Burnaby scraps plans for sister cities trip

On Monday, Dec. 2, Burnaby council voted with a majority of seven to two to cancel the planned trip to three of Burnaby’s sister cities: Kushiro in Japan, Hwaseong in South Korea, and Taichung in Taiwan. The trip, which was supposed to take place in September 2025 would have cost between $106,000 and $116,000 for three councillors and the mayor, as reported by the Beacon on Aug. 7, 2024.  

Mayor Mike Hurley was the first council member to say he opposed the trip during the meeting. 

“I will start this out by saying that I’m opposed to this at this time, although I would love to keep our sister city relationships going, and they are important, and they’ve been going for a long time; I just don’t think that this is the right time to be traveling, given the constraints on budgets that we’re going to see moving forward here,” Hurley said. 

Councillors Joe Keithley, Alison Gu, Daniel Tetrault, and Maita Santiago followed the mayor in opposing the trip due to its high cost and the fact that Burnaby residents are currently struggling to make ends meet. 

“It just seems very out of touch with what people are facing, and people are struggling to pay their own bills and rent, and us going on a trip that costs $15,000 a head just doesn’t seem right,” Tetrault said. “I also do think it’s worth re-looking at our whole sister city policy and analyzing future trips, whether it merits the cost for not only council, but staff, and also use of staff and council time.” 

Gu said the trip would also be high in emissions, environmental impact, and financial cost. 

Three councillors approved the trip and wanted it to occur: Sav Dhaliwal, Pietro Calendino, and Richard Lee. 

Dhaliwal spoke at length about the many benefits of the sister cities program and how these types of trips can help develop the city and bring new ideas, technologies, and other benefits and opportunities to Burnaby. Dhaliwal added that the sister cities program is “priceless.” 

“When we embarked on this journey of having friendship and sister cities, it was with the intention of creating some worldwide harmony, learning from each other, and having to share our cultures,” Dhaliwal said. “I had the opportunity to go to Japan once many years ago, to the Kushiro sister city and I marvel at what we learned and what we have gained from that relationship.” 

Calendino, who is the chair of the International Relations and Friendship Cities Committee, said he was disappointed in the opposition to the trip. 

“I’m a little bit disappointed at the reaction of the councillors and yourself, Mr. Mayor. This is not something new. We’ve been discussing this for almost a year,” Calendino said. “And to clarify one thing, this does not come from taxpayers’ draw. This comes from game funds, which are to be used for a one-time activity.”

Calendino added that while the cost seems excessive in the report, there are options for travel that do not include business-class airfare and may reduce the cost. 

Lee wanted to direct staff to look into alternative funding sources and explore the possibility of councillors paying a portion of the trip expenses out of pocket. Gu requested that Lee put forward a formal motion about it.  

“I would appreciate the opportunity to actually vote on that because staff resources are quite limited, and I wouldn’t want us wasting time on something if there wasn’t actually council support for something,” Gu said. 

Lee’s motion was unsuccessful, and the majority of council members voted against the trip. 

This piece was made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.

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