenda. The challenge was that we spent three hours on presentation and delegations, and only an hour doing the actual business, which is a bit of a problem for governance, and something Council is going to have to work on. That said, there was a lot on the agenda starting with:

2024 Financial Statements
The last step of our annual budget process is to prepare and approve the financial statements for last year so they can be submitted to the Province by May 15. These reports outline our financial position as of the end of 2024, and the results of the audit that our finances go under every year.

There is a lot here, but here are a few highlights. The City has an accumulated surplus of just over $1 Billion, but almost 80% of that is tangible capital assets and inventory (buildings, pipes in the ground, vehicle, fleet, computers, etc.). The accumulated surplus went up about $50 Million last year, about half of that being in the form of capital assets because we spent $51 Million in our capital plan last year, which adds to that capital asset pile.

The City has about $457M in financial assets, a 7% increase over last year, and we have $317 Million in financial liabilities, which is less than 1% more than last year. Overall, that means our net financial assets have gone up a bit.

Our revenue was $9 Million more than forecast, mostly related to increased investment interest, and our expenses were slightly (less than 1%) under budget, but there is an accounting adjustment here called an TCA adjustment that offset some unexpected expenses related to emergency events and maintenance costs in buildings.

The other major part of this is the report from our Auditors who found a clean audit, meaning that their review found we were consistent with our legal requirements and Public Sector Accounting Board standards.

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Council then moved the following items On Consent:

Amendment to the Water Shortage Response Bylaw No, 6948, 2004 – Minor Revision to Stage 3 Lawn Sprinkling Regulations
The City has bylaws that regulate residential sprinkling and other water uses in the event of a summer water shortage. These bylaws need to be aligned with the Metro Vancouver Drinking water Conservation Plan, so we are making minor edits to align. The change is that new lawns of chafer beetle treated lawns can no longer get a watering restriction exemption once we hit Stage 3 restrictions, which is a fairly significant water shortage emergency.

Heritage Revitalization Agreement and Heritage Designation: 318 Sixth Avenue – Bylaws for First and Second Readings
A property owner in Queens Park wants to build a new house by subdividing their large lot and providing permanent designation to the existing heritage house. A Heritage Revitalization Agreement is the tool to make this work, and that requires a Public Hearing. This report has the details, but I will reserve any comment until after the Public Hearing to respect the process. Council gave the necessary bylaws two readings and a Public Hearing will be held. If you have opinions, let us know!

Programs to Serve Isolated Seniors Funded by the United Way British Columbia
The United Way funds three programs for isolated seniors in New Westminster, providing social meals, a Community Connector program and a Volunteer Coordinator and Support program. Fortunately, our application for 2025 grants to continue these programs was successful, so Council needs to authorize the partnership agreement with the United Way.

Response to Council Motion Regarding the City of New Westminster joining the Strong Cities Network
The Strong Cities Network is a global network of cities dedicated to addressing all forms of extremism, hate and polarization. Membership is free and the benefits include opportunities for better collaboration with elected officials and practitioners in other cities, joining forces with member cities on regional, national and international issues, and general development support for all partners. Staff recommended we join, and we are joining!

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The following items were Removed from Consent for discussion:

2025 Tax Rate Bylaw No. 8516, 2025
OK the actual last part of our annual budget process is approving the new tax rates through bylaw before May 15th. This is that bylaw. There are some cool stats in this report for people who are interested in things like that. The total assessed value of all residential homes in New West went up from $27.7 billion to $28.0 Billion. The assessed value of existing property went down a bit ($100 Million) while the value of new inventory added to the City last year went up by $400 Million.

The average detached single home in New West is now worth $1.64 Million (a $20,000 increase over last year), and will pay $4,614 in property tax to the City (an extra $368 over last year). The average apartment home in New West is now worth $690,000 (also a $20,000 increase over last year), and will pay $1,934 in property tax to the City (an extra $187 over last year). If it applies to you, these amounts are reduced by $570 to $845 in Homeowner Grant refunds.

Artificial Turf Field Location- What We Heard: Engagement Summary Report and Next Steps
Council in its wisdom moved the implementation of a new all-weather field ahead of some of the other actions in the upcoming Parks and Recreation Comprehensive Plan, and as a result of very clear consensus from the community about the preferred location, we still need to determine if that location is actually feasible, because soils and groundwater don’t care about public opinion. We have to do the work of understanding the geotechnical and soil conditions of the site, do an archaeological assessment, and deal with details like utility connections and lighting and impacts on the community. Staff will also test the feasibility of a walking track around the field, and of evaluating a second site for an additional field, anticipating that need will arise in the near future regardless. If all goes well, we should have the info to tender early 2026, and have a field in 2027.

City-wide Toilet Strategy: Interim Progress Report
This is a check-in from staff on the work they are doing to address public toilet needs in the City. There has been a lot of work done, engaging both with subject matter experts and the general community to understand what inclusive and sustainable access to toilet facilities requires, and (this is important) the details for us to better understand long-term operational costs and barriers.

