Sorry I’m later than usual – it’s been quite a week. Monday’s Council meeting included presentations and delegations, and it is worth watching the video to hear the conversation. Our agenda started with a presentation from staff on a major project:

Crises Response Pilot Project: Prevention, Support and Transition Services Plan and Supportive Housing and Wrap-Around Services Plan
The City has been working since the beginning of this term on our multi-faceted response to the overlapping challenges of homelessness and untreated mental health and addictions. We have committed to addressing the needs of people who are experiencing the three crises with a focus on supportive housing, and on addressing the externalities associated with the three crises that are impacting residents and businesses without compromising our compassionate approach.

Since the beginning of this, we have known that the solution to homelessness is housing and the solution to untreated mental illness is health care, and those resources will take time and significant senior government funding to bring up to the level of need, so we need to take actions to mitigate impacts in the meantime. This report is an update from staff on the current work, and presents a bit of a roadmap for two time frames – both five and ten years ahead. It also clearly lays out what we can do as a City, and where we need to advocate to other levels of government, because people are tired of governments just pointing fingers at each other, we need to work together on the solutions.

Our commitment to this work includes the commitment that we would take a data-informed approach, and lean on the expertise of subject matter experts, and that we would track the progress of the work to assure we are applying resources where they will do the most good. As such, it is informed by the City’s Homelessness Action Strategy, our Housing Needs Reports, and the work of our Mental Health Roundtable. We are not (and cannot!) do this alone. And, of course, we are connecting with the community as we do this work to keep everyone informed and take feedback on progress.

This is the work the Downtown business community has been asking of us, this is the work downtown residents have been asking of us. This is the work the non-profit support community has been asking of us. I have never heard anyone serious about the livability of our community suggest the City slow down and do less of this work.

I wrote more about this project here, and more info about the longer history of our Three Crises Report dating back to 2023 is available here. Finally, despite harmful misinformation being spread in the community, the one thing Council didn’t do was “approve a new illicit drug inhalation centre.”

Along with the above, the following two items were Removed from Consent for discussion:

Community Advisory Assembly Pilot Evaluation and Next Steps
The Community Advisory Assembly pilot project has run for a year, and it is time for us to assess the model and decide if this is something we need to invest in, and if so, what adaptations might make it work better.

Betraying perhaps my bias, I attended the wrap up event for the Assembly members, and it was an unexpectedly inspiring event. This model of true community engagement was a trial, starting with finding a space where a full representation of the diversity of our community could work though some complex issues and provide community feedback to Council. In the sense of community driving the direction of work at City Hall, the Assembly is clearly a success. What we didn’t expect was that we would be giving a group of three dozen residents a deeper and more meaningful connection to their community, and to each other as neighbours. This was a diverse group in every way and over a year of working together they created real bonds, friendships even. They were a bit sad to be ending the term, and the wrap event felt a bit like a graduation ceremony.

Of course, this was a trial, and we committed to reporting out on the first assembly before we commit to continuing this approach. We will measure the results, we will see a report back. We need data to back our good feelings, and to demonstrate value to the broader community. We also need to talk about the resource needs, and it will be up to Council to decide whether this pilot was the start of something sustainable and new.

Notably, the Assembly members unanimously agreed to recommend to Council that the Assembly model should be adopted as a permanent initiative, even if they are not invited back to participate in subsequent years. At a time when the very words diversity, equity, and inclusion are being vilified by the old power systems that fear the people they are elected to serve, this is yet another example of New Westminster doing things differently.

Procurement Strategy for Canadian Made Products
The City’s practices around procuring goods and/or services has always been to source Canadian made alternatives first before sourcing foreign made products all things being equal. However, there are circumstances where Canadian made products are not available or may be cost prohibitive. As a practice, if the cost variance is 10% or less, the City would procure the Canadian product. In situations where a Canadian product may not be available, the Supervisor has recently implemented sourcing off shore products prior to American products. Notably, 97$ of the vendors the City has or currently uses are Canadian vendors.

I added a motion here asking that staff explore including Country of Origin in our regular major purchase reports, and that staff to report to Council prior to making significant purchases where staff are only able to source from United States companies, including consideration if the purchase could be deferred or if an alternative can be identified. There are complications here (vehicles are typically mixed domestic and foreign-made; there are some specialty products like firetrucks that may only be available from American vendors). Councillor Fontaine added an amendment that we restrict travel to the USA by staff, and we asked staff to report back to us on that recognizing there may be necessary reasons such as specialized training or emergency support (such as in wildfire suppression) where we may want to permit such travel.

In the end, Council supported all of the recommendations, with reporting back form staff on how to implement them.

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The following items were approved On Consent:

Dine Kanadiyan, 525 Seventh Street – Application for Patron Participation
Speaking of diversity, an older pub Uptown closed last year, and a new operator has a new model that maybe reflects our demographic shifts – Filipino comfort food. They have had music, but apparently karaoke and dine & dance requires a specific liquor license from the province (add this to the “provincial liquor laws are archaic” pile) which requires us to move a resolution supporting this. There was notice given to the neighbourhood, we got no negative feedback, so Council moved the resolution.

Extend Licence to Occupy BC Hydro Lands for Pollinator Meadow
A few years ago, the community of Connaught Heights approached the City about wanting to put a “pollinator meadow” on some of the green space under the BCHydro power lines that run through the center of their community. The City doesn’t own the land, but worked with the Residents Association to approach BC Hydro and get a license to permit this on their land. This is a great example of a community-driven project where the City can help out, and the birds and the bees can benefit! It is time to update that license agreement for another two years, and Council authorized me to sign that agreement.

Mobile Food Vending Licence Bylaw Amendment
The Food Truck industry has been though a lot of changes over the last few years. Though the boom of the last decade has clearly cooled, there is still a lot of interest in seeing pop-up and diverse food options in commercial areas to add to the active street vibe. The City went through an extensive process in 2016 to find a set of rules that work for the vendors and the business community, and last year added some park sites as a temporary measure due to some public interest in bringing food options to some popular park sites. At the time, we asked to review after a year, and no problems arose, so we are adopting permanent changes that add təməsew̓txʷ, Hume Park, Moody Park and Ryall Park as permitted locations, and made some changes to locations Uptown related to shifts in infrastructure in the neighbourhood.

