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His
Worship, Mayor Mike Hurley delivered the following speech:
“Members
of Council, honoured guests, family, friends, and fellow Burnaby residents. I
want to begin my remarks by saying that nothing prepares you adequately for
this moment. Having served our community 30 years as a firefighter, I would not be here without the support of so
many across this great city. As your new Mayor,
I am humbled by the trust Burnaby residents have placed in me to guide our City
over the next four years. It is a trust that I will uphold and will work
diligently to keep.
Thanks
to everyone for being here tonight to witness this swearing-in and to welcome
this newly elected Council. The nine elected officials on the podium
care a great deal about our City, and I look forward to working cohesively
with all, to ensure that Burnaby remains a great place to do business, and to
live, work and play; whatever one’s station in life.
At
our first Council meeting in January, I will address our intended priorities
for 2019 and beyond – after consultation with Council and senior staff.
Tonight, as we move through some formalities, my priorities remain:
·
Finding
solutions to displacement issues facing many of our residents. The
“Mayor’s Task Force on Housing and Affordability” will begin its work early
in the New Year.
·
Burnaby Hospital
- the buildings are in a very run-down state. We need to be champions for the
redevelopment of this vitally important facility for our residents. We will
push the Provincial Government to get on with this work. We are BC’s third
largest City, and our hospital has been ignored for way too long. We saw last
week critically ill patients needing to be transported to another facility
for CT scans, as our single scanner was out of service. This is not good
enough and we as a City can and will be part of the solution for these
issues.
·
Yes, we do have
homeless issues in our City, and while some efforts are now being made to
address these, we need to do more. It’s not acceptable to allow our citizens
to sleep outside in freezing weather conditions. I am anxious to have
discussions with my Council colleagues as to how we can best find immediate
solutions to this issue.
·
I look forward
to sitting down with RCMP Chief Superintendent Burleigh to ascertain the real
needs of our police force as we seek to ensure our parks and public spaces
stay as safe as possible, while our families and communities enjoy these
wonderful places.
Of
course there are many other priorities for our community but I will leave
these for my address in the New Year.”
In conclusion, Mayor Mike Hurley
recognized and introduced the following dignitaries and special guests in the
attendance:
·
Freeman Egon
Nikolai;
·
the Bagpiper David
Irvine;
·
the flag bearers
and volunteers from Burnaby Central High School Cat Hsu, Alice Kaman, Erin Flood
and Alyssa Sasis;
·
Constables
Kendra Arnold and Jonathan Pankratz from the Burnaby Detachment RCMP for
standing guard;
·
BC Provincial Judge
Joanne Challenger for conducting the swearing-in ceremony;
·
School Trustees -
Gary Wong, Baljinder Narang, Meiling Chia, Larry Hayes, and Harman Pandher;
·
Union Presidents
– Steelworkers, Steve Hunt; Ed Kelly, General Secretary Treasurer of IAFF; Jeff
Clark, Burnaby Firefighters Local 323; Simon Challenger and Alistair Maduray,
CUPE 23;
·
Burnaby City
Councillors - Pietro Calendino, Sav Dhaliwal, Dan Johnston, Colleen Jordan,
Joe Keithley, Paul McDonell, Nick Volkow and James Wang;
·
the dozens of
members of the many City Boards, Committees and Commissions for their
volunteer service and dedication;
·
the staff in the
City Clerk’s Office for this year’s election and coordinating this meeting;
and
·
everyone present
for attending the 2018 Burnaby City Council Inaugural meeting.
Mayor Hurley extended an invitation
to everyone to stay and enjoy the reception following the meeting.
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