Property taxes in New West to officially go up 6.4% for this year

Editor’s note: read the full play-by-play via Twitter here. 

Monday’s special council meeting included the next steps in the five-year financial plan: giving three readings to the bylaw for 2023 to 2027—and making the 6.4% property tax increase official, which is indeed what happened.

It also included some feedback from residents in the city: there were multiple calls by some, including Kevin Schwantje, Rohan Singh, Jack Makolewski, Brad Cavanaugh, and Dr. Elliot Rossiter, to spend today to invest in a better tomorrow.

Similarly, Janice Meehan, who lived in Surrey before moving to New Westminster in 2016, cited her former city as an example of how things can go wrong when municipalities don’t invest in their communities—making note at one point that Surrey was called the “car theft capital of North America.”

Though many of these folks overall agreed with the budget, there was some constructive criticism attached to their comments. Schwantje, who opened his remarks noting that he was a proud renter who lived close to shelters and social services, urged the mayor and council to be bold when it comes to investing in the future, whether that be bikes lanes, more city tree cover, and more housing affordability.

Rick Folka, who has spoken at multiple council meetings on this topic prior to Monday night, reiterated his disappointment with the budget. Phil Goldfeldt said he was not pleased with the way the city was spending money.

Resident Chris Bell asked council to imagine a city staffer asking for more help with a couple more full-time colleagues, only to find out that hundreds of thousands of city dollars would be spent on a toilet.

Public delegations wrapped up in about an hour, with council moving to the next stage of the meeting—though, before the readings went ahead, there was a discussion of an amendment presented by Coun. Daniel Fontaine. Fontaine’s amendment asked for less of a property tax increase—5.4% instead of 6.4%. Additionally, he asked that the increase in the base wage of council be frozen until at least 2024, with the belief it would send a message to the community about where council’s priorities are.

Fontaine felt there wasn’t an opportunity to compare what a 5.4% increase would look like, and that he wouldn’t be supporting the budget, as is. Coun. Paul Minhas called the budget “heavy-handed” and declared that he too would be voting against it.

Coun. Nadine Nakagawa noted that she didn’t support the large expenditure allocated to the New Westminster Police, but that overall, it felt appropriate to support. Coun. Tasha Henderson said much of the same.

Coun. Jaimie McEvoy had a number of points to make, including pointing out that the rent argument related to the trickling down effect of the 6.4% property tax increase wasn’t one he was a fan of, since what you can and can’t do with rent is regulated by the provincial government.

The budget was supported 5-2, with Fontaine and Minhas voting against it, as they said they would prior to the vote.

Fontaine and Minhas also voted against all three readings to bring the bylaw into approval.

The next regular meeting of council will be on Monday, April 24.