In another packed episode of For the Record, a number of important civic topics get discussed.

Starting off the podcast is a discussion on the topic of a new lobbyist registry in New Westminster and Metro Vancouver. A motion recently got passed asking the Lower Mainland Local Government Association to support a request to establish a lobbyist registry for Metro Vancouver and other mid to large-sized cities. New West Council has done its part, now it's up to the LMLGA to do theirs. Have a listen to an interview on this topic conducted by Jas Johal on 730 AM CKNW.

Two notices of motion are on the docket for next week at Council. They won't be debated until March 24th, but Council will receive them for debate. They include a motion to officially put a halt to the Queen's Park boulevard rewilding and naturalization pilot project.

Another motion calls for the implementation of a Priority New West policy that will provide residents and local business owners with increased priority when accessing programs and services. Will the motion pass unanimously?

A motion to be debated on Monday March 10th is a call for Council to support a School District 40 request for funding to begin the process of building a new high school in Queensborough. But should the new high school also capture the student population in East Richmond? The Chair of the School Board sends a letter to Council and weighs in with her thoughts.

What ever happened to the New West Caucus or "Team New West" motion". It was passed about two years ago and called for the Mayor to convene a non-partisan meeting of the three MLAs, MP and City Council for a discussion on how they could all work together to advance the interests of New Westies. There are a signs a meeting may be convened soon, but what took so long?

Why are so many business owners and residents calling it quits? Two individuals have said they've had enough of the politics, waste of tax dollars and poorly set priorities of our local politicians. They're packing up and moving out of New West - but should they?

Columnist Doug Todd from the Vancouver Sun triggers a vigorous online debate regarding whether we're building amenities at a fast enough rate to keep up with our population growth. The headline of his column (which became the number one trending story on the Sun website for almost 36 hours) asks if becoming the 2nd most densely populated city in Canada was worth it. Have a listen to the discussion about whether we could or should have done more to invest in parks, pools and playgrounds!

Thanks to a NWP motion, patio hours are about to be extended in New West. Just in time for summer. Listen in to learn more.

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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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FTR is heading over to the BC Legislature to attend Question Period and chat with a number of MLAs and staff. We'll have some exclusive interviews, analysis and commentary on how our provincial politicians are impacting the lives, commerce and vitality of New Westminster. The Legislature is finally back in session and this should be a fascinating podcast! It will be available on Saturday, March 1st.

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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She's a former city council candidate and the dynamic president of the most popular civic elector organization in New Westminster! FTR welcomes the NWP's Karima Budhwani to the studio this week as she'll be co-hosting in place of Coun. Paul Minhas.

It will make for a great podcast and there's even a bit of controversy brewing! Tune in to find out why!

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?

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In Episode 66 of For the Record, the opening discussion focuses on a recent economic forum that took place at the Anvil Center. While organizers are applauded for their efforts, a local entrepreneur (who wants to remain anonymous) speaks out about why downtown New West lost out on becoming the regional headquarters for his international business! 45 well paying jobs will be staying in Port Moody after several board of directors paid a visit to Columbia Street. Were we really compared to Prince Albert, SK?

A report in the 'consent agenda' of the Feb 10th New West Council meeting outlines how a new illicit drug inhalation center is set to open up in downtown New West. The report was only made public a few days ago and is likely to get the support of a majority of Council when it comes up for a vote of Feb 10th. But with only a few days in the public realm, have local residents been provided with enough time to weigh in on whether they want this latest harm reduction service to be added into their neighbourhood?

Queen's Park residents have spoken and many of them are none to happy about the prospect of 'rewilding' or 'naturalizing' both the 5th Street and 2nd Street boulevards. A portion of the 5th Street boulevard has already had the special biodiversity treatment and it's not going over well with local residents who are organizing a 'grassroots' campaign to put a halt to all of this. Yes, pun intended!

The latest Councillor Cafe featuring retired architect Michael Geller was a huge success. Just under 100 people attended the event that focused primarily on the proposed Columbia Square redevelopment. If approved, it will jam 7,500 new residents on to a postage stamp lot on the western part of our downtown that is already facing numerous challenges with traffic and transportation.

What does a sold out Burger and Beer at Begbie's mean for the future of civic politics in New West? Is the NWP momentum continuing to build in time for the 2026 civic election? It would appear so.

Will a motion to approve two new Remembrance Day commemorative crosswalks get the green light from Council on Feb 10th? The discussion focuses on why our veterans deserve this special tribute in 2025.

The next NWP event is at the Taverna Greka on April 15th. Click here if you want to purchase tickets.

If you enjoy this podcast, be sure to let your family and friends know. It is available on all major platforms including Spotify and Apple Podcast.

In another packed podcast, FTR delves into the issues making news in New Westminster and beyond this week!

The podcast starts off talking about a "Rewilding" and "Naturalizing" project taking place on 5th and 2nd Street boulevards. The grass is starting to get ripped up, the holly trees are being cut down - so let the rewilding begin! The project has a number of local residents up in arms demanding further consultation and a rethink of the entire expenditure.

The 23% (2023-2025) property tax hike took another big step forward this week when Council passed the budget by-law. Included in that 2025 budget was a small, but controversial item to include a new honorarium of approximately $7,000 to the Chair of the Police Board. That just happens to be Coun. Tasha Henderson who is already compensated $60,000 to be a city councillor. This has attracted media attention and it has yet to be determined if Henderson will accept the honorarium or not.

The Canucks on Columbia motion received unanimous support, but it wasn't without a few 'cautionary' remarks by members of New West Council. There was the inevitable discussion regarding whether this could trigger another Canucks riot - sigh. One member of Council even said organizing a downtown gathering might result in the emptying out of local restaurants and pubs. Really?

The massive Columbia Square redevelopment project moved forward another step this week with the unanimous approval of a guarantee of around 130 affordable housing units. It is estimated that approximately 7,500 people will be moving on to this site once it is fully built out. So how many new libraries, community centers and swimming pools will be accompanying this project? Tune in to find out.

FTR looks ahead to the next few weeks in Council whereby two motions regarding the BC Urban Mayors' Caucus and increasing openness and transparency at city hall will be debated.

Of course, what would an episode of FTR be without a discussion focusing on Metro Vancouver's ongoing PR nightmare. This week Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim announced he was boycotting Metro Vancouver until it implements some significant governance reforms. This news came as a bombshell, but will other mayors and councillors be following suit? Stay tuned.

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