Just one day after 1130 NewsRadio reported the American flag at Queen’s Park Arena in New Westminster remained up — despite a unanimous motion in May to remove it — it’s coming down.
On Monday, City Coun. Daniel Fontaine, who was behind the motion at the height of the ‘Elbows Up’ campaign, said he saw it at a recent New Westminster Salmonbellies game. He inquired with city staff who confirmed they were waiting for a custom-made City of New Westminster flag to replace the stars and stripes.
An internal memo reads, in part, “As with most custom orders of this nature, it has taken time for it to be produced and shipped. The new flag arrived on July 17 and Parks and Recreation staff will be replacing the U.S. flag with the new flag [Tuesday]”
The memo also states that staff acted swiftly after the motion passed, however, Fontaine says the flag never came down, so it’s unclear what action was taken.
Another update: the American flag is said to be coming down today. Apparently, staff were waiting for a custom-made City of New Westminster flag to arrive and now it has. More on @CityNewsVAN. https://t.co/YYFAwmwY0x
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Fontaine has acknowledged residents may lose trust in council, given that a high-profile motion was passed but nothing changed.
“I think when people see that actions of council aren’t acted upon as quickly as they would expect, I would think they would be disappointed, and there will be an issue around whether they can trust when other motions come forward that they’ll be acted upon in a timely manner,” he said Monday.
In his original motion, Fontaine confirmed he wasn’t against putting the U.S. flag back up, but only if an American team was visiting.
Back in March, the City of Cranbrook removed the U.S. flag from Western Financial Place Arena. That move was followed by the City of Mississauga, Ont., which took U.S. flags down from arenas and locations along Lake Ontario.