Staff also did a detailed analysis of the 30 existing public toilets operated by the City and 9 other key toilet locations under private management, because we fundamentally need to know what is there, and what we can do to make them more accessible before we start filling the gaps. The public outreach part engaged with more than 500 residents (!). Signage is one part of this, but so is extending hours, the implementation of a Washroom Attendant program, the need for improving accessibility – no point having a sign pointing at toilet if it isn’t safe and accessible.

Proposed Next Steps Related to the Council Motion of January 13, 2025 Regarding the New West Hospice Society
Council supported a motion to support the New Westminster Hospice Society in seeking a permanent hospice location in the city, and this is the report back form staff on how we can support them.

There is some learning in here about why there no Hospice Beds in New Westminster, as apparently the BC liberals government of 2009 closed the 10-bed hospice facility at the Queens Park Care Centre, with its resources being relocated to Delta. Addressing this deficit is an ongoing goal of the NWHS. Staff are recommending we support them through joint advocacy to Fraser Health for resources, data support to help in planning and needs assessment, and development application support for finding and developing a location. It is unclear if new Provincial housing legislation allows us to negotiate hospice space as “community amenity” during new residential development, though partnership between Hospice and Developer may still occur, it is unclear right now how we can support that negotiation. This will come back to Council in the upcoming report on City-Wide Financing Growth Strategy.

Response to Council Motion Regarding the City of New Westminster joining the Strong Cities Network
The Strong Cities Network is a global network of cities dedicated to addressing all forms of extremism, hate and polarization. Membership is free and the benefits include opportunities for better collaboration with elected officials and practitioners in other cities, joining forces with member cities on regional, national and international issues, and general development support for all partners. Staff recommended we join, and we are joining

Update on Response to Council Motion: “Enhancing Commercial Areas and Corridors in New Westminster”
Everything I’ve read about the trend of micro-stores and container retailing suggest is either the best thing since sliced bread stands or a fading quirk, but it seems clear that location is vital to its success. It won’t work everywhere, but where it does work, it can really add a boost to a retail area. There was a motion brought to council recently asking for an assessment if there is anywhere in New West it might, and this is the initial response to that motion.

In short, staff have done some preliminary analysis, and are going to dig a bit deeper into capital costs, funding mechanisms, partnership opportunities, and locations. More to come here.

Zoning Bylaw No. 6680, 2001, Storage Amendments Bylaw No. 8518, 2025
We previously saw this Bylaw to remove self-storage as a use-by-right in a couple of commercial zones, though we would still permit self-storage, it would require a rezoning which would give staff and council some more control over design and other factors. It’s coming back because we made some minor amendments to exempt projects already in stream from the change. As this is consistent with the OCP and existing city policies, we are not having a Public Hearing. Council voted to give this bylaw three readings.

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We then had three Motions from Council:

Securing Small Business Rebate Funding Renewal
Submitted by Councillor Campbell

WHEREAS in fall of 2023, the Province of British Columbia launched the Securing Small Business Rebate program to provide small businesses with up to $2,000 for eligible commercial property crime and vandalism repairs or up to $1,000 to implement eligible preventative measures; and
WHEREAS the Securing Small Business Rebate program is now closed and the New Westminster Chamber and the Downtown Business Improvement Association have expressed interest for the Province to renew program funding to support the local business community;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT the Mayor, on behalf of Council, send a letter to the Honourable Diana Gibson, Minister of Jobs, Economic Development and Innovation, with a copy to all New Westminster Members of the Legislative Assembly, asking that the Securing Small Business Rebate program funding be renewed.

This program didn’t cost much, but was popular among small businesses for simple repairs and clean-up related to vandalism or other challenges businesses might be facing right now. Happy to support the Chamber and the BIAs in advocating for this program to continue.

Conducting a Review of the City’s Community and Neighbourhood Consultation and Notification Processes
Submitted by Councillor Fontaine

WHEREAS it is important that the City of New Westminster effectively consult and advise local residents and businesses regarding any significant changes or initiatives that may impact their immediate neighbourhood; and
WHEREAS wherever possible the City should properly apprise local residents and businesses if they will be directly impacted by a City initiative or infrastructure upgrade;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT the City conduct an independent review regarding the City’s current consultation and public notification process to ensure it currently meets or exceeds recognized best practices for cities of a similar size; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT staff explore the option to establish an enhanced public notification and consultation process for infrastructure projects and initiatives which are deemed by Council as ‘signature’ or materially ‘significant.’

This was a motion supported unanimously by Council with a minor amendment (see the strikethrough above) that recognizes we may not need a consultant to do this review, but might be able to effectively do it internally. Still, there is some language in here that is important, and the conversation Council had around this is worth watching, because it sounded to me like Council was clearer on the notion than the language of the motion, if that makes sense.

