Our May 27 meeting was a little strange. Anticipating a large Public Hearing turnout and concomitantly late meeting along with a very long agenda, Staff decided to hold an afternoon session to assure we got through the agenda items. So things were a little out of order. For the sake of tradition, I am going to report out based on the normal sequence (Public Hearing then Regular Meeting starting with Consent Agenda).

The Public Hearing had three items:

Zoning Amendment Bylaw No. 8113, 2019 (315 and 326 Mercer Street)
The proposal here is to rezone two properties in the “eastern node” area of Queensborough. They are currently zoned light industrial, but will become part of the mixed use commercial area at the heart of the triangle of lands that connect Port Royal to the rest of Queensborough, finally bringing some retail to the east end of Q’boro.

The APC approved the rezoning, it is consistent with the Queensborough Community Plan and the long-term vision for the eastern node. We received no correspondence on this, and two people came to speak to the matter, one the proponent, the other mostly concerned with North Vancouver traffic. Council moved to give the rezoning Third Reading.

Zoning Amendment Bylaw No. 8099, 2019 for 1209-1217 Eighth Avenue
This rezoning will create a special zone to allow a 22-townhouse development in the West End just off of 12th Street. The project is consitent with the new OCP and design guidelines we have adopted for infill townhouse development. It has been through the Design Panel, the APC approved the project, and it was reviewed by the RA and a public open house with no significant issues raised. We received no correspondence on the project, and no-one came to speak on the matter. Council moved to give the zoning amendment Third Reading.

Zoning Amendment Bylaw No. 8123, 2019 for Residential Rental Tenure
This is essentially the same rental tenure zoning bylaw we passed back in the end of January, which applied the new Rental Tenure Zoning designation to 6 buildings in the City that have always operated as rental. Unfortunately, our staff determined that some of the information the City circulated during the original notifications for the zoning change was inaccurate, so in practicing an abundance of caution and procedural fairness, it was decided to do the process again, and do it correctly this time. At the same time, a couple of minor changes to the language of the Bylaw are included, to make the intent clearer, to correct a reference to the Societies Act, and to more clearly exempt commercial properties. Again, none of these change the effect or intent of the Bylaw adopted back in January, but serves to procedurally make it clearer.

We received 238 (!) pieces of correspondence on this, more than 200 of them as copies of a vaguely-worded form letter of unclear origin that clearly circulated around the province and appeared to support more rental buildings being built. We also had a few people who were directly impacted by the January bylaw come and speak against it (as opposed to against this specific change). Council moved to support giving this amendment third reading.

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Our regular meeting included a lengthy consent agenda, and the following items were Moved on Consent:

Short Term Rental Monitoring Program
We have been talking about Short Term Rentals regulations for a while, but it has never found its way to the top of the priority list for our planning staff work plans. Recently Vancouver introduced a set of regulations, and much like other jurisdictions that have introduced local regulations (Nelson, Tofino, etc.), there have been challenges regulating these activities. It appears that successful enforcement relies on data sharing partnerships with the STR enabling corporations (AirBnB, VRBO, and others), and those providers are reluctant to enter those partnerships on anything but their own terms.

However, if we are going to formalize and regulate STR, we need to understand how it is operating in the City, and what the actual problems are that we need to manage. Staff is being directed here to launch a coordinated monitoring program, to determine how STR is operating in the City, and what the negative impacts and economic benefits are for the community. More to come here!

Business Regulations and Licensing (Rental Units) Amendment Bylaw No.8130, 2019: for Consideration of Three Readings
Much like the other Rental Protection Bylaw that we moved in Public Hearing, this change in business regulations to protect people from unnecessary renoviction needs a bit of adjustment now that staff have tried to exercise it. This is not the least bit surprising considering we are breaking new ground on rental protection here – no-one has done this before us (though a few other communities have followed our lead).

There are a few changes here, and the report lays them out, such as clarifying that this is one of those Bylaws where every day the issue is not rectified constitutes another offence (as opposed to there being only one offence when a person is evicted) and some language changes. This will go to an Opportunity to be Heard on June 24. C’mon out and tell us what you think.

