There’s Stacked and Then There’s Stacked: The New Port Moody Land Use Committee

As you may be aware, the new Port Moody Land Use Committee had their first meeting on February 6, 2023. What you may not be aware of though is just how terribly stacked the Land Use Committee is with Mayor Meghan Lahti supporters. Come with us on a (mostly) visual journey and we’ll show you why we at the Watch believe that this is the case.  

You would be forgiven for thinking that the pictures below are of the new land use committee kick-off party given all the land use committee members apparent in the photos, but the photos in fact are actually from the Meghan Lahti Campaign kick-off party on August 26, 2022 at her campaign office. So let’s look around the room shall we? There’s Jonathan Leighs (centre) (the Inlet Centre Representative on the Land Use Committee) with Councillors Dilworth and now Councillor Knowles (the current Chair of the Land Use Committee).

Oh and there’s Stirling Ward (centre) (the Pleasantside Representative on the Land Use Committee) with former councillor and close friend of Meghan Lahti, Barbara Junker (right) (the Glenayre Representative on the Land Use Committee) at the same campaign kick-off event.

And what about Election Night? In a Tweet from the now Development Manager with the AP Group of Companies, the proponents for the Flavelle Oceanfront Development at the old Flavelle Mill Site, why there’s Jeffery McLellan (the Heritage Mountain Representative on the Land Use Committee) at the Election Night Celebration at Fraser Mills on October 15^th, 2022 (along with Councillors Dilworth, Knowles [Chair of the Land Use Committee], Agtarap, and Morrison [Vice Chair of the Land Use Committee]).

And who else is on the Land Use Committee, well’s let’s have a look at the recently published donor list to the Meghan Lahti campaign shall we? (see below last two entries)? That’s where we’ll find Sarah Wellman (the other Heritage Mountain Representative on the Land Use Committee) and who was quite a vocal supporter of Mayor Lahti on the Election Discussion Page, and Alistair Henry (the Inlet Centre Representative on the Land Use Committee) aka Alistair James (who also apparently designed Meghan Lahti’s brand and her campaign website apparently) (see below).  

Then there’s Bill Parneta (the College Park Representative on the Land Use Committee) (husband of a former councillor), formerly of Parklane Homes, a developer/builder, and the 2006 Hall of Fame inductee of HAVAN, the organization that Councillor Diana Dilworth works for.

And here’s Jillian Eaton (the Moody Centre Representative on the Land Use Committee)’s balcony as posted on Facebook by her husband during the election on October 10th, 2022.

Taken as a whole, all this to say that the current Port Moody land use committee is probably the most stacked committee that we’ve ever seen in Port Moody so don’t be surprised if this particular developer-friendly committee becomes nothing more than a rubber stamp for any type of development that comes before it.

I remember distinctly during the last election that there was some bitter complaining about how stacked the committees were under the old council. I fully expect that those same individuals will also be just as vigilant coming out against the blatant stacking in this case. Here’s a selection from a infographic that was produced as part of the campaign against the old council (see below). 28% eh? Just imagine what the author would say regarding the percentage of Lahti supporters and donors on the current land use committee.

For those wondering, it is in fact the Mayor’s job to appoint people to committees. I will leave it up to the reader to decide if the Mayor’s Land Use Committee selections align with Section 1.1. of the Council Committee System Policy in the Corporate Policy Manual which states that “Membership of committees will be diverse, and broadly reflective of the community.” Is this part of the promised “good governance” for all residents that the Mayor campaigned on or is this just blatant cronyism and an effort to stack a committee with supporters?

Edit: So how did that first meeting go? About as well as you think it would with a hyper-partisan chair running the meeting (see below). Expect many more incidents such as this over the coming years. The full video can be found here for context.

Edit: Since the publication of this post Alistair Henry aka Alistair James has since (as of April 17, 2024) resigned from the Port Moody Land Use Committee as a result of “bigoted messages and veiled threat to an indigenous Palestine supporter”. Just another unfortunate point illustrating the nature and character of the individuals that Mayor Lahti has chosen to surround herself with.

The Watch is in the process of filing a number of FOIP requests and researching a number of issues that have come up since the past election. Stay tuned for further updates.  Actual moderate growth everyone!

Got any tips that we should know about? Send us an email at tips@portmoodycouncilwatch.ca