Sound check. Sounds are working. Okay welcome everybody. I'm going
to call to order this regular Council meeting for Monday
July 13th 2026. We begin our meetings in New Westminster
by recognising and respecting the new Westminsters on the Unseeded
and unsrendered land of the Halcome speaking Peoples. We acknowledge
that colonialism has made invisible their histories and their connections
to the land and is a city we are learning
and we are building relationships with the people whose lands
were on. First item on the agenda era is approval
of the agenda as it was circulated to council. Ruin
a second aid. All in favor, all opposed carried. And
then we move on right away to delegations. So in
New Westminster, we allow folks to delegate to counsel. We
have full sign - up sheet of people today to
delegate to counsel. It's a chance for anybody to come
and speak for five minutes to council and what issues
that are important to them. We just ask folks when
they are invited to come when they're called to come
forward to the desk up here and speak to one
of the microphones in front of you. There'll be a
little red lights there that all turn on that folks
can hear you. We just ask that, Ryan folks that
first of all that, yeah, if you, after your delegation,
council members may ask you questions or Council members may
direct questions to members of staff. However, you're not in
any way compelled to answer those questions. It's not a
matter of a dialogue or you're not adhered to be
grilled or anything. The idea is for us to hear
what's on your mind and for you to relate to
us what your concerns are more than it is to
get into a deliberation or debate with counsel. We also
ask that everyone be respectful. Try to speak to issues
and not about people. Try to recognise this is not
just a council chambers and a public forum, but it's
also workplace and we have to speak with people not
to use harassing, disrespectful or discriminatory language. If we hear
anything like that, a member of counsel or member of
staff may say point of order. If that happens, you
just ask you to be quiet for a minute and
we'll figure out, um, we'll figure out whether we need
to correct language or how we can move forward from
that point forward. Um, yeah, there'll be a five minute
timer behind me that will count down anyone who comes
forward has five minutes. I don't think I've missed anything
else. So I will go on with the, uh, first
person on the delegation is Lena Grace. Oh, integrations on
Zoom, which is going to be, which I didn't even
talk about in my introduction to public delegations, but Lena
is on Zoom. So Lina, if you're on Zoom, you
should be able to, oh, you are. Can we hear
you. Hi there, it's Linnea. Yes. Lanea. Hello. How are
you? Uh, yes, we can hear you. Um, you, uh,
the delegations are on. You have five minutes of four
resers. Okay. Fantastic. Thank you so much for having me
today. So my name is Lynette Grace and my service,
the executive director of the life saving society BCN UConn
branch. Um, for those that may not be as familiar
with our organisation, the life saving society. If the charitable
organisation dedicated to preventing drowning through swim lessons, training programs,
water smart education, aquatic safety services. Including expert services available
to municipalities and developing or operating aquatic facilities and conducting
audits. As well as license sport. The life saving society
is recognised as Canada's life starting expert. And one of
the five leading agencies in providing first aid. And so
across the country, uh, annually over 1. 7 million Canadians
participate in our swim life saving lifeguarding first aid. And
leadership program. So knowing that July sees the peak of
water related incidents each year, the life - saving society
chooses the third week of July as National Driving Prevention
Week. Or NDPW. So this is our public awareness campaign
each year to build community and media support for the
drowning prevention cause. Pools and waterfronts throughout BC and UConn
helped to communicate preventative drowning information and promote water safety
education through public events. Media came media campaigns proclamations and
more. This year's theme is safety starts with being water
smart prepare and prevent. Um. As you folks know, 202.
Has seen an alarming number of drownings in the province
since January 1st. As of today, at least 30 people
in British Columbia have died in drowning related incidents with
additional fatalities still under investigation or with active searches underway.
We are seeing risky behaviour in BC, including people not
using life jackets when boating or failing to take basic
precautions and planning. When it comes to safety for their
swimming or paddling activity. Um, drowning is preventable, but only
when action. Is taken to prevent it. So with. The
support of new Westminster and other municipalities, we will try
to light on these risks. And ensure that more British
Columbians are kept safe and on and around the water
this summer. I'd be happy to take any questions. Or
have any discussions anytime. About how you can champion water
safety and access expertise in the life saving society. Um,
I'll also mention here that our team will be at
the union of DC municipalities convention the September and would
be pleased to connect then or beforehand. But for now,
I want to thank you for the invitation to speak
today. For your continued support. In championing water safety. And
thank you for making this proclamation. Thank you, Lynnia. I
do a proclamation, but before we might have some questions
for members of counsel. So thank Councillor Henderson. Hi, Leni.
Thank you so much for delegating. This has been, um,
a topic at this council a lot about how, how
we get more kids through swimming lessons. And I think
we're, we're getting creative around the ways we've piloted a
project at Kelvin, which is a lot of newcomer, has
a lot of newcomer, uh, families and kids, uh, who
attend that school and, and getting them in there for
initial, um, initial lessons and looking now at how we
might be able to expand the financial supports for, for
families to do that. So just want to thank you
for this work. It's so important. Um, I think everyone
at this council has recognised the importance and need for
water safety and skills and appreciate the advocacy that you're
doing. Thanks. Yeah. Thank you again. Sorry. Thank you again
for your delegation and for reminding us about this. Um,
yeah, unfortunately it's been in the news quite a bit
as of the last few weeks about drowning deaths in
British Columbia and the spike, it's happening this year on
in drowning deaths. And, um, and I guess it's a
good reminder for folks that it's not just about children.
It's about adults as well who aren't just doing those
basic precautions of work life jackets and acting responsibly around
water. And they're totally unnecessary desk. Competitive preventables. So thank
you for raising the awareness here. And I will read
the proclamation. Whereas the mission of life - saving society,
Canada, is to prevent drowning throughout this great country and
even one drowning in British Columbia is one too many.
And whereas most drownings are preventable in a water sport,
smart community, and only through water smart education and healthy
respect for the potential danger that any body of water
may present can be genuinely enjoyed the beauty and recreation
opportunities offered by these bodies of water. And whereas life
- saving society urges Canadians and residents of New Westminster
to supervise children who are in and around the water
to refrain from drinking alcoholic beverages while participating in aquatic
activities and to always wear a life jacket when boating.
And whereas the United Nations General Assembly passed the UN
resolution on drowning prevention and named July 25th of each
year as world drowning prevention day. And the life -
saving society of Canada has declared July 19th, 25th, 2026
National Drowning Convention Week to focus on the drowning problem
and the hundreds of lives that could be saved this
year. Therefore, I, Patrick draws still in the mayor of
the City of New Westminster hereby proclaimed July 195, 2026
as National Drowning French and Week in the city of
New Westminster. Thank you again for your delegation. Thank you
so much and thank you for supporting National Drought and
Prevention Week.
Okay. Uh, sorry, our next alligate is Halfa. Who's not
here might be on Zoom. As well. Fha, how are
you? Hello. Thanks for having me everyone. I am sorry
that I wish I could be in person, but I'm
very sick, so I didn't want to contaminate people. With
my flu. Uh, so I'm going to get down to
my delegation. Uh. Tonight. I'm the president for New West
Pride. So for those who doesn't know me, I'm half
a very nice to meet you. And tonight as we
gather together in celebration, I also want to take a
moment to reflect on something that is an always visible.
Pride is often seen as a single day parade, a
festival, a celebration. But the truth is that Pride is
the work that happens in the other 364 days of
the year. Desir New S Pride has been incredibly busy.
We closed out last year with the night before Christmas.
And evening that celebrated Cruiy Artist, performance and creativity while
creating a space for people who may not have families
to celebrate the holidays with. It was an opportunity to
come together. Bill chosen family and remind one another that
everyone deserves a place where they belong. When then marked,
then we marked trends day of visibility through our visible
AF serious, creating spaces where trends and gender diverse people
could simply exist and act, learn and be celebrated. There
are Visa Boy F - Market and makeup tutorial. Community
members explored self - expression and identity in an environment's
free from judgment, ring force mean that visibility is about
more than being seen. It's about being welcomed, valued and
supported. We've started holding monthly crising beers that support the
queer - run business, creating a space for creatures to
perform and for our community to find support and connection.
It has been incredibly well received and it's quickly becoming
a beacon for people seeking acceptance at a time when
that acceptance is incredibly under threat. We're seeing people travel
for places such as Spartlands and Francisco to be part
of our community. Draw by, excuse me. A celebration that
is rooted in inclusion belonging and genuine genuine connection. We
are incredibly proud of this work and thankful to the
CD, the volunteer support and intended that have shown up
to the Visible and Share in our community. But there's
another side of our work that many people never see.
Sometimes that youvocacy happens behind closed doors, boardrooms, over deep
good conversations. And across meeting tables. This year specifically, our
board made a commitment to ask difficult questions about who
we are and what we stand for. We ask the
newest Minister Police Department to honour the roots of pride
by working with us to imagine a celebration when members
of our community could feel safe without a uniformed police
presence. That conversation wasn't about exclusion. It was about recognising
that Pride begun as a protest against systems that marginalized
our community and acknowledging that for many queer people, especially
trans people, indigenous folks and other racialized communities. Those histories
are not ancient history. They are living experiences and very
current ones. Whether we agree on every solution or not,
we believe this conversations are worth having because pride has
always challenges to imagine something bad. We also took a
hard to look at ourselves. We ask whether the organisations
would invite into our stages, the businesses we accept sponsorship
from and the voices we amplify truly reflect the values
we claim to hold. Being an ally isn't something you
become because you change your logo for a month. Excuse
me? Did someone say something? No, you're still good. No.
Okay. Being in light is demonstrated through action. Your policy.
I believe in the auto conference room has the audio.
So I always keep hearing something. So I think someone
is talking to me. I'm sorry. Being analyse demonstrated through
action, through policies, through how you treat your employees, through
how you support people and nobody's watching. Our responsibility isn't
simply to celebrate our community. It is to protect it,
to educate forward, to ensure that the platform we've built
reflects the values, the generations before us. Fought so hard
to secure. The work it isn't always easy. Sometimes it
means saying no. Sometimes it means having uncomfortable conversations. Sometimes
means choosing integrity over convenience. But that is what Pride
has always asked us. And as we celebrate on the
weeks to come, I hope you'll remember that every performance
volunteer is sponsored. Every person that shows up with an
open heart and every young queer person who sees themselves
reflected, they are part of something bigger, something much bigger
than the festival. We are continuing movement rooted in courage.
A movement built through community. And a movement that reminds
us that progress doesn't happen by accident. It happens because
originary people chose every single day to keep you doing
their work. Once again, to close it out, thank you
to everyone who hosted and students who has beside us
in the US pride of this year. Thank you to
our volunteers, to our performers, to our partners, to our
board, to our community. Thank you for believing the pride
can be both the celebration and a catholic for change.
Land back, defend the police, free Palestine and happy Pride
everyone. Thank you, Hafa. Excellent, Jab. I don't see any,
oh, I cancelled Campbell, sorry. Hi, Rafa, thank you so
much for delegating. And I hope you do feel better
so we can see each other in person soon. Um,
I always like to share when we talk about Pride
and the work that you and, um, those before you
did in New Westminster and elsewhere. Um, sometimes it is,
it feels like it's, we're not or it's, you know,
it's the same folks that are engaged, but I know,
uh, that there are many families that are grateful that
you are existing and growing in newestminster and not just
one time of the year throughout the year. Because for
many families who are living and experiencing and the joy
of, of, uh, pride in their families, it's just nice
to know that youth in this community, uh, feel represented.
And it's also know that that representation can be the
difference between life and death. And it can be the
difference between wellness and unwellness. And, uh, it's critical, right?
I mean, as you said, it's a party, but it's
also something that I know that we need to make
sure that we continue and we never forget that it's,
it's a protest. It's not just a party, um, and
I appreciate all the work that you and others, uh,
like I said, now and have done in the past,
uh, especially for the youth in this community who need,
uh, need that continue support, whether it's vocal or, um,
just seen in various representation throughout the community. It's, it's
important. And we appreciate you. Thank you so much, Ruby.
Appreciate it. Thank you. Rafa, I have one question for
you. My proclamation says Pride Week, the extended cut. Explain
that title. Uh, we want to go bigger and we
want to be want to make a bigger noise this
year. So instead of doing one week celebration, we're going
bigger. We are doing two weeks celebration. So we are
calling the extended cut. We have workshops, we'll see on
our socials all of our calendars. We're just as Ruby
just mentioned pretty like we want to be celebrated every
time that we can. So we are here to stay.
So that's why it's the extended cut. Okay. Well, thank
you very much for coming in for being able to
delegate to us. Uh, there are many members of your
board here in the room as well. So they were
sending love and support from the room here. Sorry to
hear. Love you guys. Sorry to hear you're not feeling
well. Um, but I also want to thank you. Thank
you and your board for not just for the celebration
and the event that is, uh, that is Pride Week
are now prided. But also, um, as you said, for
always pushing forward, always, um, once again, keeping it about
fighting for fighting for the, um, the values of inclusion
and community that pride always stood for. It's a constantly
evolving organisation in New Westminster. And it's wonderful to see
it evolved, but always keeping those values in the centre
of it all. So thank you for the work that
you do for the entire community in that. So. That's
just a thanks for me. Now I will now read
the proclamation, Pride Week, the extended cut. Uh, whereas human
and civil rights are accorded to everyone in a free
and democratic society. And homophobia, transphobia and hateful rhetoric in
actions continue to actively threaten the peace wellbeing and lives
of two spirit lesbian gay bisexual, transgender, queer questioning intersex
and asexual people. As well as people who identify with
the community yet cannot be restricted by a label. And
whereas the Westminster City Council's first strategic priority is Community
Belonging and Collecting, which is viewed through the context of
diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti - racism. And whereas Pride
Week, the extended cut is a place for two S
LGBTQ QIA plus people to show up as fully themselves
in their community, in the spirit of diversity, equality, inclusion,
and intersectional pride, which contributes to building a more vibrant,
accepting city and society. And whereas two S LGBTQ QIA
plus people belong in our community. Their lives matter in
our community. Therefore, I, Patrick Johnston, the mayor of the
City of New Westminster, hereby proclaim August 4th to 15th,
2026 as Pride Week, the extended cut in the city
of New Westminster, British Columbia. Thanks, Angela. Let's go. Thank
everyone. Hope you see you all there. Thank you.
Okay. Our next delegate is Pat News. A
is not online. And I don't see Mr. Museum in
the room. Okay. If you shows up by the end
of delegation, period, we'll have him up at the end
of delegations. So the next elegant is Brian O'Neal. Is
Brian von Ovenal in the room. Okay. We'll do the
same thing at Friday O'Neal shows up for here. We'll
put up at the end of the delegations. Um, the
next delegate is Tim Takaro.
Good evening. Thank you very much for the opportunity to
speak to you. About the adaptation and resilience phase four
report. I'm a physician scientist and the planetary health lead
for the new medical school at SFU. I'm also a
member of the Canadian Association of Positions for the Environment.