Shark Fin Regulation Bylaw No. 7564, 2012, Repeal Bylaw No. 8511, 2025
Back in 2012 there was a regional push to ban the sale of shark fin soup due to the unsustainable harvesting practices of the shark fin industry. New West joined the wave. But our updated Business Licence Bylaw includes this, making this stand-alone bylaw redundant. So we are repealing it.

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Council then adopted the following Bylaws:

Five-Year Financial Plan (2025-2029) Bylaw No. 8501, 2025
This Bylaw that codifies Financial Plan for 2025 through 2029 was adopted by Council.

Zoning Bylaw No. 6680, 2001, Amendment Bylaw (Non-Profit Housing Development) No. 8502, 2025
This Bylaw that updates our zoning regulations to allow below- and/or non-market rental housing projects of up to six stories to forego rezoning in mutli-family zoned areas of the city was adopted by Council.

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We then had a few Motions form Council:

Installation of Two Remembrance Day Themed Pedestrian Crosswalks in 2025
Submitted by Councillor Minhas

BE IT RESOLVED THAT staff be directed to provide Council with a budget, potential sources of funding and operating impacts pertaining to the installation of two ‘Remembrance Day’ themed crosswalks with the goal of having them installed in time for the November 11, 2025 Remembrance Day commemoration ceremonies; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the two Remembrance Day themed crosswalk locations be chosen in consultation with the local Legion and representatives from the Canadian Military.

Commemorating Royal Canadian Legion 100 Year Anniversary in 2026
Submitted by Councillor Campbell

BE IT RESOLVED that staff liaise with the Royal Canadian Legion Branch #2 to explore and recommend meaningful opportunities to commemorate the centennial milestone in 2026 to honour the Legion’s tradition of helping veterans, supporting seniors, empowering youth and contributing to the broader community.

I am putting these together, because Council decided to move a modified version of the first motion that included enough of the second motion that the second motion was withdrawn as being redundant. I don’t have a copy of the final motion approved (wait for the minutes to be released, or watch the Council video) but I’ll try to summarize here, hoping I don’t miss anything, and recognizing this blog is not, and had never been, an official record!

The idea of a Memorial Crosswalk (though the mover confusingly kept referring to it as a sidewalk, which may mitigate some concerns) for Veterans is not a new one, and Council is happy to explore this along with other possibilities. I know staff have some concerns specifically about crosswalks as memorials, as they are surprisingly expensive and ultimately very short-lived because placed in prominent locations they often wear out quickly and can lead to a feeling of disrespect if not constantly maintained. In effect, they look great the day the politicians are there to cut the ribbon on them, but degrade quickly, while not providing any real tangible benefit to the veterans they are meant to honour. This is part of the reason the Orange Shirt Day crosswalk idea from last year was changed to a sidewalk mural in Hyack Square – they simply last longer and have longer-term impact if heavy traffic is driving over them all day.

So Council was interested in opening up the discussion to a crosswalk or other similar-veined commemoration, and will have staff report back on that. At the same time, the 100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Legion Branch #2 is coming up next year, which seems an appropriate time for the community to mark the occasion with an appropriate memorial. The important first step is to actually engage with the Legion and have them tell us what they think is appropriate instead of the City imposing one idea or another. In the end, all of Council agreed on this path.

Conducting Market Value Assessment of New West Electrical Utility Assets
Submitted by Councillor Fontaine

BE IT RESOLVED THAT Council request the New West Electrical Utility conduct an independent assessment of its current market value prior to January 2026 and the results be shared with Council; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the New West Electrical Utility Commission be requested to concurrently seek public feedback regarding potential alternate governance and operating models that can provide better value for ratepayers.

I appreciate Councillor McEvoy calling this motion out for what it is: a clear precursor to privatization of public assets. You only spend time and money to do a “market value assessment” if you are interested in putting something on the market. And it raises a bunch of questions about what other public assets the Councillor is interested in selling off to private interests.

I don’t think selling the Electrical Utility off is a good idea for the City. I will write a longer blog post about my amendment to the above motion, which read:

That the NW Electrical Commission include in its ongoing strategic planning and reporting back to Council a pathway to future residential rates that closely match BC Hydro rates while balancing other factors that assure the financial sustainability of the utility.

After approving the amendment, Council decided to refer the entirety of this motion the Electrical Utility commission, who are currently undertaking a Strategic Planning process, and who are really the best body to provide advice to Council on infrastructure planning, governance, and rate setting for the utility.

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That was it for a full and meaningful Council week. No meeting next week, as it is Family Day long weekend, and we need to see what’s been rattling around inside that Tin Soldier for the last 25 years.

Our Monday meeting started with the now-unusual process of a Public Hearing. These are less common now (we used to have one a month or so in the before times) mostly because they are largely illegal now. Where they used to be required for most rezoning, provincial regulations now forbid them if the project is residential and the project is aligned with the Official Community Plan. The two projects on this Agenda were OCP amendments:

Official Community Plan Bylaw No. 7925, 2017, Amendment Bylaw (1135 Salter Street) No. 8454, 2024 and Zoning Bylaw No. 6680, 2001, Amendment Bylaw (1135 Salter Street) No. 8455, 2024
The owner of this lot in the western part of Queensborough wants to build a 45-unit townhouse complex, similar to surrounding townhouse developments, along with a 1000sqm park dedication for part of the lot. This requires an OCP amendment, a rezoning, and a Development Variance Permit for tandem parking.

The application has spent more than a year going through design review and consultation with the community, stakeholders, and First Nations. At request of the latter, the developer hired and had an archeological assessment completed. The community engagement had limited response with tacit approval, Design Panel review resulted in some changes to the project, and Advisory Planning Commission expressed support.

