Daniel Fontaine’s Bad Math

Earlier today (October 28, 2024) New Westminster City Council debated a rezoning application coming for downtown New Westminster. During the debate, Councillor Daniel Fontaine stated the development would bring “four World Trade Centers onto that site” as a visualization of what sort of development would be coming.

The development in question (88 Tenth Street — Columbia Square) would bring up to 3 million square feet of residential units. It also includes 122,000 square feet of retail. Additionally, there would be at least 42,000 square feet of commercial office space, plus some daycare and potentially a school. Let’s say 3,250,000 square feet of development, just to round things off.

During the meeting Councillor Fontaine didn’t clarify which World Trade Center he was talking about, the most famous being the complex in New York City that was tragically destroyed by terrorists in 2001. Vancouver has a World Trade Centre building near Canada Place, perhaps he meant that one?

But he clarified in a Facebook video after the meeting, stating very clearly he was referring to New York’s World Trade Center.

Daniel Fontaine and Paul Minhas incorrectly stating that the 88 Tenth Street redevelopment in New Westminster is the "equivalent to basically four world trade centers from New York".
Daniel Fontaine and Paul Minhas incorrectly stating that the 88 Tenth Street redevelopment in New Westminster is the “equivalent to basically four world trade centers from New York”.
Daniel Fontaine and Paul Minhas incorrectly stating that the 88 Tenth Street redevelopment in New Westminster is the "equivalent to basically four world trade centers from New York".
Daniel Fontaine and Paul Minhas incorrectly stating that the 88 Tenth Street redevelopment in New Westminster is the “equivalent to basically four world trade centers from New York”.

Here’s the problem: his math is completely wrong.

If you assume that by “world trade center” he means either 1 WTC or 2 WTC (these are the “twin towers” that were struck by airplanes in 2001), then he’s wrong. Each tower had a square footage of 4,759,040 square feet. Four “World Trade Centers” would then be over 19,000,000 square feet, nearly six times the size of the 88 Tenth Street redevelopment.

If 88 Tenth Street were really “four World Trade Centers” then it would have to be six times larger than it actually is. It’s not even one World Trade Center, let alone four.

Or maybe he was referring to the entire World Trade Center complex of seven buildings? Problem: seven buildings are way bigger than one building, and their total square footage was 13,400,000 square feet, so four of those would be a whopping 53,600,000 square feet, well over sixteen times bigger than 88 Tenth Street.

Either way, “four World Trade Centers” is wildly incorrect.

Daniel Fontaine needs to remove his video and say he was wildly incorrect with his “four World Trade Centers” statement before it catches on as some sort of warped “truth”.