City of Powell River elected officials have been discussing the possibility of becoming part of a friendly relationship with a Chinese municipality.
The initiative is part of a sister-city agreement signed by Fred Bates, the former mayor of the Village of Cumberland, and the mayor of Putian, a city in the Fujian province of China, in 2007. The agreement was designed to open up cultural and economic ties between the two municipalities. The Comox-Strathcona Regional District also signed the agreement.
Bates has made three trips to China, beginning with a trade mission in 2006. Through his work, the agreement and friendship was established with Putian. In 2009, he was a keynote speaker at the China mayors’ school in Beijing.
Bates did not run in the 2011 local government elections and Comox-Strathcona Regional District was split into the Comox Valley Regional District and Strathcona Regional District. However, Bates has been working to keep the initiative alive and expanding the agreement to include the west coast and central part of Vancouver Island. As well, he has reached across the Strait of Georgia to Powell River Mayor Dave Formosa.
Another reason for the expansion is to level the difference in population. Putian has a population of about 3.5 million, compared to Cumberland’s, which is about 3,500.
Formosa said he has been discussing the idea with representatives from School District 47 and Vancouver Island University as well. “We now have these great contacts,” he said. “We’ll be looking forward to moving the economic development agenda of this city forward.”
Mac Fraser, the city’s chief administrative officer (CAO), was previously the CAO of Cumberland and was involved in the twinning of the village with Putian. Fraser said Bates continues to have people talking to him about the initiative, is keeping his contacts alive and is reaching out to elected officials to carry on with the agreement.
Fraser said Bates has been invited to attend the city’s November 15 committee-of-the-whole meeting to explain the initiative to council and Bates has accepted the invitation.