The Public Hearing received a single letter of concern about use of the park dedication, and one person called in to the Public Hearing to ask about property impacts to adjacent properties during construction. Council moved to give these Bylaw amendments Third Reading (effectively approving the project)

Official Community Plan Bylaw No. 7925, 2017, Amendment Bylaw (1084 Tanaka Court) No. 8483, 2024 and Zoning Bylaw No. 6680, 2001, Amendment Bylaw (1084 Tanaka Court) No. 8484, 2024
The owner of this lot in Queensborough wants to do a OCP amendment and rezoning from a Special CD zoning supporting commercial and assembly hall use (brought in a couple of years ago) back to Light Industrial like the surrounding properties. There is no specific development yet proposed. There was community consultation and consult with stakeholders and First Nations, and the Advisory Planning Commission approved the change.

We received no correspondence, and no-one came to speak to the Public Hearing. Council moved to give these Bylaw amendments Third Reading (effectively approving the project)

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We then approved the following items On Consent

Construction Noise Bylaw Exemption Request: 2126 Seventh Avenue (22nd Street SkyTrain Station)
TransLink is needing to do renovations of the 22nd Street Skytrain stations to increase train capacity, and some of the work cannot be done while the track is being used, so they need a construction noise bylaw exemption to permit the work.

Zoning Bylaw No. 6680, 2001, Amendment Bylaw (Non-Profit Housing Development) No. 8502, 2025
Council discussed this at length in workshop last week, and these are the resultant Bylaws to make what Council discussed into a reality. In short, the City is going to “pre-zone” all RM (Residential Multi-family) properties in the City to permit affordable housing to be built as-of-right on sites owned by registered non-profit housing providers or non-profit housing co-operatives, assuming the project meets some specific criteria (no more than six storeys, vehicle access, etc.). This removes one delay and uncertainty for non-profit affordable housing providers and accelerates the approval process. Acceleration is the key word here, as this is part of the Housing Accelerator Fund program for which the City has received federal government funding support.

This funding also allowed us to perform a multi-faceted Public engagement process, through Be Heard New West, though direct interviews with community non-profit housing providers, a community discussion with open to all interested members of the community. Overall, there was support for this measure, and Council has now given it Third Reading.

Zoning Bylaw Text Amendment: 805 Boyd Street – Bylaw for First, Second, and Third Readings
The owner of Queensborough Landing is looking to broaden the available types of retail at the site to include amusement arcades, animal boarding, car washing establishments, commercial schools, delivery and express facilities, food and beverage manufacturing which is associated with a lounge endorsement area or retail component, second hand stores, and trade schools. Times change and the types of uses for retail spaces should be able to change along with them, and there are no specific concerns related to the suite of services that the proponent is proposing here.

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We then worked on these items Removed from Consent for discussion:

2024 Seven Bold Steps and Environment Progress Report
This report is an update on our Seven Bold Step framework on Climate Action, and a bit of check-in on how progress is being made towards our 2023 targets. And it’s a bit of a mixed bag:

Step 1: Carbon-Free Corporation: 30% reduction in emissions, work to do, but on track;
Step 2: Car light: need 60%, at 35.5% – we have much work to do – and need senior government support;
Step 3: Carbon-Free Homes: Are bringing in Zero Carbon step code in an aggressive way, and though existing building stock reductions are hard to measure, this is definitely an area of keen interest for the City and the Province;
Step 4: Pollution free Vehicles: We are not likely to make this target, but accelerating in uptake or electric vehicles is happening, just not at the pace we would have liked;
Step 5: Carbon Free Energy: on the path, and assuring we have sustainable electricity and a robust grid;
Step 6: Robust urban Forest: Thousands of trees planted, this is definitely a good news story;
Step 7: Quality Public Realm: Only 1% re-allocated, we have much work to do here!

It was also interesting that some of the items look like they are going the wrong way, mostly because we now have better and more accurate baseline measures than we did even a couple of years ago. It is clear our per capita emissions are going down, but population and business growth put upward pressure on all of these numbers.

From this point forward, staff are going to be presenting this data on an ongoing way through a “climate dashboard” on the City’s website so we can be held accountable to our targets and goals, and can be transparent on where we need support to be successful.

Budget 2025: 2025 – 2029 Five Year Financial Plan Bylaw
These are the Bylaws that come out of our 4 month long budget discussions. No new news here on the main item if you have been following along, but I will try my best to get some more detailed reporting out on this page about what the 5-year plan entails.

There was a bit of last-minute wrangling as one member of Council wanted to reduce the Police Budget by cutting the stipend to the chair for non-specific reasons. This was procedurally ill-informed as Council does not have the authority to make this change (allocation of Police Board budget is the authority of the Police Board under the Police Act), and if we did reduce the budget by this small amount there is no way for us to demand what part of police operations are impacted, and as we have an approved provisional budget) it would likely result in a conflict between Council and the Police Board that would require arbitration (ironically, costing Council and the Police Board more than this small cost reduction), so Council voted against this.

There was also a last minute very small change to provide some increased funding to the Walking School Bus program, after Council voted earlier in the year to support expansion of the program but to encourage staff and the provider to determine the most viable funding mechanism through City grants or other means. Turns out with some timeliness concerns, the best means was to just approve as part of the budget.

Construction Noise Bylaw Exemption Request: 651 Carnarvon Street (Provincial Courthouse) – Signia Construction Ltd.
The Provincial Courthouse is undergoing huge envelope renovations that the courts cannot permit to happen during court hours. It has been a difficult process for some neighbours, and frustrating for the City, as we hear complaints but have little authority here- If we deny them a permit and they will work anyway (they are, after all, the Province) or we can provide a permit with some conditions and use that to keep neighbours in the community informed and provide a conduit to reporting complaints.

Financial Statements Audit Planning Report for the year ending December 31, 2024
Every year the city needs to have an independent auditor review our financial reporting and assure we are compliant with Public Service Accounting Standards, and that there are sufficient checks to assure there is no malfeasance in how the public’s money is collected, counted, and spent. This is the report where our auditor explains what their process will be for reviewing our finances, and Council approves it.

