A Coquitlam resident of 22 years has formally launched a campaign to be the city’s next mayor, promising to tie growth to measurable infrastructure capacity, introduce independent reviews of municipal spending, and pursue targeted affordability measures for low-income seniors.
From council contender to mayoral candidate
Madhavee Inamdar, a public-sector strategist, said she moved from an initial run for city council to a bid for mayor after extensive door-knocking and conversations with residents across Coquitlam. She is seeking to become only the second woman to hold the city’s top civic office, following former mayor Maxine Wilson.
Inamdar framed her campaign around a critique of incremental approaches to municipal challenges, saying Coquitlam needs leadership that sets clear priorities and holds city administration to account while advocating with regional and provincial partners.
“Coquitlam must grow, but growth must be matched by infrastructure, accountability, and compassion,”
She added that, following discussions with hundreds of residents, she concluded the city requires more than isolated council interventions and that citizens want meaningful change.
Four priorities for year one
Inamdar has outlined four headline commitments she would pursue in her first year if elected. They are intended to reshape how growth is approved, how City Hall evaluates spending, and how the civic government supports vulnerable residents and prepares neighbourhoods for climate impacts.
- Growth with Guarantees: Require public infrastructure capacity and climate-impact assessments before approving major discretionary growth proposals, and publish an annual municipal infrastructure capacity scorecard.
- City Hall Transparency: Launch an independent, citywide value-for-money review within the first 100 days to examine spending and service delivery.
- Targeted Affordability: Deliver a property-tax support package for low-income seniors within the first budget cycle and begin Coquitlam’s accreditation process to become a Living Wage Employer.
- Connected Neighbourhoods & Community Advocacy: Produce a plan for 15-minute walkable neighbourhoods and designated extreme-weather refuges; join neighbouring municipalities in the “Sue Big Oil” legal action; and lead multi-government advocacy for mental-health services at səmiq̓ʷəʔelə/Riverview under Indigenous stewardship.
Policy details in table form
| Commitment | Key deliverable | Timing |
|---|---|---|
| Growth with Guarantees | Infrastructure capacity & climate assessments; annual scorecard | Before approving major discretionary growth |
| City Hall Transparency | Independent Value-for-Money Review | Within first 100 days |
| Targeted Affordability | Property-tax support for low-income seniors; Living Wage accreditation start | First budget cycle |
| Connected Neighbourhoods | 15-minute neighbourhood plan; extreme-weather refuges; legal & mental-health advocacy | Year one |
Experience and emphasis
Inamdar describes herself as bringing more than two decades of leadership in the public sector, with expertise in governance, policy design, stakeholder partnerships and executive administration. She holds postgraduate qualifications in political science, international relations and strategic studies and lists certifications related to contemporary public-sector practice.
The campaign’s emphasis on preconditions for growth — notably the requirement that infrastructure and climate impacts be assessed before large-scale approvals — speaks to ongoing tensions in Coquitlam as the city balances housing supply and density with transportation, utilities and resilience needs. An annual infrastructure capacity scorecard, if delivered, would offer a new public metric to track whether development approvals outpace municipal ability to serve new residents.
Her pledge to initiate a value-for-money review early in the mayoral term aims to address council and public concerns about fiscal stewardship and service priorities. Such reviews can identify administrative efficiencies but also raise questions about methods, scope and potential service impacts; those details were not outlined in the campaign release.
On affordability, the targeted property-tax assistance for low-income seniors responds to a commonly cited local worry: residents on fixed incomes facing rising municipal costs. The Living Wage Employer accreditation process would align the city with broader regional efforts to ensure municipal employees and contractors are paid wages that meet local living-cost calculations.
The plan to join the “Sue Big Oil” litigation and to advocate for mental-health services at səmiq̓ʷəʔelə/Riverview under Indigenous stewardship signals a readiness to engage in regional and provincial advocacy beyond routine municipal governance — dovetailing environmental accountability and Indigenous-enabled service planning.
As the election cycle unfolds, voters and civic stakeholders will watch for how Inamdar and other candidates flesh out timelines, costs and implementation strategies for these commitments, and how they will coordinate with municipal staff, neighbouring governments and provincial agencies to deliver on them.
