Queensborough issues took centre stage at council’s most recent meeting.
New West city council recently considered several motions put forward by councillors Daniel Fontaine and Paul Minhas, including four related to the Queensborough neighbourhood. Here’s a look at the motions were about and what happened at the Jan 30 meeting.
Motion: Requesting an update from the local MLAs regarding a 2020 provincial election commitment to provide a free bus service to Queensborough students. The motion is to have Mayor Patrick Johnstone write to Richmond-Queensborough MLA Aman Singh and New Westminster MLA Jennifer Whiteside to request a meeting with councillors Tasha Henderson, Nadine Nakagawa and Fontaine (who are council’s liaisons with the school board) regarding the status of the provincial government’s 2020 campaign commitment for a free bus service to New Westminster Secondary School for students in Queensborough.
“I'm very pleased to bring this motion forward to council this evening on behalf of countless students and parents who live in Queensborough who have been waiting for far too long for adequate bus service to NDub from Queensborough,” Fontaine said. “We have heard from countless parents who have said, and students who have said, to us that bus after bus after bus, TransLink buses are full, they are being passed by, they are not being picked up and brought to school in a timely manner. And furthermore, their lives are being impacted in that many students have to get up at a really early hour to get to school on time. And also when they get home, they get home a lot later.”
Coun. Nadine Nakagawa said suggested an amendment to have the school board members who sit on the joint committee with council members included in the meeting.
Council approved the motion, with the amendment, in a unanimous vote.
“This motion doesn't involve spending money. It fits with current priorities, the current stated goals and work of the city,” said Coun. Jaimie McEvoy. “I think it's a pretty simple motion to simply seek a meeting, and move forward on this issue.”
Motion: Asking staff to incorporate a new two-year, 50/50 matching grant pedestrian improvement pilot program into the 2023 budget that will support Queensborough residents wishing to accelerate the covering up of ditches with sidewalks. The motion also calls on the city to use $300,000 from the city’s climate action reserve fund to fund this pilot project and to have staff seek funds from senior levels of government to offset or match the city’s contribution to the proposed pilot program.
Fontaine said the city has an existing program that allows Queensborough residents to apply for matching grants for filling in ditches, but an entire block or a particular part of a neighbourhood must be willing to participate, not just individual homeowners.
“I have had a number of people indicate to me that they have great interest in this,” he said. “They support sidewalk pedestrian infrastructure in Queensborough.”
Coun. Tasha Henderson said the city already has a matching grant program that’s funded through the utilities, not the climate action fund. She expressed concern about the idea of using money in the climate action fund, when the city hasn’t yet determined how it wants to use that money.
“I don't think it's responsible financial management to continue asking to use this fund when it's been identified by our finance staff that we haven't developed a framework for its use yet. I'm unwilling to chip away at such an important fund in this sort of ad-hoc, kneejerk way that has continually come to the table,” she said. “It’s my understanding that we have a very similar program, that there are a lot of complications about doing this work house by house, and that is why it's preferred to do it in bigger swaths.”
Coun. Nadine Nakagawa also expressed concerns that doing this type of work piece by piece, as it could make it more complicated and expensive – if it’s even feasible. Saying this is a “highly technical issue” and is complicated for people who aren’t engineers to understand, she suggested it could be the subject of a council workshop so the council can discuss ways of better engaging with the diverse Queensborough community to make sure everyone is aware of the current program.
Fontaine expressed concern that it would disappear into “never-Neverland” if it was referred to a workshop. Other council members and staff assured him that referrals mean it will be placed on a council agenda.
Coun. Ruby Campbell said the motion is premature, as council doesn’t have the information it needs to make an informed decision. She noted that council recently toured Queensborough and viewed ditches, at which time staff were not sure of the costs of covering all the ditches in Queensborough.
“We need to understand this really well before we go out to the community,” she said.
Council referred the issue to a workshop, with staff pledging to report back to council if that can’t be held within six months.
