The 2022 to 2026 term of New Westminster city council will determine whether the city meets its 2030 climate targets, says Mayor Patrick Johnstone.
At Monday night’s inauguration ceremony, Johnstone was sworn in as New Westminster’s mayor and chair of the New Westminster police board.
Monday night’s inauguration ceremony also saw six councillors – two incumbents (Jaimie McEvoy and Nadine Nakagawa) and four newcomers (Ruby Campbell, Daniel Fontaine, Tasha Henderson and Paul Minhas) take their oaths of office before a packed crown in council chamber and city hall’s foyer.
Johnstone opened his inaugural address by expressing his gratitude to Jonathan Cote, saying his work and vision have left a strong foundation for this council to build on with issues like housing, climate and public engagement. He also thanked councillors Chuck Puchmayr, Mary Trentadue and Chinu Das, who either didn’t run or weren’t re-elected in the Oct. 15 election, for their service to the community.
“I'm proud our reputation around the region is one of the most functional councils in the Lower Mainland,” he said. “We found consensus on most issues and we were respectful in our disagreements when we couldn't find that consensus.”
To the new and returning members of council, Johnstone said the community is best served when all of council engages in robust discussions of agenda items, seeks consensus where it can be found and doesn’t let disagreements prevent council from taking firm and decisive action on issues that are important to the community.
“We all spent the last six months knocking on doors and speaking with the community and we heard about the issues that are top of mind: housing, climate, transportation, safety for all in the face of overlapping crisis in our region,” he said. “And we heard that community wants a proactive and forward-looking council, not one that shirks away from challenges.”
Johnstone called on all council members to engage meaningfully in the journey towards reconciliation that the city is taking as a local government, saying council members are representatives of a “system of erasure, built on the theft of land and the theft of history.”
“I also want to make special note of the work the city is doing to address climate change. You will be in the seats until 2026. That takes us halfway to 2030, a year for which bold targets for emission reductions have been set by this city, by the province and by the nation,” he said. “Everything else you do in the city – housing, transportation, recreation, public safety, everything we do will be impacted by climate disruption and will need to be adapted in order to meet our targets. And this is the term that will decide whether we make those 2030 targets. There can be no more delaying.”
Johnstone noted that the parks department planted seven trees on the lawn in front of city hall prior to Monday’s inaugural meeting.
“They were planted on the front lawn to represent the starting of this new council and the bringing in of this new council,” he said. “So a tree for each of usm and maybe we can use that to keep our minds on the journey we have to address climate.”
The remainder of the meeting included introductions of council, senior staff and special guests, and consideration of reports on the results of the 2022 general local election, acting mayor appointments for the coming year and appointments of council members to some external boards and task forces.
