The chair and vice-chair of the New Westminster police board will now receive an honorarium.
As part of the New Westminster Police Department’s 2025 budget, the police board supported including $10,000 in the NWPD budget for honorariums for its chair and vice-chair.
A city staff report stated that honorariums are provided to acknowledge expertise and time commitment, encourage continued participation, promote equity and inclusivity, foster professionalism and accountability, recognize personal sacrifices, and retain talent.
“The recent implementation of Bill 17 required both a dedicated board chair and vice-chair. These roles come with significant additional responsibilities and time commitments beyond those of the other board members,” said the report.
“To recognize these increased demands, we are seeking an enhancement of $10,000 to provide for additional honorariums for these positions.”
The honorariums were among the items included in the NWPD’s budget, which was approved by the police board in November 2024.
The New Westminster police board’s governance manual also includes details about the honorarium that members of the police board, other than the chair, are eligible to receive.
The honorarium is intended to be a “token payment designed to express appreciation for voluntary hours” and to cover out-of-pocket and incidental expenses, such as parking, transportation, printing, and child-care costs, incurred by the members while performing their board duties.
The policy states that the honorarium is not designed to compensate a board member for actual hours worked. As of Jan. 1, 2022, the honorarium for police board members was $273 per meeting of four hours or less and $548 per meeting of four to eight hours.
The board’s governance manual details the types of meetings that are eligible for the honorarium, the minimum length and attendance of meetings in order to receive an honorarium, honorariums for attending other meetings related to their work on the police board, and meetings and activities not eligible for honorarium.
Councillor concerned
At council’s Jan. 27 meeting, Coun. Daniel Fontaine expressed concern about the honorarium for the chair of the police board. That role is currently filled by Coun. Tasha Henderson.
Fontaine put forward an amendment that the police department’s 2025 budget of $44,415,399 be reduced by $7,000. He said that would remove the new $7,000 allocation for the police board chair.
“I have not included a removal of the per diem for the vice-chair, who is a volunteer and not an elected official,” he said. “But I have, through this motion, removed the ability of the police board to pay a per diem to an elected official who is already compensated by taxpayers and is voluntarily the chair of the board, of the police board.”
Because this item relates to a member of council who may be receiving an additional stipend, Fontaine said it’s important for council to determine and debate whether it’s appropriate for council to support the $10,000 for the honorariums.
In July 2024, the police board elected Henderson (attending her first meeting on the board) as chair and veteran board member Heather Boersma as vice-chair. Mary Trentadue nominated Boersma and Drew Hart nominated Henderson, but Boersma, told the board she has a young baby and would soon be returning to work in October, so she was unable to take on the chair’s role.
Police board decides
Mayor Patrick Johnstone said “there is no way” that council could require a specific item to be removed from the NWPD budget for this year.
“That is not within the authority of this council,” he said. “That is within the authority of police board under the Police Act.”
Johnstone said the city council is restricted in its ability to change the police budget because it’s already been approved by the New Westminster police board under its authority under the Police Act. If council were to approve Fontaine’s motion, he said staff would have to redraft the bylaw and the bylaw could not be approved until a future meeting.
“We will also be in conflict with the police board over the approved budget, because we already have a provisional approved budget for the police board,” he said.
Johnstone, who chaired the police board from November 2022 to June 2024, said that under the Police Act that would likely result in arbitration between the police board and council. He said there were opportunities for council to address the police budget before it reached the bylaw approval stage, including meetings between the board and council about the NWPD’s 2025 budget.
“City council does not have the authority to dictate which items in a police board spending plan are financed by our budget,” he said. “We are to either approve or not approve the police board's budget.”
The police board approved the New Westminster Police Department’s budget in November 2024. The Police Act requires municipal police boards to prepare and submit a provisional budget to the province for the following year on or before Nov. 30.
Coun. Jaimie McEvoy said it’s been made clear to council that it does not set the police budget or determine what’s included in that budget. He noted the Union of BC Municipalities adopted a resolution requesting that the provincial government allow cities to dispute specific items in a police budget and not dispute the entire budget.
“The provincial government made no movement to support the UBCM’s position on that,” he said. “UBCM's position is, yes, cities should be able to dispute a particular item in a police budget. But you have to dispute the whole thing at this point, and that's an expensive process with no likely positive outcome for this municipality.”
Fontaine, however, said he’s “confident” the police board could adjust its budget to remove the $7,000 honorarium for the chair.
When council and the police board met last fall to discuss the NWPD’s 2025 budget, Fontaine said he was “very vocal” that he didn’t support the honorarium for elected officials. In recent months, he’s been a vocal critic of municipal politicians being paid for attendance at various boards, including Metro Vancouver.
In a 5-2 vote, council defeated Fontaine’s motion, with only Coun. Paul Minhas supporting his New Westminster Progressive colleague’s motion.
Council then supported three readings of the City of New Westminster’s financial plan bylaw, in the same 5-2 vote.
While she supported the financial plan bylaw, Nakagawa said she would once again be “symbolically voting against the police budget” because she doesn’t think city council has sufficient oversight or conversation with the police board about the most significant part of the city’s budget. She said the current process does not meet the level of what she would want in terms of accountability and oversight.
To vote or not to vote?
Fontaine questioned what obligation a council member has in declaring a pecuniary interest regarding a matter being considered by council. His comments related to the fact that Henderson could be voting on the City of New Westminster’s financial plan bylaw, which includes the police budget.
“The Community Charter does require council members, when they perceive that they have a pecuniary interest, to recuse themselves and to state in general terms what that interest is,” said Hanieh Berg, the city’s corporate officer. “But the onus is on the individual member of council to do that.”
Henderson could not be reached for comment.
According to staff, the police department’s budget is part of the city’s overall budget. As such, it is all part of one financial plan bylaw and is considered within that bylaw and cannot be dealt with separately.
Under the B.C. Police Act, police boards roles include developing the annual police department budget. The Police Act requires board to elect a chair and vice-chair every two years; the chair is a non-voting member of the municipal police board, unless required to cast the deciding vote in the event of a tie.