Part of this is the difference between consultation and notification. The City is on the leading edge of public engagement and is quickly building a reputation for leading the region if not the province in how we consult the public in a transparent, accountable, and proactive way. I would say we are not as strong right now in how we communicate strategically with the community, partly because the ground has shifted so much in the communications world over the last few years – the end of newspapers, the quickly evolving social media space, the impacts of COVID on how we meet and interact as a community – and because we simply have not added to our communication team in the City concomitant with the significant increase we are seeing in capital projects in the City.

Part of the problem might be my use of words like concomitant, but I digress…

There is a distinction between consultation and communication. If we are asking for your feedback to help make decisions, we are consulting; if we are letting you know we are building something and that’s why there are trucks in front of your house, that is communication. There are things we consult on, there are things we need to do and asking your opinion if we should is not particularly helpful, and can actually just slow down important work.

I’ll give you a recent example that demonstrates this. During my Mayors Walks last month, I was talking to a homeowner in the West End about rain gardens, he asked why we didn’t consult on the size and locations of the rain gardens in the West End. My honest answer was for the same reason we don’t consult on the size of the sewer pipe we put in the ground or the number of storm drains that open on a street: these things are driven by technical and engineering need, by a volume of water they have to convey for example and slopes and where water wants to flow. Public input really doesn’t supersede that, because it is physics. In that case, notification of the neighbours is all we should be striving for, or asking neighbours to expect.

Some other things are amenable to consultation, like (examples above) public toilet provisions or turf field locations. On these I would suggest the City does an excellent job consulting, both through Be Heard New West and through the various other means our Public Engagement Team is tasked to engage on. However, I can see that notification continues to be challenging with the volume of work our engineering team is working on, and strict project timelines driven by many factors. I have already been talking to engineering and communications staff about some strategies to improve site notices, and I was happy to hear Council in this discussion speaking along pretty much the same lines as I had been using to talk to staff, so there might be some quick wins here.

Removing the 3.5% Climate Action Levy from the 2026 Electricity Bills as part of the Budget Development Process
Submitted by Councillor Minhas

WHEREAS the City of New Westminster has a unique “Climate Action Levy” of 3.5% which applies to all electricity bills for local residents and businesses;
WHEREAS both the federal and provincial governments have now abandoned their failed consumer carbon tax experiment with the aim of leaving more money in the pockets of hard working citizens;
WHEREAS charging New Westminster electricity consumers a special 3.5% levy on green energy can serve to decrease the level of affordability in our city;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT staff be directed to permanently eliminate the 3.5% Climate Action Levy as part of the 2026 budget, which will be presented to Council for review and approval.

I will not repeat what I have written every time this motion has come to us, you can read some of my responses at those times here, or here as just a couple of examples. Instead I will note that we received a half dozen pieces of correspondence from the public on this motion and all of them were in opposition to the motion. But its not the numbers, necessarily, it is the quality of the argument made, so I will quote directly from those correspondence and let the people be heard:

“The cost of inaction is greater than the cost of taking action now. I am frustrated that motions to ax this levy keep being made. We know climate change is real, it’s us and it’s bad…and we know we have the solutions! Delay tactics are just making the crisis worse. For our kids, it is imperative that we speed up climate solutions and action, not delay it debating over levies.” – KC

“Similar motions have been defeated in the past, and there is every reason to defeat it again: polluting emissions from the fossil fuel industry are bringing extreme weather events like the 2021 heat dome, and New Westminster must prepare for the next one. As well, Councillor Fontaine pointed out in 2023 that we would be taking a $2 million hit on the funds that let this city take action on climate We know that a safe and healthy city means preparing for the effects of carbon pollution. Keep the levy, and help keep the city prepared.” –HB

“The 3.5% levy on the electrical bills amounts to a few dollars a month and does not make a significant saving to an individual but what it has done as a Climate Action Levy is significant. It does and will make a difference in savings to all of us in the next years as we work together to try to implement the solutions that are available to reverse the damage that has been done through negligence and lack of knowledge. We have a growing contingency fund that can make a difference. I urge you to defeat this motion.” – BF

“I urge councillors to stop bringing forward council motions that aim to remove the climate action levy. This is a waste of council and staff’s time going over this again and again when it’s already been defeated multiple times in the past. If the mover of this motion would like it to be directly funded through property taxes instead with no change to actual climate action programs, please state that. Or, if it’s really not believed that the city should be doing anything to fight or adapt to climate change, then please state that clearly. But to keep bringing something like this forward is doing no service to anyone.” –MH

“While affordability is a critical issue for many New West residents right now, I believe it is critical that we remain firmly committed to the climate goals collectively set by the City of New Westminster. The youth of our community, who can not yet vote, are relying on our current elected officials to provide the climate leadership now that will help secure their future. Prioritizing short term economic savings in exchange for climate action funding is absolutely not in my and my neighbours’ best interests, nor the best interests of the next generation of New West residents.I want to pay taxes and levies that support building a climate resilient city.” –LK

“Please keep the climate action levy in place to do the job it is now doing for our citizens, preparing us to meet an uncertain future and doing what we can as a municipality to reduce emissions. The choice laid out by some politicians of sovereignty or a livable planet is a false choice. There is no sovereignty on a dead planet.” –TT

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

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Finally, we had two Bylaws for Adoption:

Zoning Bylaw No. 6680, 2001, Miscellaneous Amendments Bylaw No.8495, 2025
This bylaw that makes routine miscellaneous amendments and language corrections to the zoning bylaw was adopted by Council.