Safety Update for Clothing and Donation Bins in New Westminster
This is a follow-up on an earlier report about the safety of clothing donation bins. Staff followed up with all operators of clothing bins in the City (none are on City Property), and confirmed that they have retrofitted or replaced their bins such that the types that caused the deaths in Vancouver are not operating in New Westminster.

Soil Deposit and Removal Regulation Bylaw No. 8106, 2019
The City is creating a new Bylaw to better regulate the movements of large quantities of soil. This has some practical engineering uses (controlling run-off from dirt piles, protecting storm sewers and preventing flooding, etc.) and environmental benefits (mitigating the spread of invasive plants and contaminated soils). There were some minor changes since first reading to better fit into the current provincial regulatory framework, and it will now to go to the appropriate Provincial ministries for review.

2019 Spring Freshet and Snow Pack Level
This is our regular update on snow pack and flood risk. The snow pack is slightly below average, and melting slowly despite higher-than-seasonal temperatures (probably because of less-than-seasonal rain), and there is no elevated risk of flood right now.

Bylaw No. 8074, 2019 Closing a Portion of Highway on Boyne Street at 34 South Dyke Road
Another unopened piece of road allowance in Queensborough that is surplus to the City’s needs. To remove it from “road” designation, we need to pass a bylaw. There will be an Opportunity to be Heard on June 24th. C’mon out and tell us what you think.

Investment Report to April 30, 2019
The City has money in the bank, mostly reserves we have put aside for capital projects that are on tap, like the Canada Games Pool replacement and the Massey Theatre refurbishment, but also less sexy things like DCCs we collected from developers to pay for sewer capacity increases we will need to build. We made about $1.2 Million of income from the interest on these investments.

Major Purchases January 1st to April 30th, 2019
As I talked about in a previous blog post, we need to report how we spend the City’s money. Three times a year we put out a report like this that shows what we spent money on above $50,000. This includes the winners of our public procurement competitions, so if you didn’t get that City contract you wanted, you can see who did and how much we pay them.

632 Second Street: Heritage Revitalization Agreement and Heritage Designation – Bylaws for Consideration of Two Readings
The owner of a currently empty house in Glenbrook north wants to subdivide the lot and build an infill house on the lot, in exchange for restoring the heritage house to bring it back into good repair and have it permanently protected. This will go to Public Hearing on June 24th, so I’ll hold my comments until then.

647 Ewen Avenue: Official Community Plan Amendment, Heritage Revitalization Agreement, Heritage Designation – Bylaws for Consideration of Two Readings
The Slovak Hall is an old public assembly building in Queensborough that fell into some disrepair. A proposal to redevelop the site was modified to allow protection of the Hall by reimagining it, and sharing the lot with some townhouses. This needs an OCP amendment, which is a bit of a complicated process, but here we are. This will go to Public Hearing on what is starting to look like a busy June 24th meeting. C’mon out and tell us what you think!

Restorative Justice Committee re The State of the Indigenous Court Facility in New Westminster;
Restorative Justice Committee re The State of Legal Aid and Lack of Funding ; and
Restorative Justice Committee re Communities Embracing Restorative
Action (CERA) and the Police Board
The RJC brought these three motions forward to advocate for better funding and support for restorative justice in the City, mostly calling on senior governments to support this program better.

Multiculturalism Advisory Committee re Christchurch, New Zealand Terrorist Attacks
The MAC is asking that the City formally send support to Christchurch.

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The following items were Removed From Consent for discussion:

Surplus Road Allowances (Queensborough Eastern Neighbourhood Node): Road Closure Bylaw No. 8093, 2019 and Zoning Amendment Bylaw No. 8092, 2019 – Bylaws for Readings
Related to the rezonings in the Eastern Node we discussed at Public Hearing, these two unused road allowances in Queensborough are proposed to be closed. These are legally “roads”, in that they are not titled lots, but there was never a road installed on either. One has a significant drainage watercourse, and the other is brush. As part of the Queensborough Eastern Node development, the watercourse will be re-aligned and new roads will be developed through this area. This requires a Bylaw to “close” the roads, which will come to a Public Hearing on June 24. C’mon out and tell us what you think!

