Ask the Mayoral Candidates - 2026

Recently, Heritage New West sent a list of questions relating to heritage conservation in New Westminster to our mayoral candidates, Daniel Fontaine, New West Progressives, and Patrick Johnstone, Community First. The candidates' responses are posted below, in advance of October 17, Election Day.   

First, the City's statement on Heritage:

Heritage New West has been the voice of heritage advocacy in New Westminster for over 45 years. Given New West's remarkable built heritage and the cultural, educational, economic and intangible benefits it provides, we believe this rich and irreplaceable legacy is a collective community asset. We want to understand how the candidates would prioritize heritage conservation and what actions they would take to protect and support these assets over the next four years.

Responses from the Candidates

Daniel Fontaine / New Westminster Progressives (NWP)

Yes. The current Strategic Priorities reflect the priorities established by the current Council. A new Council will establish its priorities for the next term, and the NWP platform makes heritage a clear and substantial commitment through our Distinctly New West plan. We have committed to completing a comprehensive Heritage Plan within the first 18 months, with clear actions, timelines and annual public reporting.

The NWP platform also commits to modernizing heritage tools and incentives, completing the unfinished Heritage Revitalization Agreement work, strengthening the Community Heritage Commission and continuing the Queen’s Park Heritage Conservation Area.

For the NWP, heritage cannot simply be something considered when an individual development application comes before Council. It needs to be built into how we plan for growth, neighbourhood character, streetscapes, civic traditions and the places that give New Westminster its identity.

And our understanding of heritage is deliberately broad. Heritage is not just old buildings. Our platform recognizes Indigenous heritage, historic homes and streetscapes, cultural institutions, civic traditions and the stories of the communities that have shaped New Westminster.

That broader commitment appears throughout the NWP platform. We have committed to preserving and celebrating traditions and institutions including May Day, Hyack Festival, the Anvil Battery salute, Royal City Musical Theatre and the New Westminster Symphony, while our Celebrate New West plan supports heritage programming, cultural festivals, historic imagery and heritage installations and explores the return of events such as the Santa Claus Parade.

There is also a legitimate contrast with the record of the present Council. Heritage is not identified as a strategic priority in the City’s 2023–2026 Strategic Priorities Plan.

At the same time, during Mayor Patrick Johnstone’s term, important heritage-policy work has remained unfinished. The City began updating its 2011 Heritage Revitalization Agreement policy in 2021 but paused that work in May 2022. The planned broader community consultation did not proceed, and the policy refresh remains delayed beyond its original 2022 timeline. 

There have also been questions about practical support for the traditions and organizations that carry New Westminster’s heritage forward. In 2025, Council considered a motion noting that Hyack’s annual City cash support had fallen from $150,000 to $15,000 over the preceding decade. A link to that motion can be found here: New Westminster City Meetings

Making heritage a strategic priority has to mean more than saying we value it. It means doing the work: completing the policy work that has been left unfinished, supporting the people and organizations that actually preserve and carry our heritage forward, protecting the buildings and streetscapes that define New Westminster, and ensuring heritage is considered from the beginning when we make decisions about growth and change.

Queen’s Park is an important example of that heritage, and our platform explicitly supports continuing the Queen’s Park Heritage Conservation Area. But our commitment is city-wide. We want New Westminster to grow without losing the history, character, traditions and sense of place that make it distinctly New West.

Yes. The NWP supports restoring City funding for heritage-home conservation grants. For 25 years, New Westminster helped fund the Heritage Foundation’s grant program for owners of voluntarily designated heritage homes. In 2025, the City contributed just $8,000. For 2026, the Foundation requested $15,000 and received $0.

This happened under Mayor Patrick Johnstone’s Council. In February, when the loss of funding was raised, Mayor Johnstone said the existing community-grant stream was not considered the right mechanism and that discussions would take place about having the Community Heritage Commission manage heritage grants. He said the City would “fix that gap.” Freshet News

Seven months later, there is still no publicly documented replacement mechanism. Instead, a private resident had to step forward with the full $15,000 so the grant program could continue for 2026. New West Heritage

That is a serious failure of follow-through and a real letdown for the heritage community. It is difficult to say heritage matters, proclaim Heritage Week, and then allow a 25-year City funding relationship that helps conserve designated heritage homes to fall away without a replacement in place.

