A chat with New West mayoral hopeful Chuck Puchmayr

We’ve had a chance to take a look at the local platforms, and now it’s time to chat with the three people vying for the job of mayor of New Westminster. 

Each mayoral candidate was asked five questions that touched on themes related to diversity and inclusion, housing, construction and city development, and the arts. None of the questions were provided in advance.  

This was followed by two questions I had specifically for them, plus a fun question inspired by Twitter user @maybe2mrrow. 

These are the full transcriptions of these interviews, with some light editing for clarity. 

A variety of voices

RR: The city has a large millennial population (27%); ethnically, 36% of New Westies speak a language other than English or French. Examples include Punjabi, Tagalog, Cantonese and Mandarin. 

There appears to be disengagement municipally: of the 52,222 people eligible to vote in 2018, just 28% showed up to the polls—that’s less than the municipal election prior. 

If elected, what three things would you do to ensure that City Hall and local politics are a welcoming, diverse, and accessible space for the variety of people who make up the city of New Westminster?

CP: That’s one of the platforms I’m running on, to make city council more open. One time we had the most open, one of the most open, councils in Metro Vancouver; people could show up prior to 7, fill out a form, and speak. We’ve seen a real reduction in the number of people who come to speak to council, and I know COVID has been somewhat of a factor. But even since we’ve lifted the COVID restrictions with regards to showing up, having to make an appointment prior… just seems to prevent some people [from] that easy access that they used to have. I’d like to go back to that. 

There are seniors that aren’t involved; I think in American elections, they said about 25% of seniors didn’t engage the same way on social media. They’re not on Twitter; they’re on Facebook so they can see pictures of their grandkids, but they’re not engaged the same way, they’re not that active, they’re not doing polls and I think that as technology changes you still need to respect everyone in that community, including those who that have difficulties with the English language. 

RR: I do have a follow-up for you on that: you’ve talked about that openness and transparency, and fast forward to 2022, and you say that’s changed. Do you have any insight as to where that may have changed? 

CP: Well, I don’t know exactly when, but there have been some contentious council meetings, there have been members of council that feel that delegations are overly aggressive, or they’re not choosing their words properly, and I say to them that in the years I’ve been involved in local governments, those don’t happen very often. When there’s a really contentious issue people are really angry, and you get a form of hostility on both sides of the question. I’ve always said that as an elected official, it’s your duty to sit there and listen.

I find listening to people that are angry about an issue rather than shutting them down works better because they come and they vent their frustrations, and they go home and they have at least felt they’ve been heard. But interrupting them constantly and calling the mayor to call to order, they feel like they’ve been not able to address council. It’s rare that you get these really charged emotional meetings, and I’ve always felt that it’s our obligation to sit there and listen. 

If the language becomes vulgar, or they make some insults, or if they cross the line on racism or something along those lines, then sure. But other than that, there are issues that people feel very passionate about and they feel very hurt sometimes about the direction we’re going. I’ve always found it should be your obligation to sit there and listen to those. And it’s not all the time, it doesn’t happen all the time, it’s a rare incident where you go a six, seven hour public hearing, but at least people have been heard. 

Housing

RR:  It’s common on some of the Facebook groups and the r/NewWest Reddit thread to see people asking for any leads on a place to rent. 

In one instance, someone looking for a one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment with a rental budget of $1,600-$1,800 said they go to viewings but are often beaten out by people who make more than them or are coupled up. “I’m starting to feel pretty down,” they said. So, what’s the solution?

CP: Probably one of the worst, most serious issues facing us right now is housing, which also triggers to homelessness. Just before [our interview] I ran into a woman in the bank who lived at Queen’s Park for years, had a benevolent landlord that was happy to have a tenant to live in his beautiful house, and she’d lived there for years and years and years at a really low rent. I noticed her in the bank and she said, “Yeah, they’ve sold the building, there’s new owners, new tenants now,” and she says she’s paying more in a one-bedroom apartment in New West than she was for this house. 

It’s just become a market of profit. People have speculated, we’ve had developers start to come in and buy out complete apartment blocks, we saw the rash of renovictions a while ago, before we brought in all the aggressive anti-renoviction bylaws. This is critical; I’m dealing with a constituent right now, she’s 82-years-old. She phoned me crying, the landlord’s trying to evict her. I said, “How long have you been in this building?” She’s been in there 30 years, so she’s paying rent, probably the lowest rent in that building, an investment company comes and purchases the building, they go in there with the objective of making sure they maximize the return on investment—that seems to be how the investment world works—and they’ve even sent her eviction notices. They’re harassing her on every little thing they can, they’re trying to force them out. It’s a systematic way of forcing them out. 