Zoning Bylaw No. 6680, 2001, Multiple Unit Residential Storage Requirements Amendments Bylaw No. 8519, 2025
This Bylaw that requires the provision of increased personal storage space for residents in new multiple unit residential buildings was adopted by Council.

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And that got us to the end of a nights business, with yet another council meeting next week in a unique back-to-back session, we have lots more to get done!

We had our now-semi-annual Council Meeting in Queensborough this week. It was good to see a full house, as often happens when we cross the bridge and set up in the ‘Boro. We had quite a few delegations, but a relatively short agenda, starting with moving these items On Consent:

Construction Noise Bylaw Exemption Request: 330 East Columbia Street (Royal Columbian Hospital Redevelopment Project)
Road works related to the Royal Columbian Hospital project are ongoing, and there is some work that needs to be done outside of regular construction hours for various traffic management and access reasons. Notice will be sent to the neighbourhood.

Next Generation 911 Base Funding Grant Application to the Union of British Columbia Municipalities
As the entire country shifts to “Next Gen 911”, it will require a lot of technological changes in house for our first responders. There is a grant program facilitated by UBCM to help us pay for this, and we are applying for the grant, which requires a Council motion to commit to do what we are funded for if we get the funding.

Zoning Amendment and Housing Agreement (65 First Street): Bylaws for First, Second and Third Readings
There is a low-rise strata building at the east end of downtown that had some serious maintenance issues, enough that the owners decided to wrap up the strata and sell to a developer. A couple of years later, here is the development. It comprises two towers on a podium of townhouses, a 35-storey tower with 299 purpose built rental units and 30 below market affordable housing homes to be managed by the YWCA. The second 30-storey tower will have 304 strata condos.

Both buildings will meet the family friendly housing policy unit mix, the project is compliant with the City’s Official Community Plan, and was generally favored by the Design Panel and Downtown RA.
The City will get about $4.3M in density bonus cash above the DCC contributions required to fund infrastructure needs. There is much less parking that typical of a project this size, but being within the new Transit Oriented Area zone, provincial regulation prevents us from demanding more parking in a residential building.

There were both applicant-led and city-led consultations, in person and on-line. There was not a large amount of response, with some concern about the density and lack of parking. Council unanimously supported this project and gave the rezoning third reading.

Zoning Bylaw No. 6680, 2001, Miscellaneous Amendments Bylaw No.8495, 2025
As our Zoning Bylaw is constantly being updated and speaks to various other local and provincial regulations, we occasionally have to do these omnibus updates to clarify language and align with the language in other bylaws. This amendment doesn’t change policy, it just updates the text to remove redundancies or contradictions.

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The following item were Removed from Consent for discussion:

10-year Anvil Review Recommendations Update
As the Anvil Centre hit its tenth anniversary, and as there is more interest in optimizing public space in the downtown, the City went through a review process to determine how best to adapt the use of this prime public space. The review included online and in-person engagement, workshops, drop-in sessions, interviews, and input from several hundred people. There were recommendations made to Council last summer, and this report is an update on where we are with those changes. With the closure of the New Media Gallery, there is a further discussion about the adaptation of that space.

This is still an ongoing process, some increased activation is happening now, but we are anticipating some further discussion about the use of Anvil and inviting more of the public in. Council received this report and referred the report back to a future council meeting to continue the conversation about how we prioritize the recommendations in the July 15 report.

Zoning Bylaw No. 6680, 2001, Storage Amendments Bylaw No. 8518, 2025
As discussed last meeting, staff are asking Council to assert a little more control over Self-Storage business developments in three zones in the City. I pulled this from consent and asked that staff provide Council some options around exempting two properties that are already in process (based on some correspondence Council received from applicants). This required a change in the Bylaw language that Council will have to consider before giving the first three readings, so this will come back in a future meeting.

Zoning Bylaw No. 6680, 2001, Multiple Unit Residential Storage Requirements Amendments Bylaw No. 8519, 2025
Somewhat related to the above, we are adding to the requirements for storage in new mutli-family buildings, because storage space is an ongoing concerns for families living in apartments during a crises when so many families are under-housed. This will not of course impact the current housing stock, but it will make new builds a little more roomy.

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Finally, we had one Motion from Council:

Inventory of Municipal Arts and Culture Indoor and Outdoor Spaces
Councillor Campbell

WHEREAS the arts and culture sector plays a crucial role in contributing to New Westminster’s local economy, promoting New Westminster’s tourism, and enriching community belonging and connections; and
WHEREAS it is important for the arts and cultural sector to have a comprehensive and centralized inventory of the availability and condition of indoor and outdoor spaces dedicated to arts and culture in the community;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT staff prepare an inventory of all municipal indoor and outdoor spaces within the city that are suitable for arts and cultural use, including but not limited to:
Public spaces utilized for arts events, performances, exhibitions, and installations; indoor venues such as galleries, theaters, performance halls, studios, and creative spaces; outdoor venues such as public plazas, parks, and other open-air venues used for arts programming as well as an any available data on capacity, site amenities, accessibility descriptions and types of arts programming possible in these spaces.

