The Westwood Plateau Community Association was formed in 1999 when the Westwood Plateau development was completed by Wesbild. A group of residents wanted to maintain a high quality of life on the Plateau and wished to see it be a safe and environmentally friendly place. A Mission Statement and Constitution were created and on April 17, 1999 elections were held for the first Directors of the newly created Westwood Plateau Community Association (WPCA).

Since its inception, the WPCA has sponsored a number of community events including garage sales, golf tournaments, public meetings, picnics, community dinners, and have prepared a community newsletter. The Association also involves itself in advocacy efforts for issues relating to Plateau residents. A major project of the association was the erection of a Reader Board at the corner of Johnston and David Avenue. The board enables the Association to keep residents informed of events.

Del Gachallan was born in the Phillipines and moved to Coquitlam. Gachallan is a retired engineer, musician and author. In 1991, he composed a song in honour of the city's centennial year, entitled "Coquitlam, My Town."

Croton Studio of New Westminster was established by brothers Don F. and Roy M. LeBlanc. In 1947 Don LeBlanc and his wife Dorothy arrived in New Westminster, and took up residence at 1011 Eighth Avenue. In 1948 Roy and his wife Violet joined him there. Croton Studio first appears in 1949, located at 911 Twelfth Street. One or both of the brothers were owners of the business at this time. Around 1960 the studio moved to 7155 Kingsway in Burnaby. By 1967 the business had been incorporated and the name changed to Croton Studios Ltd. Don LeBlanc was owner and had moved his residence to 116 East Sixth Avenue. In 1972 a Croton photographer, Bob Dibble, bought the business when Don LeBlanc retired. Dibble owned the business until his death in 1979.

Sharon E. (Jansen) Cavalier was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba on January 23, 1949. In 1955 she and her parents moved from Winnipeg to Burnaby. In 1961 they relocated to Coquitlam, where Sharon attended Austin Avenue School for the last 2 months of grade 6, Porter Street Elementary School for grade 7, and Como Lake Secondary High School for grades 8 through the first 3 months of grade 12. It was in late 1966 that Centennial Secondary School was completed and Sharon participated in the November 28, 1966 Trek to move to Centennial High School, becoming part of its first graduating class in 1967. Following graduation she attended Simon Fraser University, later transferring to the University of British Columbia where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. She worked most of her life in university administration, principally at the University of British Columbia and retired in 2016.

In 1889, the Ross, McLaren Mill was opened at Millside, an area near New Westminster, British Columbia. The mill had cost $350,000 to build, and was headed by President James McLaren, a Quebec timber investor and President of the Bank of Ottawa, and Vice-President Frank Ross. Production at the mill began in 1890. In addition to new facilities and a large amount of capital to support it, the mill also possessed the transportation benefits of frontage on the Fraser River and a spur line to the Canadian Pacific Railway system. However, despite these advantages, the mill soon faced several events that affected its production in a negative way. In addition to the death of McLaren, the mill also experienced a decreased demand for timber due to a general economic depression in 1892. Even when other mills began to recover in 1895, Ross, McLaren’s productivity was curtailed by the silting of the Fraser River, which made it impossible for large vessels to reach the mill.

All of these factors contributed to the company’s decision in 1899 to place the mill and its timber rights up for sale. An American investment syndicate, headed by Lester David of Seattle and Mr. Jenkins of Minneapolis eventually purchased the mill in 1903. The new owners sought to resolve the mill’s difficulties by dyking the area, and holding the federal government accountable for dredging the Fraser River channel and ensuring its accessibility to ships. Now called Fraser River Saw Mills, the mill was finally re-opened in 1905, as the largest mill in the Pacific Northwest. By 1906, the mill was already setting records for production levels and over 250 labourers were employed. As a result of the increased production levels and staff, both the mill and Millside were expanded; this included the construction of the Fraser Mills Sash, Door & Shingle Company Limited.