And the mighty new West Climate Action Hub. Um, I'm
here to speak to you about, uh, this report. I'm
certainly in favor of the contents of the report and
what the report is attempting to do. What I wanted
to do with you, uh, this evening though is point
out the large. Difference that we face, uh, decision that
we are in the midst of as to whether we
will have a two degree warmer world in 2050. Or
a four to six degree warmer world. And this for
adaptation and resilience, of course, is a huge difference. What
we have seen in the last few weeks from Europe
are thousands of excess deaths because of climate change. And
yet. Countries like ours continue to increase the emissions which
lead to increased temperatures. Which lead to weather disasters and
death. We are consciously doing this. In the next slide.
You can see, uh, statement from the Secretary General of
the United. Pointing out that even back in 2022, we
were on a path to more than double, they 1.
5 degree limit. He says some governments and business leaders
are saying one thing, but doing another. Simply put, they
are lying. And the result will be catastrophic. This is
a climate emergency. He went on to say that investing
in new fossil fuels, infrastructure is moral and economic madness.
This has not changed. In the next slide, you can
see where we are at a tipping point. Unfortunately, we
have already, uh, past the options in the blue lines.
And we are now in the magenta lines which show
a very significant overshoot. Only if we stop emitting now.
So we are at this crossroads. And for the counsel,
this means, what can we do locally to be assured
that we can meet our adaptation and resilience planning. The
next slide. These are some of the choices we're making.
Uh, this is from a report that I was a
coauthor on published by Health Canada. Which notes some of
the most dramatic impacts. And I would point out that
this means disruptions of food systems, water resources. Air pollution,
reemergence of Climate Sensitive Infectious Disease. And increasing demands on
our health system. Where a future at 1. 5 degrees
is very, very different from a future at four to
six degrees. Next slide. This slide describes the excess deaths
that we saw. Many of them in this city in
July of 2021. And with our current trajectory of emissions,
we are going to be seeing more and more of
these debts. So I am asking for the counsel in
consideration of your phase four reporting. First, I thank you
for the resolution of Councillor Henderson who enabled the passage
of a letter to the province. Requesting a cumulative health
impact assessment of the BC gas industry. That is a
crucial bit of information that we need. We need to
understand what all of the emissions are from the fracking
to the transport to the liquefaction to the burning of
BC gas. So in consideration of this resilience plan, I've
shown how much harder it will be to implement in
afford to six degree warmer world. I ask that the
counsel send a letter. To the BC Environmental Assessment Office.
Asking that further expansion of the Tilbury LNG facility in
our airshed be paused until the cumulative health impacts of
the gas industry is completed. In this way, we will
stand together with other frontline communities facing threats to their
hair and water from expanding gas infrastructure. And I ask
that, uh, be sent prior to July 27th, which is
the end of the public comment period on the Tilbury
gas facility. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you
for your delegation. Um, I don't have any comments from
counsel right now. Um, I'll just say thank you again
for delegating. I mean, the large part of me, the
wishes that we didn't have a Climate adaptation and resilience
plan. I wish that, um, for the last two decades
when people like you from the scientific community had been
calling for governments to do work. The governments had actually
returned that with action. And we wouldn't be in a
situation right now where we have to start spending money
on adaptation and resilience planning just to survive this. Um,
the parallels between the heat dome we had five years
ago and what's going on in Europe over the last
couple of weeks are obvious. The exact same weather phenomenon
caused by the same kind of climate disruption. Uh, the
numbers were staggering. I just read about in Great Britain.
They had in England and Wales had 440 deaths a
day for that heat dome. It's just staggering what the
impacts are. And, um, I just, for those, all those
decades, it was all about how we were going to
save money by not doing this. And here we are
where we have to pay the bill now. And that's,
that's unfortunate. We're paying the bill not just in the
cost of spending on resilience and spending on adaptation, but
we're paying the bill in people's lives and people's health.
And that's, that's sad that we're here. But, um, thank
you for speaking and in support of the, uh, of
the plan that we're trying to bring forward, trying to
bring forth, trying to work on. We have actually put
some, I counsel might have to remind me about where
we were with a Tilbury. There was some communications put
forward from us from that resolution around the Tilbury plant.
And Council might have to remind me of where we
did. But, um, thank you for your note and we'll,
yeah, we'll, yeah. Thank you. Anyway, that's how I'll just
finish my saying thank you, Dr. Tako for doing this.
Thank you. Our next delegate is Leonor Sally.
Yeah. Mr. Muzi officially at the end of the queue
since you were already on. Yep. Thanks. Good evening council.
I thank you for the opportunity to speak. Um, I
am here tonight representing the New Westminster Community Response Network
and to support counsel's motion regarding training to support the
rights of older adults and preventing elder abuse. I want
to thank Council for bringing forward this very positive motion.
And for recognising that seniors deserve a safe, respectful and
supportive city. We appreciate your leadership regarding his concern. I
also wanted to let Council know that since the motion
was first proposed, we have met directly with city staff
to explore opportunities of how the New Westminster Community Response
Network can work with city staff and other agencies on
this issue and also explore ways to advance his work
through the age friendly strategy implementation working group. City staff
have been very supportive. And very proactive in this. I
want to thank you again for your leadership on this
issue. Thank you. Um, Councillor Campbell. Hi, Leonora. Thank you
for delegating today and also initially for bringing this idea
forward. Yeah, I after putting the motion forward, I realised
you're actually on the H - Renly strategy working group,
which is fantastic. And I am glad that is coming
forward and going to be explored further through that working
group. Because since I put this motion forward, I received
numerous phone calls from, uh, different organisations that support seniors.
And also from businesses who were saying, how do we,
uh, how do we know what we don't know, right?
So, and I know in the action plan or the,
uh, age friendly strategy, the idea to connect with businesses.
Yes. I really appreciate that because one of the things
that we know is that, um, it's, you know, it's
a lot on the kids, a lot of seniors don't
even have, they live in isolation. They don't have caregivers.
Um, and even if you have a caregiver, caregivers are
exhausted and they can't do it alone. Um, I do
hope that, um, well, when the motion comes forward, I'll
probably quick about it because I'm seeing some comments now,
but I do hope that we can action this rather
quickly and get information out sooner rather than later, especially
as an example that Dr. Tecaro mentioned with the heat.
I mean, this is critical now, right? And it's in
the heat is also a safety issue. So if we're
really talking about H friendly strategies, um, it's something that
I feel we, we really need to action sooner at
and later. I mean, I love strategies. I love that
we need to consult folks. And I just really want
to say thank you. And again, whatever you can do
from your end as well to hopefully get this information
out soon to people through working out, like throughout the
city, like even, you know, our frontline staff and businesses,
um, uh, I would really value that as our residents
are getting older. We can't wait. So thank you very
much. Thank you for your delegation. And yeah, this will
be on this item will be on the agenda items.
So it's 0. 2 a little later in the meeting
today. Right. Thank you. Thank you. So fire. Okay.
Our next delegate is Bill Chu.
Mira Johnson and the council. I'm Bill Chu founder of
Canadians for reconciliation society who is also representing 10 other
organisations and 20 individuals who co - signed the letter
presented to the council already. I would like to thank
the city first for accepting CFOS to all nine invitation
to a process of reconciliation. And the offering of 10
redemptive actions for the city's past discriminatory policies trust the
Chinese Community. I also want to thank the CD4LAN exchange
with SD40 which enable its successful design construction and opening
of brand new school on an exchange site, which is
critical. In by 2021. Now this is just my attempt
here to update you on just one of those. What
happened to one redemptive actions. And this one is about
cities undertaking to quoted work with the province and the
school district. To explore opportunities for Memorial at the former
Chinese cemetery site. And of course under that initiative, SD40
formed a memorization advisory committee in 2016. As soon as
then equilibrium effort to invite impacted stakeholders, groups. So for
why inputs for the design of the memorial semi -
tree park, at worst, for an extreme reasons, the MEC
meetings were abruptly terminated. After January 2024. Under his current
leadership, with our first getting and approved, final published line
and approved fact wordings. Now such directly contradicts is terms
of reference. Fish Menthesis work to continue until the Memorial
Structures I installed. So we strongly object to those procedural
failures and the resulting deviations from the agreement point reconciliation
process. Namely, a lack of communication. They make minimum effort
to engage with 33 stakeholder groups. I have to ask
them before I was actually admitted to the MEC in
2021. Five years after. And prematurity spendment, which I describe
already and causing the site in an unsightly state for
at least a year. And bypassing oversight, circumventing the process
to funds an approved drawings and prank worthings. And four,
ignoring stakeholder inputs. People like us like to provide constructive
feedbacks. That we often ignore it. And five, compromising historical
accuracy. Now that's most important for us. Because the PAP
is about advancing and accurate. Narrative. Not a fairy tale.
And this practice, the only ones on site, educational tool
for visitors. So it's important. Now as a city, as
I said, has spent so much effort in time towards
reconciliation. It will be a shame for the reconstruction of
NWSS to end with a disrespectful and an approve. Up
design and wordings. Betraying the various history and the histories.
And the cities put intentions. Therefore, we sincerely request that
this cancel uses votes today. True withholding the approval on
item 4. 11 on your agenda regarding SD40's school sites,
composals and longed range facility parents. And to cause a
school district to pause this project until the MEC is
reconvened. And corrective measures taken. They need to update the
33 stakeholder groups and invite them back to MAC. And
also they need to invite their comments and approval. So
free prior informed consent. Can be a pain from impacted
stakeholder groups. Before everything would be considered approved for construction.
After all, this particular voice is not for expanded parking
random bike roots or pre - ground for skateboards and
e - scooters. But as solemn praise to fulfill the
city's promise to protect it from any further integnities and
desecration. And any wordings purple is just not meant to
make the living look good. But to provide a candy
refraction on history denied so far from so many. So
thank you for listening to me. And it's actually not
just me. There are many groups. Thank you again. Thank
you. Thank you, Mr. Chair, for your presentation. Um, Council
Senakawa. Thank you. Uh, thank you for being here and
raising this issue. Um, Council just had a member of
the public reach out and ask, uh, you know, about
the possibility of like cherry blossoms on this site. And
so I don't think that the community fully understands the
important. And like you said, the solemn nature of this
site. I also served on the MAC Committee for a
brief period. I think around the time maybe that you
are invited alongside Councillor McAvoy. Um, and I do agree.
I think it did come to a rather abrupt end.
Obviously it is, um. Important and sensitive conversation. And I
think it would feel better to wrap it up in
a, you know, in a really meaningful way. So I
would be very happy to connect with you the chair
of the school board and the superintendent to ask them
about, um, whether the opportunity we convene, how do we
come back to this conversation? Uh, I know that they
have been incredibly busy with, um, managing schools. And, um,
planning for new schools, um, and that this isn't necessarily
something that they have an extensive background in. And I
agree with you that I think when you ask people
for feedback for these groups, um, I know like the
choke coat nation was there. There was groups from, from,
uh, all around who had a connection with that site,
that they do want to see how their feedback was
taken and want to see that site built in a
meaningful way that you're exactly right. So no, nothing celebrate
memorializes the history of it. Acknowledges the history, which isn't
as well known as it should be. So, uh, we'd
be happy to connect with you in the School District
about that to follow up on this. Thank you for
your comments. I just want to respond by saying that
they, on their own website, says this park would be
completed this summer. And you guys all know what it
looked like right now. Is it impressing anyone. Is Memorial
supposed to look like. I think they are so far
off the mark that we have to put a stop
on it. Before they just pull those everything to whatever
they want. Whatever wedding they want. And that's not the
way to go. Right. Because the city, because solemn promise,
you know, 17 years ago. I spent most of this
17 years. Not in the council with those guys. And
he has been really disappointing. And I hope you guys
wouldn't allow them to invect the city's name in the
month, so to speak. Because everyone would guess, or I
assume wrongly, let's say beloved cities, but he somehow, it's
been on to them, right? And we cannot just allow
them to do whatever they want. It's not my reputation
risk. It's yours. So does it make sense to all
of you. Okay, thank you. Yeah. I think that you
can expect to hear from Councillor Nakawa and we'll try
to connect you with, with, we'll try to connect through
the school board. It's important, I think that the three
party conversation here between us and the school board who
owned the land and that conversation would be, I hope
you'll be able to find some resolutions to that. But
I really appreciate you coming here and delegating to us.
You know, we haven't had a delegation from you during
this council term. So it's, it's nice to see you
again and make your still working on this. And I'm
sorry that you're not completed it. I'm sorry. We haven't
got a completed yet. So. One, two. Come to offer.
I've been here. And I've lost all the councillors. Thank
you. Here, our next delegate is Lori Law.
Hello. Good evening. Mayor and Council, thank you for your
time tonight. Um, we're going to talk about housing. And
I was very saddened to hear about the families that
lost their home at Pinecrest Manor. Um, so would like
to send my condolences out to them. And also say
that I'm in awe of how quickly the resident of
New S came together to help each other. So that
was very helpwarming. Um, Mr. Mayor, I'd like to thank
you and Ms. Tambelini, the city's manager of intergovernmental relations.
We're joining our walking tour last Wednesday. Um, we would
have been more prepared if you had our SVP by
the June 26th deadline. Rather than send the last minute
request the night before the tour. However, our group of
eight neighbours welcomed you for the walk around the transitional
housing centre. During the tour, you stated that we had
asked for consultation. And that you were present. And therefore
available for consultation. And you asked, what do you want.
In the future, when you are offering a consultation, we
want two weeks notice so we can prepare and better
make use of your time and ours. You noted in
your Facebook post from last Thursday that you'd offered to
set up meetings with leaders in other jurisdictions who hosts
similar projects. You did make this offer. And we politely
declined because we want to go beyond simple, verbal assurances
that these projects are a success. We have been told
by BC Housing that the tiny village was a success
in Victoria. However, we were given data from 2019. Which
is before the tiny home village was commissioned. And the
data was for a different style of housing. Studio suites
with private bathrooms, kitchenets, and interior hallways. This report card
has, uh, data for, for seven units. And as I
mentioned, uh, the ones with the interior, um, hallways. So
it's similar to the project in Queensborough. And was issued
in 2018 for only a six month period of data
collection. This brochure quote studies using data from as far
back as 1974 and from New York City. At the
February 23rd Council meeting and again, not and again at
the March 5th small group InfoSessions, DC Housing stated that
the data from Victoria was being compiled and would be
shared. Five months later, no information has been shared with
our community. In March of this year, I submitted a
freedom of information request to BC Housing for data on
the Victoria Tiny Village. I asked for nine categories of
information and was told that half of the data was
not available because the operator owns the data. BC housing
and I finally arrived that seven categories, they could supply
for which I paid 115 dollars for 18 data plants.
