When many people retire, they face an uncertain future as far as how they will keep busy.
Lambert Chu is not one of those people.
Chu recently retired as the city manager – the top bureaucrat – for the City of Burnaby, but he won’t be sitting on the couch whiling away the days watching TV.
He’ll be building a new house. He just needs the permit to come through and off he goes.
“That will engage me for a fair bit of time,” Chu said with a laugh.
The house will be located outside of Burnaby so he’ll have to deal with a different city on that, but Chu is well-versed on such issues after 30 years working in a city hall following his training in the U.S. as a civil engineer.
Chu looked back on his time with the city and marvelled at how it transformed from a suburban community to a “metropolis.”
But while it has grown to about 250,000 people, Chu said he is proudest of the environmental steps the city has taken over the years, especially when it comes to our local rivers and streams and the lack of return of fish.
“When you look back to 30 years ago, you would see that many of our local streams were in dire need of rejuvenation,” Chu said. “We’ve done that.”
Chu rose up in the ranks through the city’s engineering department, first hired in 1990 as deputy director of engineering. He became the director of engineering in 2007 before being named the deputy city manager in 2012.
After preceding city manager Bob Moncur retired in February 2016, Chu took on the role of acting city manager for a few months until he fully took on the top spot in May that year.
Since his appointment as the direct person reporting to council, Chu has navigated the city through a sea change in governing philosophies, with the election of a new mayor, Mike Hurley. With Hurley’s election, the city has taken on a far more significant role in many services – namely housing – that has entailed significant investments and massive policy changes.
That includes two policies around rental housing – the rental use zoning policy and the tenants assistance policy – that have been called B.C.’s, and even Canada’s, most progressive rental housing policies.
The city has also developed its Metrotown downtown master plan, while getting a start on a new transportation master plan, an energy use plan and a climate change plan to guide the city to net-zero emissions by 2025.
Chu said he was also responsible for the following:
Created the Public Safety and Community Services Department which led to the development of the Community Safety Plan and implementation of community safety action programs that include bike patrols, enhanced civic facility security, etc.
Creation of the Climate Action and Energy division to advance the GHG emission reduction goals and sustainable energy strategy.
Created the centralized communication and marketing department to provide greater access to city services and better communication of city programs.
Streamlining of the information technology to meet the changing technology and to deliver better service to the public.
Creation of the corporate service department to improve service delivery.
- With files from Dustin Godfrey