Revised Council Travel and Expense Policy
I brought a motion last year asking that staff review and revise Council’s travel expense policy. Since I’ve been on Council, the process has basically been “each Councillor gets ~$5k (the Mayor ~$10K) to spend on travel to conferences or training every year, if you exceed that you need to ask Council for more”. The new policy expands on this to put more control on out-of-province and international travel, and requires more reporting back to Council on travel that isn’t just the usual Lower Mainland LGA, UBCM and FCM trips. There is an increase in transparency here, and perhaps a bit more accountability in demonstrating why the travel or education is of value to the City.

Times have changed. The Mayor of New Westminster used to travel internationally on a pretty regular basis, be it Wayne Wright going to China with a group of local businessmen to Mayor Cote and a few members of Council attending a Sustainable Cities conference in Portland, Oregon. I think the travel-for-education part and the networking and advocacy work at events like UBCM is really valuable and something we should support, where I think the old-school idea that we need to travel to visit our Sister Cities in Asia every term to “maintain relationships” (yes, this used to happen, before my time on Council) is not something the average citizen sees as a valuable use of local government resources anymore.

Transparency and accountability – these are good things!

Rezoning: 88 Tenth Street (Columbia Square) – Affordable Housing Legal Agreement
Council gave Third Reading to the rezoning for this large development project late last year, and the developer and staff are working though the various conditions and Master Planning steps that need to be completed prior to the City adopting those Bylaws and giving “final approval”. As the City requested a provision of Affordable Housing as part of the development (20% of the total rental residential floor space), the tool we use to secure this is a Section 219 Covenant – a legal agreement between the City and the Developer regulated by Provincial Regulations. This report is asking Council to give the Mayor and the Corporate Officer the authority to sign that covenant.

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We then had two Motions from Council:

New Westminster Hospice
Submitted by Councillor Campbell

WHEREAS the City of New Westminster is driven by the vision to be a vibrant, compassionate, resilient city where everyone can thrive.
WHEREAS the New West Hospice Society is dedicated to building a grassroots hospice initiative from the community level up, based on the Compassionate City model with a major underlying purpose to acknowledge and affirm that dying, death and grief are natural parts of the life-cycle.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT the City of New Westminster work with the New West Hospice Society and external partners to explore potential locations for Hospice services, and to advocate to the Provincial Government for the supports required to bring adequate and compassionate end-of-life care beds to New Westminster.

New Westminster Hospice Society has been doing incredible work in the City for about 8 years now, raising awareness of Hospice, and raising the conversation about dying with dignity and death as a natural process we need to be comfortable talking about. We are all getting there, sooner or later.

New Westminster does not have a stand-alone hospice and the one or two hospice care beds in the City do not meet our community’s needs. The Society wants to change that, and this motion results from them asking the City to support them in locating space and in advocating to the Provincial Government to support the operation of a hospice space in the City.

Re-establishing Vancouver Canucks Outdoor Community Gatherings in New Westminster
Submitted by Councillor Minhas

WHEREAS after over 50 seasons, there remains eternal hope that our cherished Vancouver Canucks will one day bring home the cherished Stanley Cup.
WHEREAS New Westminster Canucks fans would like to have the opportunity to demonstrate their support for the team right at home rather than having to travel to Vancouver.
WHEREAS the City of New Westminster has approved funding for the purchase of large outdoor TV screens and is preparing to host public activities in conjunction with the FIFA World Cup in 2026.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT staff be directed to begin preparations to host, in potential partnership with the Downtown Business Improvement Area and the New West Chamber of Commerce, a series of outdoor Canucks viewing events if they make it into the playoffs in 2025; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT staff report back to Council prior to March 31, 2025 with the operational and financial impacts as well as revenue generating opportunities associated with hosting outdoor/indoor
Canucks playoff events

This idea got bounced about a bit, and Council seemed to provide at best tacit support, mostly because there didn’t seem to have been much thought put into the details, and so there is a need to figure out some of those details before the City commits to it.

Mostly, there doesn’t seem to have been any attempt to determine if the Downtown BIA (as representatives of the downtown business community and organizers of public events downtown), Chamber of Commerce or Tourism (as Business promotion orgs funded in part by the City) have any interest in this happening. Does the downtown business community want this? Is the proposal to do this every night (current Miller / Pettersson / Demko uncertainty aside, the Canucks could play 20+ playoff games in the next two years without ever getting out of the second round) or a sub-set of games? Why Hockey and not any other sport? To quote another member of Council I have a lot of questions

In the end, Council didn’t say “no”, but suggested we need to talk to potential partners at the Arts Culture and Economic Development Advisory Committee and have staff report back to us on resource requirements. At least this year we are talking about it before the playoffs start. Go Canucks Go.

Back at it! We had our first Council meeting of 2025, and our first with some changes in the schedule and procedures as approve by Council at the end of last year. Not sure if it was a result of the new scheduling, fairly light agenda, or everyone chilled from a good holiday break, but the meeting went relatively quick and smooth. We started by approving the following item On Consent:

Construction Noise Bylaw Exemption Request: 1031 Quebec Street, New Westminster – Metro Vancouver Annacis Water Supply Tunnel, Fraser River Crossing
The big watermain tunneling project under the Fraser is facing a few delays, and need to extend their construction noise Bylaw exemption. They are anticipating the Tunnel Boring Machine will break through to the shaft in New West at the current construction site on Quebec Street early this spring, and they will need to work quickly to get the equipment out of the hole to reduce risk of flooding impacts on the in-ground works. This shouldn’t be too noisy at the surface, as it is mostly carne operations above ground, but bylaws be bylaws and they need an exemption.