Delivery took six weeks. So this is a costly and
lengthy process for individuals. You stated during the February 23rd
Council meeting that you believe this transitional housing village will
be a success because useful to the mayors of Kelowna
and Duncan about the successes in their cities. The operator
for Duncan had offered to send us information but did
not follow through. You offered to share the data provided
to you. By BC Housing and the housing operators that
helped convince you that this isn't a good project. It
is this information that I am asking for. I am
really disappointed that the concerns we raise have been repeatedly
discounted as residents spread misinformation. Yet no information is shared.
Only verbal reassurances that tiny villages are a successful model.
So please share the information you have from other jurisdictions.
I thank Councillor Campbell for our SVPing to our invitation
promptly. I was disappointed that councillors McAvoy, Nakagawa and Henderson
did not RSVP. At the February 23rd Council meeting, Councillor
Henderson stated that she spoke with councillors in Victoria and
Duncan and was given a positive impression. I therefore ask
Councillor Henderson, would you be willing to share the information
you obtained from your counterparts that helped you decide to
support this project. This project is part of the crisis
response pilot project. Meaning it's a test to determine whether
to expand this type of housing. Before this experiment on
village tenants, industrial workers and neighbours begins, we would like
to see how the data from other jurisdictions supports that
this will be a successful project here in the Westminster.
We look forward to getting the information from you. Thank
you. Thank you. Thank you, Lori. Uh, Councillor Fontaine. Thank
you, Mr. West. Thank you, Lori, for coming out. Uh,
I believe did RSVP in time. Councilman has to hunt
it. And, uh, do appreciate the cookies, the soft drinks
and the conversation on site. It was really informative. So
thanks for inviting me and for, um, uh, your hospitality
and for the information that you provided on site. Could
I just get some clarity then just so I'm clear
because as if we move forward. So specifically what information
are you seeking from counsel or from the mayor so
that we, yeah, if you could just clarify that repeat
that one more time just so hard. So during the
tour, I explain to Mr. Mayor that I was having
trouble accessing information. And, um, as he said, he, he
has had the opportunity to speak with the, uh, his
counterpart in Victoria. Duncan and Kelowna, um, and that there's
information that, um, helped convince him that this is a
good project. So he offered to share that information. So
I don't know specifically what the information is, um, but
that's what I'm asking for. And the clarification I was
making was, uh, that he had also offered to, um,
it sounds like to set up meetings so that we
could speak to the other jurisdictions. And I was saying,
Oh, I'd actually prefer the data than a verbal reassurance.
Okay. That's very clear. So I'll, um, obviously defer to
the mayor to respond to you in terms of whether
or not he's prepared to provide that. Are you also
just to clarify, you're also seeking from Councillor Henderson the
information she had obtained in terms of helping her to
make a decision. I'm asking if she'd be willing, yes.
Okay. So we'll put those are the two requests in
terms of information. Thank you. And then I do have
just one question for a staff. When we were on
site, uh, there last week, I think it was last
Wednesday. The trailers are there, but there doesn't seem to
be a lot of activity. Can Steph give us with
a quick update on when are we expecting, um, people
to actually be moving in to this, uh, tiny home
village. When would occupancy, because we were told earlier that
this was on a fast track and that people would
be moving in, I believe they said November or December,
but there's not a lot of activity there today. So
I'm just wondering if it has something paused or been
stalled. We're not aware of. Director, or sorry, CAO. Thank
you through the mayor. Uh, we're not aware of any
pause or delay, but I will follow up with staff
and we can get you that, uh, response. Okay. So
it looks like we're on track for November. Yeah. I
know that was a question that was posed to me
as well on site in terms of whether or not
that we're still on track, but we don't have the
information. So we'll assume that we're still on track for
November. So thanks so much for coming out. Thank you.
Thanks Councillor Henderson. Hi, yes. Um, yes, I have spoken
with both the mayor of Victoria and Duncan. And neither
provided me. Like concrete data. I'm happy to share my
notes from those meetings with you. But I think that
it would actually be more efficient and productive for you
to connect directly with both those mayors who have both
offered to meet with whomever, um, would like to have
a conversation. As I think then you can ask them
the questions that, that you feel that you'd like answered.
Um, so I'm happy to make that connection. Both mayor
Alto and Nicole's. Michelle have offered that. So I'm happy
to make that for you. And perhaps we could connect
because I, you know this city. They don't. They know
why it was a success in their city. Um, so,
so trying to understand what it was about, what they're
saying that you believe is transferable and therefore would make
it successful here. So happy to have that conversation. Um,
early on, I think in April, I met with the
resident down on the site for 90 minutes or so
and brought staff and did a tour. I was away
when the, um, meeting happened, uh, on a family holiday,
um, but can connect with you one - on -
one. Wonderful. Thank you. Councillor Minas. Thank you, Mr. Ware.
Uh, I want to thank you, Lori, for taking us
on the tour for the dining village home. And the
surrounding area. Those very informative thank you for that. I
do have a question for the staff. Um. These are
metal containers. And with the summer coming forward, um, are
there steps being taken for air conditioning or anything like
that? I don't know if CEO or the director of
planning a development have the outside answer yet. Thank you
for the question councillor and through the chair through the
mayor. The exact specifications are BC housing standards. Um, we
can certainly ask and get back to you. I'm sure
the team here has had those conversations with them. Um,
what I can't tell you is that certainly keeping in
mind that, uh, folks who are living, uh, you know,
in these conditions and the awareness of the heat and
the temperatures is top of mind. So, but we can
get back to you with some of the specifications. Thank
you very much for that. Thank you. Thanks. Councillor Fontaine.
Yeah. Just one quick follow up just to follow up
to Councillor Minnhause's question. Perhaps in the response back, if,
if staff could let counsel know whether the cooling bylaw,
the new cooling bylaw that we just approved, does that
apply to the tiny home village, meaning that as Councilman
has said that they would all have to have, um,
a place within the units to be able to cool
down. So if that could be part of the response
back from staff as to whether or not this particular
site is exempt from that bylaw or if the bylaw
applies and how it would apply to those. Because as
Council Men has rightly noted, um, while the containers won't
be occupied until November, which is a cooler time of
the year, if we were to go back into a
heat dome kind of scenario, those are fully exposed to
the southern sunshine. And I can only imagine it would
be, um, incredibly hot in those things. So I just
want to be assured that there is at least some,
uh, plan place from BC housing to ensure that those
units are air conditioned. Uh, thank you. Thank you for
your delegation, Lori. Um, thank you again for the meeting.
Um, I just want to say, uh, I have not
forgotten that the conversation we had or the, or the
request to have some more concrete data around the other
sites and how they measured success and what metrics they
used for success. Um, I've already followed up our staff
at Indogover Relations have already are following up with BC
housing. And they're going to be connecting to those other
partners. And we're going to, we're going to do our
best to try to get that data for you. So
I stand by that commitment too. We're going to, we're
going to continue to ask that data and try to
get it for you so that you can, you have
some numbers in front of it. I recognise that you're
more, you sorry, I shouldn't say you recognised. It sounded
to me like you were more interested in those sort
of numbers in that numerical stuff than the anecdotal data
that I shared that the mayor has shared with me.
So that's what we're going to try to get for
you. Okay. Thank you. Our next delegate is Marion Djordjevik.
Thanks. Everyone for attending tonight. Um, I have my notes
here. Um. I would also like to start with. The
thank you to the NWP for honouring our invitation. To
join us on a walk in our neighbourhood where the
tiny home village will be placed and become their neighbourhood
too, of the people being placed there. The answer at
on time, they agreed on what we've agreed. They told
us how many people are coming. And because no one
from Community First agreed, we extended the invitation to. The
US progressives. Candidate councillors 11 days later after the RSVP
date. June 26, the mayor assistant email test with an
eight hours, 18 hours notice. That the mayor is coming
too. Which we understand was most likely because of the
backlash on Facebook that no one from Community First is
interested in all of these. Despite the fact that many
of the councillors and city staff involved in this have
already told us. They have not been on site, which
is why the whole invitation happened in the first place.
No one from Community First Councillors asked questions. Well, we've
been here. Asking them in terms of finding resolution and
only when they see a liability coming back at them,
like the environmental assessment that came last time. For which
we didn't receive any document either. Came up a concern.
Only newest progressive councillors were asking questions in which they
were trying to put some meaning into this madness. Well,
who approved this will have a liability ultimately if this
happens. A liability on your consciousness when these people being.
Not able to judge what they're doing at certain point.
We'll die either on this tracks. Because of no fence.
On an active crossing with no any sort of protection.
Or getting on the cranes, falling off of the cranes.
Creating an encampment where there is no any homeless people.
Using a program from BC Housing where in fact there
is no encampment. There's been one to two people coming
and going. Out of which one of them created the
fire under the bridge and no one is there now
after the cleanup. We know this because we know these
people, we live there. We've seen them many times. You
will create this encampment now. With many of them putting
up their tents on the ministry lands around as we've
pointed out on the walk where the city can do
anything about it. The mayor did clearly stated on the
walk. Many times that he will be happy to have
these people in his home and help them anyway he
can. So here is an opportunity Mr. Mayor. We can
easily recognise these two individuals and happy to bring them
over and you can let us when you're ready. But
when I asked if any of the councillors talked to
the homeless people, no one said they've talked to them.
I've talked to them on many occasions to get her
with my wife and at my workplace whenever they end
up in a tent around her. All of them ended
up on the street from many different reasons. So many
personal stories. Most of them are even aware they gained
mental challenges throughout the years. Many of them stated they
do not even want to go in a shelter or
of these types of housing that doesn't give them any
support, help, engagement, mental health service, councillors to work with
them. No one is even protecting us from the drug
dealers, they said. The girls clearly stated in anger. Do
you know how many times we've been abused. And our
friends being bitten by the drug dealers entering this type
of housing. No one being able to stop them. So
I have not. Heard of anyone saying we need less
housing. For the homeless. But what most of the people
in the US have been stating is that this is
wrong. It's a wrong approach. These people need housing that
will help them to stand up on their feet. Not
too easily supply them with more heavy drugs. How is
that going to help them really. There is many different
types of housing throughout Newest addressing many different groups of
people who faced home abuse. So there is women's housing
society, young mothers coming out of adolescence with kids not
being able to pay for housing. And the risk housing
for people who are also on the path to come
off drugs and recovery. Why all of a sudden the
council is approving a site where any addiction, including heavy
drugs or alcohol are allowed for use. The support that
BC housing many times all of these been stated, the
support that BC Housing was stating that's going to be
there. And the city staff too. We're referring to their
only guards. BC housing on March 19th, we asked them
so many questions and they couldn't get away with it
anymore. And they said, no, they'll be guards. They need
to call and I state exactly what they said. The
guards will call police fire department for ambulance in case
there is a fight, fire, or stabbing. When there is
a life - threatening moment. BC housing admittedly to us.
They're not support. It's using words giving completely different meaning.
None of the documents, by the way, as Lori mentioned
too, we've asked so far since March 30th since we've
been coming have been provided. Where is the data of
all those success cities that have similar housing. And you're
keep on telling us about. It's basically, oh, I've talked
to this person. He said it's great. That restaurant here,
maybe I have a different experience about the, I mean,
none of this makes, we don't have clear data. None
of this breaking your app five minutes is up. Based
on what, on March 30th, and I was not provided
by any document based on which data was put in
a vote for this to go through. Can you, can
anyone tell me. There was no data provided of any
of these sites. In a country, all of the other
sides that no one mentioned about, they have all bad
data about this. So how come up that all of
these are success stories based on a hearsay. He told
me, she told me, I mean, this is how a
decision was made for this to be put in there
without any other sort of consideration. And now we're hearing
that a shuttle, right, for the tiny home village will
be there to go downtown when they have a need.
I'm asking you to swim up pretty quick here. You're
five minutes around. Trying to recap everything we've talked on
the walk, which it was hour and a half and
it was long, right? In the same time on the
weekend, last door society had an event where they present
a case. Or cases, if you will. A success stories
where people have been approached on a right way. And
how is that supposed to be done instead of feeding
someone who has a cigarette addiction and you're putting CR
at in front of him, testing him is he's going
to take the cigaretter. It doesn't make any sense. So.
I will eventually have to use the petition that I've
started and get her 2000 votes. And. Explain the people
there that we're going to have to vote in this
city for the people who are listening to the voice
of the residents. And obviously in this case, that's not
going to be community first. It'll have to be progressive.
Thank you, Ms. I'm going to have to ask you
to wrap up now. You're all pastor five minutes. Thanks.
We were approached. And we were given. Please, Mr. Dirturch,
you've well passed your five minutes. They've given you lots
of time, lots of action. I understand. Thanks. Um, okay.
In terms of transparency, Mr. Djordjewicz, please. Last sentence. Last
sentence. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. In terms of transparency,
including the residents from River Drive. All of those who've
commented on Facebook. Based on the walk we had last
week, all of them told me that they've been disconnected
from them putting any further comments. They've been disconnected of
the Facebook page. So what I'm trying to say is.
We are supposed to have different views. And we need
to have a mayor for every resident in the city.
Thank you, Mr. Only give credit to the mayor. Thank
you very much. Thanks. Thank you. Okay. Councillor Campbell? Sure.
I just thank you for coming today. And I know
that this isn't your first time. So hopefully, you know,
you recognise that the, there are, um, processes in the
city. You may not agree with them. Um, but here
we are. Right. And one of them is recognising that
we have 10 delegates. And so the time restriction is
five minutes. So thank you for stopping so imposing so
we can continue the meeting. What I want to share
are two things. Um, one is, and they're both specifically
addressing some of the assumptions you have made. So one
assumption is that by not showing up that we don't
care. So let me very clear. I do care. I
also have another part - time job and family and
other commitments. And as Lori mentioned, I did acknowledge that
I wasn't able to attend. That doesn't mean I'm not
interested. It just means that I do have other, I'm
not accepting comments at this time. Um, what I am
sharing is that the assumption that we are not interested,
I don't take that personally. What I do fear is
that other people who want to run for office that
want to be in the community, um, we have to
recognise that many of us have other commitments. So please
don't assume that if we don't attend or if we
don't engage, that doesn't mean that we're not interest interested.
The other part, I'm not finished, is that we are
not asking questions. Let me be very clear. I ask
questions from people who have subject matter expertise. I also
ensure that I hear the answers. What I do want
to do is address the fact that we are open
to hearing comments, which is why we've really encouraged staff
to reach out and to engage. And the BC housing
session occurred. And we have been working through staff to
make sure that information is there. What I will share
is that there's an assumption sometimes that because, uh, because
some of those are not on Facebook or social media
all the time that we are not listening. We are
listening. Um, so I just want to address these. I
am present. I am paying attention. I just can't attend
everything. And that's the case for many of us because
we have other jobs and we have other responsibilities. But
I was on the police board before. I was elected
here. I'm aware of that site. And I've been reading
all the reports thoroughly and all the information. So I
am informed and interested. And again, I'll just end with
seeing the assumption that I am, um, not asking questions
is untrue. I am, but I'm asking them of the
people who have the experience and the subject information. So
I'm not accepting questions. I just wanted to address those
assumptions. Thank you. Thank you. Councillor Fontaine. Thank you so
much for coming out this evening. Um, I'm going to
use my limited time not to lecture you. I'm going
to actually use my time to take some of the
questions that you posed this evening and try to phrase
those to staff to try to provide you with some
response. So my first question to staff, and it does
pertain to one of the questions that was raised in
the delegation around the materials that, uh, counsel was provided
in relation to this project. Now that the project is
no longer, um, and in camera item or something that's
to be discussed behind closed doors. I'm wondering if staff
can advise the public if the materials that counsel was
provided can be made available to the public now that
this is no longer an item that, um, would be
done in camera. What would be the procedure to have
that information. Uh, provided to the public. I would assume
that we had an open council report about this project
that came to us during a presentation from VC housing.
