Tackling climate change will be front and centre on council’s agenda in 2020.
In a year-end interview with the Record, Mayor Jonathan Cote reflected on some of council’s accomplishments in 2019 and the city’s priorities for 2020. (To see what some locals had to say on the same topics, see sidebar.)
“I think 2020 is going to be an exciting year in the City of New Westminster. There are definitely some really big and important projects that we are looking forward in engaging with here. Having our strategic plan in place now really allows us to focus on some really important key areas and priorities in the community,” he said. “A lot of the work we started in 2019 is really going to be major themes of the work we are going to continue into 2020.”
Cote said one of the biggest accomplishment of the new council was developing a new strategic plan that highlights its priorities for its term in office. He said the city’s 2014 strategic plan was a bit broader and more project focused, whereas the new plan is more theme based.
The city’s 2019 to 2022 strategic plan includes six main areas: affordable housing; sustainable transportation; climate change; innovation and sustainable cultural and economic development; reconciliation, social inclusion and civic engagement; and facilities and sustainable infrastructure.
“We have really prioritized six core themes that really are going to be the main focus of our work, whereas in our last strategic plan we actually identified 32 projects that we wanted to get done in that term,” he said. “The one thing we are excited about with the new strategic plan is it really provides a lot more clearer direction about the main areas we want to really push forward, but actually leaves it open for what are the different ways we can actually help to achieve those areas.”
In 2019, the city embraced initiatives relating to reconciliation, climate change and affordable housing.
“I think this last term we made a lot of really good progress on the work we wanted to do on affordable housing,” Cote said. “We developed new policies to really restrict the challenges we are facing with renovictions. We have recently adopted our inclusionary zoning policy, which I think is a real landmark policy in the City of New Westminster that we are really proud about trying to try and encourage more non-market housing to be built in our community.”
Cote cited the completion of renovations to the New Westminster Public Library and the purchase a Brow of the Hill property for future park space as two of the city’s highlights in 2019.
Looking ahead to 2020, Cote said there are a number of big projects in the works, including the opening of the new Queen’s Park Sportsplex, which replaces the Arenex.
“We are anticipating next year that construction will start on the replacement of the Canada Games Pool. That is by far one of the biggest infrastructure projects the city has worked on in a generation,” he said. “We have spent a lot of years planning but are looking forward to actually getting shovels in the ground and having that new aquatic and community centre start to take shape.”
The City of New Westminster recently initiated a public engagement process related to the 2020 to 2024 financial plan and the city’s “seven bold steps” to tackle climate change.
“I think we are looking forward to next year really engaging both with the community and with council and staff on how do we actually follow through and start taking meaningful actions to start to achieve those seven bold steps,” he said. “Working on the climate emergency and those seven bold steps are going to be front and centre in a lot of the work the city moves forward with in 2020.”
Cote said the city anticipates the work on the climate emergency is going to have “some budget implications and budget pressures” so it needs to engage the community on the different options the city will be considering in the budget process.
“The reality is the work we want to do on the climate emergency and the seven bold steps, if they are not incorporated in the budget process and don’t actually have the resources, then they are really not meaningful bold steps at all,” he said. “We have definitely framed a lot of our budget process and the prioritization of the budget process is about what are the investments that are going to have the most impact when it comes to the work we are doing with climate change.”
The Record also reached out to community members to share their thoughts on city council’s accomplishments in 2019 and their hopes for New Westminster in 2020.
“The good, increased renters’ rights re: demovictions,” said @NewWestSandy on Twitter. “The bad, angle parking on Columbia continues to be a nightmare – and my hopes are that #NewWest continues to limit densification to hang on to that small town city vibe we all love so much.”
@Coin_Donkey also had some thoughts: “That the council says it’s listening but not to the people. So much opposition to cannabis in Queensborough and closing the recycling depot but they just don’t care.”
Plenty of folks offered their opinions on Facebook. Here are some of their responses:
Jeff Phillips: Affordability.2019 is the year we said screw it and moved to the island because as much as we love New West, there's no way for us to ever afford to own a home there that would make us happy.
Susan Anderson Murrin: Traffic, always traffic. Shouldn’t take 20 minutes to go from one end of our city to the other. On the good, city pride and some really great events!
Betty McIntosh: Hope the taxes will be moderate, not to follow Vancouver.
Darius Kramer: More live music events!!!
Darrell Murrin: Traffic, traffic, traffic.
Mike Mountain: Removing the recycling depot, is insanity. Must have been some monetary incentive.
Catheej Ahh: The city missed the mark with the recycling depot and the lack of community consultation with regards to closing it. It’s scheduled to close in one month and the one in Coquitlam is scheduled to open at the end of 2020. How can they say that they’re committed to the combatting the climate crisis when there doing this? Where’s the apology for not asking community input in closing this facility?
Craig Thompson: I would call it the year of PCism pandering, which is code for useless! My hope is that council stop trying to win the next election and focus on getting the work of managing this city - which is in desperate need here!
Laura Ranalletta: The Q2Q! So many people don’t understand how truly valuable this service is. So grateful to have a council who could see the value and committed to it.
