July 8, 2024. New Westminster Mayor Patrick Johnstone submits a motion to have staff update the City’s travel policies to make travel by members of Council more transparent, requiring them to write a summary of their travels, include the expenses incurred, describe their learnings, amongst other things. The motion passes, but Councillors Daniel Fontaine and Paul Minhas, both of the New West Progressives, oppose it.
January 27, 2025. New Westminster City staff return a report to Council describing proposed changes to the Council Travel and Expense Policy to make travel by members of Council more transparent, requiring them to write a summary of their travels, include the expenses incurred, describe their learnings, amongst other things. The motion passes, and this time Councillors Daniel Fontaine and Paul Minhas vote in favour, but the motion would have passed regardless of how they voted.
January 29, 2025: New West Progressives claim success, saying “thanks to your NWP representatives on Council, we’ve made some real ‘progress’!!”
Also January 29, 2025: I write a blog post pointing out how Patrick Johnstone brought forward the initial motion that got the ball rolling, how Daniel Fontaine and Paul Minhas of the New Westminster Progressives voted against the motion, how city staff did the work between July 2024 and January 2025, and how in January 2025 Daniel Fontaine and Paul Minhas of the New Westminster Progressives took credit for it despite doing nothing but vote at the last possible step.