This is something the Arts community and event organizers have been asking for. Especially as we have many new residents and many new artists and organizations hoping to make fun things happen in the City, there really isn’t a single source of info about where you can make happenings happen. Council unanimously supported it.

We had a short agenda on Monday, but a long meeting. This is because we started with two hours of public delegations, many of them speaking to items on the agenda. We opened by a presentation from the new MLA for Queensborough, Steve Kooner, and in hindsight I should have suggested to him that he stick around an watch Public Delegations, and even bring a motion to Legislature that the Province begin having Public Delegations in the legislature. Its not fair to the public that local government is the only level where they get to come and speak to Council for two hours on any topic they wish.

But I digress. Our agenda began with the following items that were Moved on Consent:

Zoning Amendment Bylaw (Miscellaneous Zoning Bylaw Amendments) No. 8495, 2025: For Consideration
Our Zoning Bylaw is complicated, as we are almost constantly amending it and changing other bylaws that point to it, and at the same time the Province sometimes messes with language and their legislative levers, so we need periodic omnibus-type updates to fix the language, keep references up to date, etc. This is that amendment bylaw. It will come to Council for three readings, if you have opinions, let us know!

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We then talked to these items that were Removed from Consent for discussion:

Tenant Relocation Policy – Engagement and Policy Update
Last year, Council asked staff to bring back recommendations to strengthen our rental protection policies. The City has had strong anti-demoviction policies for some time that have prevented demolition of older more affordable secured rental housing even as we built more rental and ownership housing. However, there are concerns that recent Provincial regulatory changes (especially the Transit Oriented Areas regulations included in Bill 47 may erode these protections, while some others (Bill 16) have given the City power to extend these protections. So Council wanted an update, and recognized that Burnaby recently adopted some strong policy that may provide a good guide to strengthening our policies.

Staff are reporting back that our policy frameworks are different (every municipality is unique!) but that the Burnaby policies do demonstrate some areas where we can strengthen our protections of the most vulnerable renters in town. Burnaby’s own program is relatively young, but has already been applied to 34 rezoning applications representing over 2,000 eligible rental units, and they report there are already 700 tenants in interim housing successfully receiving support through their program. 700 people in more secure housing instead of being displaced by new development, while Burnaby staff report the policy has not put a noticeable chill on the building of new homes.

Council has a good conversations about some of the details of the framework, and asked staff to prepare a policy based on these principles. This is good work!

Zoning Amendment to Remove Mini-storage Use from M-1, M-5 and CM-1 Industrial Districts, and to Require Storage in Multi-family Residential Districts
There is a bit of a boom in the self-storage industry right now, and Staff have identified some concerns in our ability to regulate how they are built in the City, and are recommending zoning controls be adjusted to give staff and council more discretion here. The intent here is not to stop the building of new self-storage businesses, but more to recognize that this commercial space use has a different impact than most other uses (parking, traffic, massing impact, etc.), and assure Council has power to mitigate those impacts. There are currently three zones which cover a small portion of the land in the city, where self-storage is as-of-right would be removed. Developers are still able to bring a rezoning to Council if they wish to build that use, and Council will have stronger power to restrict shape and character, and to determine it the location is appropriate in light of surrounding land use.

As our industrial and job creation lands are increasingly valuable, and self-storage is a relatively low-cost but also low-employment use with large potential land use impacts, it behooves us to give them careful consideration, and this bylaw gives us power to do so. This is consistent with Metro Vancouver guidelines around planning self-storage in industrial areas.

That said, families increasingly are living in smaller apartments, and are facing increased storage challenges. I’m not sure self-storage helps with this fundamentally (self storage doesn’t help when you have kids lacrosse equipment to store, etc.) but creating standards for storage space in new apartments, and incentivizing it by not including storage in floor space ratio math, seem like positive moves to make smaller homes more livable for families. So staff are going to bring rezoning changes that support those changes as well.

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We then had two Motions from Council:

Placing the Naturalization and Rewilding Project in Queen’s Park on Hold
Councillor Minhas

WHEREAS there has been considerable feedback received by the City of New Westminster regarding the ‘rewilding’ and ‘naturalizing’ of the 5th and 2nd Street boulevards in Queen’s Park as part of our Biodiversity Strategy; and
WHEREAS it is important to properly consult with local residents before any further ‘rewilding’ or ‘naturalizing’ of the boulevards in Queen’s Park which is covered by a Heritage Conservation Agreement
BE IT RESOLVED THAT that the City’s Biodiversity Strategy, as it pertains to the ‘rewilding’ and ‘naturalizing’ of 2nd Street and 5th Street boulevards, be placed on hold until October 2026; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT a neighbourhood consultation plan be developed and shared with Council regarding any future ‘naturalizing’ or ‘rewilding’ of the boulevards in Queen’s Park or other neighbourhoods throughout the City.

