Kasugai Sister City Plays Hard To Get

Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada

Kelowna’s sisterhood probably won’t grow in the future.

The Council on Friday authorized a new policy regarding sister city relationships, which have historically existed to celebrate social, economic and cultural links between communities.

As a result of the new policy, city staffer Sandra Kochan told council, “the reality is that new sister-city relationships will be quite rare.”

Kelowna currently has two official sister cities, Veendam in the Netherlands and Kasugai in Japan. Those relationships will continue, and the community groups that spearhead the links will be backed with an annual $2,500 city grant.

There was an effort a few years ago to establish a relationship with Senanga, Zambia. But that was never elevated to sister-city status, and it seems unlikely to achieve it now.

The new policy requires there to be some similarity between Kelowna and the proposed sister city, that there be some perceived strategic benefits for establishing the link, and that there is the real prospect of an ongoing and sustainable connection between the two communities.

Mayor Walter Gray said Kelowna has recently received a proposal from a city in China to establish some kind of linkage. He said the city’s name translated into English as “New Harbour City,” but didn’t give its Chinese name.

Gray said the city was about a 20-minute train ride from Shanghai. He said it was a newly-constructed municipality, being only about 10 years old. The city covered about 120 square miles, similar to Kelowna, and had a population of about 200,000, or double Kelowna’s, Gray said.

The mayor said he would provide more information about the proposed linkage in the near future.

The B.C. government has been encouraging municipalities to establish more links, designed to foster economic development, with cities in Asia.