New Westminster Mayor Jonathan Cote will never forget the way citizens and city staff responded to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the early months of 2020, city council embarked on plans to pursue some grand plans – including construction of a replacement for the Canada Games Pool and Centennial Community Centre and 2021 budget initiatives targeting council’s seven bold steps on climate action. But those plans were dashed in March when COVID-19 hit and pandemic response took centre stage.
“I am looking forward to 2021,” he said in a year-end interview with the Record. “We are not out of the woods yet, but I think we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I’m looking forward to really partnering with the community on how we can best rebuild and recover from a difficult year.”
Cote said 2020 will go down in history as a year unlike any other most communities have experienced in terms of the challenges posed by the pandemic.
“To me, once we get through COVID-19 and really move forward, I honestly think when we reflect back on this year, I think the things that are really going to stand out are how the community really came together – a lot of the compassion and the generosity that we saw in the community,” he said. “Those are what I see as what will be the big takeaway of how we dealt with an incredibly adverse and challenging year. But as a community we are resilient and compassionate and really worked towards coming together as a community during such a difficult time.”
At New Westminster city council’s final meeting of 2020, Cote expressed gratitude to local organizations, residents and city staff, who stepped up to help the community through the year’s challenges.
“I think we managed to weather the storm fairly well here in New Westminster,” Cote told the Record. “There has no doubt been some financial impacts but I think we were able to make some responsible adjustments in our budgets and in our spending to recognize that but also to position ourselves well to be ready to reopen and be able to serve community (the way) in which we traditionally do. Despite the impacts that we received, I think they did not turn out to be as big as they were potentially feared at the onset of the pandemic.”
Brighter days ahead
As a new year gets underway, Cote said he’s feeling confident the city is in a good, stable financial position to start moving forward and to re-engage in important work, such as the redevelopment of Canada Games Pool and work on climate action, that had to be slowed down and paused in 2020.
“I am anticipating in the spring period, once we kind of test the construction market, that council will then be in a position about whether we want to move ahead with that project,” he said of the Canada Games Pool replacement project. “Obviously we need to get more information on that one, but I am cautiously optimistic that that project will be able to get back on track in 2021.”
Cote anticipates 2021 will also be the year the city takes ownership of Massey Theatre.
“We are excited to be able to partner and to participate in keeping that really important cultural asset in the city going,” he said. “But it is an older facility that definitely is going to need some love and attention to help modernize and bring it up to proper standards so that it can continue serving the community.”
Cote is hopeful that 2021 will also be a year when the city makes strides in the provision of affordable housing and start to see some “importantly needed housing projects” come to fruition.
“Affordable housing was a huge issue in our community before COVID-19. Now more than ever we need the city to step forward there,” he said. “There is going to be some really interesting opportunities with both the provincial and federal governments putting a significant priority toward affordable housing that I think 2021 might be an important year for the city to really seek out and seize those opportunities to see what we can do to better support and see the development of more non-market housing in New Westminster.”
Instead of taking a blanket approach to addressing the crisis faced in 2020, Cote said the city tried to tailor its responses and focus on those who had been hardest hit by the pandemic.
“I think 2021 will still be a year to still be mindful of the impacts of COVID-19. I think what we will see is many individuals and many business will probably recover very well but we also want to be sensitive that there are going to be some members in our community and there is definitely going to be some sectors in our local economy that are going to struggle more, and the recovery is going to be harder,” Cote said. “As we do our work, I think we want to be mindful of that, and I think we want to continue the work we can to best … make sure that no one is really left behind as we recover out of COVID-19.”
