War, taxes and regional governance questioned at New Westminster City Council Meeting

The impact of decisions made locally and globally were felt in the December 11th City Council Meeting in New Westminster. In two separate incidents, residents firmly made their opinions heard.

The council meeting began with a demonstration from local residents regarding the Israel-Palestine War. A group of residents asked the council to petition the federal government to call for a cease-fire. The call was endorsed by several councillors. Mayor Johnstone asked the city clerk to look into the feasibility of introducing a motion at the council meeting. However, the city clerk confirmed this was not possible within the current bylaws of council. The motion was tabled for the January 6th meeting.

A second delegation of residents presented their views regarding a current levy on their electric bill. City Council is considering the rescinding of the levy, which funded a climate change action fund. The delegates made it clear that they considered the climate change action fund an important and necessary part of the city's role in mitigating the impact of climate change. They came to council to ask it to reconsider the rescinding of the levy as they felt it was a small price to pay. Their concerns were noted, and it was decided that the levy will be discussed at the January 6th council meeting.

Finally, a petition by a council member was put forward to request that the Metro Vancouver Board reconsider its current method for choosing representatives on the board. At the moment, each city in the Metro Vancouver Region sends  representatives to the board - the number of representatives per city is dependent on the population of the city. Also, these representatives are chosen by each city's council. Councillor Fontaine proposed a referendum in New Westminster on the question of having Metro Vancouver representatives be elected directly instead of appointed by council.  

Fontaine pointed out that the board has an annual budget of $2.2 billion and oversees water and waste in the region. In his opinion, this is money raised by taxes and taxpayers should have a say in who speaks for them at the board. After much discussion on the politics of the board and how representation is decided, the city council agreed to look into sending a letter to the board. The letter would ask for a discussion in the region on possible new approaches to representation of the various cities to the board.

"When Metro Vancouver was originally established back in 1967 the population was around 930 thousand," stated Councillor Fontaine. "We now have about 2.6 million, heading towards 3 million within the blink of an eye. When this began it probably made a lot of sense to have people coming in from the cities. But if you look at the size of the Metro Vancouver budget, it is 2.6 billion dollars, and that is a lot of tax dollars going into the Metro Vancouver government. And the only way the public can hold them accountable is through the representative that they send. There is no political accountability at the direct level. This really calls for a governance review."