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We then dealt with the following items Removed from Consent for discussion:

Budget 2025: Proposed Consolidated 2025 – 2029 Five-Year Financial Plan
Council has held several open workshops covering the various aspects of the annual budget, operational and capital, utility and general, and now staff have consolidated that input into the (regulated) framework of a Five Year Financial Plan. In New West, we have all of these budget discussions in open meetings (unlike many cities) and if you are detail-oriented, you can follow along with those discussions with the reports, the spreadsheets, and the video here:

October 7 (Police Department provisional budget)
October 28 (Report on the Budget Survey)
November 25 (Utility Budgets and Strategic Plan update)
December 2 (General Operating Fund, proposed enhancements and tax rate impacts)
December 9 (Five-Year Capital Plan)

When it comes to the headline item – the annual operational budget and property tax impacts – Council reviewed a variety of budget options for the year ahead, ranging from a 4.5% increase (which would have required significant cuts in programs, something our public opinion polling clearly showed the vast majority of New Westminster residents and businesses do not support), a 5.5% increase (which would keep us at current service levels with inflationary increases and contract commitments kept intact), up to a 7.6% increase (which would support the requested 0.9% from the Police Department and a few other enhancements that Council had requested over the last year). We settled on deferring some of those enhancements and found a balance at 6.6%. of the enhancements that make up that 6.6% increase this year. For a typical New Westminster household, they break down like this:

More than half of the increase (shades of orange) are fixed and inflationary costs – work we have already committed to that is going up in cost around the 3% inflation rate. I broke out E-Comm (the organization that provided emergency communications for the Fire and Police Departments) because their increase is significant again this year, well above inflation, and we simply don’t have an alternative but to pay for it. The blue zones are the enhancements to services that Council agreed to and had a property tax implication. As you can see, most of this is police as we face higher recruitment costs and are managing a backfill strategy that will reduce burnout and assure we have adequate frontline folks at all times. The cost of software and cyber security is going up, as local governments are both moving to more digital services (such as building approvals) while we are increasingly victims of hacking and ransomware attacks, we can’t scrimp here.

We also approved a Capital Budget for the next 5 years that will include some significant investments in the community, from renovation of the Massey Theatre to advancing of the approved Active Transportation Network Plan and significant upgrades to our Electrical Utility to support higher reliability in Queensborough and expanded substation capacity to address anticipated demand growth. Those investments in the community will result in a drawdown of reserves, which we anticipate to be mitigated somewhat as we continue to work senior governments for support in infrastructure funding.

I will follow up through this month with more detailed posts about different aspects of the budget, but for now Council has asked Staff to write up the appropriate Bylaws to support this financial plan so Council can move recommendation. If you have feedback, let us know!

Follow-up Report on Council Motion: Strategy and Resources to Require Cooling in Existing Rental Buildings
The Heat Dome of 2021 still stands as a stark reminder (not that we need one this week with LA burning down) of the climate-disrupted future we need to address. The City has been doing a lot of work to reduce the impacts of future heatwaves, from our vulnerable building survey and one cool room programs, but these are responses that react to a situation, while better emergency management practice would be to use experience to prevent future vulnerability. We have not had people freeze to death in rental buildings of late, but we have had dozens of people die of heat exhaustion in their rental homes. Council has asked staff to explore what regulatory tools are available to the City to enforce maximum temperatures for rental buildings, much like minimum temperatures are already regulated.

This report outlines the work plan and gives Council a heads-up of the cost (mostly for external legal advice), which Council approved. We will also explore the appropriate fund (or senior government support tool) to pay for this, as it overlaps with climate mitigation work.

Response to Council Motion: “Cycling Sundays on Front Street” 2025 Pilot
As Front Street is planned for reopening in the spring after being closed for months for Pattullo Bridge replacement work, there was a request by Council to explore closing it on Sundays for cycling or walking, like done during 2020 as part of the City’s Safe Space to Move project during the COVID pandemic.

Staff looked at the request, and reported back that they recommend against it. The experience from 2020 was that it worked as a short-term pilot during the COVID times (reduced traffic, uncertainty about safety of traditional public gathering spaces) but also raised concerns from TransLink around truck capacity reductions, safety around the rail corridor and access to the couple of riverfront industrial properties on Front. Add to this the Pattullo Project already causing significant traffic disruption on adjacent streets (even after Front Street re-opening, they are going to need to start building and re-routing onramps) and a sense of general weariness in the local business community about these kind of closures (notably, they didn’t ask for this). There is also uncertainty if TransLink would even approve this change to a regional Truck Route, and it would cost time and effort to put the traffic impact studies together to make the case to them.

These are all technical challenges, and though some may be hard to address in time for the 2025 summer season, they can probably be overcome with significant cost. In the end, staff are suggesting that adding $120,000 – $200,000 to our budget plus the additional staffing resources might not be the best way to promote active transportation, never mind extra cost related to any active programming if the City wanted to take that on as well. In the end, Council unanimously agreed to not support this for 2025, though we are not closing the door to similar programs after the Pattullo work is done or a special occasion arises where it makes sense for the community to invest a bit here.

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We had one Motion from Council:

Strong Cities Network
Submitted by Councillor Nakagawa

WHEREAS the City of New Westminster has a focus on Community Belonging and Connecting as a core priority in the current strategic plan, and
WHEREAS division, extremism, and polarization are on the rise both locally and globally,
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT the City of New Westminster join the Strong Cities Network.

This discussion was framed by a delegation from the Strong Cities Network that talked about the work they do, and the partnerships and resources available to Cities who want to come along on the journey towards stronger community connections. There is not cost for us to join, but there are clear benefits. One of the most compelling parts of their presentation to me was discussion of the work they did after the Hamas terror attacks of October 7, 2023 and ongoing Israeli reprisals, where they sought to bring local Israeli and Palestinian communities together in North American cities to engage in dialogue and break the cycle of blame and polarization. We felt that polarization here in New Westminster (and in other cities in the Lower Mainland), and struggled to find ways to support constructive dialogue. I hope our joining with the Strong Cities Network (as Council voted to do) we can access some better tools and share our experiences, and not just make our City stronger, but support better social cohesion and understanding.

