Logo of BC Urban Mayors' Caucus
A coalition of mayors from BC’s largest communities are coming together – once again – to advocate on behalf of bigger-city issues.
Originally formed among the mayors of 13 cities during the pandemic, the Urban Mayors’ Caucus is being re-formed, this time with 17 different communities involved.
This time any community with a population over 80,000 is included, meaning the mayors of Chilliwack, Langley Township, Delta and Maple Ridge will join the original grouping, which includes the mayors of Abbotsford, Burnaby, Coquitlam, Kamloops, Kelowna, Nanaimo, New Westminster, Prince George, Richmond, Saanich, Surrey, Vancouver, and Victoria.
Co-chair Marianne Alto, the new mayor of Victoria who launched the revival of the Caucus, says she started putting the feelers out toward the end of winter.
Victoria Mayor Marianne Alto/via Tourism Victoria
“Started probing about the interest back in March,” said Alto. “Then we probably had three, or maybe four, online meetings. Not all of the mayors have been able to make all of the meetings, of course, because it’s a big and diverse group.”
Alto says they plan to meet virtually, once a month to discuss issues of common concern, including mental health and addiction, community safety, affordable housing and transit.
The goal is to take concerns about those issues directly to provincial officials with a unified voice.
The timelines laid out by Alto would seem to contradict comments made by Kamloops Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson, who told council last week that he took part in his first meeting on Tuesday.
This revelation prompted councillor Dale Bass to pause a motion she had before council to potentially form an Urban Councillors Caucus.
However, Bass says she’s still willing to withdraw her plans.
“I am delighted to withdraw that motion,” Bass told Radio NL on Friday. “I am thrilled to know that it [the Urban Mayors’ Caucus] has been in place, growing, since March.”
However, Bass says she feels Hamer-Jackson wasn’t forthcoming to the rest of council about the revival of the grouping.
“I will admit to being slightly dismayed that our mayor waited until after I had presented my motion to then say ‘Oh, hey, guess what, it does exist and we had our first meeting today.”
–With Files from Brett Mineer