In contrast, the NWP has publicly set out its commitments through Heritage Plan: Distinctly New West. Our platform commits to practical incentives for heritage conservation and a comprehensive Heritage Plan within 18 months. New Westminster Progressives

The NWP will:
1.  Restore a properly designed City-funded heritage-home conservation grant program, with clear eligibility, accountability and a sustainable funding model.

2.  Complete a comprehensive Heritage Plan within 18 months, with clear actions, timelines and annual public reporting. New Westminster Progressives

3.  Modernize heritage tools, incentives and City processes so heritage preservation is practical for property owners.

4.  Complete the unfinished Heritage Revitalization Agreement policy work and establish clearer expectations around the relationship between development incentives and the heritage benefit being secured.

5.  Strengthen the Community Heritage Commission and bring heritage advice and community input into City decisions earlier.

6. Continue supporting the Queen’s Park Heritage Conservation Area and work with neighbourhoods to establish additional Heritage Conservation Areas where there is demonstrated community support.

7. Give residents meaningful input on heritage features and streetscapes within the City’s authority as development processes change.

8. Recognize heritage broadly, including historic homes and buildings, streetscapes, Indigenous heritage, cultural institutions, civic traditions and community stories.

9. Build on heritage as an economic asset, connecting our historic places and streetscapes with tourism, local businesses and the wider cultural economy. New Westminster Progressives

If the City expects private homeowners to accept long-term obligations and costs to preserve New Westminster’s heritage for the benefit of the whole community, then City Hall should be prepared to be a partner in that preservation. Heritage conservation needs more than proclamations. It needs practical support and it needs follow-through.

We need to start connecting the value our heritage creates with the support we provide to preserve it.

New Westminster’s heritage homes and historic streetscapes are not only important to our identity. The City itself promotes them as one of the reasons New Westminster is attractive to the film industry, and the Film Office typically generates more than $1 million a year in revenue. Heritage also supports tourism, walking tours, events, local businesses and the broader arts and cultural economy.

Yet many of those heritage assets are privately owned, and the cost of preserving them falls heavily on individual homeowners. That is why our Distinctly New West platform commits to building on heritage as an economic asset and to practical incentives for preservation.

Through the updated Heritage Plan, the NWP will look at how the City can better connect those public benefits with conservation. That includes restoring support for heritage-home grants, strengthening heritage tourism, working with Tourism New Westminster and local businesses, and examining whether revenues and economic activity generated because of our heritage assets can help support their long-term preservation.

At the same time, we need to protect the integrity of our heritage tools. The City began refreshing its 2011 HRA policy in 2021 and paused that work in May 2022. More than four years later, the broader community consultation still has not taken place and there is still no revised completion date.

We will finish that work. If the City grants substantial development benefits through an HRA, the heritage benefit secured in return should also be substantial, meaningful and lasting. Minor conservation items should not, on their own, justify major development concessions.

We also need to better connect the economic value created by New Westminster’s heritage with the work required to preserve it. Through the updated Heritage Plan, we would examine practical ways to do that, including heritage grants and incentives, stronger heritage tourism, closer connections between heritage, Tourism New Westminster and local businesses, and whether revenues generated from activities that rely on our heritage assets, such as filming, can appropriately help support their long-term conservation.

If our heritage is helping generate cultural and economic value for the city, we should be asking how some of that value can help preserve the heritage that makes it possible.

Patrick Johnstone / Community First

As a Party, Community First supports the conservation of built heritage as a priority for the city. As each newly elected council creates its own new strategic plan, all working together, we would support Heritage as a vital part of supporting culture in the City.

Councillor Jaimie McEvoy brought forward a proposal that a new Heritage Plan be created for the city, and we have included this promise in our platform. New Westminster has several heritage policies and practices, but there has not been a city-wide plan since the last heritage strategy in the 1990s. A NW Heritage Plan would be built from the ground up, involving the broader community, creating renewed interest and support for heritage, and recognizing the new landscape of the Queens Park HCA and new parkland proposals in the City. A Heritage Plan will create a clear mandate and direction for city staff, clarity and continuity, and identify and support the resources needed to support our city’s heritage.