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We then had a long raft of Bylaws for Adoption:

Official Community Plan Amendment (102/104 Eighth Avenue and 728 First Street Bylaw No. 8374, 2023
Zoning Amendment Bylaw (102/104 Eighth Avenue and 728 First Street) Bylaw No. 8375, 2023
These bylaws that support a 10-unit townhouse development in Glenbrooke North were adopted by Council. Infill coming!

Graphic Image Delivery Bylaw No. 8488, 2024;
Bylaw Notice Enforcement Bylaw No. 7318, 2009, Amendment Bylaw (Graphic Image Delivery) No. 8499, 2024;
Municipal Ticket Information Bylaw No. 8077, 2019, Amendment Bylaw (Graphic Image Delivery) No. 8500, 2024
These bylaws that require printed material that shows or appears to show a graphic image of an aborted fetus be delivered in a sealed opaque envelope with a warning and the name and address of the sender was adopted by Council.

Bylaw Notice Enforcement Bylaw No. 7318, 2009, Amendment Bylaw (Business Licence) No. 8489, 2024;
Municipal Ticket Information Bylaw No. 8077, 2019, Amendment Bylaw (Business Licence) No. 8490, 2024
These Bylaws that support enforcement of our updated Business Licence Bylaw was adopted by Council.

And that was the end of the work for the night. Happy 2025.

It’s Christmas time, but we had one more Council Meeting to get done before we take the year end break. Pa-rum pa pum pum. You can, as always, read the agenda or watch the video by selecting the date here. We started this meeting with a special presentation.

Recommendations on Cultural Observances from the Community Advisory Assembly
This was a recommendation to Council from the Community Advisory Assembly, a large group of regular folks from the community who the City has asked to come together once a month and make recommendations to Council. The model is innovative, and you can read about it here, but this report is about their suggestions on how we should address “Cultural Observances” in our remarkably diverse and growing city.

The way the City approaches Cultural Observances is some combination of “what we have always done” with occasional additions to reflect some identified cultural group in the community. We decorate City Hall with lights and poinsettias at Christmas because we always have, we light up City Hall at Diwali because we identified (relatively recently) that it was meaningful to the Sikh and Hindu members of our community. But we don’t really have a clear policy or practice around how we make these decisions, and we can’t mark every conceivable occasion or we would be doing nothing but that. So it is a good question to ask the community – how should we do this?

There are some great recommendations here, based on a better understanding the three types of events the City marks (Collective identity / Community led / Awareness-raising), and the different roles the city plays in each. Some of the changes suggested will require resources to action, and may lead to bigger discussions about how we allocate funding and support for events in the City, so we are referring back to staff to figure out how to function.

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We then moved the following items On Consent:

2024 Capital and Operating Quarterly Performance Report
We get quarterly financial reports, so this is how we are doing today not directly related to the budget work we are doing for next year, but obviously informing of it.

As of the end of Q3, we have spent or committed $68.3M of our $199.8M Capital budget. Inflation and other pressures have increased capital costs by $5.1M (about 2.6%) but staff found internal savings and scope changes to reduce this impact to $500K.

On the Operating side, we are trending positively in both revenues (0.4% in surplus) and expenses (0.3% below budget), so overall very close to budget.

If you are a budget geek, there are about 50 pages of spreadsheets and departmental memos attached to this report about where we have spent money, where we are over an under budget. Fun part of about City budgeting is that we are about as open a book as possible, from who we paid $$3,645,435 to for paving services to the cost of the Crises Response Pilot Project or the cost for people to run recreation programs at təməsew̓txʷ. It’s all in there.

Bylaw Notice Enforcement Bylaw and Municipal Ticket Information Bylaw Amendments (Business Licence) for First, Second and Third Readings
We updated our Business License Bylaw, and need to update our Bylaw Enforcement and Ticketing bylaws so we can enforce it.

Official Community Plan Amendment and Rezoning: 1084 Tanaka Court – Bylaws for First and Second Readings
The owners of this vacant property in Queensborough changed it from Heavy industrial to a Comprehensive Development to support public assembly and retail use back in 2018. With market conditions changing, they want to now rezone it to Light Industrial to match the adjacent properties. This requires an OCP amendment, and these are those Bylaws.

The application is aligned with City policy and adjacent land uses. The proponent completed their required community and regional consultation and no red flags were raised. As it’s an OCP amendment, it will require a Public Hearing, which will happen early in the new year. Send us a note and let us know what you think.

Temporary Amendment to the Vehicle Procurement Process
We had a report last year on some challenges our purchasing department had in acquiring new vehicles in a difficult time for the supply chain of some specialty vehicles, especially newer lower-carbon options. We approved a temporary measure to accelerate the purchasing process, and staff are asking us to extend this change until the end of 2026 to support our current Capital Plan.

Our purchase process is still transparent and accountable to the public – nothing is purchased until approved by Council in a capital budget, and the price paid and seller is reported in our quarterly financial reports (see above!) under Major Purchasing Report.

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We then had these items Removed from Consent for discussion:

Cannabis Store Relocation Requests: North Root Cannabis Ltd. and the Queensborough Cannabis Company
When we introduced our first policies around the regulation of cannabis sales in New West, we are entering unknown territory, and were looking at a significant “gold rush” mentality where a lot of people were hoping to be the first in the door or a potentially lucrative but likely risky business area. Our response as a City was to limit the number of applications we would consider, and use a screening mechanism to determine which applications would be considered on the first tranche. Then 2020 came and priorities changed, and we have not had a second or subsequent tranche of applications.

Lots has changed in the cannabis business (the gold rush is clearly over) and in the City since 2018. We have had two of the originally-approved applicants ask us to revise their permits, for different reasons. Staff are recommending we wait until we have an opportunity to revise our approval program in 2025.

As neither of these operators are of any concern to the City, they both passed initial screening and have viable business plans, and we are not dealing with the same pressures as in 2018, I felt it was unfair to make them wait until we get a revision of the policy done. So we are asking that their applications be advanced ASAP, as they have both been waiting quite a while to get to this point.

