Members of New West council will continue to delve into issues at workshops on Monday afternoons – but not everyone is keen on the 2025 meeting plan.
A Nov. 18 report to council from the corporate office included staff recommendations on a number of issues related to council businesses, including council’s 2025 meeting schedule. It included four options for council’s consideration:
- Option 1 – status quo: Council currently meets every Monday (except statutory holidays), with regular council and workshop meetings held on the first and third Monday and standalone workshops held on the second and fourth Monday. (This would result in four meeting days each month, with a total of 10 meetings – including incamera, regular and workshop meetings.)
- Option 2 – council meetings only: This option would eliminate workshops, although they could be called on an as-needed basis. (Council would have two meeting days each month, with a total of four meetings – two closed/incamera meetings and two regular meetings.)
- Option 3 – council meetings and workshops on alternating Mondays: This option is similar to the current meeting schedule. There would be two fewer workshops each month because workshops would be eliminated on days when council is meeting in the evening for a regular meeting. (This would result in four meeting days each month, with a total of eight meetings – including closed, regular and workshop meetings.)
- Option 4 – council meetings and workshops on the same Mondays: It would eliminate the “standalone workshop days” that exist in the current schedule, when council holds workshops of the days when there is no evening meeting but would include workshops on afternoons on days where regular council meetings are being held in the evening. (This option would result in council having two meeting days each month, with a total of six meetings – including closed, regular and workshop sessions.)
Staff recommended Option 3, saying it “offers a balance between efficiently handling official city business while, while continuing to provide a forum where council and staff can effectively work on a variety of strategic priorities.”
In a 5-2 vote, council supported a 2025 meeting schedule based on Option 3, with Mayor Patrick Johnstone and councillors Ruby Campbell, Tasha Henderson, Jaimie McEvoy, and Nadine Nakagawa supporting the staff recommendation. Councillors Daniel Fontaine and Paul Minhas were opposed.
Henderson said council began holding workshops on weeks when no meeting was scheduled in response to having had “really long, late meetings,”
“I personally would rather us have shorter, in terms of accessibility, meetings, more frequently than cutting them out and then being here till midnight on council meetings,” she said.
Fontaine said council’s schedule includes meetings every Monday, even though the previous council’s schedule did not meet every week, and it seemed to work fine.
“We get a new council, a different makeup of people, and suddenly we now have council meetings every single Monday, basically workshops every single Monday,” he said.
Fontaine people may not be able to run for council if they’re unable to take every Monday off work. He also questioned the value of the discussions that are occurring in workshops.
“They're very operational in nature, so I don't think we need as many,” he said.
Fontaine supported Option 2, but he could not put it on the table for discussion as other councillors had already “moved” Option 3.
Nakagawa supported Option 3, saying long meetings are unhealthy and inaccessible for some people.
“I think that absolutely has to be our first priority; it's nonnegotiable for me,” she said. “My second priority is that we get the work done. I think that nobody wants us pushing things off that are time sensitive or making decisions at midnight, which I don't think is conducive for anybody to making good decisions.”
Nakagawa said she is happy to cancel workshops if they are not needed.
“But I would rather have it in our calendars so that people can actually understand the workload,” she said. “It is not more accessible to have meetings going into the middle of the night. That's not more inclusive council meetings.”
McEvoy, who was on a leave of absence earlier in the year after suffering a heart attack and undergoing surgery, questioned if something had changed during his absence; he said he doesn’t recall a workshop that wasn’t related to “really substantive things” including neighbourhood plans and budgets.
“It is a reality in most cities that being a city councillor means you have to take a day off a week. ... It should be enshrined in legislation that if you have employment and you need time off to be an elected official, that you get that,” he said. “But I also think that it comes with the job.”
McEvoy supported a meeting schedule that includes council workshops.
“Those meetings that extend to midnight and beyond are not a good way to do business,” he said. “And my impression of the workshops is that there's been more accommodation of the divergent views of councillors, more opportunity for councillors have input into the city without necessarily having to make formal motions to do it. I think it's been very constructive for us.”
Under the draft schedules, council would have meetings on36 days with Options 1 and 3, compared to 22 days under Option 2.
Campbell also supported the option recommended by staff.
“It takes into consideration the workload that staff have, in terms of being able to follow up on committee meetings, and I think also the cost of having staff in here,” she said. “I think we need to look at this also from an efficiencies point of view. This is what staff are recommending, and so I will be supporting this because of the efficiencies that staff have been providing us with.”
Meetings in motion
New Westminster has changed council’s meeting schedule several times through the years, most recently after the 2022 civic election. All members of the previous council attended regular council meetings, but only certain members served on council’s task forces and committees considering issues such as land use and planning, the local economy, major projects, transportation and riverfront and public realm – with those groups then making recommendations to council.
“We thought it would be fair if all of council was involved in those conversations,” Johnstone said of the decision to have all-council workshops.
Johnstone supports the continuation of council workshops, including a series of public workshops about the budget.
“I think that's really important work, and I think we have to give space to do that work,” he said. “I don't expect we'll have a workshop every week. I do think there'll be opportunity for staff to find efficiencies and reduce the time we spend doing them, but I do think it's an important tool for us to have.”
Johnstone said workshops include all council members, unlike committees. (Following the 2022 election, the New West Progressives proposed a number of council committees.)
The Nov. 18 staff report included recommendation on a variety of issues related to council meetings, including changes to the council meetings and notices of motion.
Henderson said that if councillors want to continue bringing motions forward for council’s consideration, they need to have an opportunity to discuss those ideas.
“We do need workshops to talk about them,” she said.
A new meeting format was introduced in 2023 that included afternoon workshop meetings where all members of council could meet with staff to “delve into key issues” in the city, rather than having individual council members serving on task forces and committees. Workshop topics have included: the city and the police department’s budgets; the vision for the 22nd Street neighbourhood; council’s strategic priorities; Massey Theatre capital plans; a comprehensive public toilet policy; and a heritage proposal for the Columbia Theatre.Following the fall 2018 municipal election, council approved a new meeting schedule for 2019, which included 20 regular council meetings, a handful of workshops on council meeting days, and eight public hearings. Some council members also served on task forces and committees.
Prior to that, council held committee of the whole meetings on Monday afternoons where council members discussed agenda items and then voted on those items at that night’s meeting. Record archives show that council met on more than 30 days in 2014 for regular and committee of the whole meetings, public hearings or special council meetings.