We had an open council report about this at how
the data, it had the data. That would be my
response to have another with due respect. Mr. Mayor, I
think I posed the question through you to the city
manager or to other staff. Sorry. Thank you,
Councillor. And through the mayor, um, I'm unaware of any
information that may have been in camera that hasn't been
brought up, but I'm happy to, um, discuss that in
a different venue. Um, but certainly staff would brought forward
all of the information that we're allowed to bring forward,
uh, and required to bring forward as well. There's an
FAQ on BC housing's website as well as on our
website that speak to a lot of the things that
have been talked about tonight. Okay. Just to clarify then
if the delegate requests the infer, if they're, if the
delegate requests information that was provided to counsel regarding this
particular project, would the delegate be permitted to receive that
information or would they have to put it through an
FOI to receive the information. I think I believe that,
um, I mean, there are two ways. One through the
mayor, of course, NFOI is always available to the delegate.
Most of the information would be on our website and
in our minutes and available through the FAQs. And if
anything, we are trying to do our best to overcommunicate
on this topic as well as encouraging BC Housing to
Communicate their part on this topic because they own the
majority of the information. Okay. I was just trying to
get clarity for the public that if they do wish
to receive that information, uh, it would appear that there
might be an avenue for you to receive that. My
second question just pertains to the bus transportation. I did
hear that on the tour and then I did hear
it again this evening. Our staff aware of a bus
or some kind of transportation shuttle bus between the tiny
home village in downtown. Is that I keep hearing this
coming up. Are we aware that BC housing is organising
a formal transportation system? Cause I know that the people
of Queensborough have been talking about a bus school bus
for the Queen Sparrows. I'm just wondering if there is
a bus being planned from the tiny village to downtown.
CEO. Uh, thank you for the question through the mayor.
Um, these things are still being worked out from what
I understand with BC housing, uh, including all of the
safety measures. Um, I'm not fully aware of timing for
a bus or if that's confirmed, but certainly there was
discussion about that. And we can, we can follow up.
So we're a potential where but not, nothing's been confirmed.
Okay. If I may, because the, uh, operator hasn't been
decided on yet, but we will have city staff, um,
engaged in that discussion and giving the city's perspective and
advice on, uh, how to move forward with that. With
a shuttle. Okay. Thank you. And then just to follow
up and the three of you, Mr. Mayor, to the
CEO, I have asked this question in the past month
or so. So I'll ask it again. Um, we did
request a meeting with BC housing, an open meeting with
the Rail Companies. And I'm wondering, um, if there's any
update from BC housing, it's been, I think, a couple
months since that's happened. And I don't think any meeting
has taken place that I'm aware of anyways. But perhaps.
If staff can update the publican council as to what
the status is on this public meeting with the real
companies, I'm assuming the residents and counsel. Through the mayor,
I have not heard any confirmation on any public meeting
and BC housing, as I said before, would be taking
the lead on that particular item. Okay. So we haven't
heard back from BC housing. Last question is, um, again,
from what I heard, I think believe tonight and also
what I saw or heard on site was around the
amount of refuse that the Ministry of Transportation allowed to
accumulate on their property. Do we have any assurance? As
I know it's been clean now, but do we have
any assurances from the Ministry of Transportation? They won't let
it get to the same state that it was in
that their residents were living in prior to that. Cause
I knew it was well documented. I think Councillor Minn
has went down. It was in the media that this
was there. I'm glad to see it's been cleaned up.
But I just don't want it to go back to
the same scenario two, three, four months. We're now joining
if we have any assurances from them. So thank you.
Uh, the structure and system we have in place through
the crisis response pilot project has worked well by identifying
these things. Um, and then communicating among city staff. And
when it's our responsibility, we can then action it. And
when it's not on our property or not our responsibility,
we have contacts direct contacts, whether it's with the rail
or with transportation in other means we are able to
reach out directly. And then understanding that this is not
something that anybody wants to leave unattended. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you very much for your delegation. Okay. Thank you
Councillor Minhouse. Thank you Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Marshal, for
coming down. I appreciate that. I have a question for
the staff, you for this year. Um. Last week I
know it's a little bit different here. Um, but just
wanted to, uh, understand something here. Last week, I believe
it was Dr. Anne that came from Douglas College. And
she said that the information was the independent information was
provided by this city. Now I'm just wondering and curious
if the information that has been provided to BC housing.
Was that from the city. True's married. Sorry. I'm not
sure which information in particular? Uh, just about the tiny
village home in regards to that. Was all the information
passed from the city. Two BC housing or was it
an independent study of BC housing wanting to set up,
uh, small tiny village home. There. Yeah. I can sort
of see through the mayor, um, this was a BC
housing decision. It's their mandate. And certainly we obviously have
a housing, you know, focus and mandate. But BC Housing
determines where, um, on what properties and how they're going
to go about managing those properties. We play a supportive
role in that. Thank you for that. Thank you. Thank
you. Thank you. Mr. Rutger. Delegation. Uh, now we have
two delegations who first is Pat Musey. Is I believe
you're now.
What I've come here to talk about is traffic. With
the geographical centre of the valley. And we have two
major bridges within our borders. And we're not dealing with
traffic. We just built a six lane bridge, turned it
into a four lane bridge. And at the top, a
10th in McBride, the right of way. That goes through,
it's a provincial government right away. It still exists. It
goes through. And comes out near the Mounty station. On
number one highway. And right now. Vernaby is building on
that right away. Has that right away been done away
with. And why are we not, you don't even have
to put an overhead to it. A hundred feet, 150
feet, you make a cut and go through that little
bluff hot tent. And turn it into a four -
way intersection. And get rid of one half of the
traffic that runs through New West. Why aren't we doing
that. Is that right away still exists? Does anyone know.
As I know, it's on the maps. And we should
be demanding that the provincial government used that right away.
It'll take 50 percent of the traffic out of New
West. And the other thing is storage them way. You've
got to deal with it. Coming down through the city.
That's a highway. I discovered that this week. That that's
a highway. Provincial Government Highway. And it comes off the
Queen Sparrow. They're going to replace the Queensborough. What are
you going to do with it? Are you going to
traffic has to either go overhead. Underground. Or be dealt
with on roads that are only for the traffic passing
throws? How you go walking in Safford and Park. Every
morning. And the amount of transfer trucks that come through
that route, they're coming up from the American border, across
the Greensboro and down and out and out the Fraser
Valley. And there's hundreds of them. More than that. And
it's steady traffic all week long. And they're on the
weekend too. You're not dealing with traffic in this city
properly. And Byrne B is building on that right away.
Does that right away still exist. At the top of
Tenth of McBride and he comes out at the mounting
station on the number one. And you should be going
to Burn and B right now and say, cease and
desist. We're going to, you don't even have to put
it overhead. You can cut 100 foot grade there and
you'd be ready to online. Hundred, 150 feet just to
cut to give it a, above that 10 feet. We're
not addressing traffic. And if you want to get rid
of your drug addicts, I can give you the perfect
place. It's called Kitsong. It's 137 miles north of terrorists
at 187 miles north of Prince Rupert. I work there
in the 1980s. It's an old mining town and it's
pristine. And it'll hold between 1500 and 2, 000 people.
The provincial government should someone bought it and tried to
turn it into a recreation area. No one's going to
go that far. No it for recreation. But it would
make a perfect drug treatment centre. That gets them out
of our city's and into isolation where they can treat
it. They say five weeks you can clean them up
10 weeks. They have a better chance of recover. That
means 2, 000 times 10 weeks, five. 10, 000 to
20, 000 people, depending how long you put them in
there. So why aren't we dealing with it in a
logical manner. So, and I want to deal with this
right away. We're going to be shouldn't be building on
that right away unless it's been done away with. And
they're right now, they've been blocking it for years of
building on it because they don't want it running through
burning. But it's the solution New West traffic problem.
And we have to deal with traffic in this city.
Where the geographical centre of the valley. The monuments raked
down in Hume Park. And everything runs through us. We've
got two bridges within our borders. Major bridges. We build
a six lane bridge and turned it into four lanes.
We got sidewalks there with a sidewalk and the wind
of the traffic land. It's time you addressed it. Okay.
Thank you, Mr. Muzi. Oh, Councillor Fontaine. Just really quickly
through you, Mr. Mayor, to staff just to confirm this
storm on connector, um, I'm assuming that director, or deputies
city manager acting director of engineering can respond. But, um,
is that still, I have had that question posed to
me in all seriousness multiple times, but I don't actually
have the answer for that. I know I keep hearing
it's a right of way and et cetera. But I
do notice they are building on top of it now.
So I'm assuming that the strum on connector is no
longer, um, a right of weight connection. I don't know.
Definitely CAO or cancer that. I will dig deep into
through the chart. My understanding is that the storm on
connector concept plan, um, is no longer being actively pursued.
And I'm not sure that I can say any more
than that without a statement from them, Ministry of Transportation
and Transit. Thank you. Thank you. And I did have
one delegate who, uh, Brian O'Neal, if he showed up.
There's space in the. Uh, and I don't think Brian
Oehle is here. So what I will do is call
to an end of the public delegation period. Um, counsel,
I think we might want to think about taking a
bit, a short break just to for a bit of
a nature break. Just to get a drink. But I
would rec, can we please go through, um, uh, the,
um, consent agenda first, please. Can Councillor's go down the
queue. And, um, remove things from the agenda. They wish
to remove. Starting with Councillor Nakagawa. 4. 3 4. 4
and 4. 12, please. That's 412.
4. 2. Sorry.
Um, Councillor Henderson. Thank you. Can I pull 4. 6.
Or 410. 410? Yeah. Thanks.
Again to 410, but it looks like that's done. Yeah.
Okay. Councillor Fontaine. I'm going to be pulling Mr. Mayor
item 49. 804 11. And I believe Council Nathagawa called
item 412. I just reconfirmed that. 411. And 412. It's
fart even pulled. Yeah. Okay. Thanks. Okay. Oh, and I'm
going to push poll number 415, 415. So can I
get a motion to approve on consent 41 and 42
at our minutes? No moves. Uh, hold on. 4. 5.
4. 8. And the two proclamations. So moved.
Second. All in favor. All opposed carry. And we will
take, let us take a seven minute break and get
back here at 25 two. And we will start with
item 4. 3 at that point. Thanks.
Okay folks, let's take our seats.
In there.
That's why. Okay. So I'm
sure she'll get back. But I'm gonna call, we have
quorum, and I will get this meeting back in order.
There in Nakagawa. All right. Okay. Thank you very much
for getting this back to us. It feels so important
to be talking about this. I have two questions and
one sort of comment, so maybe I'll start with the
questions. The first is I just wanna clarify, for example,
that if a councillor or another staff member was to
put, like closed information like closed reports into some sort
of an AI model, that this would be considered a
breach of closed information. Director of Finance, CFO. Hi through
the mayor, thanks for the question. Based on the guidelines,
yes, that would be considered a breach. Based on our
guidelines. Okay, yeah, I think that is really important for
the city to be aware of that. Obviously, people use
generative AIs for a number of purposes and putting closed
material and does create more training data based on that
confidential information. So I think that is really important to
pull that apart. My second question are sort of, I
guess it's kind of feedback, it's kind of question is
there was a list of AI platforms that are unacceptable
and a list that works acceptable. I can really understand
why Grock would not be acceptable, and I support that.
I'm wondering if the bit of a framework or a
description of what makes the platforms acceptable or unacceptable. Like
if the guidance, because like it says in the report,
these are just proliferating, you know, just every single day
the ones popping up, so I guess, what is the
matrix for determining what makes a platform acceptable or unacceptable?
Director Finance. Thanks through the mayor, I would like to
actually introduce our chief information officer, Paul Taylor, who would
be the best suited to answer that question. Through the
mayor, thank you for the question. It's tough to keep
up, as you mentioned, with all the proliferation of online
platforms. So we leaned into the ones that offer, I
guess, the greatest flexibility in terms of creating account. Portal
allows you to toggle off the training data option. It
sort of makes it a bit safer so that whatever
you're inputting is not there for use for training data.
So that was one of the guiding principles that we
used. But as we get further into this with the
working group, we're going to analyse this much more deeply.
Okay. So the other piece of feedback that I would
just include in this is that obviously generative AI has
huge climate and environmental impacts. And I would like that
also to be included in it, a consideration, you know,
I think there's good guidance there around for staff, for
example, that it should supplement, it shouldn't replace judgment, et
cetera. Um, I would also like a consideration of whether
or not it's necessary given its huge water usage and
electrical usage. Um, people are using this, no doubt. I
think using it responsibly is acknowledging that even though we
cannot see it, every time that we generative AI, it's
gobbling up resources. We've been, we've just, I think, moved
out of stage three watering restrictions back into stage two,
but I mean, um, I think this is something we
should be concerned about. So I would love to see
that included as a working group continues to do their
work. So thank you. I'll move the recommendation. Okay, thank
you. Councillor Henderson. Thank you. Yeah, I have the same
concern and comment about, uh, resource implications. Um, yeah, and
I guess just, just some comments, not questions, but, uh,
the way that I read this AI, this policy here,
um, there's a piece around it's not to be used
to make decisions on behalf of the city, um, or
in any context where accuracy, professional judgment, or originality is
critical. Um, for me, I interpret that as, uh, my
remarks, my comments as a councillor. I think that people
expect us, I think it's important that residents hear us
in our own words. I think that as elected officials,
I think there is an expectation that we are sharing
our own, uh, unique thoughts. And so, um, I have
a disclaimer on my signature now to let residents know
that I never use AI in any of my emails
back, social media written remarks and chambers, anything like that.
And, um, I would encourage, um, that same transparency with
my council colleagues here, um, just in terms of, uh,
letting, letting folks know, uh, when and when they don't,
uh, use AI in our comments as councillors. So thanks.
