Image: City of Chilliwack / Mayor Ken Popove of Chilliwack has been chosen as the co-chair of the B.C. Urban Mayors' Caucus alongside co-chair Marianne Alto, mayor of Victoria. Mayor Popove says the caucus' four priorities include mental health including substance use and treatment, community safety and wellness, affordable housing, and transit and transportation. Popove says he's looking forward to being a part of the caucus, which will be communicating regularly with the premier and ministers from the B.C. government.

By Mike Vanden Bosch

Popove to co-chair Urban Mayors' Caucus

Mayor Popove to co-chair B.C. Urban Mayors’ Caucus, will lobby the province on several issues

Jun 15, 2023 | 1:03 PM

CHILLIWACK — Chilliwack Mayor Ken Popove says he’s looking forward to co-chairing the B.C. Urban Mayors’ Caucus as an opportunity to press the province on things like mental health and public safety.

In a phone interview Thursday afternoon (June 15), Mayor Popove says he wanted to be a part of the caucus prior to the election, but the overriding consensus among the group was to wait until after the fall election to confirm which elected officials would win. Popove won the mayoral election in a landslide in October.

“We’re a city of over 80,000 and we’re now included in that caucus,” Popove said. “They were asking for a co-chair during our initial meeting with the group, and I thought we should get representation from the valley.”

Popove says the caucus’ top four priorities consist of mental health including substance use and treatment, community safety and wellness, affordable housing and transit and transportation.

“We’ve had a couple meetings now, and these are the four priorities we’ll be advocating for as we talk to the province,” Popove said. “We’ll just see how that all unfolds. I’m new to this table, the caucus has been renewed, and we’ll be sending letters to the premier and ministers.”

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Popove alluded to a one-hour meeting he had with Premier David Eby this past Monday.

“He took some notes during our talk,” Popove. “We shall see. As we kinda proceed with our monthly meetings, I’ll let you know if there’s something interesting that comes out of this. In my opinion, those four topics are the top priorities.”

The B.C. Urban Mayors’ Caucus formed during the last term of municipal government. Mayors of 13 larger B.C. cities would hold regular, virtual meetings to discuss matters that affected all of their communities — notably homelessness, crime and related social issues.

After the 2022 municipal election, nine of the 13 mayors were no longer in office, including Kamloops’ Ken Christian and caucus co-chairs Colin Basran (Kelowna) and Lisa Helps (Victoria). The caucus had been dormant up until recently.

CFJC Today has confirmed with Nanaimo Mayor Leonard Krog that an expanded Urban Mayors’ Caucus did indeed meet virtually Tuesday morning.

Krog says the caucus will now include mayors of all B.C. cities with populations of 80,000 or more.

Mayor Popove will co-chair the caucus with Victoria mayor Marianne Alto.

by Mike Vanden Bosch

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Mayor Popove to co-chair B.C. Urban Mayors’ Caucus, will lobby the province on several issues

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