City Profile

Location

The City of Richmond is located on Canada's Pacific Coast in the province of British Columbia. Richmond is a unique island city, favourably located within the Greater Vancouver Regional District in close proximity to downtown Vancouver and the U.S. border. It is comprised of a series of islands in the mouth of the Fraser River. They include Sea Island, most of Lulu Island, and fifteen smaller islands.

Description

Population

With a population of over 165,000 people, Richmond is a growing dynamic urban centre with a unique mix of residential, and commercial property, agricultural lands, industrial parks, waterways and natural areas. It lies where the River meets the ocean. The shores surrounding Richmond create an estuary border that provides habitat for fish and for migrating birds on the Pacific Flyway between the Arctic and South America.

Richmond has undergone enormous change over the last several decades, with significant growth in the early 1990's. Today, Richmond is a dynamic, multi-ethnic community. Much of the recent population growth has been from Asian immigrants, who now represent approximately one third of Richmond residents. These newcomers have contributed significantly to the growth of the small business and retail sectors and have added to the diversity and vibrancy of the City of Richmond.

According to Statistics Canada, residents of Richmond have the greatest life expectancy in all of Canada. The agency recently reported people in Richmond have the lowest smoking and obesity rates in the country and live an average of 81.2 years, almost three years longer than the national average of 78.3 years.

Employment & Industry

Richmond's economy supports over 100,000 jobs in various sectors including services , retailing, tourism, technology industries, light manufacturing, airport services and aviation, agriculture, fishing and government. In recent years, Richmond has been emerging as a leading centre for high tech industries.

Public Amenities

Richmond is known throughout the Vancouver region for its quality parks, leisure facilities, and recreation services. Richmond has over 1200 acres of park land and a variety of recreational amenities, including pools, arenas, community centres, tennis courts, playgrounds, picnic areas, golf courses, lacrosse boxes, running tracks and playing fields. The City also maintains a system of interconnecting perimeter dyke trails which provide for a variety of recreational opportunities as well as scenic views of the north shore mountains and natural and historic areas. Cultural facilities include libraries, a performing arts theatre, art gallery, arts centre, museums, archives and heritage sites.

Amidst the recent rapid change, the community has continued to place a priority on protecting farmland, preserving its heritage and protecting the natural environment. Among the popular sites for experiencing Richmond's unique environmental and cultural heritage are Garry Point Park with its beaches and estuary habitat, Britannia Heritage Shipyard, Gulf of Georgia Cannery and London Heritage Farm.

Access & Transportation

Richmond is connected to neighbouring lower mainland cities by a series of bridges and a tunnel. There are two major freeways feeding into Richmond and two railway lines. Richmond also has two international seaports. In addition, Vancouver International Airport is located in Richmond on Sea Island.

Climate

Richmond enjoys a temperate west coast climate. Unlike other parts of Canada the west coast gets little or no snow most winters, and because of Richmond's distance from the mountains, our average rainfall (1112.6mm or 43.8 in.) is 30% less than Vancouver's.

While Richmond does not experience extreme temperatures, weather conditions can change quickly. We recommend the layered look for visiting the west coast, so that you can add or remove layers as needed

City History

Richmond was incorporated as a municipality November 10, 1879. Richmond was designated as a City on December 3, 1990.

Richmond's islands were built up and shaped by the mighty Fraser River and it is the river that has shaped our growth. The fishery and the rich delta soil provided by the river has been the basis for our economy and industrial development. Richmond's history is rooted in fishing, agriculture, shipping, aviation, and later in manufacturing, service and technological industries.

Richmond is a land of many peoples. First Nations people were the first to come to the islands to fish and collect berries. The Coast Salish bands were known to have set up temporary camps, and they are said to have had year long dwellings on the islands which were scattered and moved from year to year. There are also reports of villages that existed at one time near Steveston and on Sea Island.

The first European settlers to this area were farmers in the 1860's. The pattern of early settlement was oriented to the river, since it was easier to get around by boat than to cross the low-lying, often boggy interior areas of Lulu Island. The Fraser River also provided transport access to Richmond from the nearby City of New Westminster.

Although the nature of the islands at the mouth of the Fraser suggests they were ideal locations for farms, farming was not easy; clearing, dyking and, in some cases, draining the land was a major task that had to be dealt with before the main work of farming could begin. Once begun, the diversity of agriculture was remarkable. In addition to grain and feed crops, vegetable and berry growing was highly successful. Perhaps the two facets of local agriculture of greatest renown were dairying and berry growing, the latter of which remains important to this day. Two berry crops in particular, blueberries and cranberries, thrive in the more peaty soil of central and eastern Lulu Island.

The need to build dykes was a significant factor in causing the early settlers to petition the Lieutenant Governor-in-Council to grant status as a municipality to Richmond in 1879. Local government was a necessity if dykes, roads, bridges and other services were to be developed and maintained. This early start means that Richmond is seven years older than our neighbouring city, Vancouver.

The abundance of the fishery attracted many more people to our shores. From the early 1880's Richmond's fishing fleets brought their catches home to be processed in one of the numerous canneries that sprang up all along the river. This industry did more than bring fish to market. Related industries such as boat-building also thrived.

The vitality of the fishing industry attracted Japanese fishermen to Richmond, adding not just to the industry but to the richness of our community as a whole. The growing cannery and boat building industries brought more migrant workers to the area. Among these were first nations people and the Chinese contract workers who originally came to British Columbia to build the railway. Steveston, in particular, became the centre of the fishing industry, gaining international fame for the quality and bounty of its canned salmon. Despite the pressures of changing times, Steveston has survived as a unique, diverse community that maintains strong ties with the sea.

Richmond continues to attract in-migration from many other countries and from other parts of Canada, recent migration has been most notably from China and Hong Kong. Our cultural diversity has enriched our City and made Richmond an exciting place to live.

Richmond was, and is, the centre of aviation in British Columbia. The first flight in B.C. was made on March 25, 1910, from Minoru Racetrack. The first airport for Vancouver was on Richmond' s Lulu Island. Not much more than a grass field and some small service buildings near what is now Alexandra Road and Garden City Way, the airport remained there until the move to Richmond's Sea Island in 1931.

In recent history the airport has been a major factor in Richmond's ongoing development. Proximity to the airport has helped attract a large number of manufacturing and high technology industries to Richmond. Vancouver International Airport has become an important gateway between Canada and other Pacific Rim countries.

Richmond is often seen as a new community because it has seen such dramatic growth over the last few decades, but you do not have to look far to see the factors that have shaped our history. The land, the river and the sea made Richmond unique over a century ago, and that is still true today.