Thank you. Um, thanks, thanks for the report. It did
help clarify a lot of things. It also helped clarify
me that the challenge actually in front of us about
recognising where, where the line is in this technology. I
am, I have to admit I am, I think maybe
the first time my life starting to feel like a
bit of a luddite. I'm starting to feel a little
bit questionable about where the technology is going and not
wanting to not wanting to engage with. So I don't
take the time. I haven't taken the time to learn
how to use these tools or want to use those
tools right now. But that said, um, I am a
person who uses word. I use Excel. I use Microsoft
programs. I use Adobe to read by read my tuils
that I provided by me. And I guess, I don't
know, maybe there, I guess my concern would be maybe
we need to have a conversation about some training for
council on, on this. Cause council is one part of
the organisation here that is privy to close information. And
I think that maybe there might be an opportunity for
us on council to get some training about how we
actually protect and make sure that we don't unintentionally, uh,
end up providing close information into, like we may not
even know. And the idea that we can't write anything
into a Word document that might be enclosed is a,
might be close information is concerning, right? Or anything into
a note piece and piece of note taking software on
your desktop, right? So I think we're all aware that
we don't share it. And we don't store closed information
on computers that don't belong to the city. We have,
you know, there's some data hygiene things around that. But
I think maybe we might need some further training for
council who with all, how do I say this? Perhaps
not as up on it as staff are. I think
that's a good way to say, yeah, we're not as
up on the changes of technology of staff R. So
that would just add that maybe as a suggestion for
first off to think about whether they, whether that's something
that they, they may want to consider either for this
council or for the next council as part of the
training for the new council when they come in. Cause
I think we're getting, we're heading into areas that are
really difficult for a lot of people to understand where
the lines are. With that said, um, thank you for
the report and thanks for the update. And I will
see no more comments or questions. I'll call the question
all in favor. I'll oppose Kerry. Thank you. Thank you.
Next item is on the Community Advisory Assembly Updates Councillor
Nakagawa. Thank you. Um, really appreciated this report. And as
somebody who has led and been part of a lot
of conversations about diversity inclusion, uh, very interesting to read
the model that was used, um, to have this, this
conversation. A lot of the recommendations I think make really
good sense. And I appreciate, you know, the, the assembly
taken this on. This is a tricky conversation. A couple
of pieces that I just wanted to, um, uplift and
maybe ask that for an update on. When is the
boat accessibility descriptions of buildings? This is a huge part
of inclusion. And, um, some of our buildings have somewhat,
uh, accessibility descriptions on them. Um, others say fully accessible,
which really isn't inaccessibility description. Um, it needs to have
more nuance and detail than that. Um, and then the
other piece I wanted to ask for an update on
was just today, and this was great timing, not related
to this report. Um, I received a couple of emails
from members of the community asking, and this is also
a good timing because new us Pride was just here.
Um, asking about updates on gender inclusive washrooms, uh, for
city facilities, um, for I know, for example, the Massey
theatre has had upgrades to make, um, inclusive washrooms. Um,
but, um, wanted to ask for an update on how
the city is progressing on this file. It's really, really
important for some members of our community to have their
basic needs met. So, um, not sure if staff have
an update on that at the ready, but would like
to request that they come back, um, to let us
know what the plan is about that and what a
timeline for completion will be. Services. Thank you for the
question through the chair. Uh, we will take that away
and bring that, bring back an update for you. Thank
you. Great. Great timing. We have washrooms on the agenda
later on too. So important thing to talk about. Thanks.
Okay. Recoindations were moved. Isn't the seconder. And I see
no other comments or questions. So I'll call the question
all in favor. All opposed, it's carried. Item 4. 6
is trained whistle cessation resolution for braid street rail crossings.
Councillor Henderson. Hi. Thank you. Uh, yeah, I will move
recommendation of the gate. And seconded. Awesome. Yeah. This is
obviously really exciting. Um, to see come forward. Um, really
happy that staff were able to, um, move on this
crossing. Um, this will be welcomed news for the folks
particularly who are at the new tower, um, along Brave
Street there. Um, can you help, I think what is
also important is, um, helping us understand and helping residents
understand why, uh, braid was able to move a bit
faster than spruce and cumberland. I understand some of those
technicalities, um, but I just want to, um, make sure
that, uh, the brewery district residents understand, um, that, uh,
sort of the, the timeline of events, um, because I
know that they are also eagerly awaiting. We have finished
the work on Cumberland. And I know that we are
just waiting for the railway to complete some of their
work, um, and spruce is a beast. And we are
getting there. But I'm just wondering if, if you might
be able to, uh, just help us understand, you know,
sort of what happened at Braid that led to its
relatively, um, quicker, uh, success. Thanks. So to the deputy
CAO or does that go to, okay. Um, thank you
for the question and through the chat. The work on
braid. Has been years in the making. We have been
actively working on all the infrastructure to help support. All
the infrastructure that goes, that has gone into getting us
to the point of resourceation for, uh, a number of
years now. And that includes a lot of, you know,
technical designs, technical studies that we've been diligently working on
in the background. Um, I think we, we found a
sweet spot where we were able to bring all the,
um, stakeholders and all the folks from on the regulatory
regulators as well as obviously on the railway side. We
were able to bring them together behind our technical solution
that we proposed. And that kind of got us a
lot of the momentum. And we were able to go
out and build it. And that is generally what has
led us to this point right now that we're able
to put those resolution forward. Great. That's awesome. So not
a matter of, um, super seething, but actually this one
was burning Ember's burning in the background. That's really helpful
to be reminded of. The report outlines that if counsel
passes this resolution, which I don't want to speak for
all of counsel, but I suspect that it'll be unanimous.
Uh, and, uh, the railway has 30 days to cease
blowing their whistles with the exception of, you know, safety
issues and when things come up, um, can you help
us understand if they were, is there an opportunity for
any of the railways to object and what that process
would look like. There is a process for them to
provide comments and to. I wouldn't go as far as
to call it a formal objection, but they'll raise their
concerns. And there is a process that is laid out
in the regulation of how we can work through that
process in order to, um, overcome their concerns. To get
us to the point where we are able to cease
the whistling. Okay. So would that have to come back
to counsel if that was, you know, if that exchange
happened or is that just something that you'll work on
within the 30 days? That is something that's that full
worker. Okay. Great. Great. Awesome. Yeah. Well, this is wonderful
news. Um, Southern will be delighted as this opportunity. I
will help spread that news. And yeah, thank you for
all your work. I know that this is the, um,
tedious, uh, David and Goliath battle of all time. Uh,
with the railway crossings and really appreciate staff's commitment on
this. Thank you. I don't see any of their comments
or questions. There's a motion on the floor. It's been
seconded. So I will call the question all in favor.
I'll oppose it's carried. Thank you. Thank you, Coco.
Next item is, sorry, I'm just getting through a minute.
It's 4. 9 housing agreement. Amendment bylaw to permit guest
suite. Councillor Fontaine. Mr. Mayor, I have to recuse myself
due to proximity to this apartment building. Yeah. Thank you.
Calznakawa. Uh, move recommendation. And seconded yours to speak to
it. No. Councillor Campbell, do you speak to it? No.
Okay. In that case, I see no one speaking to
it. I'll call the question all in favor. I'll oppose
carried. And can we grab Councillor Dave.
Okay. Next item is 4. 10 New Westminster Citywide Torrent
Strategy. Councillor Henderson. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you for this
work. Um, I'm hoping that you can provide some clarity
around the, uh, 115, 000 and 205, 000 dollars outlined
in the short term recommendations and what that's used for.
It's, it's more obvious to me, um, the 80, 000
amount there needed for way signing and updating updating things
like that. It's not clear to me what it means.
Like, you know, what the need for that money is
for building community partnerships, for example. So some clarity would
be helpful. Thank you. Amen. We're playing. One of
us has to push it the other way. Okay. Go
for it. Through the chair to Councillor Hempson. Thank you
for the question. Um, in relation to Community Partnerships in
the short term, uh, there would be a focus on
supporting a partnership with a nonprofit organisation to address the
needs of people experiencing homelessness. Um, that is something that,
uh, tentatively allocated 25, 000 dollars in 2026 and 75,
000 dollars in 2027 towards developing that partnership. Um, that
is a partnership that we could seek senior government funding
for, given that it is the responsibility of the provincial
government to address the needs of people experiencing homelessness. Um,
there is additional budget allocated towards, um, developing partnerships with,
um, businesses. So with the private sector. And so in
the short terms, the budget for that amount would support,
um, further engagement with local businesses to understand the toolkit
of incentives that is needed to, um, develop those partnerships.
Um, we did have representation from businesses on our working
group and have a general sense of, um, supports that
would be, that would facilitate businesses to provide wider access
to their washrooms. Um, but that initial work would support
developing a wider tool kit for that business committing partnership
model. Okay. So is that, um, both the 115 and
the 205 amount. Um, there's, there's, there's a breakdown of
kind of three steps. Um, the Community Partnerships, uh, 115,
the Communications Wayfinding, information tracking is AD. And then the
implementation governance. Can you help me understand what the costs
associated with that. Are. Yes.
So the, uh, the short - term recommendations related to
Community Partnerships involves, um, 25, 000 dollars in 2026 towards
establishing partnership with the faith - based or non -
profit organisation, um, to support people experiencing homelessness in the
90, 000 dollars for people experiencing homelessness in 2027. The
80, 000 dollars in the communications wayfinding and information, tracking
section of the report relates to communications and wayfinding in
2026, um, print materials that would provide information about the
city's public toilets. It would also include, um, expanding the
downtown wayfinding strategy to other areas across the city. Um,
it would also include integrating C click fix as a
public reporting tool across the city, uh, so that members
of the public could identify when mushrooms are in need
of maintenance or upgrades and provide that information to staff.
It also includes a small amount for small scale retrofits
and upgrades to increase accessibility, pump, prudence, safety. And so,
um, in particular, that would look like small scale retrofits
such as, um, ensuring that washrooms have infant change tables
universally across the board, things like step stools to support,
um, small children to reach the sinks, looking also at
hand bars and garabrails as needed and nonstick flooring for
people experiencing, um, with visibilities or seniors. Okay. That's really
helpful. Thank you. That was not clear to me. So
that's really helpful. Um, the, uh, there have been some
signs around saying new signage is coming around the downtown
and the director of Community Services let us know today
that that was tourism in the West who's taking on
that wayfinding piece. Um, and that those are set to
be done sort of at the end of the month.
Um, how can we weave these together? I don't want,
you know, we just have done that wayfinding. Is there
a way to coordinate, uh, with that, you know, just
in terms of, um, obviously the downtown is a highly
dense area where they signs would be really appreciated. And
so I'm just wondering how, um, how the, if there
have been conversations with Jura 70 West, if those are,
you know, in the works right now, I don't want
to duplicate their work or replace the work that's already
been done. So yeah, if you could speak to that.
Through the chair, uh, we do have wayfinding consultant who
is doing a concept design with regards to Sonic and
wayfinding. Uh, we are looking for coordinated process, uh, so
we will be reaching out to tourism in the West.
And also with regards to the implementation coordinated, which was
a vision which we're looking at, that would take, um,
really take responsibility for trying to coordinate work moving forward,
recognising, uh, having the standardized signage throughout the city is
really important. Uh, so, uh, we will be reaching out
to tourism in the West. Okay. Awesome. Thanks. Yeah. Thank
you so much. Um, yeah, I mean, we, uh, everyone
needs a washroom a few times a day. So, uh,
this is definitely needed. We need to be thinking about
this in a really concrete way. So I appreciate the
work on this. Thanks. And if you don't, you should
see your doctor. Okay. Uh, Councillor Campbell. Sorry, just laughing
because now we're doing comedy. Okay. Yeah. Thanks for this
report. Quite extensive. They toilet strategy. So I appreciate, you
know, I didn't realise there was so complex. Like in
one of the things that was addressed in the short
term, um, actions is staffing and increasing the needs, uh,
to maintain, um, the public toilet. So I appreciate that
that's been addressed. And I know it's a work in
progress, but we want to make sure that it's a,
uh, a safe workplace for employees. And we want to
make sure that the needs of the community are met.
So I'm really looking forward to the way forward there.
Um, I do have some questions and you may not
know all the answers and you can just shoot me
an email if you want, but it's about, um, the
short term implementations, uh, and it's on attachment one page
44. Some of these projects understand have already been approved
in the capital plan. So yay, that's great. Um, one
of them is the completion of the freestanding public toilets
at Park C West. Minister, or Westminster Pierre Park, the
expansion piece in case people don't know what Park C
is. Um, I'm wondering if we know how many freestanding
toilets are going to be there and the operating hours,
if you know those. Through the chair, there will be
two. I'm going to let Annie, you know the opportunity
hours. I don't know if they're known yet. Um, the,
through the chair, uh, the operating hours for the, uh,
washrooms will be the same as the operating hours for
the park. Okay. So it will be dusted on and
whatever. Yeah. And changing during the seasons. Okay. So that's
great. And that's expected to be summer 2026. So are
we in summer yet? I don't know. Are they there?
No soon coming. Oh, sorry. I can take that question
to answer the Councillor's question. The grand opening of the
extension of Westminster peer park can schedule for August 5th.
Okay. Mark your calendars. Um, the washrooms are going to
take a little bit longer. Um, there are some details
around kind of connecting hooking those up. Um, but we
will see those late summer early fall, but they will
not be open for the opening, but we will have
some up toilet provisions temporary in place for that day.
Okay. But they're coming. Great. And then the one at
old school park for 2027. I know that's, uh, like
not imminent, but it is in the plan and in
the capital plan. So that's great. Um, my only question
around that one would be where they might be located
in order. Like, are they going to be fixed? Is
it a fixed toilet or is it going to be,
um, kind of a temporary one? Just trying to understand
what that service delivery will look like. So through the
chair, I can also answer that question to the councillor.
Where right now in our, um, exploration kind of looking
at the different options for the toilets for that particular
park. There is a placeholder location. So when the park
was constructed, we always knew we would phase in toilets.
So if you know the park, it's between the field
and the parking lot. Kind of central near the shelter
there. Yeah. So, uh, so we'll be looking at the
option of prestanding toilets versus like a build. Yeah. Okay.
Um, so, and of course, we'll be looking at cost
efficiency around those options. Um, so to answer your question,
they are permanent toilets. It's just whether they come prefabbed
or we built them in place. Perfect. Okay. And, um,
I guess the other pieces is one of the things
that I know is there are toilets available. It's just
some people don't know where they are. And I understand
there can be more signage. Um, and maybe it was
in the 60 page document. And I apologise for this
question if it was in there. But is there going
to be something like, you know, where you people can
just say, here I am and the toilet that comes
up on there, Google map or something, is that something
that we think we can, I don't want to reivent
the wheel, but I know Crohn's and Kaleitus has something
like that. But is that something that we think we
might be able to do? Or maybe it already exists.
Through the chair, thank you for the question. The part
of Enhancing our digital resources will be looking at the
resources and the map that's available on the city's website
and building on some of the work that we did
through the situational analysis to, um, map out all of
the Publique locations. So we would be looking at ways
to make that resource as accessible and available to the
public as possible in ways that it might be available
on a mobile device through that work. Uh, we also
have been working with Crohn's and Clydeus Canada through the
external working group had them represented at that table and
hope to continue the conversations about the Go Heerhab and
making sure that our resources and our maps, um, that
outline where the city's toilets are available on their app
as well. Okay. Perfect. Well, thank you. Um, it feels
like it's almost there. And I appreciate that. And so
maybe I'll move the recommendation and report if it's not
too late to do that. Okay. It's removed seconded. Um,
I don't see any other comments or questions. So I'll
call the question all in favor. All opposed. Carrie. Thank
you. Thank you for the work on this. It's been
quite a while. And I really appreciate they were moving
forward on this. And yeah, thanks. Item 411 is new
Westminster of School District's eligible school sites proposal. Um, and
that is Councillor Fontana. Thank you Mr. Mayor. I do
have just two relatively quick questions for staff. The first
is pertaining to the report itself. I noticed it was
absent of any reference to a new high school in
Queensborough. And I'm wondering if staff can comment where this
is on the radar in terms of school board and
city and discussions around location of a site. Because I
am worried that we're in 2026 and it's still not
even close to being referenced as anywhere near. It looks
like a top priority. And I keep hearing from parents
and Queen Sparrow that, um, you know, they've been waiting
patiently for a high school and to read a report
like this without even any reference of that is beyond
disappointing and given that the students are having to cross
the Queen's Burbridge every day. So if staff can just
help me to better understand where this, um, high school
in Queensborough fits within the context of this report. Development.
Or. Yes. So through the chair, I have Meredith Scene
here. She'll provide a response. She's our senior line spunter.
Thanks through the chair. Um, yeah, so the report alludes
to the update to the long range facilities plan at
the school district is working on. And, um, they've so
far just shared some preliminary directions. They explored some scenarios
and they're going down a path where they're moving from,
um, elementary schools middle schools high schools towards just having
elementary schools and high schools. And specifically the scenario that
they supported at their June 16th meeting was about exploring
Tweets Mirror Elementary becoming shifting over time towards being a
junior secondary school and accommodating significantly more, um, some of
the high school population school capacity needs. And, um, staff
hasn't received their full long range facilities plan yet. I
understand it's going towards the school board targeting for this
fall. So, uh, we haven't received anything about future of
a high school in Queensborough. But what we do see
in the capital plan is some funding your mark application
for, uh, for renovating Queensborough middle school into becoming also
an elementary school. And then presumably some of that tweets
mere renovated site would accommodate high school students as well.
Okay. Thank you for that update. Um, I don't have
anything further on that other than to say that even
if the kids were at tweets mere, they still have
to cross the queen's bro bridge. So while it's a
little shorter distance for them, it still is, um, an
incredible, um, inconvenience and the still will likely be a
long time for them to get to and from school.
So I'm still interested in that and look forward to
getting a report back from the school board. And hopefully
there is some indication there. Lastly, just in reference to,
um, I was intrigued by the whole concept of beginning
to charge, uh, school acquisition fees. And I know it's
not being, um, reproved in here. But can staff comment
a little bit about how this is going to work
for Council. If we start charging them on smaller, kind
of more micro development projects and not the big ones.
When would we anticipate actually charging beginning to charge? Are
we concerned at all around the issue of affordable housing
and this just being tacked onto the cost again of
the construction of a new home. And that's just passed
along obviously to the end purchaser. Um, I don't know,
I don't need to get a detailed because obviously this
is coming back to counsel, but the census is the
first time I think I've seen this in a report
that this is coming forward. And I was bitten. Yeah.
It is something through the chair. Um, it's something that
school district staff raised with us. Um, the exemption in
the local government Act for not charging school side acquisition
charges on, on development projects of four units or less.
And, um, that hasn't been typically something we see much
of in the city, but we have a newly minted
info housing program. And so school district staff raised that
as a consideration. And although the bylaw for school site
acquisition charges is a school district, Bylan Government Act Awarding
is that it's the local government that could pass a
bylaw to override that exemption. So we, um, have in
response to that request from School District staff suggested that
we could bring a report back to Council that includes
some financial consideration on, you know, the school site acquistational
charge for low density is perhaps small compared to all
the fees and infrastructure and amenity pieces that go into
advancing a project, but we recognise that every piece adds
to that. So we want to bring a more fusome
report forward on that. Okay. Good to know. And I
agree that while a thousand dollars in itself isn't perhaps,
um, significant amount when you add it to all the
layer upon layer upon layer of additional fees and charges
that go on to the development, it does then, um,
add to the affordability issue of making housing affordable. So,
so just so I'm clear then, um, this will have
to be a counsel decision to bypass the exemption, I
guess. Yeah. So we have to counsel. We'll have to
decide. And that won't come until I'm assuming into 2027.
I'm assuming that report like from a timing perspective. So
through the chariot, when we bring forth a report then
we would bring forward a timeline for one that would
be plus forward. Okay. Thank you. So then we'll get
the report first and then the timeline will be in
the report. So okay, thank you very much. That's with
that Mr. Mayor. I can move the motion if you'd
like to. It's been seconded. Okay. Uh, councillor Henderson. Thanks.
Um, yeah, looking forward to more information about the cost
charges. I think we have had a lot of conversations
about, um, uh, that growth needs to pay for growth.
And so I do think that there is potentially space
there for this and find a good balance there. Um,
because I, yeah, it has to come from somewhere. So,
um, we've had, uh, ample conversations about that around this
table. Um, the, um, I get this question a lot
around, you know, obviously this is the work of the
school board. And I will let them do their job.
Um, but I do get the question a lot about
why we can't just sort of pre - zone sites,
you know, across the city say, this is designated for
a school 30 years from now. And so I just
wonder if you can help clarify that. So, um, that
all of counsel has that same clear information that we
can share with residents when we're asked that question. Yeah,
certainly through the chair. So in as Councilman recall through
the most recent OCP update that went through, we did
make some amendments to the official community plan to allow
public schools in the vast majority of our land use
designations. Just for that reason so that, um, the land
use designation isn't a barrier when we get a proposal
for, for a public school site. In the past, in
long range facilities plans that the school district has advanced,
they've identified school needs like on a kind of a
school zone basis. So it's sort of broad areas of
the city and haven't disclosed site specific expectations for where
a school is anticipated to be. And so we haven't
been able to put those sites in the official community
plan. Um, and we've, through collaboration and discussion with school
district staff, have landed on that approach of broadly permitting
school, public schools throughout the city, um, but certainly we
look forward to seeing the updated long range facilities plan
this fall and see if there's, um, for be given
through our OCP to advance that work. Great. So if
I'm hearing you correctly, um, is this, the school board,
school district decide on sites and then would give that
information to the city. And if that, if they have
not decided on a specific site themselves, then we cannot
proactively, you know, say that over here in this corner,
there's going to be a school. So I just wanted
to confirm that because the question does come up about
why can't the city just, you know, decide or a
lot. And I think that the, um, the roles of
the school board versus the city are often confused Zing
to folks in the community. So I just wanted, um,
wanted to hear that from you. So thank you for
that. Um, and yeah, looking forward to, um, seeing all
these amazing schools get built. Thanks. Hey, thank you. Um,
I don't see any other questions. Uh, it's been moved
in second. I just want to say thank you for
this. Thanks for, and I'm glad to hear that, uh,
the school approved this. And now I'm assuming it sounds
like Council is going to approve this. I just think
it's great to be in a place now where, uh,
the school district and the city are together both planning
for schools for 10 years in the future and 15
years in the future, recognising that we, um, if we
get, if they get through there, uh, their facilities plan
and their work here, um, that they will be building,
we won't be having capacity crisis at our schools. And
that, um, that projects that counsel is approving that are
aligned with our official community plan, our projects that are
already included in the school's long - term planning. So
I think that's a really important message for the Community
to know that OCP approved our OCP aligned projects. We've
already accounted for that growth and the School system is
already accounted for that growth. And that's, that's part of
their long - term pie. That's really a good place
to be. I think it's worth a much better place
now than we were a decade or two ago about
how schools were planned. And so, um, I think all
we need now is to make sure that the province
does the work of actually investing in the schools that
we need to get built now that the plans exist.
And yeah, thank you. So I will call the question
at that all in favor. I'll oppose it's caring. Thank
you. Uh, Sony amendment by law. How's the agreement to
special event to allow it permit for 611 Agena Street.
I've lost track of who pulled this. This was Council
Dr. College. I need to recuse myself because I live
in proximity to this week.
I've got Councillor Minhas on the Q next. Yeah, Mr.
Mayor, I got to refuse myself as well. I live
right next to that. Okay. Yeah. Thank you.
Okay. We still have quorum accounts that are fun team.
Mr. Mayor, I need to recuse myself. I'm joking. Thank
you. No, I'm not leaving. Stay here. Um, I did
want to speak, um, to this item. I do have
a few questions first about the, uh, proposal at 611
Agnustry. Given the discussion we had earlier today, um, guest
suite, um, wondering, does this come with a guest suite
already in it? It sounds like they are kind of
like now considered a standard fair. But I just want
to confirm that the guest suites already there. We don't,
we won't have to go through a process of yet.
So I'm seeing staff not. So that's good. Thank you
very much. The other question I have pertains to amenity
cost charges. So this particular building, because it's, uh, a
rental building, there are no amenity cost charges. So if
we would have charged amenity cost charges, what would that
have totaled. Uh, direct planning development. So for the chair,
I have Edison Tank, we'll provide response to that. So
through the merit to Councillor Fontaine. So we have, uh,
ACC was applied. It'll be about 7 million. 7 million
dollars. Okay. Okay. Um, so Mr. Mayor, I'm not going
to be supporting this project this evening. I have a
feeling it's going to pass, but I will not be
supporting it this evening. What we have in front of
us, uh, tonight is a 37 story tower with 323
units. We also, it's downtown on Agenda Street. We also
have, um, an infrastructure I've mentioned it before, an infrastructure
desert in the downtown, some call it infrastructure deficit. This
tower, uh, based on my kind of back end estimation
will bring in approximately 750, up to 750 people. Um,
based on kind of some forecasting, there could be up
to 80 students based on what, uh, the numbers are
for the amount of units in there. We know we
were just talking about schools. We know that cocate elementary
downtown had already has multiple portables. Absolutely overcrowded. And in
fact, when you talk about overcrowded schools, uh, that's pretty
much, uh, standard fair for newestminster. Many of our schools
are at capacity and well beyond. And as a result,
we have, I believe on a per capita basis, if
not the highest one of the highest amounts of portables
in the entire province of British Columbia, I think only
City might be competitive to us. Not a place we
want to be. We know Mr. Mayor, this counsel in
this term of counsels approved nine towers, 50 stories at
Columbia Square. We've recently approved at Royal Towers 240 story
towers and two smaller towers on that site. We've also
counsels approved a 40 story condo tower and, uh, hotel
down at 8th and Canarvin. And the other towers that
have been approved in the downtown too many to actually
mention tonight in my limited time. We also know Mr.
Mayor that the downtown. We've heard loud and clear from
the residents there that they have concerns about the fact
that they don't have a community centre downtown. They do
not have a full service library. Um, they might have
a kiosk kind of a vending machine similar to what
you would get, um, coke and pretzels and chips at.
You do have a kiosk, but not an actual library.
There is no fire hall downtown. And we hear constantly
that there's not enough, uh, green space parks, et cetera,
in the downtown course. So that's all a matter of
fact. I mean, this isn't anything that probably hasn't been,
um, spoken about here, uh, prior. We've just heard that
this particular project, which is likely going to be approved
tonight, 37 story tower. 7 million dollars. And I don't
blame the proponent, they're following the rules. But if counsel
approves this tonight, um, had we charged amenity charges on
this and not exempted this building. 7 million dollars could
have gone towards a library. 7 million dollars could have
gone towards a new community centre in the downtown. There
could have been 7 million dollars more towards public amenities
in the downtown. That's not going to happen tonight. Simply
not going to happen tonight. And sadly, uh, what I'm
talking about this evening has happened time and time and
time again where these towers get approved. There are no
amenity contributions charged. And as a result of that, we
are cramming in more and more people in the downtown
core with less and less infrastructure and public amenities, which
is not a recipe, in my opinion, for building complete
communities. We are building a lot of, um, housing. We
are not building complete communities. We are building in this
case. While it's not listed in the report, um, I
just have to look, for example, um, in the building
that was constructed not more than a stone's throw from
my own home in the moody park area, the rents
there are incredible. A market rents 2, 000, 3, 000
dollars for units. And they're not luxury condos. They're just
not luxury apartments. They're just apartments. And yet these towers
are going up. The owners of these towers are charging
market rents making money handover fist and no money is
going into public amenities as a result. And this council
has been approving them. One, after another, after another, after
another. And I'm not prepared to do that tonight. I
haven't been for previous projects and I will not support
that until this council puts its money where its mouth
is and that we're charging the, uh, developers of these,
uh, towers amenity, community charges so that we can invest
in the libraries and the community centres that we need.
So I will not, Mr. Mayor, be supporting this. I
have no doubt the project will get approved. If past
history is any indication, this will get the supportive council
like all the other towers have been approved. But I'm
not prepared to do this. I'd rather pull back on
this. Have a discussion with, uh, with the developer trying
to look at finding policies that actually help build those
complete communities, build those public amenities and address that infrastructure
deficit. And that infrastructure desert that unfortunately is our downtown.
Thanks so much. Thank you, Councillor Carell. Um, sure. So
one of the challenges that we have in New Westminster
is, um, having commercial office space. And so for me,
one of the benefits of this is actually having, um,
that opportunity to increase. Um, and as we know, one
of the other issues is having tenure that is rental.
Um, so for me, this as well as the daycare
as well as some of the other amenities does make
sense. Um, it is something that's on a pivotal corner
that we know needs a significant public realm update. Um,
in terms of other contributions, I believe if staff can
correct me, um, the development cost charges. Maybe you can
share how much we'll be contributed to the city in
development cost charges. Director of Plain Development. So through the
chair, I'll pass this question over to Addison and Mike
Watson. Yeah. So blue to me or do Councillor Campbell
based on current amount. It'll be about 7 million in
DCC. Okay. So the city will receive 7 million DCCs.
Okay. And my understanding is, is that the correction, 3.
2, my bad. 3. 2 million. Okay. Thank you. Yeah.
No, that's good. And my understanding is the amenity cost
charges would not have been applicable to this project. Is
that correct? Yeah. The way in the IT Council at
Temple. That's correct. Yeah. And it's not that we waved
it. It just wouldn't have been applicable. Yeah. Okay. Uh,
so it's not like we're, um, not. Yeah. So that's,
that's helpful. It's a different context. Not waiting at versus
not being applicable. Um, so I mean, we've had numerous
conversations at our arts culture, economic development advisory committee in
terms of commercial lease space. We've also had lots of
conversations with the downtown business improvement association and the chamber
all looking at revitalizing downtown numester recognising that we also
need amenities. And that's a conversation that, as we saw
from the previous report, we're having, uh, with this school
board, um, continue to have with the school board. So
that's not something that we take lightly. Those are conversations
that happen concurrently. Um, and in terms of other community
space downtown, we know that we've just, uh, negotiated with
the Fraser of Discovery Centre to have half of that
building that we can now serve as a public space
in Envil Centre, uh, given the 10 year review that
we've had, we're looking at different uses of that. So
agree, you know, we need to have more public spaces
downtown, Newismester. And fortunately, we're doing that good work too.
And so we will, um, and like I said, we'll
have some more commercial space. So I support this project
and appreciate the proponent coming back to us and tweaking
it after addressing some of the needs. Thank you. Thank
you. Um, Councillor Fonting. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I think
it's important to, you know, facts matter. And we don't
want to leave this meeting here tonight with people being,
uh, perhaps confused. I just want to clarify. So the
interim density bonus policy can staff advise me who passed
that policy. Councillor Fontaine, I'm going to respectfully ask you
not to ask rhetorical question to count two members of
staff. That's, you know the answer to that question. I
know the answer to the question. You're free to answer
it for the public, but I don't, I just don't
like rhetorical questions being asked the staff in a political
debate. Thank you. Well, thank you very much, Mr. Mayorwell.
And I will clarify. So my understanding is that the
interim density bonus policy was passed by council. This is
a council decision. So my colleague just made a comment
here which, uh, if you had just interpreted it without
knowing that there's an interim density bonus policy passed by
this counsel, not necessarily this one per se. Previous ones.
This interim density bonus policy. If it were not in
effect, it was passed by this counsel. We would be
tonight talking about 7 million dollars. Being allocated potentially to
a library or a community centre. So it is not
to me clear to make a comment in this chamber
that we haven't waived or not waived. Of course we
haven't waived it. Why would we need to waive at
counsel has made the decision to waive a long time
ago. As I said earlier, building after building after building
after building has had these amenity cost charges, waived because
counsel said that the benefit to the public is market
rental. Whatever it is, these units that are going into
the community at astronomical rents. Is being deemed to be
a public benefit. And as a result of it being
a public benefits, 7 million dollars because of this policy
is not going in. I can't tell you how often
I hear from families. And I've said it before and
I'll say it again tonight time and time again, they
want new parks. They want new playgrounds. They want new
community centres. They want new libraries. The only way we're
going to pay for that is if we are charging
things like amenity cost charges to projects like this so
we can put money into the bank. The money doesn't
come from anywhere else other than taxation. So I want
to be very, very clear that this interim density bonus
policy is a policy of counsel. It is a directive
of counsel directing staff. The developer is doing what the
developer is going to do. And staff are doing only
what counsel has told them to do, which is to
waive the seven million dollar charge and to take market
rentals, which as I said can be two three thousand
dollars for a one bedroom apartment that I simply don't
agree with that. That's why I'm not going to be
supporting it. But I want to clear the record that,
uh, the issue of waving or not waiving. It is
policy. It has been policy for this council for many,
many years. And we haven't had a single debater discussion
on this in four years. They just keep getting approved
over and over again. And as a result, the infrastructure
deficit and the infrastructure desert only gets worse in our
downtown and beyond. Thank you. Hey, thank you. Um, I
will follow that up by just clarifying the record. The
interim density polic interim density, um, policy was passed by
this council. Second, the amenity cost charges tool was not
waived. The amenities cost charges tool did not exist when
this proposal was brought to council. It did not exist.
It was out of tool available for this application because
the application long precedes long proceeds the ACC tools. The
ACC tool was not waived for this. The notion that
counsel is on a whim waving 7 million dollars in
amenity benefits. The Community on this project is simply not
factual. And it is not aligned with the way the
planning processes work in the city of New Westminster or
frankly in any other city. Um, the, I just want
to make sure that's clear. Um, other than that, I
mean, yeah, this is a project that is affordable. It
is, it is a rental building and it is a
commercial building in downtown in the tower district adjacent to
transit aligned with every policy around rental building in our
city around supporting the commercial density in our city around
family, friendly housing. And, um, yeah, I think it's, it's
been a long project to be developed in order to
fit in the space appropriately. And, um, I, uh, yeah,
and I have heard the concern again, raised once again
about schools. I just want to clarify that, um, replacement,
a new and expanded elementary school in downtown at Simcoe
to meet elementary school needs in downtown will be built
long before this building is completed. We have again, this
is a project that is aligned with her official community
plan. And that means that the density needs of the
schools are already included. This is one of the buildings
that is included in density of the schools. So. Um,
yep, that's, I just want to clarify those points. And
I am in support of this project. Councillor Campbell moved
the recommendation, please. Is there a seconder. And with that,
I will call Councillor Fontaine. Thank you, Mr. Merritt. Now
that the motions on the floor, I just want to
clarify, it does indicate here in the financial implication section.
I'm just going to read this. It says per the
interim density bonus policy as a development is secured market
rental. It is exempt. From density bonus requirements. If this
is the most important line, if counsel rejects this application,
any subsequent application would be subject to amenity cost charges,
unquote. Hence, if counsel doesn't support this project tonight, the
application would be subject to amenity cost charges, which we've
been told tonight would be in the neighbourhood of 7
million dollars So again, facts matter. And I think it's
important that that's clarified. And the statement made was at
the ACC's rewaved, which is an incorrect fact. And so
we will, we will leave it at that. I never
said they were waved. That was not my counts there,
Fontaine. No, but please, Mr. Mayor, I never made that
statement. So Councillor Fontaine, I don't want to have to
pay back the tape, but it was clearly said. So
anyway, we will move on. We will agree to disagree
on that and we will all look at the video
after and decide who, what was said. Thank you. Um,
so I will call the question on this all in
favor. All opposed. It's carried with Councillor Fontana Post. We
can get the other two counts there. It's into the
room.
Okay. The next item is item, uh, 415 Canada Post
Transition to Community Mailboxes in U. S. Münster. Um, I
pulled this just because I want to add to the
recommendation. The recommendation is that the report be received for
information. Um, I would actually like to add to that
recommendation I provided a copy for the cleric. Um, just
moving that council send correspondence to our member of parliament,
the Minister of Public Services and procurement and to Canada
Post expressing the concerns of the community that were set
out in the next steps of this report. And so
I would like to have moved that second. And, um,
I don't think I need to motivate this too much.
It's just, uh, we have heard. I mean, I know
other people along with, along as I'm along with me
have heard from members of the Community about concerns about,
uh, Canada Post transitioning away from door, door delivery in
large parts of New Westminster along with Burnaby Coquitlam, Pork
Equiltnum and Port Moody. Um, and I have talked to
some other mayors of those cities and they're also raising
similar concerns. And the two aspects. One being that this
is a significant change in service which disproportionately affects seniors
and people disabilities in our community. And the second is
that there are actual material costs to local governments for
this shift. We actually are going to suffer costs related
to hosting Community mailboxes in every residential neighbourhood in the
city. The city of Hamilton did a report a few
years ago, uh, figuring it would cost them about 500
dollars per box while making the post was willing to
compensate them about 50 dollars box. So we want to
make sure that we are sending correspondence to Canada Post
and to their appropriate level of government to let them
know that this is a concern to us. And we'd
like to let them to engage with us in a
conversation about, about what this house decision was made and
what the impacts in our community are. So. Uh, with
that, I don't have anyone on the queue. So I
will call the question all in favor. I'll oppose Kerry.
Next we have motions for discussion decision. Um, requesting an
independent section 765 review Council era Fontaine. You may read
the resolved portion. And if you have a secondary, you
may motivate. Sorry. Very cool. Uh, thank you Mr. Mayor.
I will read the motion submitted to Council. It reads,
therefore be it resolved that the city of New Westminster
formerly support the city of City's efforts to seek greater
transparency, accountability, and independent oversight regarding Metro Vancouver Governance and
the North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plan Project. Be it further
resolved that the city of New Westminster formerly request that
the inspector municipalities undertaken independent review or inquiry under Section
765 of the Local Government Act regarding governance oversight procurement
financial management and decision making processes associated with the North
Shore Wastewater treatment plant project. Be it further resolved. The
Council request the review examine whether existing Metro Vancouver governance
structures reporting practices and oversight mechanisms remain appropriate for the
scale and complexity of major regional infrastructure projects. Be it
further resolved at Council Affirm that the purpose of such
a review is to provide clarity, strength and public trust
identify lessons learned and improve accountability and governance practices for
future regional infrastructure projects and that be it further resolved
at copies of this motion before ited to the inspector
of municipalities, Metro Vancouver, all metro Vancouver member municipalities. The
Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs, the Minister of Environment
at Parks and the Union of BC Municipalities. You may
motivate. You've been seconded. Thank you Mr. Mayor. I first
of all thank my colleagues for entertaining and this motion
here this evening and for council to entertain this. I
first off will note that our colleagues in both the
city of North Vancouver and the district of North Vancouver.
I believe it was just last week passed almost identical
motion requesting that the inspector municipalities under Section 765 undertake
this review. And I was really pleased to see that.
It is in addition to the city of Surrey. So
if we were to pass this motion tonight, there would
be four cities who would be requesting to the inspector
that this, um, truly independent review be undertaken. Um, Metro
Vancouver's review, in my opinion, is not truly independent Metro
Vancouver, the review that they're doing right now, they're paying
for it. Metro Vancouver, I watched a meeting where the
41 directors sat and debated and discussed. And then if
moved a motion to approve the scope of the review,
uh, and then Metro Vancouver will be receiving that review,
which will eventually be provided to the public. To me,
that does not meet the bear definition of independent. And
unfortunately, um, this type of review, um, this discussion we're
having tonight about Section 765. To me, should have been
happening at Metro Vancouver, but it's been happening in district
of North Vancouver, Surrey, and also the city of North
Vancouver now here tonight in New Sminster. I personally, um,
along with other elected leaders in this region wrote to
the federal auditor general, got no response. Asking them to
intervene on the North Shore Wastewater treatment plan. Wrote to
the provincial auditor general got no response. Wrote to the
minister. God, I've no response. Wrote to the premier, ask
the premier to intervene got no response. I reached out
to the chair Metro Vancouver asked for a meeting with
the chair of Metro Vancouver and was declined a request
to meet with the chair to discuss this issue of
the North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plan. Really all we're left
now is this one option, which is to send, um,
send this motion and to request section 756, sorry, 765
be invoked and that the inspector intervene. Just for the
benefits public and the benefit of counsel tonight, this does
not require the approval of a minister does not require
the approval of the premier. This is truly independent. Similar
to a public inquiry, not quite the same. If the
inspector comes in, they do have the ability to, as
I understand it, to subpoena. They do have the ability
to request, um, individuals be called in for, uh, testimony,
which is currently not the case with the review that
Metro Vancouver has undertaking because we already know that Axiuna,
the company for which, um, was the original contractor is
not subject to any requirement to provide information to the
consultants that Metro Vancouver has hired. I think the more
cities that approved these motions, the more likelyhood that the
inspector of municipalities can't ignore it, uh, four cities is
not an insignificant number of cities in the Metro Vancouver
area. And I would be remiss if I didn't remind
everyone tonight that this project started at 700 million dollars
is now nearing four billion dollars. And tonight if we
can get this past, I think perhaps taxpayers might get
some answers. They deserve those answers. Not only taxpayers and
U. S. Münster, but taxpayers in our region as well.
So tonight we have the opportunity, my opinion, to join
our colleagues in three other cities and making this ask.
I'm hoping and encouraging all my colleagues to support this
motion. And if we can get unanimous support from council,
I think that'll be a strong message like the unanimous
support and the North Shore and in Surrey. I think
that will send a very strong message to the inspector
to take this seriously, to undertake this review and to
provide taxpayers with, um, some clarity as to what happened
on this MECO project, which has gone so wrong financially.
Thanks, Mr. Bear. Thanks, Councillor Gawa. Thanks. I believe we
already passed something like this some time ago. So I
do think that this is redundant. Nevertheless, um, I'm willing
to support it. I didn't support it when it came
previously. Um, but now that Metro Vancouver has settled its
235 million dollar lawsuit with a, an independent review coming.
I mean, we can debate what independent means. Um, arm's
length from the organisation with, uh, full disclosure to the
public. I would describe as independent, but, um, I am
willing to support this as well. Um, regarding information about
the wastewater treatment plan, this has been provided, um, to
some extent repeatedly at Council of Councils. And it had
councillors wanted information about that. That would have been a
really great venue to have attended and raise these questions.
Um, we don't have another Council of Council's scheduled before
the end of the term. Unfortunately, um, but, uh, you
know, I am willing to support this, even though I
do think it is redundant. And I think it is
important that, uh, we lay this to bend that people
feel satisfied with the information that comes out about this,
this project. Thanks. Okay, thanks. I don't have any other
anyone else on the queue. So I will call the
question all in favor. Holo Post, it's caring. Thanks. Item
4. 2 trained to support rights of older adults. Councillor
Campbell. You can read the resolve section. And if you're
a secondary, you can motivate. Be you resolve the city
offer opportunities for staff training and professional development related to
elder abuse prevention age friendly practices and the promotion of
the rights of older adults to ensure that municipal services
are responsive informed and inclusive. So if I can get
a seconder all motivate. Okay. Thank you. Um, so I'll
just really touch lightly on this given that we had
Lenore Sally from the newest Community Response Network delegate previously,
which is what precipitated this motion and then delegated again
today. Um, I do want to reinforce the fact that
this is, uh, in the age friendly strategy, uh, that
the staff have prepared for this year actually 2026. Um,
I didn't realise that when I originally put this motion
forward. So it was, it was reaffirming to know that's
in the strategy. Um, and, and even more reaffirming me
because I received calls from some seniors in many represent,
many members from Century House, but other organisations throughout the
city, uh, asking that we really do this, uh, and
now, uh, I can say, Hey, it's actually in the
H friendly strategy. So it's not just something that we
hope to do. It's something that's actioned in the strategy.
As mentioned earlier, I do hope that we can start
this work sooner rather than later. Cause I do worry
about, um, many of the seniors who, who really are,
uh, connected to anybody. And I know our city staff
who are out in the parks, uh, at the rec
centres, um, even like, you know, changing, doing electrical work
in the city. They're the ones that really do connect
with a lot of our residents. Um, they really are
a phenomenal master's for the city. So if we could
actually not just get training to the usual folks, I
mean, century house, of course makes sense. But I think
it makes sense too. People who staff that work in
utilities that are out in the community, um, to our
building service workers and to others is the intent so
that we can all take care of the community as
we have recognised and done, um, just over this weekend.
And I'll just add, you know, with the fire over
the weekend. I hear a lot of people saying, wow,
newestminsters really stepped up. Well, I wasn't surprised. We know
this. This is the, this is just how our community
rolls. So, um, uh, so I hope that we can
pass this motion and I know that staff, uh, what's
the word, I guess, or probably going to be, uh,
the best way forward for us to take care of
our community. So look forward to giving them the tools
to do that. Thank you. I don't see any other
comments. So I'll just say thank you for doing this.
