Richmond city council ended this year by raising 2022 taxes by 3.86 per cent.
Strains on city finances in 2021 came partially from COVID-19, however, the city is still expecting to end the year with a surplus.
Some of this surplus will go toward higher RCMP costs that are a result of the police force unionizing this year – not only will annual costs go up, there will be retroactive payments to 2017 as well.
Coun. Andy Hobbs elected to council
The composition of city council changed in May after a by-election was held to replace Kelly Greene who had been elected to the provincial legislature in fall 2020.
(Coun. Alexa Loo also ran provincially but lost to the NDP’s Henry Yao in the Richmond South Centre riding.)
Retired Vancouver police superintendent Andy Hobbs, who had served two terms on the board of education, was elected to replace Greene, out of a pool of 10 candidates.
Municipal elections will be held in October 2022 to elect a mayor, eight councillors and seven school trustees.
The majority of city council members plans to run again but there will be one notable exception – Coun. Harold Steves, after 50 years on council and one term as an NDP MLA in 1970s, will not be running for re-election.
Iconic swimming pool gone
The results of other city council decisions could be seen across the city.
The Minoru Aquatic Centre was finally demolished after a vigorous debate at council whether it could be repurposed for other uses.
In the end, city staff said the cost would be $8.8 million to fix it up and only a portion of the building could be used.
So this fall, the wrecking ball finally finished off the iconic swimming facility, first built in the 1960s.
The plan is to turn the lot into a greenspace to compensate for lost parkland when the Minoru Centre for Active Living was built.
Vaccines mandated for city staff
The year ended with a vaccine mandate for all Richmond city employees.
City council voted to require all city employees to be vaccinated or face unpaid leave (whereas the Richmond Board of Education decided a mandate wasn’t required for its school employees).
The federal government had already mandated vaccines for all federal employees, including the RCMP.
Chief Supt. Will Ng told city council in November that two RCMP officers were put on unpaid leave because of their vaccination status.
Festivals re-imagined
As far as planning and budgeting for 2022 community events, city council decided to scrap the World Festival – which was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 because of COVID-19 – and focus on more community-oriented events.
The World Festival budget was $600,000 with $400,000 coming from the city’s coffers. It was attended by about 50,000 people.
The Salmon Festival on Canada Day, however, will continue with a budget of $200,000 but it will be spread out over two weeks.
The Richmond Maritime Festival will also continue with a budget of $200,000.
Report shows dire need for affordable housing
One of the last items Richmond city council dealt with was the Housing Needs Report, something the province has asked municipalities to compile.
The report showed how many people in Richmond struggle to find affordable rental housing, while home ownership is just a pipe dream for many Richmond residents.
Home prices continue to climb in Richmond – an average single-family home is almost $2 million – but city staff put the blame squarely with the provincial and federal governments for the lack of affordable housing in the city, saying municipal policies can only go so far to alleviate the situation.
Richmond City Hall continued to be largely closed to the public and meetings were held online.
