Westminster Pier Park is still a couple of weeks away from opening but it's picked up another award.
The Canadian Association of Municipal Administrators (CAMA) presented the City of New Westminster with a 2012 Environment Award for the Westminster Pier Park at its national conference held in Saskatoon this week.
"CAMA is pleased to recognize the innovation and administrative excellence demonstrated by the City of New Westminster in turning a contaminated brownfield into a usable greenfield," Jim Toye, president of the Canadian Association of Municipal Administrators, said in a press release.
City administrator Paul Daminato attended the conference in Saskatchewan and accepted the award on the city's behalf.
The association's environment award recognizes the commitment of a municipality to environmentally sustainable governance, to protecting the environment and to combating climate change. Awards are granted to programs, projects or services that have made a significant and positive impact on the environment.
"The quality of award submissions from municipalities across the country continues to impress us," said Don MacLellan, chair of association's awards committee. "We had 43 entries this year, so picking eight winners was a challenge."
Earlier this year, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities awarded the city a Sustainable Communities Award in the brownfield category for the park project. Last year, the project earned the city a national Brownie Award from the Canadian Urban Institute for sustainable remediation technologies.
The city purchased the waterfront site for $8 million in 2009 and is building a $25.1 million park. The city has received federal and provincial governments contributions for two-thirds ($16.6 million) of the project funding through the Build Canada Fund and contributed $8.3 million to the park.
The city also received grant funding for site investigations through the province's brownfield renewal funding program and the FCM green municipal fund.
