Two Councillors Walk Out During Discussion About Grants for Non-Profits.

The City Council Meeting of July 7th abruptly came to an end, when two councillors left. Councillor Daniel Fontaine and Councillor Paul Minhas took exception to the calling out of 'points of order' on them... first by Councillor Nadine Hakagawa, and then the Mayor Patrick Johnstone. This resulted in the Mayor calling for a 5-minute cooling off period, a break. However, the offended councillors did not return. As a result, quorum was not attained, so no further could be done, and the council was adjourned at 11:30pm. The breakdown happened in the debate about a motion put forward by Minhas that, in effect, would favour some non-profits in getting city grants over others... in particular two organizations with very long histories in New Westminster, the Mayday and Hyack non-profits. The Mayor strongly objected to the intent of the motion backing up his viewpoint by referring to a year-old review that had had considerble public input..... The view being that politics should not play a part in determining which non-profits got grants. He had a number of other strong points. And, he did put forward an addendum to the motion to increase grant funding by 50%, as the city has been oversubscribed substancially for the funds available. Undone business will be added to the next Council Meeting on August 25th....including motions regarding the transportation planning for London Street, for the revisioning of the waterfront, and having a Ukrainian Sister city, and more. First up, is a delegation presentation at the beginning of the Council Meeting, that provides some background to this disputed motion.