The City of New Westminster hasn’t been using the Royal City moniker in its branding for more than a decade.
At its final meeting before winter break, city council considered a motion from councillors Daniel Fontaine and Paul Minhas asking that the city halt the phasing out of the Royal City moniker in its official branding and that no changes to the city’s branding be undertaken without due notice and proper consultation with residents, businesses and Indigenous people. Fontaine said the motion would “rectify the problem” that was started in the summer.
“And that's when – in the dead of summer, at the end of a four-year term – the previous mayor, Mayor Cote introduced a motion to council, with effectively no notice to the public, to, as Coun. (Chuck) Puchmayr, said, essentially throw a grenade into the centre of council on his way out,” he said.
At its July 11 meeting, the previous city council voted 6-1 in favour of a motion by then-mayor Jonathan Cote to begin the process of updating the city’s logo and phasing out the use of the “Royal City” moniker in its branding. The motion also called on the city to develop a plan to engage with the community in the development “of a new brand identity that is inclusive and allows for collective pride in our city.”
Fontaine said his motion would mean city staff would not have to work on a rebranding or phasing out process related to the Royal City branding. Given staffing challenges, he said the motion is an opportunity for council to take some work off of staff’s work plan and to save the city money related to a rebranding exercise.
Fontaine, who is Métis, said Cote had expressed discomfort with sending out correspondence to First Nations on city letterhead with the crown logo. He said the city needs to consult with Indigenous peoples before making a decision to eliminate the Royal City moniker and crown logo.
Fontaine also expressed concern that the city’s decision to “dump” the Royal City moniker impacts community groups and businesses that have Royal City in their names, as the city has left the impression that “these are two bad words.”
Council, however, ruled that the motion by Fontaine and Minhas was “out of order”, saying it wasn’t giving any new direction to staff. That vote came after council questioned staff about the use of the Royal City moniker.
“I think the last time we use it was in 2009 during our sesquicentennial celebrations,” said Blair Fryer, the city’s senior manager of economic development and communications. “But certainly with our website, information material, media releases, we always refer to the Corporation of the City of New Westminster, the City of New Westminster or New Westminster, and occasionally New West in our Twitter.”
Given that the city hasn’t been using the Royal City nickname for years, a majority of council agreed that the motion gives no new direction to staff.
“How can you halt something that hasn't really been used?” said Coun. Ruby Campbell. “Like, can you phase out something that hasn't been used for a while?”
Campbell also argued that the part of the motion regarding community consultation duplicates what the previous council had approved in July.
Mayor Patrick Johnstone agreed that Fontaine and Minhas’s motion didn’t give any new direction to staff and he ruled the motion to be out of order. Fontaine challenged the mayor’s decision to rule the motion as being out of order; that challenge was defeated 4-2, and council wen on to support Johnstone’s out-of-order motion in a 4-2 vote.
Given his colleagues' assertion that the decision to halt the phasing out of the Royal City moniker was out of order because the city hasn’t been using it for years, Fontaine said “it doesn’t make sense” that council considered Cote’s motion in July, as it wasn’t being used at that time either.
“It's not a question of whether the August motion was in order, it's a question of whether this motion is in order,” Johnstone said about the proceedings at the Dec. 12 meeting.
Coun. Tasha Henderson said she could find no use of the Royal City on the city’s website or on city materials, so the motion seems unnecessary. She said businesses and others are welcome to continue using the Royal City name.
“I think what's important for the community to hear is … nothing's going to change from our current status quo,” she said. “They will not notice a change in anything without community consultation.”
Henderson said no further changes will be made unless the city embarks on a robust public engagement strategy.
“I personally don't see that coming up as a key priority,” she added.
What about the crown logo?
The motion put forward by Fontaine and Minhas did not reference the use of the crown logo in the City of New Westminster’s branding.
The motion approved by council in July called on the city to develop a plan to engage with the community in the development “of a new brand identity that is inclusive and allows for collective pride in our city.”
Given that the city hasn’t been using the Royal City nickname in its official communications since 2009, Fryer said the motion’s direction related to the use of the crown logo was deemed to be the cogent piece of work for staff coming out of the July 2022 motion. He told council the city has been using the crown logo since trademarking that image in 2009.
“So, to that end, what we understand as staff has been assigned, is to begin the phasing out of the crown logo, but only after robust engagement with the community takes place,” he told council. “As staff, we have had one meeting to discuss what this could look like. And we were going to, we were looking at bringing forward sometime in 2023 as to what that would look like, in a report to council about all the different steps that would be involved and need to be taken in order to begin the process to rebrand. And by that, I'm referring to the crown logo.”
Fontaine expressed concern about the costs that would be related to creating a new corporate logo for the City of New Westminster, saying a rebranding would include “peeling off the crown” from city vehicles and all corporate entities. He noted that when Cote put forward his motion in July, he spoke about how uncomfortable he was sending out letters to Indigenous people on letterhead bearing the crown logo.
“The intent of that motion was to remove the crown, and we've now had it confirmed by staff,” he said. “All I'm saying is, if this (motion) … is nothing, just vote for it, support it, and let's move on. We have got a lot of other motions to support it. If it doesn't mean anything, vote to halt the phase-out and save staff a lot of time, save taxpayers a lot of money and let's move on.”
Henderson said felt like there's still a lack of clarity on whether or not the staff would be preparing a report to describe what a rebranding process would look like, versus starting an engagement process.
Minhas also expressed concern that the out-of-order motion was “confusing” based on what had occurred at council’s meeting in July.
Minhas and Fontaine voted in opposition of the out-of-order motion, which was supported by Johnstone and councillors Campbell, Henderson and Nadine Nakagawa. Coun. Jaimie McEvoy was not at the Dec. 12 meeting.
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