Burnaby plans to end nine sister and friendship city relations

During the city’s International Relations and Friendship Cities Committee meeting on Mar. 10, committee members discussed reviewing the city’s policies regarding sister and friendship cities. Burnaby’s new policy will allow only five sister cities and five friendship cities for the City of Burnaby. Currently, Burnaby has seven sister cities and nine friendship cities. If approved by council, the City of Burnaby will end its sister-city relations with two cities: 

• Zhongshan City, People’s Republic of China

• El Zapotal, El Salvador

The committee report discussed on Mar. 10 also recommends ending friendship city relationships with seven Chinese cities: 

• Dongcheng District of Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 

• Dongli District of Tianjin, People’s Republic of China; 

• Changshu, People’s Republic of China; 

• Kunming, Yunnan Province, People’s Republic of China; 

• Dalian City, Liaoning Province, People’s Republic of China; 

• Chongquing City, Yubei District, People’s Republic of China; and 

• Lin-an City of Zhejiang, People’s Republic of China.

The purpose of sister and friendship city relationships is to enhance cultural, educational, trade, and economic relations between cities. 

“A sister city relationship is a long-term, formal agreement that may include cultural, educational, economic, and other mutually beneficial opportunities. The sister city movement gained momentum in North America after the Second World War with a goal to encourage cooperation between international communities. Burnaby became a part of that movement in the hopes that sister city relationships would create meaningful economic, educational, and cultural ties between Burnaby citizens and those of other countries,” the committee report said. 

Coun. James Wang opposed the abrupt ending of the relationships with these cities, saying that the city needs to correspond with the cities first. Wang said Burnaby should follow some protocols to inform the cities before ending the relationship and ask if they are still interested in continuing the friendship city relationship with Burnaby.  

“Those relations, most of them, are coming from the communities, and they have done some things for us, especially during the pandemic. Most of those societies contributed PPEs and support our hospital foundations as well,” Wang said. 

However, according to the committee report, some of the sister and friendship city relationships on the chopping block have not been active recently. 

“I think the reality is that they haven’t communicated with us either, and it’s been over 10 years, which means there hasn’t been any interest from those cities to maintain the friendship relationship either. So I think staff is probably correct in pointing out that, given our policy, we need to conclude some of those inactive,” said the committee chair, Coun. Pietro Calendino. 

At the meeting, Rajvir Rao, director of intergovernmental relations and public affairs, said that the city intends to correspond with those cities and inform them that the relationship will end.

“When we do communicate with the cities, we will also inform them of the new policy. And if they want or they wish to reapply, they can do so, and that will be brought back to this committee,” Rao said.  

The city is also planning to reformalize its relations with six cities:  

• Taichung, Taiwan; 

• Guiyang City, Guizhou Province, People’s Republic of China; 

• Hwaseong, South Korea; 

• Mesa, Arizona, USA; 

• Kushiro, Japan; and 

• Loughborough, England.

This piece was made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.

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