1031 Quebec Street: Metro Vancouver’s Annacis Water Supply Tunnel Project – Update
Metro Vancouver supplies clean potable water to a couple of million people every day, and they (we?) spend a lot of money on infrastructure works to make this happen. Ongoing capacity improvements to deal with population growth South of the Fraser include building a new water crossing between New West and Surrey, in the form of a deep bored 2.6m tunnel. That tunnel will, for a variety of technical reasons, come to (near) the surface in an empty lot at the bottom of 11th Street.

After the work is done (it will take a few of years), the lot will have an underground chamber, and there will be a public amenity on top – some sort of park and interpretive facility is likely. This report shows some preliminary designs for that park space. Council asked for more trees. .

331 Richmond Street (Richard McBride Elementary): Rebuild Update
Richard McBride School is going to be replaced. The District and the Province are working out the design ideas for the site, which is a little constrained in that the new school needs to be built while the existing one is being operated. The proposed plan will also require a couple of zoning variances to fit on the site.

There are some details we need to work out with the School district around how parking and on-site dropoff occurs. Richmond is a greenway, and with all due respect to parents world-wide, school drop-off areas are among the most dangerous locations vulnerable road users. This space where a greenway passes in front of an elementary school is not an appropriate place for parents to drop off children, and I hope we can find some vision here to make it safer for all.

I am also a little concerned about the province seeking variances to avoid some of the offsite requirements. When anyone builds a new development in the city – be that a new residential development, the new hospital, or a new commercial building – the City has requirements for how the transportation links (roads and sidewalks), sewers, streetlights, telecom connections, etc. are addressed through that development. As much as I appreciate that a school is a valuable public amenity, the province should not be downloading those costs onto local governments, they are part and parcel with construction of a new building. There are some discussions to have here.

There will be an open house on June 5 at McBride. Show up and let them know what you think!

Cannabis: Retail Locations – Summary of Application Review Process
The City went through an evaluation process to filter through the first tranche of applications for cannabis retailing in the City. Perhaps not surprisingly, applicants who were not successful in this first tranche were mostly not satisfied with the process that did not place them on the top of the list. We asked staff to review some specific complaints we received, and I am satisfied with the report they are providing here.

This process is taking much longer than (most of us on) Council are happy with. Currently, we are waiting for the Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch for their next steps in approval, then will go to Public Hearing on these specific applications. I had hoped that we could accelerate this process and provide more certainty to the applicants by scheduling Public Hearing and allowing those LCRB requirements to be conditions of the Adoption (like we do with many, many other Provincial Government requirements related to new developments), but Council voted against this for reasons I simply don’t understand. We did, however,  move to open up a separate review process for Provincial Cannabis stores, as we recognize that any concerns for Public and Private retail are fundamentally different.

Quayside Drive Parking Strategy & Motor Vehicle Speed Management
A tradition almost as sacred as May Day is Quayside Parking demand studies. As the development spread west along Quayside Drive over the 1990s, paring ratios were increased because it was apparent that no matter how much parking was built, it never seemed like enough. Studies in 1990, 1992, 2001 and 2017 show that there was actually enough parking, it was just poorly distributed.

There are 198 on-street parking spots on Quayside, most with no restriction on their use, meaning that some vehicles sit for months in the same spot. That said, peak usage is 86% occupation – which means at any given time, 15% of spots are available, which is actually the established ideal ratio. Scans of license plates suggest that slightly more than 33% of the cars parked on the street are registered to Quayside residents. At the same time, off-street Visitor Parking occupancy is around 55%, though it varies greatly complex-to-complex.

This study makes 4 recommendations. One we are not going to pursue (removing or consolidating bus stops to make more spots) for hopefully obvious reasons. The others were taken to consultation in the neighbourhood, and were generally approved of by a majority of residents, so the City will move forward with them.

1002 – 1004 and 1006 – 1008 Third Avenue: Heritage Revitalization Agreement and Heritage Designations: Bylaws for Consideration of Two Readings
Those two unique brick duplexes at the corner of 10th street and 3rd Ave are being restored. Though the restoration changes are internal, the owner is agreeing to do this through a HRA process, providing permanent protection to these unique heritage houses. This will go to Public Hearing on June 24th, so I’ll hold my comments until then.

