Tag: writing

Parkour pastor delivers skateboarding sermons at his new Port Coquitlam church

This story first appeared in the Tri-City News on April 3, 2024

A Port Coquitlam pastor is bringing a new angle to spreading his messages of faith and community — upside down or hanging 45 degrees from a vertical climbing wall.

Dave Jonsson has set up his new church in the Momentum Ninja gym at 1961 MacLean Ave., Port Coquitlam.

Every Sunday, for the next year at least, visitors can fuel their soul at a service that runs from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. while their kids are able to burn off energy on the climbing wall or expansive selection of parkour boxes, giant truck tires and aerial rigs.

Jonsson, a pro skateboarder whose own journey to faith was sparked by a close call in a plane crash near Squamish, said the unique arrangement is an apt calling card for his belief that a church and spiritual guidance should be open and available to everyone.

It’s also a reflection of a growing need for churches to be able to adapt and innovate if they’re to stay relevant, Jonsson believes.

“It’s imperative for churches to think outside the box,” he said. “Church should be enjoyed, not endured.”

A former associate pastor at the massive Riverside Community Church in Port Coquitlam’s Dominion Triangle area, Jonsson said he approached the Ninja gym about using their facility after he saw how much his own son enjoyed attending lessons there, swinging from the rings, navigating obstacles and hoisting himself up climbing apparatus.

Fortunately, the facility is closed Sunday mornings, so Jonsson negotiated a year-long arrangement. Volunteers move some of the equipment aside and set up about 70 chairs for the service while another group of volunteer parents and older kids supervise activities in the gym area.

Jonsson said in total, the space can accommodate about 200 people if some don’t mind sitting on boxes, mats or the hulking tires. He said he hopes the unusual environs will attract people who otherwise might not be inclined to go through the doors of a traditional church.

“This is a new approach to an ancient tradition,” Jonsson said. “We want to create an atmosphere where people can put their feet up.”

by Categories: UncategorizedTags: , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Port Coquitlam defenceman plays on despite crippling, painful disease

This story first appeared in the Tri-City News on Sept. 4, 2022

Nature doesn’t just call for Justin Hill. It screams.

Last summer, the 13-year-old hockey, baseball, soccer and soon-to-be football player was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, a chronic inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract that can cause debilitating pain and cramps, as well as sudden, urgent needs to head to the washroom.

Hill was an active young athlete hoping to land a spot as a defenceman on the Port Coquitlam Pirates A1 rep team for his age group when he started feeling pains in his stomach.

The discomfort drained his energy.

At hockey practice, Hill would have to rest for five minutes after each drill.

Sometimes, he’d have to rush from the bench to the washroom.

Instead of playing rep, he was slotted on to a house league team.

Last summer, after doctors finally figured out what was wrong, Hill was put on a liquid diet for two months. He drank up to 15 Boost shakes a day, as well as soup broths. Clear fizzy drinks like Sprite were the only treat he was allowed.

With another hockey season looming, Hill fretted about his ability to play.

“I was worried I’d have to stay at home all day and do nothing.”

But monthly infusions of medication at BC’s Children’s Hospital to suppress Hill’s abnormal immune response that triggers inflammations have helped to stabilize his condition so he can look forward to getting back on the ice.

More importantly, having a coach confide in Hill that he too suffered from a chronic bowel disease helped him cope with the mental and emotional toll of his affliction, which can often leave its sufferers feeling alone and embarrassed.

“It was nice to hear that I’m not the only one who has to run for my life to the bathroom,” Hill said. “It makes me feel like I’m not singled out.”

Hill’s mom, Melissa, said as Justin returned to his sporting activities, the family initiated discussions ahead of time with his coaches to let them know of some of the unique challenges he could face, and how they could support him.

“The biggest thing you learn as a parent is you’re the only one advocating for him,” she said.