This was quite the lengthy discussion in Council, and we receive many pieces of correspondence on it, along with some public delegations, both for and against the intent of the motion. It is worth watching the Council Video to hear how those delegations went, because it is clear New Westminster is passionate about public spaces, even if we don’t all share the same opinion about how those spaces should look or how they best serve the community.

Although the framing of the motion was problematic, I was more concerned about how it was inconsistent with the commitments that staff had already made to the community about this project, and staff have had a considerable amount of correspondence with the community and with Council on this, so I think it is important that we keep that context in mind as we address the public concerns that were raised. I am concerned that this project is being politicized in the most egregious way, and that staff’s work to connect with the community here has been undermined by this. So I suggested the following amendment which (as requested in the original motion) pauses the naturalization work and asks for a more fulsome consultation with the community before expansion of the program in Queens Park:

BE IT RESOLVED THAT staff complete the revised naturalization work on the Fifth Street median between Third and Fourth streets, then take at least a year to allow the area to establish, and conduct an evaluation of the initiative with the neighbourhood regarding the initial work and any related next steps, consistent with the March 3rd, 2025 staff correspondence to residents and Council, and the 2022 City of New Westminster Biodiversity and Natural Areas Strategy; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT no further expansion of naturalized areas on Queen’s Park neighbourhood boulevards be undertaken until after this evaluation, and only after consultation with the community, including considerations of the Queen’s Park Heritage Conservation Area Landscape Guidelines, as per the March 3rd, 2025 correspondence.

To add to the context here for folks who may only have a passing understanding of just what’s happening here, changes to the grass-with-trees boulevard on Fifth Street began in 2023, more than a year ago, and I received a very small amount of both positive and negative feedback on it from neighbours. In my experience, people were more curious than concerned, and when talking about it, were willing to see where this was going prior to casting judgement. This until a month or two ago, when landscaping logs arrived on a second part of the boulevard. Once they started to receive more feedback on this, staff were quick to admit the landscaping features that were “out of scale” with previous work in the boulevard. They were also quick to acknowledge both that the visual impact was larger than they anticipated, and that they did not communicate effectively with the neighbourhood about the project. In their defense, after the placid reaction to the 2023 work, they might not have anticipated the push back they are seeing now.

The push-bask did arise, however, and in my observation, staff have been proactive at addressing the concerns raised by residents, and have been doing their best to respond to the community. On March 3rd, they distributed a letter to the community (which was, I note, distributed to Council before this Notice of Motion appeared on the agenda) that outlines what I think is a reasoned, professional, and respectful path in light of the feedback we have received. That they would not expand the program, they would de-scale some of the more challenging installations, and replant with a wildflower mix that meets some of the goals of the Biodiversity Strategy. It also committed ot taking a year to see how the new treatment greens in, and having a deeper consultation with the neighbourhood about the next step prior to any expansion to the program. To me, this is aligned with the stated goals of the original motion, but is clearer in language.

In the end, Council supported the amendment.

Providing Priority to New West Residents and Businesses for City-Operated Programs and Services
Submitted by Councillor Fontaine

WHEREAS the City of New Westminster faces a significant infrastructure deficit when it comes to public assets like sports and recreation facilities and community centers; and
WHEREAS local taxpayers should have the highest level of priority to access various programs and services offered by the City of New Westminster; and
WHEREAS the City of Delta offers their families a two-week head start to register for all recreation programs, including swimming and skating lessons;
BE IT RESOLVED THAT staff report back to Council regarding options for consideration to significantly enhance a “Priority New West” policy that provides local residents and businesses with priority access to City operated programs and services; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the report include a comparison of other jurisdictions in our region regarding what initiatives they have implemented to provide their citizens and business owners with priority access.

Council supported this motion, along with a couple of amendment brought by Councillor Henderson (the text of which I don’t have handy, but you can watch the meeting and see for yourself, and remember these posts by me are not official minutes!) to address some other concerns with the current recreation program registration system. The important part here is that this motion will result in a report back on opportunities and potential costs prior to Council committing to any change in how we currently operate.

I supported this reporting, but will take a few concerns into the discussion when this comes back to us. I don’t like the idea of getting into an arms race with other municipalities about “my city first”, when I fundamentally think it is better if we work together. I don’t see putting up walls around our City as a progressive approach. There are residents of other Cities who come to use rec facilities here in New West. If you are curler living in Burnaby, you come to New West to play, if you are a squash player in New West, you are likely to go to Burnaby or Richmond to play. This isn’t inherently a bad thing.

I am also concerned about what it may mean to some organized sports leagues and programs. I know Minor Lacrosse is almost 100% New Westies, but I’m not sure the same is true of Track and Field, Trampoline, or Baseball, and I would hate to be undermining youth sports programming by creating a two-tier registration system unless the sport itself sees value in that.