The second question is whether we want to remove the cannabis retail use from the existing properties. If we don’t then there may be two cannabis retailers in Queensborough (the same as there is now) and Sapperton (where there currently aren’t any). If we do, there will still be only one cannabis retailer in Sapperton instead of two. Council made a decision (I was a dissenting vote) to remove the permitted use from the existing sites.

Graphic Image Delivery Bylaw No. 8488, 2024 for First, Second and Third Reading
The community called on us to do something about the deplorable practice of Anti-Women’s Healthcare Activists of dropping graphic abortion-related flyers in mailslots and mailboxes. After councillors Campbell and Henderson brought forward a motion on this, staff have drafted a bylaw that does not infringe on activist’s right to political speech, but requires that graphic images be inside an opaque envelope that clearly indicates what the contents are.

We are the first municipality in British Columbia (but not the first in Canada) to take this step, and I’m proud of the community for pushing this, and our staff for finding a clear legal process.

Response to Council motion re: Selecting an inclusive and accessible site for the 2025 Canada Day celebration and festivities.
Council moved a recommendation to review our annual Canada Day event back in September, or more to ask what resources would look like to review this. A proper engagement with the community will cost money, and will take several months. As Canada Day events themselves take several months to organize (is actually starting right now), we are not likely to have a fulsome consultation prior to July 1, 2025. So staff recommendation is to roll this work into the work coming out of the Community Advisory assembly discussion (above), recognizing this will not occur before the 2025 events.

Another advantage of this is that part of this engagement can happen at and around the 2025 Canada Day events.Of note, the event at Pier Park had some logistical challenges related to the construction at Pier West, but still had more than 6,000 people come and attend (compared to ~400 estimated at the last Queens Park Canada Day event), and this was a real boost for the Downtown businesses appreciated by the BIA, so it is important that we engage with them and not use anecdotal info to inform how we organize these events.

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We then had the following Bylaws for Adoption:

Electrical Utility Bylaw No. 6502, 1998, Amendment Bylaw No. 8497, 2024
This Bylaw that sets the City’s electrical rates for 2025 was adopted by Council.

Engineering User Fees and Rates Bylaw No. 7553, 2013, Amendment Bylaw No. 8496, 2024
This Bylaw that sets the City’s water, sewer, and solid waste rates for 2025 was adopted by Council.

Revenue Anticipation Borrowing Amendment Bylaw No. 8489, 2024
This Bylaw that permits the city to use a line of credit to cover short-term cash shortages prior to taxes being received was adopted by Council.

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We then had two Motions from Council:

Tin Soldier Time Capsule Opening
Submitted by Councillor Campbell

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED That Staff report back with a plan and budget to host a Tin Soldier Time Capsule Opening on Friday, February 14th(Valentine’s Day) that it is open to the public, invites individuals and associations who helped design and construct the Tin Soldier, and works with community partners, including Tourism New Westminster, River Market and the Downtown Business Improvement Association in order to promote the Time Capsule Opening and includes opportunities for local restaurants and services to attract event attendees to their establishments before or after the Time Capsule Opening.

This motion doesn’t need much explanation more than what is above, but if anyone has a cd-rom drive we can borrow to read what is likely inside a time capsule sealed in 2000, let us know!

School Streets Pilot Program
Submitted by Councillor Henderson

WHEREAS one of Council’s Strategic Priorities is the Safe Movement of People, outlining a commitment to prioritize the movement of people on foot, cycle, and transit on streets that are safer for all; and
WHEREAS Bold Step #2: Car Light Community in the City’s 7 Bold Steps for Climate Action plan references school area improvements that support walking, transit, and cycling to school as potential capital projects; and
WHEREAS Bold Step #7: Quality People-Centred Public Realm states that a minimum of 10% of today’s street space that currently only serve motor vehicles, excluding transit, will be reallocated for sustainable transportation or public gathering by 2030; and
WHEREAS the streets around local schools experience marked increases in motor vehicle traffic at drop-off and pick-up times when there is a high concentration of children on and near roadways; and
WHEREAS there are both provincial and national initiatives that fund the creation of car-free spaces on streets in front of schools at the start and/or end of the school day;
BE IT RESOLVED that staff report back to Council on the opportunity for the City of New Westminster to partner with the Society of Children and Youth BC to explore safe streets initiatives around selected schools; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that staff work with School District 40 to identify which schools would be appropriate to launch a School Streets Pilot Program that would reflect the principles of the National and/or BC Active School Streets Initiative; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that staff report back on the capital and operating costs associated with the implementation of a School Streets Pilot program; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that staff be directed to work with SD40 and other partners to update our Safe Routes to Schools maps.

Councillor Henderson has been working with the local schools community around various aspects of road safety. This is one of the results of that collaboration.

School Streets programs are popular in other jurisdictions, where road around schools are shut down for car traffic for fixed times around school hours, creating safer walking and cycling spaces for students and parents alike. There is a provincially-supported pilot program, but we missed the deadline for application this year, which doesn’t mean we can’t explore doing the program anyway if the School District is onboard.

As an edition to this, it was recognized that the City’s Safer Routes to Schools maps, which were developed in the early 2000s, might need updating as school catchments have changed, as has some of the transportation network. So Councillors is asking staff to work with the School District to see what updates might be needed here.

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And that was it for the last Council meeting of 2025. We’ve beed seeing Santa around a lot lately, so we have been reducing our shouting, crying, and pouting, as instructed by song. I hope you l have a great holidays, and that 2025 is good to you and your family. 

We had a pretty light Council agenda on Monday, though we had pretty meaty daytime workshop talking Budget. The evening Agenda began with approval of the following items On Consent:

2025 Revenue Anticipation Borrowing Amendment Bylaw 8480, 2024
The City spends money every month, pretty much the same amount every month, because most of what we pay is salaries. However we get a big chunk of our income over a short period of time in the middle of the year – tax time. That means we need to operate a “float” to get us through, and there is a small, but not zero, chance that a major expense happens right before tax time or that something interrupts tax time. If we were a business, we would manage tis with a Line of Credit. As the City is not permitted to borrow money without Council approval by Bylaw, we need to pass a bylaw every year that allows staff to borrow up to $3 Million for a very short period (<1 year) in an emergency if current cash-in-hand cannot cover an emergent expense. This is that bylaw.