In June, Justin received a courage award at the Port Coquitlam Hall of Fame and Sports Awards. He used the opportunity to talk publicly about his disease to help people realize how tough it can be to live with.

He said sharing his struggles helps to give him the drive to overcome them, to show he can persevere and succeed.

This summer, Hill was on the ice up to three times a day preparing for tryouts to make the Pirates U15 A1 team. This fall, he’s planning to sign up for touch football at Minnekhada Middle School where he’ll be attending Grade 8.

Hill said sports are his refuge: When he’s on the ice or the field, he’s able to park the stresses and uncertainties that come with his disease.

“Sports are the thing that make me forget,” he said. “It’s nice to have that.”

by Categories: UncategorizedTags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Life and death of the photo essay

The diminishment and demise of newspapers has all but killed the photo essay, and the role of its design in storytelling.

Getting the annual guide to the Best in Newspaper Design used to be a red-letter day at the office.

Once the editor digested its content to glean potential ideas, the rest of us would secret it to our desks to bask in the glow of creative page designs and photo layouts put together by some of the best newspaper graphic designers in the world.

We were inspired by their use of fonts, colour and graphic elements to complement and support the stories being told by the journalists in words or photos.

We marvelled at the way photos were chosen and displayed together to lead us through the story, take us to its very heart.

Reading a newspaper is like taking a journey; each page promises a new destination that can ignite our imagination or just fuel us up to get us to the next page.

A well-designed and thoughtfully-constructed destination page, like section fronts or double-trucks inside, invite the reader to linger, invest the time to read the story then move on to further pages to see what other goodies might be in store.

When I broke into the business in the mid-1980s, USA Today was regarded as the pinnacle of newspaper design.

Editors loved its multitude of stories launching off the front page, giving readers several entry points into the rest of the paper.

Its liberal use of boxes, colour washes, graphics, bullet points and explainers made it feel vibrant, fun and accessible.

Of course limited resources at the lower end of the newspaper industry meant our efforts to emulate the USA Today look were usually half-baked — it was the thought that counted.

Laying out a photo page or section front was one of the many things I missed when it was decided the Tri-City News should go digital-only.

When I was shooting a story with good photo possibilities, I did so with an eye to pitching it to the editor to run as a spread; that meant I needed a variety of photos to help drive the narrative — wide-angle establishing shots to set the scene, tight detail shots, close-ups, reactions, maybe a silhouette, and a strong vertical or two to help with the layout.

A photo package I shot, edited and designed in 2023 about a group of high school students learning the ropes of a potential career as firefighters.

Editing a take of 15 or 20 photos down to five or six that best captured the essence of the story could be an anguishing process, as was deciding which photo to run largest, and whether to put captions under each individual photo or grouped together.

Sometimes those decisions meant a favourite photo, or one that took a lot of work or forethought to get, wouldn’t make the cut.

A story, told in words and photos, about a local men’s group that offers support to other men through building and fixing things.

If a photo didn’t serve the story, or work with the other photos, maybe it wasn’t that great to begin with.

But, just as newspaper executives deemed photojournalists expendable once they realized everyone with a smartphone could shoot a photo of a car accident, house fire, or ribbon cutting, page designers also became an expensive luxury. Templated designs and centralized production protect profits.

Digital-first then digital-only further sap the creative presentation of news. Content management systems for web upload demand uniformity.

For the most part, online photo galleries favour quantity over quality. Their design is linear, with readers clicking through from one photo to the next until their fingers wear out or their interest wanes; their only narrative usually doesn’t get beyond “the photographer showed up.”

Some publications have made an effort to transfer the design of storytelling to the digital realm.

The New York Times and Washington Post do interesting things on their websites from time-to-time, and I’m sure there are others with the staffing, expertise and resources.

A decade ago, the Toronto Star invested heavily in its Star Touch app for tablets. Its early iterations had some wonderfully ingenious and playful presentations that took advantage of the technology to help drive stories — like an explanation of a lunar eclipse set against an image of a full moon that slowly went into eclipse as you scrolled through the text.

