Childcare protocol, Queensborough-specific issues top of mind at New West council

Technically we started off Monday night with a public hearing that involved 109 Third Ave., which some may also know as the G.R. Speck House in the Queen’s Park area. The owners applied for a heritage designation.

That would mean any work to be done on the home’s exterior would need a heritage permit, and any further work would need to be approved by the city. As of Monday night’s meeting, there were no plans to make changes to the property.

There were no written submissions and just one person spoke in chambers, with resident Gail North imploring council to accept the designation.

The bylaw was referred to council for third reading, and eventually went ahead during the council meeting.

What else happened at council?

A couple of items were pulled from the consent agenda, including:

• Approving changes to the terms of reference for the accessibility advisory committee

• A renewed childcare protocol between the City of New Westminster and the school district

• A rezoning application for a detached accessory building at 228 Seventh St. (Coun. Nadine Nakagawa and Mayor Patrick Johnstone noted they were in conflict, and recused themselves during the vote.)

Accessibility advisory committee

This note appeared to fix a logistical error, after a date was incorrectly provided, regarding the development of an organizational accessibility plan: the due date had been listed as 2024, not 2023, and this motion would correct the error.

Additionally, the New West Police Department had let city staff know that it wanted to participate in the aforementioned committee, which Coun. Tasha Henderson asked about. In response, city clerk Jacque Killawee explained that the NWPD has the option to create its own accessibility advisory committee, or that it could join the city’s, and so it opted for the latter.

This went ahead, with Henderson opposing.

Renewed childcare protocol

The plan would be to formally write a letter to the New West School District so that it could engage with council to create a renewed childcare protocol. The recommendation comes about a month and a half after Downtown New West lost 72 child care spaces.

Henderson said she was glad to see this kind of movement on the issue.

“I think this is an issue that sometimes at the surface seems like it’s outside the city’s jurisdiction, but it’s so crucial to the livability of our community. We have one of the fastest growing demographics of millennials, and with them often come droves of young children,” explained Henderson.

The motion carried unanimously.

228 Seventh St. rezoning application

Nakagawa and Johnstone both recused themselves from this vote, noting a conflict of interest. The goal was to add a space to an already existing space at the address; Westminster House operates a substance and recovery treatment space here. Giving the rezoning the go-ahead would mean adding another building that would house resources like laundry or offices.

No public hearing was recommended for this because it was within the city’s scope under the official community plan, and staff considered the project to be on a “small scale.”

This went ahead.

Motions from members of council

All of Monday night’s motions came from Couns. Daniel Fontaine and Paul Minhas.

Mitigating traffic and transportation issues and improving pedestrian safety on Ewen Avenue in Queensborough

The idea here was to change the “no right turn on red” policy at Ewen Avenue and Howes Street so that it’d only be followed during peak rush hour traffic. The second part of the motion asked that, as part of the Queensborough Transportation Plan, staff get feedback from residents and businesses about installing a new pedestrian crossing at Wood Street and Ewen Avenue.

“Just last week, our manager of public engagement emailed council phase one, and it’s on the Be Heard website if people want to view that publicly. It’s a first phase of the Queensborough Transportation Plan, and there will be a phase two, and there’s a whole process around that,” explained Campbell, who went on to suggest that the item be referred to the aforementioned plan.

“I’m not sure I agree with Coun. Campbell that in this particular case that something simple…and I believe what the recommendation is in the motion is simply not to have a ‘no right turn’ at Ewen and Howes when it’s 3 o’clock in the morning when there’s no traffic,” replied Coun. Fontaine.

Mike Anderson, who is managing the plan, said that this would be looked at in the transportation plan because the area had come up in discussion.

Eventually, the motion ended up being carried as it was originally presented.

All-weather fields and tracks in Queensborough

This motion from Fontaine and Minhas asked for all-weather amenities in various parts of the city, and as part of the capital plan. Nakagawa said that, after previously hearing expenditures would need to be cut in other parts of the plan, and knowing that this would result in more expenditures, it didn’t seem like the right direction to go.

Dean Gibson of parks and recreation was asked about a ballpark estimate, and between lighting and the replacement of a track, used the example of Mercer Stadium. Gibson said that replacement would have happened about 10 years ago, at a cost of upwards of $1.4 million.

While Henderson said she’d rather hear from people in Queensborough through consultations, Fontaine said “not all referrals are created equally” and that it would be useful to know what the time frame would be if the motion ended up going to another referral. Gibson said the first stages would likely come back in the spring, which would be around March or April.

Council chose to have this referred, with Minhas and Fontaine opposing.

Queensborough buses for students

The premise of this motion was for council to write a letter to MLA Aman Singh (Richmond-Queensborough) to invite him to a meeting with council representatives and MLA Jennifer Whiteside (New Westminster). Fontaine is hoping to see where provincial government funding is at for student bus service. Singh had promised during the 2020 provincial election campaign to bring much-needed funding for students who travel from Queensborough to New West Secondary in Uptown. This move is in a similar vein to one done by the District Advisory Parent Council, which also called for action in 2021.

Nakagawa said it’d be a good idea to bring on representatives from the school board, noting that this issue was top of mind for school board chair Gurveen Dhaliwal.

The motion went ahead, with an amendment to invite folks from the school board to also participate.

Royal City branding

It was another effort by Fontaine and Minhas to put a pause on the changing of the Royal City moniker. Fontaine argued that there were too many things for staff to take care of, and that it would be worth putting the issue to bed at this point, since they were overworked. Fontaine added that during Monday morning meetings, he’d heard Coun. Jaimie McEvoy say that the transition would go into the millions of dollars, cost-wise.

McEvoy responded that this wasn’t what he had said; rather that there were numbers in the public realm that seemed to cite a large price tag, and he wanted to know some factual valuation before proceeding or stopping.

This motion was defeated, with only Minhas and Fontaine supporting it.

A motion on the notice of motion

In what some might consider a very meta move, Fontaine and Minhas proposed a motion on notice-of-motion procedures, which came about after some confusion at a meeting on Nov. 28: Fontaine wanted to know why a notice of motion was required for motions when that previously didn’t seem to be the case.

The motion went ahead as proposed, with staff expected to provide a memo on the subject at the Feb. 10 meeting.

Queensborough infrastructure investments

This motion asked for staff to set up a two-year 50/50 matching grant pedestrian improvement pilot to help cover up ditches in Queensborough with paved sidewalks. Fontaine also suggested the use of the climate action fund.

Henderson felt it wouldn’t be responsible to use the climate action fund, especially when recommendations for how it should be used hadn’t been put together by staff. Additionally, Henderson pointed out the existence of a similar grant. Nakagawa suggested referring the motion to a workshop so they could take a closer look, adding that if there is a program like this that already exists, then the city should be focusing on getting the word out about said program.

Chief administrative officer Lisa Spitale said she’d commit to a six-month window for this, but that she’d ask staff to provide feedback. If the six-month window wasn’t reasonable, she’d alert council. The motion went ahead with Nakagawa’s suggested amendment.

Other announcements

Mayor Johnstone recognized Ron Booth, who worked for the city of New Westminster for 46 years, and has now officially retired. He, like his father, spent much of his time working for the city, with Booth finishing his career managing Queen’s Park Arena.

Campbell recognized Kendra Johnston and Karima Jivraj, who wrapped up their time with the Downtown New West Business Improvement Association. Campbell acknowledged their commitment to improving the city.

Fontaine said he appreciated how organized the Hyack 2023 President’s Tea was. He enjoyed meeting local young leaders and ambassadors, and he hoped that they’d eventually work for the city.

The next council meeting is set to take place on Monday, Feb. 10.