Opening the new təməsew̓txʷ Aquatic and Community Centre and addressing housing changes introduced by the province are among the City of New Westminster’s priorities for 2024.
Mayor Patrick Johnstone said the city’s work plan for 2024 includes finalizing this year’s budget and doing work related to the province’s new housing legislation.
“A lot of this new housing policy stuff that's coming down from the province, that's going to be a lot of work for the city – to get staff working and a lot of time to bring those new policies in and make sure that we're keeping up with that,” he said. “So that's obviously a major, major push for us.”
In response to the new provincial housing legislation that was passed in late 2023, the province is providing the City of New Westminster with $535,385 to help it meet the new requirements.
In 2024, New Westminster is also launching the new pilot project aimed at helping the city better respond to the overlapping crises of homelessness, mental health and addictions.
“I’m really hoping that's going to help show some results early in the year,” Johnstone said.
As outlined in memos to council as part of the 2024 budget process, several departmental changes are taking effect this year.
“We're bringing climate action under the electrical utility, and restructuring electrical utility and climate action work to better mix those together; that's going to be a positive step in this new year,” Johnstone said. “We have started a new community services department, which is going to be another new sort of shift around of how things operate in the city, which is going to be really positive.”
The City of New Westminster expects to open in təməsew̓txʷ Aquatic and Community Centre in April, with a grand opening slated for June.
“I'm really excited about it,” Johnstone said. “It’s going to be terrific for the city. It's really going to be a great place. We did a tour … in December. It's big, and it's really nice and bright inside.”
In 2024, Johnstone said he hopes to do more work related to Vision Zero and road safety.
“This is something in 2024 that I am going to try to bring more to the fore and start bringing more action on,” he told the Record. “Part of that involves integrating better between the police and the city in how we operate road safety, and I think that'll be an interesting direction.”
As the mayor in a community that has a municipal police department, Johnstone also has the role of serving as the chair of the New Westminster police board. He expects the police board to undertake work on a governance review in 2024.
“It's going to be a busy year,” Johnstone told the Record. “And there is going to be a provincial election, which I'm sure is going to bring all kinds of hijinks to the city. There will probably be provincial announcements and policy changes that are always interesting to keep up with.”
According to Elections BC, a provincial general election is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024.
In other 2024 happenings in New Westminster, voters will go to the polls on Feb. 3 for a school board byelection.