I loved it so much, I stayed up until 11 p.m. PST every night so I could read the next day’s edition on my iPad when it dropped at 2 a.m. EST.

“This is the future for our industry,” I thought.

But the cost for such innovation proved too high.

Within months of Star Touch‘s launch the clever animations started to dwindle as staff and contractors were cut. Soon it became little more than just another website, and within two years of its genesis, it was gone.

by Categories: UncategorizedTags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Anmore residents’ group concerned as massive development proposal goes to public hearing

A group opposed to a proposed development in South Anmore says even a scaled-down version of the project still isn’t realistic.

Rod Rempel and Harriette Chang, of the Anmore Neighbours Community Association (ANCA), said the plan by Port Moody-based Icona Properties to build 1,750 new homes on 150 acres of property the company owns near the corner of 1st Avenue and Sunnyside Road presents “significant financial risks” to the village and its 2,200 residents.

Tuesday, June 10, Anmore council voted 5-1 to send the proposal to a public hearing on Monday, June 23, prior to its consideration the next night of third reading for an amendment to the village’s official community plan bylaw required for the development to proceed.

The extraordinary scheduling is in anticipation of a long night that could stretch to council’s regular meeting on June 24.

It’s also a month later than originally envisioned by Anmore Mayor John McEwen in April when council approved a timetable that included a community survey, workshops with various village committees, and an open house.

McEwen said council wanted to collect “as much feedback as we can” about the project, which the developer had slimmed down from 2,200 homes on May 27.

Those economies were achieved by trimming the number of standalone apartment buildings up to six storeys tall from 22 to 10 while adding another 200 ground-oriented townhomes from the original 760.

The project would also include a small strip of commercial units as well as a smaller 16,000 sq. ft. recreation centre, a 9.3-acre park and four kilometres of nature trails and greenways.

Too much

Rempel and Chang said it’s still too much.

They said a consulting company’s estimate that it will cost Icona $30 million to extend services like water, sewer and storm drainage to the development isn’t achievable and could leave Anmore taxpayers on the hook for any budget increases, especially given Port Moody’s objections to constructing any of that infrastructure along Ioco Road or through Bert Flinn Park, the two closest corridors to the proposed development.

In a letter sent to Anmore council in May, Port Moody Mayor Meghan Lahti said the city has yet to have any discussions with the village about accommodating possible utility upgrades.

“If the village is interested in partnering on this infrastructure, time is of the essence.”

Lahti said Port Moody also won’t entertain any thoughts of widening Ioco Road in anticipation of increased traffic to and from the new development.

“Without a realistic and coordinated transportation strategy, the Icona development risks overwhelming the existing network in the area,” she said.

Belcarra also concerned

Neighbouring Belcarra expressed similar concerns about construction management and transportation plans in a letter sent to Anmore on April 1.

Mayor Jamie Ross said Icona hasn’t addressed the impact its proposal would have on Bedwell Bay Road, Belcarra’s only road access point, nor has it provided a plan to manage stormwater during construction and once the development is completed.

Rempel and Chang said the scale of the project and its infrastructure requirements could quickly overwhelm Icona.

“This developer has never delivered a project of this scale in British Columbia,” they said. “Anmore citizens want to ensure we are not being unilaterally committed to future risks and costs.”

‘A complete Anmore’

But Paul Fenske, a principal of Placemark Design and Development, that’s working with Icona, said the proposal for Anmore South will provide the village with more diverse housing options and expanded tax base.

“It’s a vision for a complete Anmore,” he said.

Planning consultant Tim Savoie, who was formerly Port Moody’s city manager, said Icona’s plan “offers a unique opportunity to develop this site.”

Still, Coun. Doug Richardson said, “it’s not needed.”

In casting the only vote against moving the proposal forward, he added Icona’s proposal flies against Metro Vancouver planning guidelines to concentrate dense development around mass transit stations.