Motion: Increasing year-round usage of city park spaces through the installation of additional all-weather tracks as part of the capital plan. The motion is to have staff prioritize the sourcing of funds required to install an increased number of all-weather fields in New Westminster over the next five years. It also asked that staff identify the funds necessary to undertake a planning and community consultation process to determine the feasibility of prioritizing an all-weather field in Ryall Park in Queensborough.
“The citizens of Queensborough have indicated they believe they are underserved by the City of New Westminster when it comes to sports and recreation facilities,” Minhas said. “As we all know, Queensborough is in a flood plain, and a significant portion of the land is water saturated in the winter period, thus rendering public spaces like Ryall Park as unusable due to the poor soil conditions.”
Minhas said a significant number of seniors living in the Queensborough community have indicated that the introduction of a well-lit, all-weather track at Ryall Park would help to increase year-round physical activity and community building.”
“Coun. Minhas and I have been approached by a number of individuals within the Queensborough community to indicate that in the winter period, it is hard for a lot of people to be able to walk within the Queensborough community due to lack of sidewalks and also because there is no all-weather kind of track or field where people can walk in,” Fontaine said. “There are a lot of elders who have approached us and indicated that that would be very much supported within the community.”
Asked about the cost of resurfacing the Mercer Stadium track, parks and recreation director Dean Gibson said that cost more than $1 million when it was done more than 10 years ago. He said lighting of a sports field typically ranges from $400,000 to $700,000.
In a 5-2 vote, council referred it to the parks and recreation comprehensive plan that’s getting underway this year. (Minhas and Fontaine were opposed)
“My expectation for the update or refresh, if you will, to the parks and recreation comprehensive plan is intended to take place over this year and into 2024,” Gibson said. “We expect to be presenting the terms of reference for that particular project to council in the early spring and then will commence the work through the summer and into the fall and into the beginning of the new year. Those processes, as we followed with the last plan, includes extensive consultation with the community at large as well as stakeholder voices such as the organized sporting community, cultural groups and what have you.”
Other council members cited concerns about dealing with the councillors’ request outside of the current budget process and without considering it in the context of other needs in the city.
“I don't like to do these things on a piecemeal basis, and there might be many priorities,” McEvoy said. “And I appreciate that we all know people in the community, we know people in Queensborough, but I think a public consultation is required to determine if this was the general public's priority.”
Henderson, a planner, agreed. She said the item needs to be considered as part of the update to the parks and recreation comprehensive plan.
“I prefer not to do like a kneejerk, one-off action like this, but to embed it into a robust planning, public engagement and planning process, which seems imminent,” she said.
Motion: Mitigating traffic and transportation issues and improving pedestrian safety on Ewen Avenue. The motion is to have staff seek feedback, as part of the Queensborough transportation plan, from local residents and businesses regarding their interest in the installation of a new pedestrian-activated crossing at the corner of Wood Street and Ewen Avenue. The motion also asked that staff provide a memo to council regarding the opportunity to modify the current “no right turn on red” policy at Ewen and Howes Street, so it only applies during peak rush hour traffic.
Minhas said the motion is intended to address safety and to encourage people to get out of their vehicles and support them safely using alternate modes of transportation.
“Many vehicles that have unnecessarily wait at a normal turn on red after rush hour are unnecessarily burning fossil fuels,” he said. “I believe the city is committed to reducing our carbon footprint and achieving our goals as they pertain to climate change. I believe the city is committed to listening to local community concerns when it comes to traffic and transportation issues."
Campbell expressed concern that changing one intersection in isolation could have consequences, so she’d like the issues in the motion to be considered holistically as part of the Queensborough transportation plan process that’s currently underway.
Fontaine noted that part of the motion is to refer the issue of a crossing at Wood and Ewen to that transportation planning process. He disagreed that allowing right turns on red lights in non-peak times is something that needs to be referred to the master transportation plan.
Lisa Leblanc, the city’s director of engineering, said staff are already looking into that item because it was raised by residents prior to the launch of the Queensborough transportation plan process starting.
“The technical analysis is currently underway,” she said. “And in the opinion of the manager of transportation, it doesn't require a referral to the transportation planning process because the analysis is underway.”