So once those affordable rents vacate and new tenants come in, it’s three to four times the rent sometimes because someone is maximizing their profit from a really tight rental market in the Lower Mainland, and the way of getting over this is very difficult. The federal and provincial governments got out of the national housing program some 25 years ago, maybe even more. They’ve stopped building the type of housing they need. I know the NDP is doing a really good job right now, but we just can’t catch up. 

Last year 117,000 people moved into British Columbia, most of them in the Lower Mainland, two-thirds immigrants, one-third Canadians. We need the immigrants to sustain the retirements we’re having, but all those people are competing for the same types of housing, and the government can’t keep up with it. When the developers build it, it’s for profit, so the rates are not going to be affordable. 

Bureaucratic procedures

RR: All three mayoral candidates agree something has to be done about permit processes and the other bureaucratic red tape at City Hall. What specifically would you do to fix those problems?

CP: What we’ve instructed our staff to do is if the projects coming forward are social or below-market housing, we’ve actually fast-tracked those. I was just at the opening of the Indigenous housing project on Sixth Street, and the developer and a couple of tradespeople came up to me and thanked me for how great the city has worked with them. When it comes to those types of projects, we’re on top of it. When it comes to projects like new doctors coming in around the hospital area, they needed some assistance getting their permits in order, those come to the forefront because those are issues where there is a community crisis, a desperate community need.

But there are also projects that are providing rental housing that are being built, being delayed because we just don’t have the staff we need to do all the plan checking and the pre-development, pre-permit work. I do know it’s a bit of a trend, I know that some people are moving out of the area, probably moving out for the same reasons, affordability. Someone that’s in engineering or plan checkers, or people that are planners, they’re being looked for all over and there’s head hunting going on where people are offering them more money or a more senior position, or a more senior position for the same sort of skill set. We’re in a competition to try and retain those people, and I’m assuming that is the issue. It’d be interested to know what some of the barriers are to keeping people there. I think we’re a good employer, we have some good senior staff, so we need to find a way of retaining those people. 

I suggested hiring more: if you’ve got a building that, when it’s complete, it’s going to create a lot of tax revenue for the city, wouldn’t it be better to get that building in and producing that revenue rather than waiting sometimes years to get that thing up? It’s an issue, we understand it, we’re trying to address it, but it’s something not only New Westminster is feeling, other communities are feeling it as well. 

Construction

RR:  It’s not much of a surprise to see construction cones/pylons up when you’re out and about. Admittedly, there’s a lot of infrastructure that’s aging in the city—easiest example to point to is the pipe system along Columbia Street that Metro Vancouver has been working on. 

Other examples include the Agnes Greenway and the towers going up along the river. 

Such change and required repair is inevitable, but how do you balance the needs of fixing our city’s infrastructure so it’s safe…while also ensuring the ability to travel through the city (walk, ride, bus, etc.) isn’t negatively impacted? 

CP: We’ve got the oldest city west of the Great Lakes, and when we built some of the road infrastructure, it was built for trollies and horse and buggies. We’ve modernized drastically, and now there’s this huge pressure on making it safe for micromobilty users, for pedestrians, for cars, with virtually no ability to spread out sideways. It is complicated, every time we put in some type of cycling infrastructure. A: huge pushback, and B: we have to balance the needs of the struggling commercial districts as well. 

We’ve become a bit of a destination; when Walmarts come into your community, you lose certain types of commodities that small businesses just can’t supply anymore. The survivors are the ones who are a bit of a niche business, a special hair stylist, a shoe cobbler, restaurants, food, and so they rely on people to come from outside New Westminster as well. We have to make sure there’s the right balance. I would be a multi-millionaire if I had that solution of what that right balance is, but I think the key driver is consultation. We can’t create winners and losers here, small businesses struggle. Massive utility rates every year, their taxes are fives times the residential; everytime we raise personal taxes 1%, theirs goes up 4 to 5%. We have to be cognisant of all the drivers that keep small businesses alive when we’re doing any kind of infrastructure. 

When it comes to the maintenance, that project on Columbia Street, absolutely the worst time in the world that Metro Vancouver could come to us and say it has to be done. They showed us some examples of what a sewer pipe failure would look like, and it would be very critical. With the Pattullo Bridge coming in, and the work that was going to be happening, and some closures on Front Street, there’s probably the only time—and you’ve got to do this major infrastructure work—and then you’ve got the contractor [that] didn’t deliver what they said they’d deliver. We ended up with huge delays and having to find ways of making that process work. 

These are all things that hurt our tourism, our small businesses, and our users of infrastructure, whether it would be cars, bikes, or pedestrians. 