616 and 640 Sixth Street: Zoning Amendment Bylaw and Development Permit: Bylaw for Consideration of Two Readings
This project in uptown would be, surprisingly, the first new mutli-family approval in Uptown since 2011. The owner of the current building would like to replace it with a 29 story tower with a 3-story mixed-use podium. This includes 142 strata units and 95 secured Market Rental suites (meeting and exceeding our Family Friendly Housing requirements for 2- and 3-bedroom suites), with 12,000sqft of commercial at grade. Since first proposed a couple of years ago, the project has iterated quite a bit, including a shift of some of the residential density from strata to rental. This will go to Public Hearing on June 24th, C’mon out and tell us what you think.

There was a robust discussion about the separation of entrances between the rental and strata portions of the residential tower. A discussion worth listening to on the video, if only because it is interesting to see how council works through a sticky subject like this. I often disagree with my Council colleagues, but I really respect the way we can hash these ideas out and hear one another when working towards resolution, especially on a topic like this where it seems simple at the surface, but it is actually a complex issue that requires consideration.

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We had a lot of Bylaws to give a lot of readings to, but only one for Adoption:

Zoning Amendment (630 Ewen Avenue) Bylaw No. 8035, 2018
The Temporary Modular Housing Project at 630 Ewen received third reading for the necessary zoning amendment back in July of 2018, but it finally got through all of the local and provincial government hoops to be adopted now. And we moved to adopt it.

And with that, we called it an evening!

Aside from the newsworthy event of the evening, we had a pretty light agenda for our first May meeting, which was probably good in light of the diverse and lengthy public delegations we heard.

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We started by moving the following items on Consent:

New Westminster Reconciliation Consultant and Framework Development
As I alluded to last week, Council has been unanimous in support of reconciliation, and in taking a thoughtful, intentional, and respectful approach to the work. We have endorsed the Calls to Action in the report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, and are dedicated to establishing a respectful and comprehensive dialogue with the community about New Westminster’s unique role in the colonial history of Western Canada. Before we were part of Canada, we were the capital of the colony – this is the place where the Royal Engineers, the armed force enforcing colonialization – was stationed. This is the place where Governors Douglas and Seymour presided over colonial administration, this is also a place where Qayqayt people rested on the river, and a place honoured in many stories of Sto:lo people.

This report outlines the framework to do that work that has been established after months of work by staff and consultants, rising out of several discussions with Council. It has been said, as recently as last week at Council, that Truth needs to come before Reconciliation, and the only way to arrive at that truth is through dialogue, through telling our stories, and hearing the stories of others. But this is often the hardest part. How do we create spaces where people feel free to have frank and sometimes challenging discussions? And how do we decide whose stories are vital to our local dialogue, in a place with such a protracted history, a place that in many ways wears that history on its sleeve. How do we have those discussions in a way that doesn’t cause people to close their ears? These are not easy questions, and we will not always hit the mark in answering them. But we will try, and we committed to doing it with care and intention.

Of course, for the second week in a row, we tossed this framework aside, so I really don’t know what is coming next.

Amendments to the 2019 Schedule of Regular Council Meetings
We are adjusting some Council schedules to add a Public Hearing to the September 9 meeting. However, since Public Hearings are night when we don’t have Public Delegation, staff recommended moving our regular Queensborough meeting to October, because it would be weird to go to Queensborough and not do Public Delegation while we are there.

Recruitment 2019: Seniors Advisory Committee (SAC) Appointment
One of the agencies with a representative on the Seniors Advisory Committee is changing members, which apparently we need to approve. So done.

315 and 326 Mercer Street (Queensborough Eastern Neighbourhood Node): Zoning Amendment Bylaw No. 8113, 2019 – For Two Readings
Two properties within the “Eastern Node” – an area in Queensborough at the east end of Ewen Avenue that bridges the gap between Single-family-house Q’Boro and Port Royal – need to be rezoned to align with the land use planned for the entire Eastern Node master plan. These lands will eventually bring some neighbourhood-serving retail and services to Port Royal. This application will have a Public Hearing on May 27. C’mon out and tell us what you think.

Multi Family Rental Residential Tenure Zoning: Zoning Amendment Bylaw No. 8123, 2019 – Consideration of Two Readings
The City strives to be transparent and accurate in communicating how our Bylaws work, and in that interest we clarifying some of the language around how the recent change to the Rental Residential Tenure. We are not changing the zoning per se, but staff thought it best that this adjustment be through a full public process with full notice because of the sensitivity of the topic. There will be a Public Hearing on May 27, so I will hold my comments until then.

