Fontaine, Minhas pass 1 of 7 motions at New West council

Editor's note: to look at the full thread regarding Monday night's council meeting, head on over to Twitter. Warning: it's long.

Monday night's five-and-a-half hour council meeting included 10 delegations, a handful of motions pulled from the consent agenda, as well as seven motions from Couns. Daniel Fontaine and Paul Minhas.

We also learned that there are four notices of motion from those two councillors. These will be looked at during the next council meeting. They include:

• Reducing the cost and time related to the development of new housing in New Westminster

• Delaying the demolition of the Centennial Community Centre and beginning to address citywide infrastructure deficit

• Quantifying the downloading of costs from senior orders of government as it pertains to the city of New Westminster 2023 operating budget

• Supporting the need for a "snow summit" in Metro Vancouver

Coun. Jaimie McEvoy was not in attendance.

Downtown livability

A panel of senior management staff kicked off the meeting, talking about some of the strategies that are currently in progress or are being worked on.

This included a discussion of how to better activate Front Street, supplying a public toilet, and making sure there are resources for a variety of clean-up, including garbage and human waste.

We also heard a bit more about the 52 units of supportive housing that are expected to be built between 60 and 68 Sixth St. in downtown New West. While this supportive housing is set to eventually replace the beds along Columbia Street, staff noted that there would be room for reassessment in the future.

The childcare situation

New West Schools is expected to meet and approve the next stages in the movement of two downtown daycare spaces Tuesday. At council, staff recommended the city send a letter to the new minister of education and childcare—Rachna Singh—to ask for more senior government support for short-term and long-term childcare needs in the city. Coun. Fontaine suggested a letter also be sent to the new provincial housing minister, Ravi Kahlon, so that Kahlon could work in tandem with the education and childcare minister.

In November, the New West school board voted to move daycare spaces out of Qayqayt Elementary School and Fraser River Middle School (FRMS). The move comes as the school board is required to prioritize the needs of K to 12 learners: nearly three dozen who live in the Qayqayt catchment attend school elsewhere in the city. The spaces at Qayqayt and FRMS combined provide care for 72 toddlers and infants.

The latest figures as outlined in a report to city staff says the school district is operating at 110% capacity across all its schools, with space shortage at its worst "in and on the periphery of the Downtown." The New West Family Place program, which was operating out of Qayqayt Elementary, was also impacted, with the space they used also becoming part of classroom conversion.

The city staffing situation

Since May's spate of memos from the various departments at city hall, it appears things aren't getting any better when it comes to staffing. A report from Eva Yip, the acting director of human resources and information technology, says the city's rate of attrition was at between 5 and 8% from 2017 to 2021; the lowest of those being 5% in 2019. Looking at 2022, the rate is trending closer to 10%.

There are 71 positions vacant, with an additional 34 employees on leaves of absence. "That means that the city is currently operating at 15% below normal capacity," the report reads.

The next step would be to work on a staff recruitment and retention strategy.

Delegations from the public

While there were presentations on topics from glass recycling to the Royal City moniker (more on the latter below), conversations about the road dominated delegations.

Two locals, Tammy Dewar and Jens Vent-Schmidt, said they appreciated the commitment to creating spaces for people to use their bikes. Vens-Schmidt noted he'd like to see more proper parking for bikes so he'd be able to visit local businesses using them.

Another local, Larry Church, said he believed the bike lanes are not being used for what they were supposed to be. He was also worried about bus stop relocation, noting that seniors and those living with disabilities would struggle to get to a bus stop safely.

Ken Armstrong, who ran as the mayoral candidate for the New West Progressives in October, said that the people in Queensborough needed a solution to all the traffic problems they tend to have to deal with. He asked mayor and council to consider advocating for transportation improvements like light rail transit to Queensborough, along with better bus service and more service for the Q2Q ferry. Fontaine followed that up with a question, asking why the Q2Q couldn't have been used during the so-called "snowmaggedon" emergency.

Staff said they'd bring the latter question to the operator of the Q2Q.