New West Arts

RR: The plan is to fix Massey Theatre to “minimum viability,” so that the building can be safe and operational. Massey repairs have been talked about as far back as 2013. Meantime, 100 Braid St.—aka Braid St. Studios, is still searching for another space to operate in. 

These are just two examples, but it speaks to the idea that the arts tend to fall lower on the list of priorities. What would you and your slate do to ensure that artistic spaces and initiatives are properly taken care of?

CP: I’ve been a musician, and I have been for years. I’ve been with a couple of bands, and I know my previous group, The Syndicate, they ended up in a church just so that they could rehearse. 

There’s a real crisis for space for musicians—there’s a beautiful recording studio halfway between 6th and 12th—just opened, and then COVID wiped that out. There has to be more affordable space for the arts. We’re really healthy in New West in theatre, but I’m still pleased that we’ve taken on the Massey Theatre. We have the Columbia Theatre, we have the brand-new theatre at the high school, state-of-the-art, we have a theatre at Douglas, we have the Vagabond Theatre that we own, there’s a beautiful theatre at the Justice Institute, and the Anvil Theatre.

I’d like to see a better networking of how we can utilize those more for the arts rather than just sitting there empty. Theatres are such beautiful entertainment spaces and I just see so many of them sitting there empty. You’ve got Massey and Anvil doing the lion’s share of the performances but there are so many opportunities. I know at the Vagabond, that is a city building, we have community groups ask us if they can use those facilities, we’ve worked out some arrangements so that it’s less proprietary to the society that’s running the Vagabond, and that there’s more consideration for other users. I’d like to see more new users coming in and engaging in the theatre arts or using the centre for delivering their music, their acts. 

There is potential, we’re really blessed with theatre capacity. There’s got to be a more creative way of using it. For the musicians, it’s getting very difficult for live musicians to hone their craft and to practice their craft. 

Specific questions

RR: We’ll move onto specific questions. I have two for you. 

During the New Westminster Chamber of Commerce debate—which I moderated—you didn’t have the chance to talk about your 20-year vision for the community. I wanted to give you the chance, in 60 seconds, to see what you envision for New West under your leadership. 

CP: My 20-year vision would be to really create a lot of affordable housing in the community. I want to see a safe community, clean streets, safe streets. I want a community that’s vibrant where we have the arts, restaurants, the 15-minute city where you can walk to entertainment, to coffee shops. We’re going to need to provide some incentives to make that happen, and I’d like to look at some creative ideas I’ve seen in other parts of the world where the cities play a more crucial role in the ownership of some of the commercial spaces. It’s so they can encourage businesses to have a sustainable city for the future. 

RR: There seems to be more of an opportunity to amplify sports in New West. The Salmonbellies have a huge following, and there are a variety of other sports played by folks of all ages. How would you support local sports?

CP: Track is also one of them, there are a couple of local groups that have started track and field programs. This is something where a young New Westminster resident can get… some really high-end training and develop those skills, and maybe represent Canada. Baseball, I’ve been around with minor baseball, I’ve looked at the fields and there’s some work to be done, but installing some kind of high-level training where kids can really hone those skills. 

We did an arena analysis not too long ago that said there was good capacity; it talks about a new form of training, which I think minor hockey is already starting to do, breaking the rinks down into smaller [sections] and the kids are learning skills in quicker progression. I’d always want to look at our capacity, whether we’d need more, and we need to continue to monitor that. 

All sports deserve our attention. Queensborough definitely needs a lacrosse box. It’s on the books; that’s taking too long. I’d love to see a lacrosse box in Queensborough so that the youth and adults can enjoy that. Developing sport, my children grew up in sports, they kept me pretty well flat broke when we were younger, and they competed in gymnastics and trampoline. My son played hockey, lacrosse. To this day I [say], “The best way to keep your kids on the straight and narrow is sports.” We need to have those opportunities for kids and we need to make sure they’re accessible, that we have adequate fields, and that they’re high-grade and top-quality. 

RR: This is the fun question: there’s a local Twitter user who has been comparing the mayoral candidates’ sock game. If you were elected as mayor, what would be the print on your socks you would wear to your first council meeting as the leader of our city? 

CP: (Laughs) I was thinking of what I would wear at a contentious public hearing, but I won’t get into that! I’ve been into that sock phenomenon for years and years and years. I’d probably wear something along the lines of calm. Just chill, calm, just breathe. 

The world doesn’t have to be so tense and intense, especially council. When I was first elected, even though I was the lone leftie on council, we had a lot of laughs. I always say the shortest distance between two people is humour. This last four years has been the most serious council I’ve ever been on, it’s serious, it’s quiet. I want people to just relax. It’ll work out. So something chill, just relaxed, something calm. Life is too short. That’s why my logo is sensible leadership. I want to govern with some common sense and calmness.