Again, these are uncertainties, and so I am happy to see a report back from staff on this so we can base our decisions on facts, and not presumption.

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Finally, we had a couple of Bylaws for Adoption:

Street and Sidewalk Patio Bylaw No. 8318, 2022, Amendment Bylaw No.8514, 2025
This Bylaw that expands patio service hours for one of two bars in the city was adopted by Council.

Subdivision and Development Control Bylaw No. 7142, 2008, Miscellaneous Amendments Bylaw No. 8515, 2025
This Bylaw that makes a bunch of minor amendments to our Subdivision and Development Control Bylaw was adopted by Council. Adjust your behavior accordingly.

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Now, actually finally, we had one item of time-sensitive New Business:

Rescheduling the April 28th Council Meeting
The Feds wen and scheduled an election on the date of our Council Meeting. This is uncomfortable, because people don’t really want to go to Council on that day, and because our statutory requirement to provide 4 free hours while the polls are open to all staff might challenge our ability to actually staff a Council meeting. So council is moving the meeting off by one week, making for a very busy May.

We had a pretty quick Council meeting on Monday, considering the length of the Agenda, though many items were under the category of “getting Council caught up on progress” so didn’t require lengthy discussion. We started with moving the following items On Consent::

707 Queens Avenue: Remedial Action Requirement
There was a fire that destroyed a house on Queens Avenue a few weeks ago. After a fire, it is important for a variety of reasons that the building be demolished ASAP, and normally this is the case because property owners and their insurance companies don’t want to deal with the liability of delaying this action. In the event that work is not moving fast enough, the City has the power to order the demolition and removal of materials, or that order failing, enter the site and do it ourselves sending the bill to the property owner. However, that Order needs to come though Council resolution, which is what we are doing here. Council agreed to the order.

Council Strategic Priorities Plan – First Semi-Annual Report for 2025
This semi-annual report shows that staff are making real progress on our Strategic Plan priorities. The areas we are falling short are related to some regional labour market challenges impacting staff recruitment and contracted services, the massive and unanticipated shift in housing regulations that require a lot of staff time and energy to implement, while some of them are aligned with our strategic plan. There are also a couple of IT projects that are falling behind because of recent shift in cyber security risk and other emergent IT challenges that simply need to take priority over some of the more strategic long-term initiatives. Overall, considering how disruptive and disrupting the last two years have been, this amount of green showing up on this dashboard is a testament to the incredible work and dedication of the city’s staff.

We are getting stuff done!

Proposed Revised Terms of Reference for the Arts, Culture and Economic Development Advisory Committee
A group of business owners in Sapperton have formed a registered society to co-organize business support and advocacy. This is not a BIA (which is regulated by the Province, has effective taxation powers of its members) but more of a “Business collective”, and they would like a seat at the ACEDAC table alongside BIAs. The rest of the ACEDAC said “sure, c’mon in!”, so we need to update the Terms of Reference to make it all official.

Subdivision and Development Control Bylaw No. 7142, 2007, Miscellaneous Amendments Bylaw No. 8515, 2025
This is the Bylaw that regulates how the City manages requests to subdivide and develop property, two of the fundamental land use powers of local government under the Local Government Act. At the heart of this is the City managing how properties connect to City services (like water, sewer, electricity) during development to assure we can provide those services sustainably, and how much of the cost providing those services fall on the individual property owner, as opposed to taxpayers or (in the case of utilities) ratepayers. One change here is that we are now happy to receive a “letter of assurance” from senior government on affordable housing projects instead of requiring other security, recognizing the province is not likely to go broke and leave us hanging, so in turn we can remove one more potential financial barrier to development of affordable housing.

It’s the little details that help.

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We then discussed the following items that were Removed from Consent:

Extending Patio Hours – Street and Sidewalk Patio Bylaw Amendment
Back in June of last year, we quickly approved a temporary policy to extend patio hours for pubs that have their patio on City lands. The temporary policy change was time limited and expired November 1, 2024 and was an opportunity to gauge public support and identify gaps. This time extension was applicable to only two liquor primary establishments, only one of which participated in the extended closing time. Regardless, there were no issues arising, so Council is moving to make the change permanent.

New Westminster Awarded $1.466 Million from Health Canada’s Emergency Treatment Fund for the Crises Response Pilot Project
This is a significant announcement for the City, and a demonstration of confidence from the federal government in our approach to the health crises that are impacting every community across Canada. I remembering it suggested in Council once that we should NOT take this work on, because we were letting senior governments off the hook, and they would never support us if we went ahead. That was of course wrong, and fortunately this Council chose to take the leadership position that the work needed to be done, and our advocacy is best done from that position of leadership, not from blaming out and finger pointing.

Being the only City in BC to get ETF Funding, and getting the second highest grant in the entire Country, are evidence that the feds recognized our commitment to the work, and that the plan put together by staff was viable, evidence-based, and defensible. This contribution will not only relieve some of local cost, but will allow us to expand the program and provide longer hours of service to people who need it the most.

