Mundialization Committee

The City of Burlington's Mundialization Committee encourages citizen connections as a way of fostering world peace and global understanding.

Through the committee, the City has signed twinning agreements with two global cities:

• Itabashi, Japan
• Apeldoorn, Netherlands

The City of Burlington is dedicated to the United Nations (UN) philosophy of peaceful co-operation and understanding of different cultures. One of the Mundialization Committee’s objectives is to celebrate the importance and achievements of the UN and its mandate. For this purpose, a UN sub-committee was formed.

• UN Sub-committee

The committee reports to Council through the Committee of the Whole and is dedicated to making the City of Burlington a world community. Our mandate is to promote the City of Burlington as a world community and encourage community understanding of global cultural issues by:

• Maintaining our twin city relationships under the agreements
• Promoting activities that celebrate our similarities and respect our differences
• Organizing a celebration of the United Nations Day each year around October 24
• Providing advice and assistance on twin city relationships to Burlington City Council
• Developing achievable annual action plans with the help of City staff
• Presenting an annual report to Council with the help of City staff

View the Mundialization Committee's Terms of Reference for complete details about the committee's structure, mandate and responsibilities.

Meetings, agendas and minutes

View our Council and committee calendar to find upcoming committee meeting dates. You can also find agendas and minutes from meetings in January 2018 and onward by selecting each meeting.

Committee members

• Hassan Raza (Chair)
• Marybeth Curtin (Chair, Itabashi Sub-committee)
• Anne Koopman (Chair, Apeldoorn Sub-committee)
• Allan Dykstra
• Mary-Ann Campanelli
• Christine Greco
• Diana Tello
• Chris VanDooren (Chair, UN Sub-committee)
• Councillor Nisan (Council Liaison)
• Lisa Palermo (Clerk)

 

Past achievements

In 1984, a Mundialization Committee of volunteer citizens was formed to pursue twinning with another country. A bylaw was passed in 1985 to declare Burlington a “Word Community” dedicated to international cooperation. On May 12, 1989, Mayor Bird signed a twinning agreement with Mayor Kurihara of Itabashi, Japan. On May 6, 2005, Mayor MacIsaac signed a twinning agreement with Mayor de Graaf of Apeldoorn, the Netherlands.

What is mundialization?

Mundialization is the act of a city or local authority declaring itself a world citizen and being aware of global issues with a sense of shared rights and responsibilities. The word mundialization comes from the Latin word 'mundus' which means 'world'. The concept involves creating twin cities from around the world, in the belief that peaceful cooperation depends on mutual trust and appreciation of different nations, races, cultures and systems.