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The following item was Removed from Consent for discussion:

Child Care Update: Proposed City and School District Facilities
Access to childcare has been at near-crisis levels in New West for a long time, and we are not the only City in the Lower Mainland feeling this crunch. The new provincial government has some new funding available, and there are some new School District projects coming along that make this an opportune time for the City to partner and make more spaces available. If this all comes together, we will have almost 150 new childcare spaces opened in our most underserved areas of Queensborough and Sapperton. This will provide a mix of infant, toddler, and after-school care, though council did not e that after school care is a vital need not being served right now, especially in the East End.

The money is coming from several sources: the City and the School district are applying for Childcare BC New Spaces Fund grants for a few projects, the City already received a Child Care Major Capital Funding Grant, we also have Community Amenity Funding from a developer, and will pull some money from our internal reserves. The City, School District and a developer are all contributing land and buildings to house these childcares. Council moved ot endorse this strategy.

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Our regular Bylaws dance included adopting the following:

Tax Rates Bylaw No. 8105, 2019
The Bylaw that officially sets our tax rates for 2019 was adopted.

Uptown New Westminster Business Improvement Area Parcel Tax Bylaw No. 8112, 2019;
Downtown New Westminster Business Improvement Area (Primary Area) Parcel Tax Bylaw No. 8114, 2019; and
Downtown New Westminster Business Improvement Area (Secondary Area) Parcel Tax Bylaw No. 8115, 2019
These Bylaws that set the rates for the BIA parcel taxes was adopted.

Heritage Revitalization Agreement (218 Queens Avenue) Bylaw No. 8064, 2019
The HRA Bylaw that allows a subdivision and protection to three heritage houses in the Queens Park neighbourhood was adopted by Council.

We then had one piece of New Business:

Removal of Judge Begbie Statue
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED
THAT the City of New Westminster remove the Judge Begbie statue from its position of power in front of the Provincial Court house; and
THAT the City of New Westminster engage in a conversation with the Tsilhqot’in Nation about the history and legacy of Judge Begbie and the effects his decisions had on generations of their people; and
THAT the City work with the Museum and Archives, the community, and the Tsilqot’in Nation to find an appropriate place for the statue; and
THAT the City of New Westminster engage in a process of consultation to find an appropriate place to tell the history of the Chilcotin War.

I spoke against the motion, recognizing some may perceive that as my being opposed to or obstinate towards our reconciliation process. However, I am acting only based on what wiser people have told me about having a truthful and open approach to reconciliation, and based on that, I fear this action is the kind of thing that can set us back. Nothing I heard in the delegations tonight assuaged those concerns. So I guess I need to unpack this a bit, in fear I did not express myself adequately at Council.

I have been told that Truth must come before Reconciliation. That means before we take arbitrary actions, we engage our community and those people impacted by those actions – especially the people we seek to honour with our actions – in a respectful conversation. We listen to their stories, we share our experiences, we open our ears before we lift our tools. Then we lift those tools together.

I hope, perhaps naively, that we can build a respectful space where our community can have these conversations, and come out the other end with better understanding. However, we have clearly not yet had these conversations. As a city, we have not yet begun to hear, to share, or to learn. Instead we, as a City, spent the weekend bickering on Facebook then spent two hours in Council speaking past each other – with no-one in the room speaking from the Tsilhqot’in, no one speaking from the QayQayt, from the Kwikwetlem. No-one in that meeting expressed that they were speaking from an indigenous experience.

There were many there who seemed to speak for them, but we did not want to take time to hear from them.

At the same time, we managed to close many people’s ears in our community to the discussions we are going to have to have in New Westminster – difficult discussions in light of our unique role in the colonization of British Columbia. Not just the home of Judge Begbie, but the home of Governors Douglas and Seymour, home of the Sappers, a City named by the Queen of England and head of the Anglican Church. We are surrounded by colonial baggage, and cannot dispatch it all, even to put all of it in a context that fits our modern idea of justice will be hard work. Hard work we need to do. It will be made harder if we choose to divide with our early actions, opening the opportunity for those to undermine the intent by lobbing ideas from trenches at each other. Every delegate speaking at Council tonight was respectful and considered, and I thank them for that. But how many of them listened to the people “on the other side”? Tried to put their minds to where that person was coming from? Were we really all there with open ears? Was this a dialogue?

