Following Port Moody councillor’s transparency concerns, basic details from development committee to be included in future staff reports

Following concerns raised by one city councillor, the agendas, minutes and feedback from a Port Moody development committee will now be included in relevant staff reports.

After a contentious vote on Sept. 10, council directed staff to report back on information pertaining to its development liaison committee, where staff meet with members of the Urban Development institute (UDI), an industry lobbyist.

Coun. Haven Lurbiecki, who introduced the initial motion, requested information from these meetings be made available to the public on Oct. 25. 

She asserted UDI’s purpose is to lobby governments to improve financial outcomes for their members, and the city needs to be transparent regarding the discussions of these meetings.

“The wants and desires of UDI may sometimes be the same as ours, or they might not be,” Lurbiecki said. “Making money through development could be in direct contrast to things that we need as a city.”

The issue was first raised after the liaison committee was referenced during a council discussion regarding new efficiency and emission requirements for new buildings in July.

Unlisted on the city’s website, Lurbiecki said she had never heard of the committee before. Her motion for information was hotly contested, before narrowly passing by 4-3 vote.

A joint-UDI committee was established in the fall of 2023, with quarterly meetings beginning in 2024, according to the staff memo.

Attending UDI members either work or have interests in Port Moody, and hear updates and provide input on city policy. To date they have discussed the city’s family friendly units policy, district energy systems, transportation assessments, , the zero carbon energy step code, and provincial housing legislation.

Staff said the structure allows them to gather informal insights and market trends from the industry, and to share updates and answer questions.

Only two meetings have taken place since it was created, input has only been received once regarding the city’s energy step code, which was included in a staff report on Sept. 10.

The committee is not listed on the city’s website as it only involves city staff, primarily from the community development and engineering departments, according to the memo.

Staff said they regularly meet with a variety of stakeholder groups on a range of issues in the normal course of their engagement work, including businesses, non-profits, and professional associations.

City Manager Anna Matthewson said because these meetings are staff driven, it wouldn’t be appropriate for them to be open to the public, and the minutes kept only log attendance and topics of discussion.

“There’s different levels of committees that we engage with,” she said. “UDI is one association on which we meet, but there’s a number of others.”

In fact, the city is a paying member of UDI, which staff compared to its membership with the Tri-Cities Chamber of Commerce and the Local Government Management Association.

These annual dues provide access to professional development for staff, training, networking events, conferences, research and resources, staff said.

Lurbiecki did not dispute the importance of a space to hear from the developers, but said these meetings need to be properly tracked, minuted, and reported to council to ensure transparency.

“Myself and the public should be able to know exactly what this committee said and what feedback was given on any policy or bylaw,” she said. “Without that, I would be concerned.”

No councillors raised an issue, and Mayor Meghan Lahti said the request did not require a motion. 

Lurbiecki also introduced a new motion, asking for council to consider whether its membership to UDI is appropriate at a future meeting. It passed unanimously.

She noted the District of Saanich discontinued its UDI membership in 2023, while keeping its liaison committee.

“Should we be a paying member of that organization as a city, (while it’s) sitting across from us at the table, lobbying us?” Lurbiecki said.