Richardson said the developer also doesn’t adequately address increased costs for police, fire and recreation services the village could face as its population more than doubles.

“I can’t support this in any way,” he said.

Coun. Paul Wevering, however, said Anmore has to do its part to address the region’s housing crisis by providing “more affordable” options.

“We’ve got a strategic plan that talks about different forms of housing, but we don’t really do anything about it,” he said, adding Icon’s plan offers “a future vision for this community.”

The June 23 public hearing will begin at 6 p.m. at Anmore’s Community Hub (2697 Sunnyside Rd.).

by Categories: UncategorizedTags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Real life disaster is a stark reminder for Port Moody emergency drill

This story first appeared in the Tri-City News on Feb. 9, 2023

An earthquake half a world away is bringing an extra sense of urgency to Port Moody’s own preparation to handle a natural disaster.

On Wednesday (Feb. 8), more than 50 staff, representing a range of city departments from fire and police to finance and human resources, participated in a province-wide exercise to test its response capabilities to a simulated catastrophe five days earlier.

Port Moody was the largest municipality in the scenario, which also involved agencies from the federal and provincial governments as well as Metro Vancouver.

Kirk Heaven, deputy chief at Port Moody Fire Rescue, said the earthquake Monday (Feb. 6) that devastated parts of Turkey and Syria brought home the reality of a disaster that could strike B.C.’s South Coast at any time.

“It adds impetus,” Heaven said, adding live news coverage from Turkey playing on monitors in the city’s emergency response centre set up in a boardroom on the fourth floor of the Inlet Fire Hall provided a reminder that Wednesday’s simulation was “about learning.”

Heaven said planning for the exercise started last September with the goal of furthering knowledge city staff have gained from previous simulations as well as recent real-world scenarios like the heat dome and atmospheric rivers of 2021 and the annual threat of wildfires.

Wednesday, Port Moody was already in recovery mode five days after a 6.8 magnitude earthquake in the Juan de Fuca Strait. That meant rescue efforts were now shifting to support, making sure displaced residents and their pets have someplace safe to stay, as well as access to food and water, and getting critical infrastructure like water, sewage and electricity, along with transportation, back up and running.

Getting back to normal

“It’s about trying to get back to normal and getting people back to their homes,” Heaven said.

Such an effort presents huge logistical challenges, from just getting around to ensuring there’s enough staff available to cover shifts at facilities like emergency shelters to making sure everyone gets paid.

Coordinating all those myriad details and the communication efforts required to run a recovery effort smoothly takes lots of practice, so when a real disaster hits, wheels are set in motion quickly and automatically.

“It’s imperative we keep it up,” Heaven said. “You have to know your strengths and identify your gaps.

Huge learning curve

Joji Kumagai, Port Moody’s manager of economic development, said the exercise forces him to look at the city “through a different lens.

“You have to understand who is responsible for what so you can act quickly.”
Kumagai said though Wednesday’s exercise was his fourth, the learning curve is huge.

“You really start to understand what a concerted effort it takes,” he said.

In addition to the emergency operations centre packed with people coordinating Port Moody’s recovery effort, a smaller group of about 12 was in another office in the fire hall planning for the next steps of getting the city back on its feet, like bringing in equipment to clear rubble and where to put it.

Over at the Inlet Theatre and galleria, another team was responsible for registering displaced residents and getting them into temporary shelter at the Recreation Complex next door.

Caring for animals and emotions

Even representatives and volunteers from Canadian Animal Disaster Response Team were available to care for pets, although they did forget to pack a bowl for the stuffed Nemo awaiting refuge on a window ledge.

In an alcove, comfortable chairs were set up where traumatized victims could get emotional support.

Heaven said the exercise is funded by a grant from the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM). But bringing together all the disparate players in Port Moody’s disaster response effort is invaluable.

