The New Westminster and District Labour Council, which is based in Burnaby, has endorsed the entire Burnaby Citizens Association's slate for the municipal election.
However, the 16 mayoral, council and school trustee candidates were the only ones to apply for endorsement this year, according to Carolyn Rice, secretary-treasurer of the council.
"Candidates apply," she said. "We don't invite them to make an application for endorsement."
The council sends out applications to all the incumbents in the region in April, according to Rice, and the applications are due by August.
The council's region includes New Westminster, Burnaby, Port Moody, Belcarra, Anmore, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Pitt Meadows, Maple Ridge, Delta, Surrey, White Rock, and the City of Langley and Langley Township.
In Burnaby, the council endorsed Mayor Derek Corrigan; councillors Pietro Calendino, Richard Chang, Sav Dhaliwal, Dan Johnston, Colleen Jordan, Anne Kang, Paul McDonell, and Nick Volkow; and school trustee candidates Ron Burton, Meiling Chia, Larry Hayes, Baljinder Narang, Harman Pandher, James Wang, and Gary Wong.
The council endorsed 70 candidates in total throughout the region, and 32 of the candidates were running for the first time, according to Rice.
The council bases its endorsement choices on the candidate's experience in politics, community activities, and where they stand on issues such as public/private partnerships, a living wage, climate change efforts and procurement issues, she said.
A committee interviews new candidates, and the interviews are then submitted to the council executive, Rice said. Incumbents usually aren't interviewed, unless they request it.
The candidates chosen for endorsement are announced at the council's September meeting, she said, but the list isn't finalized and released until all the nominations are posted in October, so that the council doesn't accidentally endorse any candidates who choose not to run after applying for an endorsement.
The council, which was chartered in 1966, started interviewing and endorsing candidates in the late '60s.
The council has 55,000 members in the region from area unions, industrial organizations, the public sector, and community and health service organizations, according to Rice.
The membership reflects that of the B.C. Federation of Labour or the Canadian Labour Congress, but at a local level, she explained.
The council's list of endorsed candidates is passed on to the Canadian Labour Council's Pacific region office, and then distributed to unions in the region.