New West Farmers Market

Also part of the delegations was a presentation from the New West Farmers Market (NWFM), with Chelsea Watt highlighting some of the successes that came out of this season. Her presentation cames a day after wrapping up a two-day holiday market.

Watt says NWFM redeemed the third-most Farmers Market Nutrition Program coupons of any farmers market in BC this year. Last year's redemption total was $60,000, while this year's total is over $72,000. That $72,000 figure is expected to change with coupons still being tabulated.

This past weekend's holiday farmers market managed to raise more than $1,500 for the Greater Vancouver Food Bank through the collection of entrance donations.

Firefighters and first aid supplies

New West resident Amalia Fowler, who spoke about an experience with anaphylaxis in November: an ambulance never came, but the New West Fire Department (NWFD) responded—though she noted they didn't have oximeters with them. Additionally, Fowler noted the firefighters were not carrying epinephrine (also known as adrenaline), a drug typically used to treat anaphylaxis.

Assistant deputy fire Chief Brad Davie, who had been speaking with the panel of senior city management, noted the reason for this had to do with training and licensing. Davie added there was a proposal—that would require money from the upcoming city budget—to get the training and licensing needed to be able to carry oximeters and epinephrine.

Fontaine and Minhas' seven motions

Virtually none of the motions went through as presented, with the exception of one discussing better governance, decision-making, and public engagement at City Hall. You can view the full breakdown of the wording of each motion here—they begin on page 3.

Over the summer, outgoing mayor Jonathan Cote tabled a motion to have the City of New Westminster move away from its brand identity of the yellow crown and the Royal City moniker; the motion went through. Below is how the motion from July 12 read:

"Whereas the City of New Westminster has a vision to be a vibrant, compassionate, sustainable city that includes everyone; and

Whereas the City is committed to building a community that is equitable, inclusive and welcoming; and

Whereas the City embraces reconciliation as a path forward to charting a new relationship with Indigenous people and Nations; and

Whereas it is important that the City’s branding be consistent with our shared values, vision and diverse make up of our city;

Be it resolved that the City of New Westminster begin the process to update the City’s logo and phase-out the use of “Royal City” moniker in our branding.

Be it further resolved that the City develop a plan to engage with the community in the development of a new brand identity that is inclusive and allows for collective pride in our city."

Fontaine said voting to support the motion would rectify a problem that came up over the summer, and it would also allow staff to commit their time to other projects—especially with a staff shortage.

When asked by Coun. Ruby Campbell about the last time the Royal City moniker was used, senior manager of communications and economic development Blair Fryer said it was probably last formally used in 2009.

During the discussion, Mayor Patrick Johnstone asked if Fontaine's motion actually gave direction to staff, with Campbell also inquiring. Johnstone ruled the motion out of order, which led to Fontaine challenging the mayor's decision. Fontaine's challenge was defeated.

Many of the other motions were modified, with a number of them being held over until the work during strategic planning is completed. Strategic planning, according to the mayor, is set to wrap up around March.

Here's how the rest of the motions went:

• Elimination of train whistle noise motion: the motion was partially modified with what a railway community advisory panel would look like, to be informed by strategic planning work.

• Reducing crime and increasing public safety in New West: this would have resulted in the creation of a crime reduction and public safety advisory committee. This motion was defeated 4-2 (for: Minhas, Fontaine; against: Johnstone, Campbell, Henderson, Nakagawa).

• Creation of a new finance and city services standing committee: this went ahead with modifications, with a suggestion to establish a new finance and services committee, with a referral to strategic planning to come up with the terms of reference.

• Creation of a new amateur sport and recreation committee: this was put over until after strategic planning is completed.

• Advocacy to the BC government to increase housing and wrap-around supports for people living with mental illness: this motion was defeated 4-2 (for: Minhas, Fontaine; against: Johnstone, Campbell, Henderson, Nakagawa).

• Better governance, decision-making, and public engagement at City Hall: this went through 4-2 (for: Minhas, Fontaine, Henderson, Nakagawa; against: Johnstone, Campbell).

The next council meeting is set to take place after the holidays on Jan. 9, 2023.