Councillor-elect Paul Minhas says he's ready to help New West

Editor's note: New West Anchor is getting to know the six councillors and the new mayor elected to City Hall. We're running a series of pieces on them in our newsletters—be sure to take a look at our pieces on mayor-elect Patrick Johnstone and councillor-elect Daniel Fontaine. In our next issue, we'll be talking to incumbent Coun. Nadine Nakagawa.

Councillor-elect Paul Minhas, who ran with the New West Progressives during Oct. 15's municipal elections, says he's excited to get to work.

Before we spoke over the phone on Monday, Oct. 24, he'd just finished a morning visit to New West City Hall to get acquainted with the place he'll spend time working from over the next four years.

He's still wrapping his head around what he characterizes as a very exciting election night.

"It was a nail-biter, you see your name going up and down, you're not sure exactly of what's going to transpire, and as the night progressed not being able to see some of my colleagues' names up there was a little bit disappointing, but it's understandable," Minhas tells New West Anchor, referring to Jiayi Li-McCarthy, Rick Folka, and Karima Budhwani. The party ran Ken Armstrong for mayor. "The people have spoken, and it's wonderful to have my colleague Daniel Fontaine with me as a council member. Overall, it was really exciting, and I'm blessed to have the opportunity."

When New West Anchor initially asked Minhas what the first things on his plate were, he made reference to a statement shared with media on Monday, and later posted to his Facebook page. In the release, titled "New Westminster has opportunity to appoint Metro Vancouver's only Indigenous city councillor to the Metro Vancouver Regional District," he outlined his reasons for the request involving fellow slate mate Fontaine.

"Immediately, my belief is that New Westminster has the opportunity to appoint Metro Vancouver's only Indigenous city councillor to the Regional District. And we should take the opportunity and embrace it. We have our first councilman, Daniel Fontaine, who is Metis, and first-ever Indigenous candidate ever elected to New Westminster City Hall. So, I think it's only right as far as having somebody from the Indigenous people represent our city when we have been talking about Truth and Reconciliation over the years. This is a great way for us to bring those words to life," said Minhas.

The Metro Vancouver Regional District is a partnership of 21 municipalities, one electoral area, and one Treaty First Nation. The goal of the group is to work on collaborative planning for regional-scale services. The most recent chair is Sav Dhaliwal, a Burnaby city councillor, while Linda Buchanan recently served as board vice-chair.

Outgoing New West Mayor Jonathan Cote and outgoing Coun. Mary Trentadue represented New West as board member and board member alternate, respectively.

Minhas, who also owns Begbie's Grill and the Heritage Grill—the latter of which was lost in a fire—says he'd also like to get to work on his promise to help local businesses.

"Every day I'm hearing from different business owners [about] more and more challenges that they are facing. The other challenge is the number of people that not only have closed their businesses—or are in the process of closing and moving away, even to another city—they can only take so much. At the end of the day, it's the not being heard, listened to, it's very challenging."

"The question is, when does this exodus stop? And we have to collectively work together to find the right solutions that make sense to these businesspeople, each and every single one of them—and to the residents of the downtown core."

Minhas has been honest about initially wanting to leave the city, particularly after the fire at the Heritage Grill. Since then, he's realized he wanted to be part of the solution.

"I love the city too much, and I chose to do what I needed to do not to leave the city. I think it's important that we collectively work on this together, and I'm sure we'll find a way to get things done."

As for what life between Begbie's and City Hall will look like? Minhas says he'll have no problems there.

"I have a great team [at Begbie's]; a lot of my staff members have been with me for a lot of years. To be honest, it's flying on its own. I don't even need to be there; I get bored at home. I like to meet people; I like to talk to people," he says.

In the lead-up to the Nov. 7 meeting, in which council will begin its term, he's looking ahead and excited to work with mayor-elect Patrick Johnstone and the rest of the team. Minhas says he's overall optimistic about the group, which is made up of four Community First members and two NWP members.

"Sometimes you do worry, but I think we just need to find a way to communicate and work together. At the end of the day, it's about our neighbourhoods, our communities, and the City of New West."

Minhas says he continues to prepare for the next four years of work by reaching out to people and obtaining their feedback, whether they're a citizen or a business owner.

"I already have been meeting people since election day, after election day ... I will carry on doing what I do best, which is listening to people, whether it's in downtown, or in Sapperton, or in Uptown, or in Queensborough," says Minhas.

"I am so excited; I'm so looking forward to this. I just can't wait until Nov. 7. To me, even this morning, I thought I'd have jitters or nervousness going to City Hall. I am so relaxed, so comfortable. It's a new challenge, but I love challenges."