Daniel Fontaine, B.A., ICD.D

The FTR team heads over to Victoria for a special edition in our province’s capital city.

We have exclusive interviews with New Westminster (Queensborough) MLA Steve Cooner and Tony Luck, Municipal Affairs Critic. Luck introduces Fontaine and Minhas in the BC Legislature before asking a couple of tough questions to the NDP Municipal Affairs Minister. Tune in to hear the thunderous desk thumping and heckling when a question about an inquiry at Metro Vancouver is posed!

In the Council Roundup, the focus turns to an upcoming motion regarding the naturalizing of 5th and 2nd Street boulevards. The Minhas motion asks for Council to formally put a halt to the rewilding of the boulevards until the next civic election in 2026.

Another motion titled ‘Priority New West” looks to provide local residents and businesses with priority access to city hall operated programs and services. This is something that already takes place in other municipalities, but to a lesser degree in New West.

The discussion also focuses on the possibility of a new high school in Queensborough. Will the Province of BC provide funding to School District 40 to get the project moving forward? Will that new high school be a joint project between New West and Richmond?

Will vape shops be regulated in New West and beyond? A motion introduced by the NWP several months ago has triggered another motion to be debated at a Lower Mainland Local Government Association meeting taking place later this year.

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Special guest co-host Karima Budhwani is in the studio to chat about a number of fascinating topics making news in New Westminster this week.

Right off the top, the discussion focuses on the potential of a new high school in Queensborough. A motion coming to Council calls for greater advocacy regarding a School District 40 request of the Ministry of Education for funding to construct a new high school in Queensborough. Is it possible we can think out of the box and have the Richmond and New West School Districts work collaboratively to build this new educational institution?

Next up is a discussion regarding a Metro Vancouver watermain break which had significant impact on a dozens of New West families a week ago. While restoration crews are on site cleaning up the mess, questions are being asked as to whether the review being conducted by Metro Vancouver will be truly independent. Furthermore, will the residents be provided with all the details and analysis provided by the third-party investigator?

The Mayor’s Urban Caucus issued a statement which called for significant advocacy on a number of fronts including more supports for detox and recovery beds. New West Mayor Johnstone signed on to the news release, but will Council support all of the wording included in the communique? A motion coming to Council will determine whether everyone agrees with the Urban Mayors Caucus.

It appears the rewilding and naturalizing of the boulevards on 5th and 2nd Streets may be on hold for a while. According to a staff email to residents, there will be no more ‘rewilding’ until the pilot project can be fully assessed. This means residents likely won’t see any further changes until AFTER the 2026 civic election.

Should you be able to find out how much each elected official in New West collects by way of salary, stipends and expense claims? That’s the thrust of a motion by Coun. Paul Minhas who is asking that effective 2024, all payments made to New West elected officials for attending Metro Vancouver, TransLink and other regional boards, be consolidated and made available as one public report. Is this a ‘no-brainer’ or not?

An open house in Queensborough this week brought together city staff and the community to determine the level of interest in constructing a new turf and track field at Ryall Park South. A motion to this effect was introduced by the NWP back in January 2023 – and two years later the community has now been chosen as a finalist for this new capital investment. Will Queensborough come out on top – or not?

Karima provides an update on what the NWP is doing when it comes to candidate recruitment for the civic election next year. She’s also put under the gun and asked what her future political plans are – does she take the bait?

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Right off the top the topic of a new illicit drug inhalation center in downtown New Westminster is discussed. Now that Council voted 5 (Johnstone, Campbell, Henderson, Nakagawa and McEvoy) to 2 (Minhas and Fontaine) to give green light to this controversial new service, how long will it take to open – and what will the impact be to the surrounding downtown neighbourhood?

It’s hard to believe a mundane report on procurement could trigger controversy. The problem wasn’t the report itself, it was more about how it got initiated. Is there now a precedent set that individual members of New West Council can direct staff to undertake work without getting the prior consent of their colleagues? Listen in to find out!

Kudos to local residents in Connaught Heights for initiating a pollinator project in their neighbourhood. They’re doing it to protect our environment and tackle the issue of climate change. But are all those efforts blown away when a single member of Council jumps on a jet plane to Japan or Dubai? Does the carbon footprint of a discretionary international junket or personal trip counterbalance all the great work being done in the local community?

This shouldn’t come to you as a “shock”, but a motion asking to conduct a market assessment of the New West Electrical Utility got referred to the political equivalent of ‘never-never land’. The motion was calling for a review of the current governance and operation model with a goal of maximizing the returns for local ratepayers. But it didn’t take long for a Councillor to start talking about the ‘privatization boogeyman’ with another one quickly moving a motion to refer this to the Electrical Utility to analyze.

New Westminster’s pilot Citizen Assembly is being publicly heralded by our civic politicians as ‘leading edge’ and ‘innovative consultation’. The Assembly’s work is all wrapped up now with an ‘independent’ assessment of the pilot project getting underway soon. Anyone want to guess as to what the final results of the review will be?

If you enjoy this podcast, be sure to encourage your friends and family to follow us. It’s available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts along with all other major platforms.

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