Community First's Heritage Plan as it relates to the five areas of focus in New Westminster’s Strategic Priorities Plan

1. Community Belonging and Connecting. Heritage is a community value in the city. People like heritage, they like that the city has a story, and those values are mainstream. While many cities have heritage areas, in New Westminster heritage architecture is easily accessible and enjoyable for everyone. I see people walking around and enjoying the heritage our city has to offer all the time. And there is a genuine interest among residents to learn more about our city’s history.

2. Homes and Housing Options. Good planning principles encourage the importance of diversity in our communities, from homeowners to renters and social purpose housing. Our heritage homes play an important role in the spectrum of housing in our city, including in providing rental homes for families. Many heritage homes also include rental basement suites. And some heritage homes provide a social purpose, as group homes, community living, Honour House, and more. Heritage is about more than the beauty provided by heritage architecture, it is about its role as a community asset.

3. People Centred Economy. Heritage is of economic benefit to New Westminster. The annual Heritage Homes Tour is one of the largest events in New Westminster that draws people from outside the city. It presents hundreds of people, and tens of thousands over the years, with an image of New Westminster as a dynamic city with a rich history, generating interest and enthusiasm for our city.

And of course there is a residual benefit of people visiting New West to enjoy our heritage, and perhaps spending money to grab a coffee or have a meal while they are here. There is even more potential for heritage tourism, given the architecture, the streetscapes, the stories, and the diverse and interesting history of the city.

Businesses have also benefited from heritage. Whether it is a coffee shop with a beautiful heritage interior, a restaurant in an attractive heritage building, or performances in heritage venues. These places add interest and value for local business.

Along with people centered economy is green economy. Every restored and preserved heritage home is also a home that wasn't just demolished and sent to landfill. Modern heritage restorations also allow for improvements to the green footprint of the home. Trees can be preserved, and even heritage designated. Some of the greenest homes in New West were made that way during a heritage restoration or renovation.

4. Safe Movement of People. There is no doubt that heritage areas of the city are walkable, and create desirable and attractive areas for walking.

5. Asset Management and Infrastructure. This refers to the city's own assets - from sewers to sidewalks to buildings. This is also where a Heritage Plan for the city could provide some synergy. Over the years, city assets have had different treatment regarding heritage. Sidewalks with old brick, choice of streetlamps, and in some cases the city's architecture, like city hall itself, the heritage house in Moody Park, or the trees and habitat of Queens Park. Asset Management has given the city a more organized, comprehensive way to manage, maintain, and plan for all of the infrastructure of the city. This approach could also identify what role heritage plays in the long term management of the city’s infrastructure.

In my discussions with Councillor Jaimie McEvoy, he has brought up the subject of a heritage grant program that is overseen by the Community Heritage Commission. Such a program could also be intended to support events, outreach, and education. This would also be aligned with the commitments made to the community through the Heritage Conservation Area discussions. Heritage grants are their own unique category, and overseen by the city's Heritage Commission, administered by the people in the community who know and understand heritage, would be the best venue for such a program. 

Heritage in New Westminster is relevant to every neighbourhood and business district, however the Queens Park Heritage Conservation Area (HCA) can continue to be the touchstone upon which the City's commitment to Heritage is measured. This community-led effort to create the largest HCA in Canada was a watershed moment, and I was proud to support the HCA, and the Community First team will continue to support it. In contrast, Daniel Fontaine rallied against the HCA. He led efforts to oppose it, including delegations to Council, blogged extensively about it destroying property values, and even went on regional news programs to call it an affront on private property rights. It is only after the Province brought in new housing regulations three years ago that we realized the value of having an HCA already in place, as there are heritage protections in place now stronger than would be currently permitted.

Much of this I address above, but I'll answer further here as well. Heritage attracts interest, and adds a certain cache. This is particularly true of heritage events, like the Homes Tour, and heritage venues. (The Hidden Wonders Speakeasy Magic Experience is a great example of something that fits perfectly with New Westminster heritage), and venues like theatres. City economic planning and promotion can and should include heritage. 

And the role of retail in heritage buildings is important. A coffee shop on the ground floor of a heritage building, for example, gives more people the opportunity to come in and enjoy the beautiful architecture. Areas like Columbia Street are simply more interesting because of their history, and the surrounding streets have more potential to be realized. In creating a new vision for Columbia Street, one that prioritizes the needs of a growing Downtown population, it is important that we continue to consider the benefits our heritage can provide.