The City of Colwood held its inaugural council meeting Monday night and welcomed a new mayor, Rob Martin.

The committee room at Colwood City Hall was standing room only as community members stayed to watch the new mayor and council get sworn in.

Martin beat incumbent Carol Hamilton with about 57 per cent of the vote during the municipal election.

READ MORE: Rob Martin is the new mayor of Colwood

Hamilton performed her last duty as mayor and called Monday nightB次元官网网址檚 meeting to order.

The Dunsmuir Middle School Choir opened the ceremony with the singing of O Canada.

Martin was the first to be sworn in, followed by Councillors Doug Kobayashi, Dean Jantzen, Cynthia Day, Michael Baxter, Gordie Logan and Stewart Parkinson.

Martin served on Colwood Council for the past seven years and was also recently re-elected as Board Chair of the Greater Victoria Public Library, according to his website.

MartinB次元官网网址檚 mayoral platform focused on economic development, the cityB次元官网网址檚 natural environment, transportation and community.

READ MORE: Creating jobs in Colwood motivates Martin

B次元官网网址淥ne of the things I did focus on during the campaign was that 93 per cent of our tax base is residential right now and that we just canB次元官网网址檛 afford that long term,B次元官网网址� Martin said shortly after he was elected on Oct. 20. B次元官网网址淲e have to begin to build out some of our commercial zone. ThatB次元官网网址檚 what IB次元官网网址檓 going to be focusing on.B次元官网网址�

Past members of council B次元官网网址� Carol Hamilton, Lilja Chong, Jason Nault and Terry Trace B次元官网网址� and their contributions were also to be recognized later in the meeting.

The meeting ended with a from the Chief Election Officer that detailed official election results.

After the meeting was adjourned, community members were offered refreshments, cake and a chance to meet their new council.

With files from Keili Bartlett.

shalu.mehta@goldstreamgazette.com

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