When the John A McDonald statue was removed last year in Victoria, it was done following a year of conversation with the “City Family”, the inclusive framework used for reconciliation for their City. A year-long process of deliberation, dialogue and truth-sharing brought them to the point where they understood the meaning of the act, and were ready to share that meaning in a fulsome way with the larger community. We are not there yet. Yes, they had “backlash” when the statue was moved, but at least they could, with integrity, say “we have heard your concerns, we have considered your concerns, we take this action with due respect to your concerns, because we believe it moves the conversation forward”. Can we honestly say that?

If we are going to work with integrity and an open heart, and build the willingness to act meaningfully, I hope we can get to the place where the Begbie Statue, the John Robson plaque on City Hall, the Tin soldier, and other symbols in the City that have different impacts depending on the lens they are viewed through, can be addressed in a way that heals, not in a way that divides. We are not there yet, so I could not support this action at this time.

We have so much work to do. I ask that everyone keep an open heart and open ears.

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And that was the business of the night. Happy May!

It was a big agenda on April 29th, and I’m crazy busy, so I’m going to try (and I’m going to fail) to keep this short. I’ll skip over the daytime workshop stuff, which I can hopefully cover later and get right to the evening agenda.

We started with a Public Hearing:

Heritage Revitalization Agreement (218 Queens Avenue) Bylaw No. 8064, 2019
The property owner of a fairly large property in Queens Park wants to enter into a complicated Heritage Conservation Area agreement where two heritage homes are move to the back of his property and the main heritage home on the site is preserved for perpetuity. The only real variance from the existing zoning bylaw is that the resultant two “back” lots will be 5651 Square feet, which is 6% smaller than the zoning allows.

The Community Heritage Commission support it, the APC support it, no-one sent any correspondence or came to speak to the application. Council approved giving the Bylaw third reading.

Zoning Amendment Bylaw (1005 Ewen Avenue) No. 8103, 2019
There is an empty lot at one of the entry points of Queensborough – between Howes Street and the firehall, that has been vacant for a very long time. It was hard to develop because of some site constraints, especially related to access to the site and the proximity to the firehall.

It has taken some time to find the right fit for this site. This proposal would permit the construction of 23 townhouses and a commercial building. It would also improve the streetscape for pedestrians along Howes street and fill an notable gap in the community entrance. APC support it, Design Panel support it, QRA had no opposition, no-one sent us correspondence or come to the Public Hearing to speak to the application. Council moved to give the application third reading.

Zoning Amendment (886 Boyd Street) Bylaw No. 8100, 2019
The City’s electrical utility needs to build a new substation in Queensborough. We have the land, we have the financing, but now we need to amend the language of the zoning Bylaw to allow an electrical substation in the M-1(light industrial) zone. No-one wrote or showed up to voice opposition, so the city moved to give the amendment third reading.

Zoning Amendment Bylaw (M5 Zone Text Amendment) No. 8101, 2019
Metro Vancouver’s water utility needs to build a tunnel portal at the foot of Quebec street. They have the land, they have the financing, but now they need us to amend the language of the zoning Bylaw to allow a public utility infrastructure installation in M-5 (light industrial) zoning. Again, no-one came to speak to the matter or sent us correspondence on it, and Council moved to approve the amendment.

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We then had an Opportunity to be Heard:

Temporary Use Permit No. 00019 for 488 Furness Street
The townhouse development in Queensborough want to operate a sales centre out of their first buildings, which does not comply with the residential zoning, requiring a Temporary Use Permit to allow it to happen. This is not an unusual ask, but several members of the neighbouring community asked that Council review the parking requirements.

Honestly, I find the “we need our garages to store our stuff, so the City needs to provide street parking” argument not compelling, but there is a point in that a commercial enterprise operating, even temporarily, in a residential neighbourhood, should be responsible in how their parking needs impact their residential neighbours. Council moved to approve the TUP on the condition that parking that would berequired as per the zoning is accommodated onsite.

