Breakups are hard to go through and that’s part of the reason Richmond city council has decided to send a small delegation to Pierrefonds, Quebec — to see if the flame of its Sister City relationship with the Montreal borough still burns.
The City of Richmond will spend $6,700 for four members of the Sister City committee, as well as a city employee, to make a three-day fact-finding trip.
“The purpose of this trip is to visit Mayor Dimitrios Beis of Pierrefonds to discuss whether this Sister City relationship is still viable and relevant and consider future Sister City activities between the (two) cities,” stated Coun. Bill McNulty in a report.
The relationship was formed in 1967, but since 2010, there has been little interaction with Pierrefonds, according to McNulty.
Coun. Harold Steves said he remembers being on the Pierrefonds committee at that time and such relationships, between West Coast cities and those in Quebec, helped foster national unity.
“I think we should stay with them,” Steves told a committee, last week.
Coun. Linda McPhail told council she was recently made aware of a garden in Minoru Park named after Pierrefonds. Richmond has three sister cities: Pierrefonds, Wakayama (Japan) and Xiamen (China). It also has friendship status with Qingdao in China.
The Sister City Program has a three-year (2014-2016) budget of $220,000. In that budget period, the city has accumulated about $180,000 of unspent Sister City money in a reserve account.
Council also approved a table tennis tournament, this summer, for students from Xiamen and Qingdao. The Richmond School District will help organize teams for the tournament.