“We don’t want to meet people at the party, we want to see them before the party.”

by Categories: UncategorizedTags: , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Flow device will make beavers feel at home

This story first appeared in the Tri-City News on Nov. 28, 2018

As the city of Port Moody works to create a strategy to manage beavers that take up residence in its waterways, a group of advocates for the industrious rodents is helping make one furry family feel right at home.

Volunteers from The Fur-Bearers along with local supporters like Jim Atkinson and his partner, Judy Taylor-Atkinson, were immersed in Suter Brook Creek last Friday, installing a device that regulates the level of water in the pond that has been created by a family of beavers between city hall and the public works yard.

The beavers moved there after they were displaced from their previous home in nearby Pigeon Creek when an attempt by the city to evict them from a drainage pipe went awry and a young kit was drowned.

Taylor-Atkinson said the flow device will drain water from the pond — formed when the beavers built a dam — to ease flooding while still maintaining a level high enough for the animals to feel safe.

The device consists of a 40-foot length of double-wall, 12-inch culvert pipe with holes drilled into it so it can be sunk to the bottom of the pond. One end of the pipe is protected by a galvanized steel cage so the beavers can’t get in while the other end is inserted through the dam.

Taylor-Atkinson explained the effect is like punching a hole through the dam but the beavers can’t rebuild the structure or plug the pipe. She said after some initial curiosity, they will get used to the pipe and carry on with their lives.

“They need to have the water at a certain level to protect their home and family,” she said. “They’ll do whatever they have to do.”

The device was installed with the city’s blessing and several employees, including city manager Tim Savoie, stopped by to observe the work.

“This is a big step in the city’s beaver management plan,” Taylor-Atkinson said, adding she hopes interpretive signage can be installed to explain to visitors walking along the path that runs along the creek about what is happening. “I think the beavers will be fine.”

by Categories: UncategorizedTags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

World Series still chills Little League players 35 years later

This story first appeared in the Tri-City News on June 7, 2019

A 35 year-old memory still makes the hairs on Brad Robinson’s arm stand up.

So the former Coquitlam Little League baseball player and current coach expects there will be plenty of chills when he and his teammates from the 1984 team that won a Canadian championship and went on to play in the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Penn., are honoured June 15 with a plaque installed at their home ballpark, Mackin Yard.

The passage of time hasn’t diminished the excitement a 12-year-old Robinson felt when the team’s bus pulled up to the famed stadium in Williamsport, aglow with lights in the August night. Or when they received telegrams of encouragement from hockey stars Wayne Gretzky. and Paul Coffey.

“O my god,” he said. “This is unbelievable.”

A teammate, Chad Hanson, said the experience of playing in the world famous tournament that, even back then, was broadcast live on network television, was “the closest I got to playing pro sports.”

In fact, Hanson’s experience even included an interview by one of television’s most famous broadcasters, the late Howard Cosell.

Although the reason he suspects he was singled out for Cosell’s ABC microphone may not have been so illustrious.

Hanson said he caused a bit of a stir in his team’s first game of the tournament, against Belgium, when he fell for the ol’ hidden ball trick in which a baseman feigns throwing the ball back to the pitcher, then secrets it into his glove and waits for the runner to step off the bag so he can be tagged out.

Hanson said, despite his embarrassing gaffe, that magical summer, in which the team from Coquitlam first bested powerhouse teams from Whalley Little League and Windsor, Ont., to win the Canadian championship in Moose Jaw, Sask., then went on to finish fourth in Williamsport, still resonates.

“It gave you confidence to meet new people through sports,” he said.

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO A team photo of the Coquitlam A’s team that represented Canada at the 1984 Little League World Series in Williamsport, Penn. They are: Front (l-r) Scott Leroux, Ryan Seminoff, Jason Lapierre, Chad Hanson, Brad Purdie, Glenn Wright and Greg mein. Back, Sandy Purdie (coach), Jason Hartshorne, Carl Sheehan, Chad Boyko, John Pollock, Bob McDonald, Brad Robinson, Greg Heximer and Lionel Bilodeau (manager).