Finally, in my conversations with the Provincial Minister of Health last week, she expressed strong support for this program, and we will be working with Fraser Health teams to integrate the many services Health are already providing in the City, as the CRP model outlines. The road to addressing homelessness and untreated mental health crises is long, but we are committed to the work, and appreciative of our partnerships federally and provincially in making this work happen. We are leading from the front in New West!

Provincial Housing Target Order – Six Month Interim Progress Report
You may have heard that the Province gave many cities in BC “Housing Target Orders” last year – setting fixed targets that they expect the City to reach. We are required to report out on our progress toward these targets every six months. This is that report.

The City is “required” to complete 656 new housing units in the first year of our target order (Aug 2024 – July 2025). In the first six month of that period, the City saw 702 net new homes, exceeding our year one target by 7% in only the first 6 months.

Excuse me for not taking a victory lap, because this demonstrates how misguided the BC target model is in the first place. Almost all of that net increase is due to the occupancy being completed on the Bosa Pier 1 project, which was approved by Council no less than 7 years ago. An unsophisticated look at the headline “we doubled our target in the first six months!” would suggest that we are moving faster than the province requires and should slow down, except that decisions made now will have ZERO effect on the number of units that come on line over the next 6 months, or two years for that matter. We are ahead now, but the gap between Council approval and occupancy can be 3-7 years, and is 95% mediated by market forces outside of the City’s control. The project we approve or deny today will be the statistic in some future Council’s targets 5 years hence. That’s why to the tool is bad.

Of course, there are other issues – most of the units approved were market ownership units (again, it was almost all one project) when we need more rental and affordable housing. The 52 units of subsidized housing downtown that Council approved in early 2022 will likely contribute to our 2026 targets, and the affordable housing we recently approved in the 22nd Street area will contribute to 2027 targets. It’s just not a good tool.

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We then had a single Motion from Council:

Support for a New High School in Queensborough
Submitted by Councillor Fontaine

WHEREAS there has been significant growth in Queensborough over the past decade with the population now estimated at over 11,000 people; and
WHEREAS Queensborough high school students face significant challenges getting to and from New West Secondary School each day; and
WHEREAS the School District 40 has been asking for capital funding to construct a new high school in Queensborough since 2022; and
WHEREAS New West Secondary School is over capacity with more than 2600 students – making it the largest high school in British Columbia;
BE IT RESOLVED THAT a letter be written to the Minister of Education in support of School District 40’s ongoing requests for site acquisition to build a new high school in Queensborough.

This motion led to a lengthy discussion, one that was ironically made much longer by Council actually agreeing on the main issue – that we need more schools, including in Queensborough. However, the School Board took the extraordinary step of sending Council a request to NOT approve this request, as their board unanimously asked that we instead stay aligned with them on advocacy to the province. I think we need to respect not only their authority, but also in the work they are doing to advocate for new school spaces in New Westminster. Writing the letter as requested here would likely create confusion, and risks sending the impression to the Ministry that this Council is not 100% aligned with the School District on the priorities they have identified. That not only undermines the advocacy that is ongoing, but puts at risk important an pending capital investment decisions being made right now to support expanded elementary and middle school spaces at Simcoe, in the Downton, in the West End, AND in Queensborough.

No-one wins here is we play neighbourhoods against each other, we need to work to assure the resources we are asking for address the most pressing need, and work together to improve space and programs across the entire school district.

In meeting with the Minister of Education last week, I supported the School Districts capital priorities as set out by the School District planning team. I reiterated the priorities of the SD, which included addressing secondary needs in Queensbrough, but only after the more pressing elementary needs downtown and in the West End, and a new middle school are addressed.

The City has a role here, both in site approval and in advocacy. This is why this Council, only a few months ago, approved unanimously the 2024-2025 Eligible School Sites Proposal presented us by the School District, and committed at that time to continued collaboration and joint advocacy on the School District’s stated priorities. It should be no surprise to members of this Council what those priorities are, and how disrespectful it is to the School Board and disruptive it is to long term planning to arbitrarily shift the focus of this work. So Council amended this motion so instead we write a letter endorsing the School District’s Long-term capital plan, which includes, as everyone in Council agreed during the deliberation, a new school in Queensborough. Council unanimously supported the amended motion.

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We closed with a few Bylaws for Adoption:

Official Community Plan Bylaw No. 7925, 2017, Amendment Bylaw (1084 Tanaka Court) No. 8483, 2024 and
8.2 Zoning Bylaw No. 6680, 2001, Amendment Bylaw (1084 Tanaka Court) No. 8484, 2024
This Bylaw that rezones a lot in Queensborough back to light industrial at the request of the owner was adopted by Council.

Development Cost Charge Reserve Funds Expenditure Bylaw No. 8513, 2025
The Bylaw that authorizes staff to spend up to $1.53 million from the Development Cost Charge Reserve for designated water, sewer, and drainage projects was approved by Council.