Hello neighbours,

May was a busy travel month with both work and personal travel. I am looking forward to summer months slowing down - a break from the school routine! - and more time to connect with friends and community members.

May Council Update

Key highlights:

• Budget Adoption (May 6): Council gave final reading to the 2025 property tax rates and five year financial plan. The average tax rate increase is 5.7% though individual property taxes will vary based on assessed value in relation to similar properties. Property taxes are due July 2. For more information, check out the city website.

• Regular Council (May 13): I missed this meeting due to travel in Tunisia (more on that below). There was a delegation from TROPICA on traffic issues, and reconsideration on the school district sites proposal.

• Establishing an Arts and Business Council (May 13): This is the result of two+ years of work by two committees and community members engaged in discussion on this idea. Before the City establishes the ABC as a non-profit, the model will be tested over 12-18 months to ensure viability. This work will be done by contracted arts and business specialist. See item 7.2 in the on-table package for details.

• Moray Street Traffic Calming Project (May 20): Council approved the budget for this work based on the detailed design presented at this meeting. The pilot has provided good feedback and the final design incorporates this into it. Council also directed staff to explore mitigating any impacts on neighbouring streets as a result of the Moray St project.

• Delegation from Wesgroup (May 20): Council has indicated our desire for affordable housing to be included in this development. Wesgroup indicated they were applying for CMHC funding and needed a letter of support from the City. They also presented on other topics such as surety bonds, which the city will further investigate and discuss at a later date.

  • Note: under the council procedure bylaw, delegations receive 5 min to present, unless the time is extended by a majority vote of council.

• City Comments on Anmore OCP Amendment for Anmore South (May 27): The city provided feedback to Anmore “identifying concerns related to water and sewer agreements, traffic impacts, transportation infrastructure, stormwater management, and impacts on watersheds and ecosystems including environmentally sensitive areas.”

  • Additionally, when a member of Metro Vancouver Regional District (MVRD) wishes to amend the Urban Containment Boundary (UCB), all members are notified for comment. The Anmore South proposal would also require the amendment of the UCB and requires the approval of MVRD. The UCB is meant to limit sprawl (auto-oriented, dispersed patterns of development) and protect agricultural, recreational and conservation lands.

Tunisia

In March, I mentioned that I was selected to participate in FCM’s Inclusive Climate Action in Tunisia Municipalities (ICATM) program, fully funded by Global Affairs Canada.

From May 11 to 17, the project team travelled in Tunisia, meeting with local partners and nine selected municipalities, learning about their proposed projects; We visited three cities from each of the three bio-regions: Dar Chaabâne El Fehri, Rahal (most rural), and Métlaoui. It was an extremely busy week, each night in a different place, but an eye-opening experience.

Climate impacts are happening everywhere; Tunisian municipalities experience much greater impacts than we do. Precipitation (too much at once or too little for years) is a common and overarching theme. Years of drought plus increased incidence of precipitation occurring as short duration, high volume, rainfall events are severely impacting agriculture, infrastructure and people’s way of life. For context, one weekend of heavy rainfall in Port Moody is equivalent to a year’s worth of precipitation in the semi-arid region.

The goal of future trips will be to work with community groups on the selected adaptation projects.

Boulevard gardens

I’ve written about this opportunity before, but I am now excited to say I have permission from my strata to go ahead with a small boulevard garden. Cllr Lubik and I will be collaborating on this and we will share pictures when it is worthy! Right now, it is just a piece of grass.

I encourage you to demonstrate your greenthumb abilities and make our boulevards more than just grass! Details about best practices and some simple rules can be found on the city website here.

Seniors Week

This week, the City has a variety of activities happening to celebrate seniors. The Rec Complex Lobby has a welcome table with information about the week’s activities.

New: the Youth lounge is open for daytime senior use from 9 am to 1 pm.

Check out Xplor (online booking site) for details and registration for events, including registration for the Summer Luncheon on June 5.

Links to May Agendas

• Special Meeting - May 6

• Regular Council Meeting - May 13

• Council Standing Committees - May 20

• Regular Council Meeting - May 27

Important Upcoming Dates and Information

• Seniors Try It Week is running this week.

• Play in Our Parks (free program) is back this year! Recreation staff will be at various parks around the city starting July 7. Details can be found here.

• Car-Free Day (Aug 17) vendor applications are open until June 26. Learn more here.

• Spring / Summer Focus Newsletter - read the electronic version of the Focus Newsletter here.