A lot of those early connections were forged in barracks where all the kids from the eight teams were bunked through the course of the five-day event, eating their meals together, hanging out and playing between games.

“We were just kids,” Robinson said. “We were lucky enough to win some games and get there.”

While the team’s induction into Coquitlam’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2013 exposed their story to a new generation, Robinson said he tries to inform his approach to coaching his own Little League team with the lessons learned by his 12-year-old self.

“I definitely think it’s given me the experience to share with kids what can happen if you put the work in,” he said. “It just transfers over.”

Hanson said seeing how that team brought so many families together, including his dad who paraded around in a chicken suit as the team’s unofficial mascot, instilled in him a lifelong desire to share and give back through sport, which he still does as equipment manager for the Coquitlam Jr. Adanacs lacrosse team.

“It taught me to be the man I am today,” he said.

Though several players from the 1984 team have moved away, or will be unavailable to attend Saturday’s festivities, Robinson said most stay in contact, checking in through email or the occasional get-together. Their bond will endure, he said, especially as the 1984 team has so far been the only team from Coquitlam to ever get to Williamsport.

“It does make it special,” he said.

by Categories: UncategorizedTags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

I was in a plane crash and lived to tell about it

Journalists share stories.

We also have our own.

A few months into my career, I got a call from the editor of the Burlington Post, where I was pulling weekend photo and relief reporting shifts.

“You wanna go up in a plane?” he asked. “It’s the best assignment of the year.”

The annual Hamilton Air Show was a couple of weeks away and the Canadian Warplane Heritage Foundation was offering a seat in one of its vintage WWII Harvard training aircraft to get photos of some of its other historic planes flying in formation to promote the upcoming event.

When I checked in at the Mount Hope airport, I was escorted to a hanger and introduced to my pilot, who showed me how to strap on my parachute in case anything went wrong and we had to bail out.

He also told me what to expect during our flight, how to communicate my needs to get the photos I required and to hang on very tightly to my film, because if I dropped it, the canisters would roll down into the back of the hollow fuselage.

As I recall, it was a beautiful August afternoon. The flight was smooth, if a little noisy, especially when I slid the canopy back to aim my lens at the neighbouring planes.

On our way back to the airport, I settled in to enjoy the scenery, as I maintained a death grip on the three or four rolls of Ektachrome and B&W film I’d shot.

Passing over the farms that surround the airport, I noticed the vehicles passing on the roads beneath us seemed a little large considering our distance to the runway. A herd of cows, their markings easily distinguishable, barely stirred as we passed overhead.

And still the runway seemed far off.

We cleared the airport’s perimeter fence, barely.

Then, our excursion got really bumpy. Dust billowed up into the cockpit area.

We shuddered to a stop, the runway still a couple of hundred metres distant.

In my headphones, the pilot calmly advised we should probably climb out. Once safely away from the aircraft, he explained the single engine had quick during the return leg of our flight and when it became apparent we couldn’t make it to the runway, he left the landing gear up so the bumpy landing on the field wouldn’t end up flipping us over onto our heads.

The pilot said he hadn’t told me any of this beforehand, so I wouldn’t panic.

A veteran captain for Air Canada, he was a little concerned about the plane’s bent prop and any possible damage to its undercarriage; it was his own aircraft.

I was just relieved I was still in one piece. And that I’d managed to hang onto all my rolls of film.

by Categories: UncategorizedTags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Port Moody ice cream maker fuelled by fitness

This story first appeared in the Tri-City News on Oct. 2, 2018

If your idea of a post-workout treat is a high-protein shake or thick fruit smoothie, you’re not Hamid Haji.

He heads for the freezer to scoop himself some ice cream.

In fact, the karate sensei and yoga instructor who runs Pro-Fit Boot Camp in Port Moody with his wife, Kelly Pearce, loves the frozen desert so much he embarked on a mission to make his own.

