Belcarra, British Columbia

The Village of Belcarra lies North of Burrard Inlet and East of Indian Arm, around an hour from Downtown Vancouver, and borders Port Moody and Anmore. It was only founded as a Village in 1979 and the population is around 700. Youngsters go to Elementary School in Anmore, Middle School in Port Moody, and Secondary in Coquitlam. It is one of the last of the GVRD municipalities to adopt a Coat of Arms. The arms (and flag) were granted on 8 November 2005. The flag is a Banner of the Arms which show an evergreen tree (no species given, just a "Conifer Eradicated Vert"), and a native Wolf character, separated by a wedge coloured "barry wavy Azure and Argent". This is the Village's description of the arms from their PDF presentation:

Belcarra was one of only a handful of municipalities in the Lower Mainland who did not have a Coat of Arms. Council felt that this project would be a special way to mark the Village’s 25th year of incorporation in 2004, when a “draft sketch” was presented to the community. “The Village is very proud of our heritage and our new Coat of Arms is a symbolic reflection of our history”, Mayor Ralph Drew said. “The community design incorporates Belcarra’s First Nation’s and Irish history, and we certainly have that with the traditional Tsleil-Waututh wolf symbol and the green shamrocks in the crown.” The Mayor went on to explain some of the symbolism — “the Coat of Arms has elements representative of forest, sea, mountains and wildlife. The Eagle perched on a crown surrounded with shamrocks adorns the new symbol.” The motto “Between Forest and Sea” refers to the geography of Belcarra. Robert Watt, Chief Herald of Canada, said: “It has been delightful working with Belcarra on this project. I’m always excited to see others take an interest in heraldry and in their communities.”

Dean McGee, 15 November 2005