Douglas Todd: Overcrowded schools, rapidly rising property taxes and distressed boulevard trees amid downtown’s towers are some of the downsides of this historic city’s swift-rising population, says a city councillor.
A tour of downtown New Westminster with Coun. Daniel Fontaine is a chilling experience.
Recommended Videos
This city, with a population of 92,000, has the dubious distinction of being the second-densest city in Canada. It recently surpassed Montreal for the number of people per square kilometre and is now second only to Vancouver.
On a walk through downtown New West, which was the capital of B.C. until 1866, Fontaine points to the many concrete residential towers that have been erected in the past few years on Carnarvon Street, which he calls “Carnarvon Canyon” because of its wind-tunnel effect.
This corridor of the city’s hillside downtown isn’t only without cafes and retail outlets, it’s also devoid of boulevard trees. Scores of trees planted by tower developers here have died basically because they have been enveloped in the shadow of the buildings, said Fontaine, a gardener.
However, the dearth of trees in downtown New West is arguably a minor problem compared with population pressure on the city’s schools, parks, community centres, and taxpayers.
Yet the issue of distressed trees downtown helps illustrate how massive population growth and highrise development, Fontaine said, doesn’t necessarily lead to more attractive, vibrant cities.
While many neighbourhoods of New Westminster remain relatively quiet and low-density, such as Queen’s Park and Victory Heights, the most intensely growing portion of the 16.5-square-kilometre city is downtown. And it’s feeling the squeeze.
“I’m not opposed to more density. I’m opposed to bad development,” Fontaine said, surveying downtown. “They wouldn’t even build some of this in modern-day Russia.”
New West isn’t alone in struggling with growth. The 2021 census revealed that B.C. cities now account for half of Canada’s 10 densest cities. While Vancouver is No. 1 and New Westminster is No. 2, North Vancouver is third, Victoria seventh and White Rock is ninth.
When the census was taken in 2021, New West had 5,052 people per square kilometre. That compared with Toronto at 4,427 and Montreal at 4,833. According to Statistics Canada, New Westminster has expanded by 29 per cent in the past decade. Last year saw it densify further to 5,917 residents per square kilometre.
That makes it one of the most-close-packed cities in North America. By comparison, Seattle, which is the 10th-densest city in the U.S., has fewer than 3,500 people per square kilometre.
What’s more, Fontaine believes the city that has been his home for 25 years is poised to soon become No. 1 for density in Canada. It’s expanding at twice the rate of Vancouver, and the B.C. government, with the support of a majority on New West city council, is also pushing for about 50,000 more people to move in in the next decade or so.
Why has New Westminster undergone such growth?
It’s contending with the cons, not just the pros, of being home to five SkyTrain stations, said Fontaine.
Many are drawn to a place where they may be able to get around without a vehicle. And developers, he said, are keen to construct towers in a transit zone that allows them to provide fewer parking spaces.
Provincial NDP policy is also making the already busy, traffic-congested south of New West even more vulnerable to meteoric development, said Fontaine.
Bill 44 has forced Metro Vancouver’s city councils, he said, to give “automatic approval” to towers of 20 storeys near SkyTrain stations. Fontaine, who has been on council for just over two years, regrets that a majority of New Westminster councillors have long been ready to give developers even more height.
One downside is school overcrowding.
There is only one elementary school for New West’s downtown core: École Qayqayt elementary. When it was rebuilt about a decade ago the school board immediately had to add portables. There are now six. The grey huts take up what should have been outdoor playing area, said trustee Danielle Connelly.
“New Westminster has a portables-to-student ratio of 6.79-per-1,000,” Lee said.
And more people are coming, old and young.
And, prodded by the B.C. government, he said, plans are underway for up to 30,000 more people in a massive cluster of new highrises around the 22nd Avenue SkyTrain Station, which is currently surrounded by low-rise homes.
What do residents get out of living in the second-densest city in Canada?
Unfortunately, Fontaine said, they’re being strapped with taxes “that have gone through the roof.”
One of the causes, Fontaine said, is that Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon has set down aggressive new housing supply targets that must be met by each B.C. municipality.
But Kahlon has no corresponding target, Fontaine said, for new infrastructure.
Whether in the form of community centres, swimming pools, libraries or extra green space, the B.C. government, he said, isn’t providing a plan, or money, for such crucial amenities.
It’s not entirely Victoria’s fault, though, he said. A significant portion of the blame can be laid at the feet of Ottawa, which has been setting record-high immigration targets without consulting with, or aiding, the municipalities that must absorb newcomers.
“We’ve opened the migration doors, but there’s a complete disconnect. As a result, local governments have to increase taxes just to keep afloat.”