Fitness and indulgence don’t have to be mutually exclusive, said Haji, who has been part of the city’s fitness scene for 20 years.

“You limit yourself but you don’t have to cut yourself off,” he said. “Limitation makes the rewards sweeter.”

Two years ago, Haji set out to make the best ice cream he could. He and Pearce toured artisanal ice cream shops around the Lower Mainland, sampling their wares, chatting with staff and customers, trying to deconstruct their secrets. Then the couple would put their findings and intuition to work in their kitchen and share the results with clients at their gym.

“They were our guinea pigs,” Pearce said.

Armed with their feedback, they’d head back on the road to source local, natural ingredients and return to the kitchen to experiment with new flavours and conquer new challenges, like concocting a vegan ice cream that doesn’t skimp on creaminess despite its lack of, well, cream.

At some point, Haji’s quest outgrew their counter and freezer space at home, so he and Pearce decided to convert a storage area at the back of their St. Johns Street gym into a white-tiled, stainless steel ice cream factory. Several weeks ago, they christened it Vashti Rose, after their eight-year-old daughter, and started offering the frozen fruits of their labour to the public, one or two scoops at a time.

For now, the ice cream shop is only open on weekends as health regulations don’t allow Haji and Pearce to operate it at the same time people are sweating their workout in the adjoining gym. But kids are free to burn off some of their ice cream-fuelled energy on the matted floor while their parents savour a scoop of salted caramel or cookies and cream at the expansive white countertop.

Haji said he and Pearce have developed more than 100 flavours but they put only 11 of them in rotation at a time. And they’re open to requests, which have already included toasted marshmallow, mint flake and even saffron.

by Categories: UncategorizedTags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Could the Shoreline Shuttle roll back into Port Moody?

Port Moody’s Shoreline Shuttle could be making a comeback.

Mayor Meghan Lahti says the free service that connected the city’s Inlet Centre area to Rocky Point Park, Brewers Row and the downtown heritage district for the summer in 2018 but then was deemed too expensive, could be paid for with revenue from paid parking.

Council will debate Lahti’s motion to revive the service at its meeting on Tuesday, June 10.

In a report, the mayor said the shuttle service would reduce traffic congestion, improve safety for pedestrians and improve air quality.

“Perhaps more important though,” said Lahti, “ensuring that transportation to the busy area is accessible to everyone, regardless of economic status, will promote inclusivity and enhance community engagement.”

Lahti said money from the city’s parking reserve fund could be used to relaunch the service, As of Dec., 2024, that amounted to $72,500.

The pilot shuttle program in 2018 was budgeted to cost $50,000, including the cost of contracting a 20-passenger bus and the installation of signs for its 13 stops. The service ran every 30 minutes on weekend afternoons and evenings until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays and 10 p.m. on Sundays. Adjustments were made to accommodate extra demand during events like RibFest, Canada Day and car-free day.

Despite a $20,000 subsidy from Richmond-based developer Panatch Group to operate the shuttle, council decided in 2019 it was too expensive to continue the pilot. A report estimated the 3,700 rides ended up costing $13.50 per passenger.

Rob Vagramov, Port Moody’s mayor at the time, said it would have been cheaper to put every passenger in a taxi or limo instead.

“Not every idea pans out exactly as we’d hoped,” he said.

Lahti said now that the city is charging for parking in busy areas like Rocky Point Park, along Murray Street and around Eagle Ridge Hospital, a portion of revenues could support relaunching the shuttle service.

“By utilizing pay parking revenue for this shuttle, the community directly benefits from the fees paid by users,” she said in her report. “It creates a sense of accountability and transparency about how the funds are being used.”

According to the report, the pay parking stations generated $158,120.70 in gross revenue since they were implemented midway through Sept., 2024 through March, 2025.

by Categories: UncategorizedTags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment