New Westminster’s city council deferred a debate over the mayor’s attendance at a climate change summit in Dubai to a future sitting, as its meeting grew heated over the topic at times on Monday.
Councillors Daniel Fontaine and Paul Minhas of the New Westminster Progressives have raised questions about Mayor Patrick Johnstone’s participation in the COP28 summit, funded without the knowledge of councillors by the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group — a global network of mayors working to combat the climate crisis.
An information report on city staff participation at the summit was on Monday’s agenda, and Fontaine pressed to debate it, hoping the discussion could bring some clarity to the matter.
“We’re still waiting at this stage for an actual report from the mayor, but at least if this report gets up tonight we might be able to ask staff some questions, we might be able to find out what happened and what transpired leading up to the approval of this trip,” Fontaine said Monday.
“There are a number of questions, Mr. Chair, that I have around the mayor’s trip, how it was funded, who funded it, who approved it, who made the offer of the trip — I could go on and on and on.”
Johnstone, however, was not in attendance at the meeting, prompting Coun. Jamie McEvoy to successfully argue it would inappropriate to debate the matter.
“The mayor, who could answer these questions, is not here,” McEvoy said.
“When the subject is not actually present and will be present at another time, that’s a reasonable grounds to have the discussion when it can be most useful, and I am sure that all questions can and will be answered.”
Via text message, Johnstone told Global News he was on a family vacation booked months ago and would be returning to the Lower Mainland this Wednesday. Any speculation that he skipped the meeting is “misplaced,” he said.
Minhas and Fontaine have previously said city staff told them Johnstone’s trip was paid for by C40 Cities, whose donors including American-based Bloomberg Philanthropies, Inkga Group (IKEA), Foundation L’Oreal, FedEx and Google.
Their concern rests with the transparency and lack of communication surrounding that process.
In his blog, Johnstone wrote about the different sessions he attended, the domestic and international leaders he heard from, and his personal conclusions on the progress made at the summit.
He also said on the website he was invited to attend COP28 by the ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, a partner of C40 Cities and the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy. Those two groups managed the travel logistics of mayors and senior staff from more than 100 cities around the world, he added.
Meanwhile, Coun. Nadine Nakagawa announced she’s quitting the mayor’s Community First party on Monday, but said the decision had nothing to do with the Dubai controversy.
“I’m really committed to the platform that we ran on jointly, and a big fan of members of that team — I think they’re doing a great job,” she said in a video.
“Functionally, this won’t make a difference in the way that I work and doesn’t really change my priorities or focus, because I’m still focused on housing, climate, public spaces, public engagement, and I’m building a really beautiful and inclusive community locally.”
— with files from Elizabeth McSheffrey and Cassidy Mosconi