This is, I mean, this was obviously a call that
we got for the public. And I'm just glad that
we're hearing from the public. And I know that there
was a discussion. There's been a lot of discussion in
the subsequent record a couple of weeks with, um, with
century house around the value of this and seeing how
this fits into our age friendly. So I really appreciate
the Councillor bringing this forward. And I look forward to
seeing where this work develops. Thank you. So I'll call
the question all in favor. I'll oppose Carrie. We now
have two bylaws for adoption. Uh, first is bylaw notice
enforcement bylaw. Number 7318 2009. Amendment bylaw number 8557 2026
Ford option. Mo adoption. All in favor. All opposed carried.
And municipal ticket information bylaw number 8007 2019 amendment by
law. Number 8558 2026 Ford Option. All in favor. Holo
Post carried. Okay. We can now move on to public
announcements. I have a couple of quick public announcements from,
um, from the record. One is that Councillor Jeannie McAvoy
was nominated to represent the city of New Westminster on
the Ecom Board of Directors for the 2026 to 2027
term. With the city of the second announcement of the
City of New Westminster will be entering into a sister
city agreement with a vinyl Frankievich in Ukraine. There was
more news coming out about that soon. But that will
be, uh, yeah, there'll be more public discussion about that
coming out soon. But that we have interesting deagreement. Um,
my third announcement is the good news of the day.
And I just found out that the new Westminster under
14 boys. One, the BC provincial A Cup soccer championships.
It is the first time in New Westminster team has
ever achieved provincial championship in soccer in that. And so
I just want to say congratulations to the Pumas. They
want it yesterday in an IMO. Um, so congratulations to
all the players and to dedicated coaches that made it
happen. We have a big future in soccer based on
the quality of our under 14 team in New Editors.
So, uh, that's a, that's exciting for them. And congratulations
on that accomplishment. And finally I do want to say
a few things about the, I want to be, I'll
try to be very, very brief. We could talk for
a long time about the fire. Obviously that happened on
the weekend. Um, I just want to, I just want
to put a few thanks out. And I'm always afraid
of put, when we put thanks out for an event
this size, there's always a risk that I'm going to
miss some people. So I apologise immediately for people who
were doing great work. And I should have probably apologised.
I should certainly be thanking right now. But, um, just
the quick list I put together on the top of
my head. Um, first of all, of course our first
responders, um, at the fire department, um, and their support
they received from Burnaby in our, uh, that, the ability
for our organisations for a fire department to work together
and coordinate a large events like this is really valuable
to all of the cities. And I just appreciate the
amount of work. The firefighters were there for that was
a 24 hours on site during that fighting that fire.
And, um, a couple of shifts, uh, a lot of
the new recruits were getting their first big structure fire.
It was, it was interesting to talk to them and
hear their experiences. Everybody got away safe. There was a
couple of minor injuries that were checked at the hospital,
but everyone got away safe. And, um, I just think
that, uh, we cannot appreciate enough for the heroic work
that takes place, uh, when an event like this happens,
uh, of course, the police department was also there. I
saw a lot of our city crews there at the
site. They were there to help manage the water situation
at the site in order to help with utility cutoffs
and things like that. So it really is all hands
on deck with something like that. And I want to
thank all the staff who made that happen. Along with
emergency social services, um, as the event was happening, that
evening emergency social services were on site helping folks in
the moment and getting them placed to stay that evening
so they could be safe and secure. And then the
next day they set up a century house. Century house
staff helped accommodate them. And we also had again, more
support from both the city of Delta and the city
of Vancouver sent emergency social services staff to help process
folks and help make sure that all the paperwork was
done correctly so that folks would get the benefits that
they required to survive the initial response. Um, I want
to give a shout out to Mary Trent to do
and the Westminster neighbourhood house, uh, what that organisation, um,
they called us and said, you have got a bunch
of donations. It looks, you are going to need to
summon the coordinated armor to the social services as we
just don't have the capacitors to do that. And the
neighbourhood house reached out and said, we can do that
for you and just took that on. And really, um,
showed some, um, they were just incredibly nine o'clock in
the morning on Saturday morning, they were at Century House
starting to get on the phone starting to contact people
connected with the school board. Uh, the school board was
able to connect to get them space. I mean, they
just did all that kind of busy work in order
to get the, all this positive energy in the city
channeled towards actually getting those donations to people who could
help to who they will actually help. So I just
want to appreciate Mary's work in making that happen in
tasks work in helping coordinate that at the event. And
I think on day one, especially in Daniel Connolly from,
um, was from school board was there on day one
in that room helping do all that work and doing
that or doing that, that really busy setup work in
order to make sure that when donation is did arrive,
they actually did it in a way that was actually
useful organised and was actually going to be able to
get out to the people who needed to help as
soon as possible. And then there is a long list
of organisations in this community who called and provided different
kinds of help. The good warray cigar were very quick
to call and say, Hey, do you guys need food?
We're going to get you food. And we're able to
get food on site for the many different crews who
were there to get them fed and get drinks to
them. So they were able to keep on doing their
work without worrying about that. Grunatic Street Kitchen showed up
with meals at Centray House in order to get those
to folks, uh, Fraser side reached out. Senior services reached
up. There's so many organisations in this community who reached
out to say, you know, we can get you housing.
We can get you different kinds of support and just
wanted to make sure that, um, yeah, it's, it's, it's
heartening to see so many people in this community step
up. And those are just the organisations. And then there
was the people that dozens and dozens of people who
just volunteered all Saturday and all Sunday in order to
help in the community. And it's just, it's heartening that
is what community is all about. That is why we
have to have a connected community. That's why we should
all be proud to live in new Westminsters. So as
our hearts go out to the people who have lost
so much, uh, the people who've been displaced to have
had their lives incredibly disrupted. You know, our hearts go
to them. We feel for them. We're sorry for their
loss, but we also are lifted by the folks who
stood in to help them. So thank you to everybody
who did that work. And I will go on on
the table. Councillor Henderson. Thanks. Yeah. I won't repeat what
you've listed there mayor. Um, but, uh, it's endless. The
amount of community members. I believe that, uh, we actually
had to turn away volunteers today. It was, uh, people
just showed up so intense. Um, which is a really
good problem to have. There aside from the organisations you
listed also just so many, um, organisations outside of the
community that have stepped up to say we can start
storing furniture for you. We can pick up the extra
clothing and take it to nonprofit thrift stores. It's pretty
amazing. Lots of volunteers there from Bernaby and Coquitlam as
well. Um, and then businesses, of course, um, big bees
was offering meals, burger heaven brought 70 gift cards, uh,
to us to give to residents, um, pause veterinarian care
Bosley's lots of folks are out there doing stuff. And
so, yeah, it's been really wonderful. Um, we're, we're actually
creating the resource list for residents now, um, just to
help them get supports and also the lots of community
members who have offered their, their housing, their space for
people to stay. You know, we talk a lot about
affordable housing in this, uh, you know, and the need
for Morehousing in this, uh, council chamber. That's one of
our jobs. And these 42 households, um, argument need to
find a new home in the city. Um, aside from
that, I also just want to say that I'm really,
uh, grateful for my mayor and council colleagues in Northern
Communities. I immediately reached out to folks that I knew
up north who have struggled with the impacts of wildfires,
uh, for some, um, support on, uh, how to best
distribute, uh, the massive amount of influx of donations that
we're getting, um, they've connected Mary and I to a
whole host of organisations who have done this work. So
it's just amazing to see everybody come together. Canada Post
was just reaching out to me around how we get
information to residents. It's, yeah, it's kind of wild. And
yeah, but really a huge thank you to, um, the
community who just came to drop off goods and then
ended up staying for four or five hours, uh, to
help yesterday. And, uh, yeah, it's been really wonderful. Um,
and I think the tally this morning ish was about
70, 000 dollars donations and the GoFundMe page, Huge shout
out to Isbella Wang. For getting that going right after
she heard the news. So anyways, it's just a pretty
amazing, um, the residents have started coming in. They have
private times to shop and, uh, no shortage of, of
goods for them to, to have it this time. So,
uh, just a huge thank you to everybody. Thank you.
Counselman house. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. First, I want to
thank the Victoria Hill Ginger Drive. Residents Association for putting
on the picnic, uh, yesterday. And as always, Carl Moser
and everybody there just as they do a wonderful job
of, uh, accommodating all of us, and, uh, there was
a great turnout by yourself and other councillors and school
trustee. And even the people that are going to be
running in the next election. I also want to again,
just like yourself and Councillor Henderson over here want to
thank, uh, first and foremost, uh, all the first responders,
especially our firefighters, um, the Burnaby firefighters, uh, amazing work,
uh, that has been going on for the residents of
Pinecrest on Fourth Avenue.
It's a little hard topic for me. Um, it reminded
me a lot of what I was going to, but
in different ways, um, this was a place where somebody.
It was somebody's home. Mine was a little bit different.
It was a place of business. But a lot of
people knew that that was also my place of home
in some ways. And, um, I cannot even imagine as
to. What they have gone through and some of the
stories that I've been hearing because they've been coming to
the pub. I did not know what to do. And
the first thing that came to mind was. That the
fact, thank God everybody's alive. And there were a few
injuries. But, uh. We think about food. And. Since the
young child, uh, with my family, have been working with
a thing called sava, which is at the gour. And,
uh, I thought, uh, even without talking to my staff.
And yes, it does take some time to organise everything
and get the logistics down. Also not knowing how many
people are going to show up. Uh, we were trying
to gun for Saturday afternoon for lunch, but we managed
to at least open for them for Saturday evening for
dinner. And for this whole week, um, it's just not
the people from the building itself that has gone. It's
also the building, uh, where there has been flooding. And
as of today, this morning, sorry yesterday, I would like
to, um, let everybody know out there. Even the volunteers
at Lord Calvin, they can come down. I know they're
working hard. And they donating their very precious time. Please
come on down. You need a by tweet. You just
need to rest a little bit. You're more than welcome
down to come down and have a meal. Nice hot
meal. So, um, again, once again, uh, I want to
thank everybody, including the staff members. That jumped in at
a minute's notice. Um, it's not easy. Um, something like
this happens. Um, and, um, like I said, I know
firsthand. And your life changes in different ways. Especially what
we have gone through COVID and so much more. Our
behaviours have changed and at a time like this, when
our city can come together, yes, we are known for
being the besties. And that's a great thing. But it
brings us even closer. As much as we are a
big city of 90, 000 or whatever, but deep down
inside, people of New West, they have, they will and
will carry on to help in time of need. And
I love that about our community. It's one of the
things that I love about this city. Um, and, um,
my heart soft to everybody in the city that has
a contributed in any way, shape or form. Um, thank
you is not enough. But, uh, once again, thank you.
Thank you. Councillor Fontine. Thanks, Mr. Mayor. Um, yeah, I
won't repeat my colleagues have really very eloquent in terms
of capturing. I think the sentiment in the city, I
will just say that, uh, what acknowledge and thank Councillor
Henderson for recognising one of her Council colleagues and the
contribution that Councillor Minnhause has made amongst a number of
business people volunteers, the community who stepped up and selflessly
either gave their time or their money, um, or opened
up their business or their home. Um, and it is
often, you know, we know we live in a great
city, but it's often in a time of tragedy like
this that we, um, realise how special, um, our community
is. And it's, it's unfortunate that it takes a tragedy
like this for it to be so focused and for
us to kind of really take a moment to appreciate
it. Um, but, um, it's an incredible, uh, exhibition of,
of humanity and people caring for people. And we are
very fortunate and very blessed to live in a community
where when a tragedy like this happens, uh, people do,
do step up. So I do want to also Councilman
appreciate. And knowing your history with your loss of your
business in a fire that I realise and appreciate how
personal this is for you. So I know how, how
challenging it can be. Um, I just want to, Mr.
Mayor, a couple of quick items. I don't want to
get to process oriented tonight, but I do think whenever
there are things like this that happen, I think there
are lessons we can learn as a city. And in
particular, through our emergency response. And I don't need a
response tonight from the CEO. But I would like to
be able to, when things that are a little bit
more calm, um, not obviously in the next few weeks,
but it would be good for us to, to see
if there's anything we can do better in the future.
We've done a lot of great things, but are there
lessons that we could have learned in this particular tragedy
so that, uh, and unfortunately it will happen again. Things
happen like this, uh, fires do happen. But are there
things we can, we can learn from this. And I'd
be very curious to hear once things have settled down
any feedback from fire department or at the department's, uh,
to, to do that. So that's number one. Number two,
which is kind of related. And it pertains to, um,
again, maybe it's coming back around Lessons Learned around contributions
that people made. A number of folks did say to
me that, um, we might have been able to get
more contributions had people been able to have given it
and get a receipt. I don't think neighbourhood house can
issue. I guess that charitable status tax receipt. I don't
believe so. But, um, or maybe they're not in that,
that place yet. But, um, that had the dollars come
through the city that there would have been something that
we could have provided as an official tax proceed or
something. I'm not going to get one. So I don't
know how all this works. But it may be something
for us to think about. But I notice CEO looks
like she wants to jump in. So I'll let her
thank you, councillor, through the mayor as regular practice, ESS
does a debrief afterward and best practices and promising practices
are identified. So it's a great suggestion and a follow
- up. And we can bring that information back to
counsel for sure. As far as the tax receipt goes,
I know there would be implications going through the city,
not exactly sure what they are. I'm not going to
put anybody on the spot, but certainly that can be
part of the debrief for us to look into those
things. Yeah. That would be great. And I don't know
that I'm just passing along some of the feedback that
I had received. And lastly, I just want to as
well just echo Councillor Minhas'comments about Victoria Hillgender Drive and
just thank them for the invitation for the summer event
yesterday, which was fabulous. So really enjoyed it. Thanks so
much. Thanks. Pierre, so they're not going to go. Thank
you. Yeah. It's unfortunate. It's unfortunate. Circumstances to bring us
together, of course, but it really, in some ways, does
bring out the best of this community. Um, I remember
a fireback on Ash Street. Oh, this was going back
probably 10 years. Um, and it was the same response
people just very, very eager to take care of their
neighbours. Yeah. That's what I love about New West. On
a different note, I want to let folks know that
there is an event coming up on July 19th at
Bikewatch Party at CAPS Bicycles, one to four o'clock on
the 19th. You can learn how to take good care
of your bike. And they're also collecting donations of unwanted
bicycles. Um, I raised this because maybe, uh, these families
might also want bikes when they're eventually, um, have new
homes. Um, it's run by the By School Rescue Service,
which is a nonprofit service. So folks are interested. Please
do check that out. And if you do have an
extra bike, that would be a good place to direct
it. Okay. Thank you. Um, so that ends announcement. And
I just want to thank Council for a good night
of work tonight and for getting us out of here
while there is still a little bit of sunlight left
outside. And so I mean, this sun's that up. But
thank you all for a good night's work tonight. And,
uh, without call us for motion to a turn. All
in favor, all opposed, Kerry. Thank you everybody. Good.