Daniel Fontaine, B.A., ICD.D

On May 7th both Councillor Paul Minhas and I quietly recognized our first six months as city councillors. There was no big gathering planned as we didn’t think it was time to celebrate given our city is still facing so many serious issues. Rather, we took a moment to reflect on how things have gone with a half year now in the rear window.

It’s been so long that District Labour Council endorsed politicians (aka  Community First) have held every seat on Council, it’s definitely taken some adjusting to having two New West Progressives (NWP) opposition councillors sitting on the front bench.

Over the past six months, both Councillor Minhas and I have not wasted any time trying to make changes at city hall. We heard loud and clear from the public during last fall’s election they didn’t want the next four years to be more ‘business as usual’.

Despite the fact Coun. Minhas and I hold only two votes, we’ve been able to bring forward a number of significant motions and helped to begin changing the political dynamics at our city.

One of our goals is to give hope to people who have stopped voting because they’ve been convinced by Community First supporters the election is a ‘forgone conclusion’. How often have you heard someone in New West say ‘why bother voting, I know who is going to win’? The reality is the fewer people that vote, the more often Community First will win a majority.

In the past six months we’ve continued to make a big dent in that flawed and self-serving political narrative. As you can see from the last civic election, in less than five years after establishing the New West Progressives, we already secured two council seats and one seat on the school board.  By all accounts, this is nothing short of a major political victory.

I have no doubt we will secure a majority on council in 2026 and we’ll elect a new Mayor and council that truly will put the community’s interests first.

We’ve already started to fundraise and have elected a board of directors that is comprised of a strong, diverse group of people committed to making another major political breakthrough in 2026.

The amount of positive phone calls, emails, and supportive comments ‘on the street’ both Coun. Minhas and I have received is nothing short of overwhelming. The best thing of all is MOST of these people didn’t vote in the last election – but they most certainly plan to do so in the next.

They tell us they like the fact we’re trying to keep costs in check at city hall by attempting to develop an operating budget with a 3.95% tax increase rather than a 6.4% increase passed by Community First last month (we voted against).

Voters are happy we tried to freeze electrical utility rates and tried to temporarily suspend the Climate Action Tax put on your utility bills. By the way, Community First collected just shy of $2M in 2022 with their Climate Tax – which ironically is taxing a completely carbon free fuel – hydro electric power! They are also imposing these types of taxes on low and middle income New Westies who can least afford it during these inflationary times!

We received lots of positive feedback when we tried to prevent Council spending almost $500K on a new mushroom wall and insect farm at Queen’s Park to replace the petting zoo. The residents of Queensborough also applauded us when we fought to include a new artificial turf field in our capital plan.

I also personally received a lot of support when I called for a regional snow summit in order to determine exactly what happened when so many people were trapped in their vehicles for up to 12 hours in a minor snowstorm! To date, it remains a mystery as no snow summit was ever held.

The residents of Connaught Heights also showed up in droves when I hosted a community forum in April regarding densifying the neighbourhood.  They told me they have been waiting for decades to move forward with the development of a new master plan.

Minhas and I have also held a number of Councillor Cafes in every neighbourhood and invited the public to attend. They have been a huge hit and residents have told us to keep them going this fall – which I’m pleased to announce we will.

We also held a special edition of our Councillor Cafe with our business community. It was a great opportunity to hear directly from them regarding what more city hall can do to support the business climate and generate more economic activity throughout the city.

I was also pleased with our efforts to begin revitalizing the City’s waterfront by moving the Samson V museum into drydock and converting that public space to moorage for pleasure craft. Unfortunately, the initiative got shot down 5-2 and the Samson is still covered in shrink wrap and coated in pigeon poo and urine (see image above taken on May 12, 2023).

A motion I introduced last week triggered the biggest public reaction so far. It called upon Council to endorse a Party on the Pattullo – and it passed unanimously (but not without a bit of last minute wordsmithing from my political opponents). We now await word from TransLink and the Province of BC to see if they are amenable to the idea.

The last six months have also been spent agreeing with my Community First colleagues on a wide range of issues including the approval of new affordable and missing middle housing projects across the city. We’ve also supported a number of initiatives that will facilitate more equity, diversity and inclusion at city hall.

Sadly, both Minhas and I were unable to vote in favour of the 2022-2026 Strategic Plan as it does not reflect the goals, objectives and vision of all seven members of Council. By way of example, when we moved even a simple amendment during a public meeting to include a commitment to incorporate the 22nd Street SkyTrain station planning, it was voted down 5-2.

No doubt I’m missing a dozen other initiatives we have brought forward for discussion over the last six months. But as you can see, while there may only be two of us on Council, your New West Progressives reps are doing everything we can to make a positive difference – and by all accounts, it looks like we have.

 

 

 

 

 

It was an interesting and at times heated discussion at council on March 27th as we gathered to review the final recommendation from staff to move forward with a proposed 6.4% tax hike in New Westminster.

Over the past four months since I got elected, I have attended countless onboarding sessions and workshops on a variety of topics. Ostensibly, this was all to help me (and other newly elected officials) get up to speed regarding the various programs and services and capital investments we invest in at the city.

As you can imagine, there is a lot of information to absorb in a relatively short period of time as we all prepare to put up our hands in support of the 2023 operating budget. While I don’t profess to understanding every facet of the city, the briefing sessions have definitely helped to paint a better picture for me as to what we are – and are not – spending our limited tax dollars on at the city.

What is clear to me is that we don’t invest enough in our sidewalk installation and repair programs. We don’t place enough emphasis on keeping our kids active and ensuring they have as many opportunities to play, run around and simply burn off some excess energy!  Did I mention we need  significantly more investments in bus shelters?

Meanwhile, what we have prioritized is spending tens of millions of tax dollars  in projects like BridgeNet, the Sapperton District Energy system, mushroom walls, and Great Streets.

While those projects no doubt have some merit – they clearly need to be rethought as we face a record 6.4% property tax increase. Something most taxpayers simply can’t afford – especially considering that staff indicate we could face up to 20% property tax increases in the next 4 years! This is on top of all the tax hikes imposed over the last decade which have all been well above the posted rate of inflation.

Finalizing Budget 2023

As a new councillor, I naively thought the budget process remained open to feedback from the public and elected officials right through to the final vote. I thought since we hadn’t finalized our budget, there was still plenty of time to make amendments to the budget and try to keep costs down.

But to my surprise, on March 27th when Councillor Paul Minhas and I introduced a series of amendments to the budget to get the debate started, we were roundly criticized.

Some of our colleagues referred to the motion as “slap dash” and “misleading” [the latter comment was eventually withdrawn with an apology issued after I raised a point of order].  In previous meetings similar motions I introduced were referred to by my colleagues as ‘knee-jerk’ and ‘willy nilly’.

Incredibly, my budget motion was even referred to as ‘crazy’. Which to be clear, is never a word that should be uttered in a city hall chamber with politicians that profess to care about people living with a mental illness. Using similar words like “nuts”, or “looney” or “insane” to describe the actions of your colleagues is simply unacceptable.

So with my budget motion on the table, a debate briefly ensued. Then the vote came in with all five Community First politicians opposed and Councillor Minhas and I voting in favour. You can read more about the budget exchange here in the Record newspaper.

Is it just me, or do you agree that the budget is not finalized…until it’s finalized? That means my motion was not only in order, it is something voters expect me to do. They elected me to present alternative ideas and to challenge conventional wisdom and thinking.

Voters want Councillor Minhas and I to bring forward new ideas, course correct when required and to reflect our community’s goals and objectives in our budget.

No doubt there will be those who say I should have introduced my budget amendments months ago. You know, when I was in the process of learning where all the budget expenditures actually went.

Perhaps…but I also think there is a strong argument to be made the best time to make significant cost reduction proposals is once all the budget information is finally presented to you – and a staff recommendation comes forward for debate. But Coun. Minhas and I are clearly in the minority on that one.

 

 

 

 

IMAGE: Councillor Paul Minhas and I visit with VP Dave Cunningham at the E-Comm Center in Vancouver.

It’s hard to believe last week both Councillor Paul Minhas and I celebrated 100 days in office. To say the time has flown by is a big understatement.

Paul and I are really having lots of fun and enjoying our time on Council. We’re also pleased to see that progress is being made on a number of important files – even if success is still being measured in inches, not feet.

Over the last three months we’ve introduced over a dozen motions (ideas, concepts and directives to staff) which have been debated and discussed on the chamber floor. In fact, we put forward so many ideas/concepts, that a report came before Council this month recommending we be limited to one per meeting on a go forward basis.

Needless to say, Paul and I fought this and at the end of the day Council agreed with us that this type of action requires a lot more discussion and debate.

Based on what we heard in Council during the debate, had the staff report not been tabled, it likely would have been approved by a vote of 5-2. If so,  the rules by which Council is governed would have been established by the Community First majority – not by the entire Council.

There have been a lot of other accomplishments (motions passed) in the first few months including:

• A motion to catalogue and report how much federal and provincial downloading is costing local taxpayers
• A request to meet with NDP MLAs Aman Singh and Jennifer Whiteside to discuss when the long-awaited free school bus from Queensborough to NWSS will get rolling
• A motion requiring staff to publish reports on the City’s website a minimum of 5 business days before the public meeting

A series of other motions pertaining to the installation of a new turf field at Ryall Park and improvements to Queensborough’s transportation network were also referred to committee for further investigation. Council is also still mulling over our recommendations to create a new Finance and Audit Committee as well as several other task forces and advisory committees.

If you want to keep up regarding the monthly activities of Council, I highly recommend you sign up for our free New West Progressives (NWP) e-newsletter. Just click here and it takes less than 30 seconds to ensure you stay on top of the activities happening at City Hall and the School Board.

Overall these are truly busy days for me as MICHIFCO, my new consulting company, has taken off like a rocket! In just a few short months I’ve been retained by a number of amazing clients in both British Columbia and Alberta. Remember, if you’re looking for a seasoned facilitator, executive coach or someone to assist with your strategic planning or program review, give me a shout!

My work with MICHIFCO has been incredibly stimulating, but I’m definitely getting to learn about the challenges and paperwork involved with running a small business in this province. I’m not kidding when I say you almost need an army of consultants just to keep your consulting firm above water and on top of all the government agencies you need to deal with each month.

Looking Forward

In the coming months I’ll be working with Councillor Minhas to put forward some significant amendments and recommendations for our 2023 operating and capital budgets. We’re hopeful that at least two other councillors will see our proposed changes as reasonable and they raise their hands in support (that will give us the 4 votes we need). But we’ll see if that is how it all unfolds soon enough.

I’m also planning on attending a few national and regional conferences this year. I will be at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) conference in Toronto late May for a few days. I don’t plan on being at FCM every year, but given this is the first one post election, I thought it was a good one to attend.

I’m also scheduled to attend the Lower Mainland Local Government Association (LMLGA), the Council of Councils and the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) convention in Vancouver this fall. Each of these offer an opportunity for municipal officials to hear speakers, attend interesting workshops and share ideas/concepts with each other in the hallway!

While I haven’t been writing as much as I’d like to these days, I still hope to have a short post like this at least once per month. In the meantime, if you have any ideas, concerns, suggestions, kudos or would just like to vent to your local city councillor, you can always fire me an email at dfontaine@newwestcity.ca. Talk soon!