Community First Councillors spent Monday listening to resident and staff feedback on several key issues, from parks and recreation to retail space and new school construction. 

These open and transparent Council workshops are where Staff report back to Council on the public engagement, consultation, and technical work that informs future policy, and where Council provides feedback to staff before final decisions are made. Good policy is made this way: informed by the public and stakeholders, with impacts understood by the decision makers through collaboration and dialogue.

Here are the highlights from Monday: 

• Kicking off the meeting, members of the Community Advisory Assembly brought recommendations around improving public spaces in the City, recognizing that “parks space” in a dense City will require innovative thinking, and their collective feedback could improve how the City addresses public space;
• After extensive public consultation, staff checked in with Council on the City’s Parks and Recreation Comprehensive Plan. This plan talks of future needs from new playing fields and expanded parks space to a new ice arena and covered sports box. Most importantly, they outlined how short- medium- and long-term priorities will be set to financially model the delivery of recreation needs for a growing population;
• An update on the retail strategy to address one of the concerns the community has raised repeatedly – why so many dentist offices on retail streets? After hearing from the community and engaging proactively with businesses, Staff checked with Council on how firmly we should regulate “active use” on commercial streets;
• The newly announced downtown elementary school (yeah!) is moving quickly to construction, but there are community concerns about park space, traffic, and construction. Council has heard these concerns and is working proactively with the School District to address those in a way that doesn’t delay construction;
• Council also discussed the Royal Towers, an aging building on the corner of Sixth Street and Royal Avenue. It’s a complex site, and through proactive negotiations with the developer, we are assuring new housing (a combination of below-market affordable, rental, and market ownership) can be built on the site, while existing tenants are not displaced from our community. Our Tenant Relocation Policy is a fundamental part of the City’s strategy to prevent homelessness and support affordable housing. 

These are big, important topics – assuring youth and young families in the City have the recreation facilities needed to stay active, assuring green spaces are available in every neighbourhood in the City, working with the business community to address a community concern instead of dictating to them, getting schools built and preventing homelessness. Naturally, Council had a lot of feedback for staff, and through dialogue we got a lot done in three and half hours. This is the work we were elected to do.

In contrast, NWP Councillors sat silent throughout the meeting. They could not think of one constructive piece of feedback across five important topics. They prefer complaining on social media and the news about the very community they are meant to represent. 

NWP Councillors think this job is all about lights and cameras, but when it comes to action, it’s Community First Councillors who roll up our sleeves and get the work done. We do it because we love this city, and we will continue to invest in our community and our neighbours with compassion and care.

Thank you to all the New West residents who put time and effort into the consultation sessions, and thank you to the Community Advisory Assembly for all of your work. We appreciate your feedback. We are listening :)

To watch the video of the meeting, click here, or check out the full agenda.