New West politicos will be championing a variety of issues – including overdose prevention funding, commercial rent controls, and intersection safety cameras – when they join their peers from across the province at this week’s Union of B.C. Municipalities convention.
Mayor Patrick Johnstone and councillors Ruby Campbell, Tasha Henderson and Nadine Nakagawa registered to attend this year’s conference, which takes place from Sept. 16 to 20 in Vancouver.
The 2024 UBCM convention include sessions on: what’s next for housing policy; the Emergency and Disaster Management Act; changes in B.C.’s resource sector; changing climate/rising costs; public safety, mental health, and addictions; homelessness and encampment response; and addressing systemic racism and advancing reconciliation.
During the week, delegates will hear from politicians from senior levels of government, including: B.C. Premier David Eby; Jonathan Wilkinson, federal minister of energy and natural resources; John Rustad, leader of the Conservative Party of B.C.; and Sonia Furstenau, leader of the B.C. Green Party.
According to the UBCM, the organization has been the voice of local government in British Columbia since 1905. The annual convention seeks to provide a forum for its members to establish policy and engage with provincial leaders on matters of common concern.
UBCM Convention 2024 is starting strong with a province-wide forum bringing First Nations and local governments together to discuss the practical road to reconciliation at the community level. #UBCM2024 pic.twitter.com/73BPmkB1uj
— UBCM (@UBCM) September 16, 2024
Delegates attending this week’s conference will consider a wide variety of issues during resolutions sessions taking place on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday morning. All totalled, 267 resolutions will be considered, a 25 per cent increase from last year.
Resolutions are divided into various categories, including: health and social development; housing; community safety; environment; Indigenous relations and reconciliation; finance; land use taxation; transportation; and community economic development.
New West contributions
Several resolutions put forward by New Westminster city council are set to be voted on at this week’s UBCM convention.
All four resolutions have already been endorsed by the Lower Mainland Local Government Association, which is one of one of the five area associations of the UBCM, representing 29 local governments (from Pemberton to Hope) and three regional districts.
Here's a look at the resolutions that have put forward by New Westminster for consideration at the UBCM:
Additional funding for overdose prevention sites across local governments
Whereas the Province of British Columbia declared a drug toxicity public emergency in 2016, acknowledging the rapid increase in overdose deaths and the need to deploy the necessary harm reduction strategies with urgency to prevent additional deaths;
And whereas over 13,000 people have died of toxic drugs since 2016 in communities across British Columbia, including at least 2,500 people in 2023, about two-thirds of which were from inhalation, yet only about 40 per cent of supervised consumption and overdose prevention sites in British Columbia offer inhalation services:
Therefore, be it resolved that UBCM ask the Province of British Columbia to increase funding for Health Authorities to augment existing, and to open new, supervised consumption and overdose prevention sites, including related inhalation services, across British Columbia and including local governments which do not currently offer this service to residents.
Eliminating barriers to publicly owned and operated home care services and long-term care
Whereas seniors, families and seniors’ organizations have been advocating to improve access to public home care services and supports to assist seniors to live at home, in their communities, longer and to delay or prevent premature admissions to public long-term care facilities;
And whereas finances can become an impediment to access the required home care services such as housekeeping, more frequent bathing and meal preparation necessary to age in place, and community programs that have been designed to try and meet seniors’ needs are unable to fulfil the increasing demand:
Therefore be it resolved that UBCM ask the Province to eliminate financial and accessibility barriers by investing in more publicly owned and operated and not-for-profit home care services and social supports required to age in place, and by further investing in publicly owned and operated and not-for-profit long-term care to ensure seniors are well supported in the continuum of care.
E-Comm governance review
Whereas E-Comm has struggled to provide service levels that meet established standards or the expectations of the communities they serve, while the cost of E-Comm is increasing at an unsustainable rate, creating budget uncertainty for local Police and Fire services;
And whereas the imminent introduction of next-Gen 911 will represent the single largest change in emergency communications delivery since the introduction of 911, with uncertain cost and operational impacts:
Therefore, be it resolved that UBCM ask the provincial government to engage local governments in a comprehensive review of the governance structure and delivery model of 911 emergency call taking, related non[1]emergency call taking, and emergency dispatch services across BC with a goal to assure reliable, affordable, and sustainable services for all communities.
Allowing local governments to apply commercial rent controls
Whereas the Province of British Columbia regulates annual allowable residential rent increases through the Residential Tenancy Regulation, BC Reg. 477/2003, to protect lower income renters from housing insecurity;
And whereas there is currently no similar provincial policy to protect small businesses or community-serving commercial tenants from unsustainable, unpredictable, and increasingly significant rent increases:
Therefore, be it resolved that UBCM ask the Province of British Columbia to provide local governments with the legislative authority to enable special economic zones where commercial rent control and demo/renoviction policies could be applied to ensure predictability in commercial lease costs, so local small businesses and community-serving commercial tenants can continue to serve their communities
Creating safer streets for everyone with intersection safety cameras
Whereas the City of New Westminster adopted “Safe Movement of People” as a strategic priority for 2022 -2026 and has committed to advance a “’Vision Zero” mindset across the city which aims to eliminate traffic fatalities and serious injuries;
And whereas the Government of BC’s Road Safety BC website states that:
1. “Most crashes in British Columbia happen at intersections. To reduce injuries and save lives, BC installs intersection safety cameras – sometimes called red light cameras – at intersections where crashes occur frequently. Warning signs let drivers know the intersection has cameras.”
2. “The cameras are proven to be effective at reducing side-impact, head-on and pedestrian crashes, and are located where red light running and high speed cause serious crashes.”;
And whereas the City of New Westminster has been working towards improving road safety through a variety of initiatives and infrastructure improvements, limited by capital budget funding and staff resources while the use of speed and red light cameras can be quickly implemented;
And whereas secondary benefits would include directing the revenue from these cameras toward road safety initiatives across the community and complementing the work of traditional police enforcement, enabling police officers to focus on other critical and time-sensitive tasks:
Therefore be it resolved that LMLGA and UBCM call on the provincial government to expand the implementation of speed and red light intersection safety cameras in local governments across BC, prioritizing intersections near schools and those with a high rate of crashes that result in injuries or fatalities as identified by ICBC, and that the provincial government provide all revenue from additional speed and red light cameras to local governments as grants to be invested in implementing local and safety improvements;
And be it further resolved that the UBCM request that the provincial government allow BC local governments to install speed and red light cameras at their own cost and set and collect fees directly to be earmarked for road safety improvements.
