Five members of New Westminster city council will have roles on Metro Vancouver’s standing committees in 2025 – including its finance committee.
In a Dec. 19 news release, Metro Vancouver said board chair Mike Hurley has determined the Metro Vancouver standing committee and task force structure and appointments for 2025.
“The elected officials who sit on Metro Vancouver’s committees play an important role in ensuring our organization is making the best possible decisions for the region,” Hurley, mayor of Burnaby, said in the news release. “As we go into the new year, I am looking forward to seeing continued leadership from each of these committees as we seek to deliver our services at the highest and best value for our residents.”
The 2025 Metro Vancouver board has 15 standing committees and one task force that represent the 21 member municipalities, Electoral Area A, and Tsawwassen First Nation. Standing committees consider priorities, policies, and activities for the organization, and provide advice and recommendations to the board.
Five members of New Westminster city council will serve on various Metro Vancouver standing committees, but none have been appointed as a committee chair. All are current or former members of the Community First New West electoral organization.
While the mayor has traditionally represented the City of New Westminster as its director on the Metro Vancouver board, Mayor Patrick Johnstone told council in November that he no longer wished to serve in that role and wanted to focus on some local initiatives. At its Nov. 4 meeting, council voted 5-2 in favour of appointing Coun. Nadine Nakagawa as the city’s representative to the board and Coun. Jaimie McEvoy as the alternate.
Although Johnstone will no longer serve on the board of directors, he will continue to be a member of the board’s Mayors Committee. That committee provides advice and recommendations on issues related to the governance and operations of the Metro Vancouver Regional District, the Metro Vancouver Housing Corporation, the Greater Vancouver Sewerage and Drainage District (GVS&DD), the Greater Vancouver Water District, and Metro Vancouver’s strategic relationships with other governments, agencies and communities.
In addition to being New Westminster’s new representative to the Metro Vancouver board, Nakagawa has been appointed to serve on three of its standing committees:
- Flood resiliency committee: It provides advice and recommendations to the Metro Vancouver board and to the board members appointed to the leadership committee of the Lower Mainland Flood Management Strategy on issues related to flood resiliency.
- Liquid waste committee: It provides advice and recommendations on policies, bylaws, plans, programs, budgets and issues related to liquid waste management under the GVS&DD service.
- Regional culture committee: It provides advice and recommendations on policies, plans, programs, budgets and issues related to the annual Metro Vancouver cultural grants program, and Metro Vancouver’s role in advancing culture throughout the region.
McEvoy, the most veteran member of New Westminster city council, has been appointed to two of Metro Vancouver’s standing committees:
- Finance committee: It monitors Metro Vancouver’s financial management, providing advice and recommendations on financial policies, the annual budget and long-term financial plans for Metro Vancouver’s districts, as well as reviewing periodic and annual financial results and providing oversight on the annual audit.
- Indigenous relations committee: It provides advice and recommendations on policies, plans, programs, budgets and issues regarding relationship-building and reconciliation efforts with local First Nations, treaty negotiations and the broader Indigenous relations function.
Councillors Ruby Campbell and Tasha Henderson have each been appointed to one Metro Vancouver committee.
Campbell will sit on the housing committee, which provides advice and recommendations on plans, policies, bylaws, programs, budgets, and issues related to Metro Vancouver’s housing planning and policy service, and the Metro Vancouver Housing Corporation (MVHC) service.
Henderson will serve on the regional planning committee, which provides advice and recommendations on plans, policies, programs, budgets and issues related to Metro Vancouver’s regional planning service.
New West Progressives left out
The issue of appointments to represent the city at Metro Vancouver has been a contentious issue in New Westminster council chambers since Day 1 of the current council’s term of office.
The agenda of the inaugural meeting of council in November 2022 included a recommendation to appoint Johnstone as the city’s director to the Metro Vancouver Regional District board, which has been the longstanding process.
At that meeting, Coun. Paul Minhas put forward an amendment that his fellow New Westminster Progressives’ colleague Coun. Daniel Fontaine be the city’s representative to the board. Minhas said council would have an “opportunity to make history” by appointing the newly elected councillor, who is a citizen of the Metis nation, to the board.
Minhas and Fontaine voted against the original appointment of Johnstone as council’s representative to Metro Vancouver’s board of directors as well as the more recent appointment of Nakagawa as the city’s representative on the board.
Since being elected, Fontaine has critical of various issues related to Metro Vancouver, including the pay of its chief administrative officer Jerry Dobrovolny, travel costs for the board’s former director, the soaring costs of the North Shore wastewater treatment plant, and spending by Metro Vancouver. He’s among a small group of municipal politicians from around the region that have been calling for changes to how Metro Vancouver is governed – saying voters should elect the people they want to represent their cities on at Metro Vancouver rather than having them appointed by local governments.
