This is the first official For the Record podcast co-hosted by Paul Minhas and myself. That means a few production changes including rebranding “The Way I See It” to “The Way We See It” and some new cover art!
First up on the podcast this week for discussion is the massive Columbia Square development project. Once fully built out, it will include up to 8 towers at 53 stories high. Over 7,000 people (including 530 students) will be moving in to this postage stamp property. Is this really the right scope and scale of development for this site, or not?
Survey says! Yes, Ipsos has surveyed New Westminster residents and business owners and asked them what they’d like to see in the 2025 City of New West budget. Surprisingly only a handful of businesses bothered to complete the survey. What is behind the low response rate? Did New West residents really say they don’t want tax hikes above the rate of inflation which now sits at 1.6%?
Should the City of New West really be doing the Province’s job of building affordable housing? Council recently decided to invest a minimum of 80% of a $60M pot of funds associated with the Columbia Square project to build affordable housing – even though the BC government has the primary responsibility. That means unlike other cities, we can’t use these funds to build new pools, recreation and community centers, parks and more.
Will this be the year that ALL members of Council attend the Remembrance Day ceremonies at City Hall? Only time will tell.
NWP President Karima Budhwani is in the studio and she’s talking branding. That’s right, the NWP is refreshing its brand in time for the 2026 election. The green and blue colouring remain, but the focus will be on NWP and the tagline #ChooseProgress. Why make the change now? We ask Budhwani to provide us with some insight.
The weekly event roundup also talks about the November 7th Councillor Cafe in Sapperton as well as the NWP fundraiser on November 21st at the former home of Mayor J .Johnson in Queen’s Park.
If you enjoy this podcast, be sure to tell family, friends and colleagues and ask them to follow! FTR is available on all major platforms including Apple Podcast and Spotify.
Powered by RedCircle
