WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2014
10991 No. 4 Road @ Steveston Hwy.
YOUR SOURCE RICHMOND-NEWS.COM
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER@THERICHMONDNEWS
Best in the biz
Longtime local, legal firm headed by Gary Cohen (left) among winners at Richmond Chamber of Commerce Business Excellence Awards. Pages B1-8.
604-448-0142
OR FOLLOW US ON
10 OFF
$
Twitter.com/ ANY OIL CHANGE PACKAGE AND GET YOUR $250 COUPON BOOK RichmondNews Expires December 31, 2014
A FLIPPIN’ GOOD TIME
COUNCIL
Mayor charts course; Day, Loo sworn in Plan aims to house 75,000 more residents by 2041 Graeme Wood
Staff Reporter gwood@richmond-news.com
Pro-wrestlers from ECCW (Elite Canadian Championship Wrestling) put on a rip-roaring show Friday night at the Ukrainian Community Centre in aid of a sick Rottweiler named Kona, who’s in the care of the Richmond Animal Protection Society and needs $5,000 worth of surgery to help her live a pain-free life. Go to page 6 to see more photos and catch our online gallery at Richmond-News.com. Photo by Gord Goble/Special to the News
604.273.2227
Carol Day and Alexa Loo were sworn in as city councillors at the inaugural Richmond City Council meeting Monday evening, in which Mayor Malcolm Brodie gave his annual address and made council appointments. Taking an oath of office to uphold transparency and honesty on council, Loo and Day officially became councillors after the Honourable Madame Justice Mary Newbury bestowed the honour upon them. Six incumbent councillors and Brodie replicated the oaths in front of a council chamber filled to capacity. Brodie spoke to the past council’s achievements and how they, along with new council directives, will shape the city’s future. He said an updated Official Community Plan should oversee growth in City Centre until 2041 to accommodate 75,000 more residents. Such growth will be met with added community amenities, such as the recently planned two new fire halls, new Minoru Aquatic Centre and Older Adults Centre and the City Centre Community Centre,
Councillors Alex Loo, left, and Carol Day take the oath. all funded by a record, annual capital budget of $185 million in 2014. With a new RCMP headquarters and retrofitted fire halls, Brodie noted the city “will have a complete set of modern, post-disaster related public safety buildings.” Brodie purports that growth in the city has been met with financial sustainability. “By building our financial reserves and levering alternative revenue sources, the City has funded capital construction …with little impact on property taxes,” he said. Taxes remain average in the region and the city has taken out a low-interest, $50 million loan to partly pay for Minoru pool. The loan will be paid off with casino gaming revenues. “Civic growth fosters both opportunity and challenge,”
said Brodie. To complement growth, Brodie also noted the myriad of community projects underway. The Garden City Legacy Landscape Plan will provide a framework for the 136-acre park and nature reserve, which should take years to develop. He noted the newly opened Railway Greenway is part of a growing cycling network, which, along with increased transit services, should help the city achieve its goal of not adding any more vehicles to its roads. A planned park on the Fraser River’s Middle Arm is part of the city’s publicly accessible waterfront, featuring a dyke network that plans to be ready for “sea level rise as a result of global warming,” said Brodie. ! For council appointments and Brodie’s full speech, go to Richmond-News.com.
r i c h m o n d t i l e c e n t r e. c a see HEADLINE › page 4
12571 Bridgeport Road in Richmond