Official Community Plan Amendment, Rezoning, and Development Variance Permit: 1135 Salter Street – Bylaws for First and Second Readings
The owner of 1035 Salter Street in the middle of Queensborough wants to build 45 townhouse units. This requires an OCP amendment, rezoning, and a DVP for tandem parking, which has been a pretty standard practice for townhouse developments in Queensborough. As an OCP amendment, this has gone through public consultation and consultation with external stakeholders and rights holders. Design Panel and ACP have recommended approval. This will go to a Public Hearing, and so I will hold my comments until then.

Response to Council Motion Re: Improving the public’s access to trees during the City’s bi-annual tree sale
Staff have looked at our annual tree sale program based on a council request from a few months ago to expand it. Staff reviewed the program and report that the current scope meets the goals of the program and the level of community interest (the current subscription rate is around 95%), so there is no compelling reason to expand the program, especially considering the taxpayer subsidy that would require.

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The following items were Removed from Consent for discussion:

Age-Friendly Community Strategy Update Work Plan
The City adopted an Age-Friendly Community Strategy in 2017, and were well into implementation of the plan when COVID forced staff to pivot to emergency-response then recovery work. Then came the Heat Dome, Wildfire impacts, food inflation, and ongoing housing instability among the factors that disproportionally impacted seniors in our community, and through our reactions to these crises as they emerged, it was recognized that our 2017 Strategy needs an update to meet the shifted needs of the seniors demographic. We received a grant from the Province to lead this work, and will be doing the background work over the winter that will lead to a fulsome consultation with the community next spring and summer, with a revised strategy prepared for the fall of 2025.

Budget 2025: Engineering and Electrical Utility Amendment Bylaws Report
We had an extended workshop discussion of the utility budgets last week, these are the bylaws that result. The reality is that the cost of providing utility services is going up, largely because the cost of building infrastructure that supports the delivery of water, sewer, electrical, and solid waste services is increasing at a rate much higher than CPI “inflation”.
I will follow up with a separate post that goes through these (if you just can’t wait, look at the flow diagrams I created previously, and see where the money actually goes), but here is the short info now.

Electrical rates will be going up by 3.5%, which is the same as predicted last year, and what the Electrical Utility Commission recommended. This represents a much smaller increase than BC Hydro is proposing this year (closer to 6.5%), and continues the practice of us trying to create consistency and predictability in our costs.

Solid waste and water increases are 12% and 6%, as we expected going into this year. The main driver in water is the increase in rates from Metro Vancouver for water (going up more than 10% this year), and the main driver in Solid Waste being our need to solidify our reserves as our vehicle fleet is coming up for renewal.

The sewer rates are going up more than anticipated (10%), as Council had a conversation about how to manage one-time costs related to major infrastructure costs from Metro Vancouver (mostly the North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant). Again, smoothing it out so the impact is spread over several years was decided to be preferable than taking a big hit this year and lesser hits in the next couple of years.

These core services of the City, clean water, responsibly managed wastes, and reliable electricity to heat and warm our homes, are highly valued by our residents according to the recent ISPSO survey of the community. They are not inexpensive to deliver, but overall 87% of New Westminster residents think they get good value for their dollar for utility services.

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We had a single Bylaw for Adoption:

Council Procedure Bylaw No. 6910, 2004, Amendment Bylaw No.8493, 2024
This Bylaw that shifts around the order of how thing happen in our Evening Council meetings was adopted, so next meeting it will be a bit different, but more of the same, just hopefully a bit more efficient.

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We closed our meeting with two Motions from Council:

Vape Shops
Submitted by Councillor Fontaine

Whereas there has been a significant increase in the number of vape shops that have been opening in the City of New Westminster; and
Whereas a proliferation of vape shops throughout our city does not support the City’s efforts at creating a balanced and community-based retail market; and
Whereas dramatically increasing easier access to vape shops could result in more youth regularly consuming a product that has known and serious health risks
BE IT RESOLVED THAT staff report back regarding what options are within Council’s jurisdiction to limit the overall number and locations of business licenses issued for new vape shops

This motion was adopted by Council with Councillor Henderson adding an amendment asking that we take a resolution to the Lower Mainland LGA asking the Province to step up regulation of Vape shops to be more akin to the regulation of liquor and cannabis, which would give the City better tools and create a province-wide approach instead of city-by-city whack-a-mole approach.

Vision Zero
Submitted by Mayor Johnstone

Whereas many jurisdictions have adopted a Vision Zero strategy to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries, while increasing safe, healthy, and equitable mobility for all; and
Whereas a true Vision Zero strategy requires cooperation and coordination between agencies of the municipal and provincial governments, of the likes not yet achieved in British Columbia; and
Whereas Council’s 2023-2026 Strategic Priorities Plan includes a focus on “Safe Movement of People” which identified the need for collaborative relationships across agencies to advance a Vision Zero mindset; and
Whereas traffic calming and management was identified in a recent survey of New Westminster residents as one area the City needs to demonstrate more progress;
Therefore be it resolved that Council strike a Vision Zero Task Force including but not limited to representatives from engineering staff, NWFR, NWPD, ICBC, Fraser Health, TransLink, the Walkers Caucus and the disability community to make recommendations to Council to achieve Vision Zero.

This motion was also(!) amended by Councillor Henderson to include further potential representatives form community organizations, then queerly amended by Councillor Minhas to add his BFF Councillor Fontaine to the task force, which was strangely premature considering we haven’t even developed a Terms of Reference yet, but I am glad to see this work beginning and appreciate the community groups who came to speak to the need for a new approach on road safety. I will write more on this in a subsequent post.

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And that was the end of the agenda. We have daytime workshops next Monday and the week after to discuss budget work. And though I don’t report on those here explicitly, they results will come to council and I’ll report on them then, or you can always go here and watch them in live action internet colour TV action!