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I then had a couple of resolutions to go to UBCM, which I think I will hold off to talk about later, because this is already going to be too long. But the short versions are here, and they were both approved by Council:

Motion: Declaration of Employee Compensation as Part of Annual SOFI Reporting 

Therefore be it resolved that the Financial Information Act be amended to permit local governments to report salaries and expenses in their annual SOFI report by job title as opposed to employee name.

Motion: School Bus Safety

Therefore be it resolved that UBCM call upon the BC Ministry of Education and the BC Ministry of Public Safety to mandate that all buses transporting students in British Columbia be equipped with three-point seatbelts, and institute programs to assure those belts are used; and
Be it further resolved that UBCM call upon Transport Canada to require all road vehicles designed for the purpose of transporting students within Canada be equipped with three-point seatbelts.

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The following items were moved on Consent:

Uptown New Westminster BIA Parcel Tax Bylaw and
Downtown BIA Parcel Tax Bylaws
The City as two (well, two and a half) Business Improvement Areas. These are commercial areas that agree to have a self-imposed tax to fund their own business development programs. The City facilitates this by collecting the tax and turning it over to the BIAs, but the money is 100% from the BIA members and 100% returned to the BIAs. Every year we have to pass a Bylaw to set the agree-upon rates.

As an aside, this is another one of those weird areas that make it hard to compare the finances of different cities. The $400,000 we collect from the BIAs and turn right back over to the BIA is counted as tax revenue and spending in the City’s financial statements, though this really isn’t city money. Comparing between cities, no-one ever asks if those cities have many or few BIAs.

Municipal Security Issuing Resolution #7842
The City got authorization through Bylaw in 2016 to borrow up to $28 Million for various infrastructure improvements, including the Library and City Hall improvements. To the end of 2019, we anticipate spending $22Million of this as these projects move forward. We want to move this into long-term debt with the Municipal Finance Authority which requires a Resolution.

Community Centre Infrastructure Loan Authorization Bylaw No. 8073, 2019
Building the replacement of the CGP is going to require us to take on more long-term debt. We don’t yet know what the contribution will be from Federal Infrastructure Grants, but (in the strange world of intergovernmental grant finance) we have to demonstrate our ability to do the work without a grant if we wish to receive a grant. So we need to authorize borrowing at a level that assumes we will receive no grant assistance at all.

This will be another Alternate Approval Process thing that I hate, but is the only path given us under the Local Government Act aside from running an expensive and divisive referendum. If enough people report opposition to this borrowing, we will have a referendum. If you don’t think we should borrow to replace the CGP, then between May 2nd and June 10th, you should come to City hall and issue your opposition formally. Notices will be going out through the regular venues.

2019 Tax Rates Bylaw for rescindment and re-reading
The numbers we had in our Property Tax rates bylaw were incorrect due to an administrative SNAFU. The Metro Vancouver mill rates were incorrectly transposed. So we need to rescind the reading and do it again with the right number so Metro can get paid.

Approval of the Scope of Work for a Committee Review
The City has over 30 Advisory Committees, Commissions, and Task Forces. Though an important public engagement tool, they eat up a lot of time and resources, both for City staff and for the volunteers from across the community who take time out of their lives to contribute to community building this way. We owe it to them and to the community to periodically review how these resources are being used and to explore opportunities to make them work better.

The academic lead from SFU who helped us put together our large Public Engagement strategy (and who therefore has intimate knowledge about how it is structured) is being brought in to oversee the review. It will include reviewing successes and stresses in other communities, discussion with committee members, and general public engagement. We can hopefully put some solid policy together to evaluate the effectiveness of our committees. I expect there will be some uncomfortable discussion (“Hey, *my* committees are the most functional ones!”) but it is important that we remain honest and accountable in how we work, and I look forward to this.

Recruitment 2019: Committee Appointments (EAC, NTAC)
On an almost related topic, we are appointing a couple of new members to committees.

Queen’s Park Heritage Conservation Area: Special Limited Category Study – Phase Two Update
During the Queens Park heritage conservation area work over the last couple of years, we identified 84 properties (out of the ~700 in the conservation area) which were put under temporary protection until we could determine better where they fit in the heritage spectrum between the highest and the lowest heritage value. Some eventually had their protection reduced, as they were found to have limited value, and 48 were found to have higher value and were moved on to further study. This is an update report on that process, and next steps.

1209 – 1217 Eighth Avenue: Rezoning and Development Permit for Infill Townhouses – Zoning Amendment Bylaw No. 8099, 2019 for Two Readings
This is recommendation from our LUPC that we give first and second reading to a townhouse development in the Moody Park / West End neighbourhood. This would convert 5 lots that currently have 5 houses into 22 family-friendly ground-based townhouse units.

It would go to a Public Hearing on May 27, so I will hold my opinions until then.

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The following items were Removed from Consent for discussion:

Pattullo Bridge Seismic Upgrading: Request for Construction Noise Bylaw Exemption
Translink wants to install some equipment on the existing Pattullo bridge, and need an exemption to our Construction Noise Bylaw to do it. Councillor Das raised some good points about the efforts for public consultation, as the permit length is quite long, and we may ask TransLink to do a little more directed outreach to let residents know which actual days they will be working.

Soil Deposit and Removal Regulation Bylaw No. 8106, 2019
What is more exciting than an update to the City’s Soil Deposit and Removal Bylaw!? This will hopefully help the City reduce the mis-location of contaminated soils and reduce the spread of invasive and noxious weeds. Maybe that’s not exciting for you, but this is what I do for a living!

The only point I had for staff was that we might want to expand our definition of invasive species beyond the provincial Noxious Weeds list –neither Himalayan Blackberry or Scotch Broom are listed as noxious in the province, nor is English ivy. If you go to any invasive species pull in the region, these are the species we see the most of. I also had a few concerns about the Ministry’s current Soil Relocation Policy Paper, as I don’t want to move a Bylaw that doesn’t jive with the most recent Ministry regulatory framework. These are details that can be worked out before final adoption, so council moved to approve first reading.

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We did the regular Bylaws dance, which included adopting the following:

Five-Year Financial Plan (2019 – 2023) Bylaw No. 8104, 2019
One of the final steps in our annual budgeting process is the adoption of the financial plan. Now adopted. It’s the law of the Land. Again, more blog posts to come out about this again, as a Mayoral candidate is back on social media saying “New West has the highest taxes in the region”, and that is patently and demonstrably false, but Zombie ideas never really die.

Street Naming Bylaw No. 8045, 2019
Two new streets in Queesnborough now have names.

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Finally, we had a big piece of New business

Motion: Indigenous Truth and Reconciliation
Councillor Nakagawa brought forward a motion that provides some direction on our reconciliation process that in summary says:

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED
THAT Mayor and Council be provided with training to understand the legacy of residential schools and colonialism; and
THAT all City staff attend mandatory training on the history and legacy of residential schools; and
THAT the City undertakes research to better understand the historical actions of the City as they relate to First Nations; and
THAT the City undertakes research to understand which Nations have a relationship to this land; and
THAT the research respects and incorporates the experiences and stories of the First Nations that claim the territory upon which New Westminster is built to ensure that the history is not told from a colonial perspective; and
THAT the final report be shared with the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation; and
THAT the City provides opportunities for the community to learn the history and legacy of colonialism in New Westminster; and
THAT the City establish a formal territorial acknowledgement built from the information learned from First Nations during the research process; and
THAT the territorial acknowledgement be approved by First Nations that claim the territory prior to its formal adoption by the City.
THAT City staff report back to Council with an implementation plan for above listed actions.

I am not opposed to any of the actions listed here, but did oppose the motion because I felt it was a little out of step with the ongoing work we have already started in regards to reconciliation. This Council has committed to taking an informed and respectful approach to reconciliation. We have endorsed the Calls to Action, and have tasked staff with creating an outline towards completing that goal. We have agreed to, and have put resources towards, the development of a communication and relationship-building process, such that all parties are welcomed to share their experience and their vision for Reconciliation. We have hired a consultant to guide us through this difficult process, recognizing that we have little experience in-house at this, and we want to do it right.

In my opinion (and this was not supported by a majority of council) the motion was in parts redundant to work the City is already doing, and in parts overly prescriptive towards operational details while staff and our consultants are establishing best practices to achieve the goals this city has put out. Respectfully, the Councillor and I disagree on process, not on goals. Council moved to endorse this motion.

And that was the evening! See you all next week!