Production at the mill was so high by 1907, in fact, that the mill was nearly shut down due to a lack of available labour. The mill was taken over by an investment syndicate headed by A.D. McRae of Winnipeg and Senator Peter Jansen of Nebraska. The new owners instituted a major re-organization of the business. A half million dollar renovation and expansion of the original mill buildings was implemented and improvements made to increase transportation access to the mill via the Fraser River. The name of the town was changed from Millside to Fraser Mills.

The re-organization of the business culminated in 1910, with the purchase of enough timber rights in the Lower Mainland and on Vancouver Island for the company, now called the Canadian Western Lumber Company Limited, to be considered to have the largest private holdings in the world. Through direct or indirect purchase, the Canadian Western Lumber Company Limited acquired full or partial ownership of the following companies by 1916: Canadian Tugboat Company Limited; Coast Lumber & Fuel Company Limited; Coast Lumber Yards Limited; The Columbia River Company Limited; Columbia Western Lumber Yards Ltd.; Comox Logging and Railway Company; Crown Lumber Company, Limited; Fraser Mills Sash, Door, and Shingle Company Limited; Lumber Manufacturers’ Yard Limited; Security Lumber Company Limited.; and Western Canada Sawmill Yards Limited. Later acquisitions include The Golden Light, Power and Water Company Limited. In 1954, the Canadian Western Lumber Company, Limited was acquired by Crown Zellerbach Canada Limited. The immediate successor company to Crown Zellerbach Canada Limited was Fletcher Challenge Limited of New Zealand, which purchased the company in 1983 and, with further acquisitions, became Fletcher Challenge Canada Limited in 1987. In 2000, Norske Skog, a Norwegian paper company, acquired all of Fletcher Challenge's pulp and paper assets, and a majority interest in Fletcher Challenge Canada Limited. This resulted in the formation of Norske Skog Canada Limited.

Riverview Hospital was a Canadian mental health facility in Coquitlam, British Columbia. It operated as the Province’s specialized psychiatric hospital from 1913 until it closed in 2012. The hospital is located on sumiqwuelu, or in Halkomelem language, the Place of the Great Blue Heron, where Kwikwetlem First Nation took shelter for thousands of years. By the beginning of the 20th century, traditional healing knowledge in the area was supplanted by settler colonial medical practice.

Riverview Hospital was operated directly by the Province, originally under the Insane Asylums Act (1873), the Mental Hospitals Act (1940), and the Mental Health Act (1964) until 1988. A re-evaluation of contemporary approaches to mental health care through the 1960s to the mid-1980s brought about change to mental health service development in British Columbia. The Province created the British Columbia Mental Health Society (BCMHS) in 1988 and gave it the task of running Riverview pursuant to provincial health legislation. The BCMHS board began as Provincially-appointed trustees but by 1992, it was replaced by a community-based board of governors. After the establishment of the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA) in 2001, Riverview Hospital fell under the jurisdiction of its Mental Health & Addiction Services (now the BC Mental Health & Substance Use Services).

In 1904, the Province purchased 1,000 acres in Coquitlam for the construction of a new mental hospital (as well as Colony Farm) due to overcrowding at the Royal Hospital in Victoria and the Public Hospital for the Insane in New Westminster. Originally called the Hospital for the Mind at Mount Coquitlam, the hospital was named Essondale Hospital in honour of Dr. Henry Esson Young shortly after its opening. Young was the Provincial Secretary and Minister of Education and was responsible for establishing and managing the hospital.

The first building, West Lawn (then, the Male Chronic Wing) opened in 1913 to serve male patients. The patient population grew rapidly and soon led to more overcrowding. In 1922 the Boys’ Industrial School of Coquitlam (BISCO) opened to provide education, industrial training, and juvenile reform to boys sentenced to confinement by law. To accommodate more patients, Centre Lawn (then, the Acute Psychopathic Unit) opened in 1924. In 1930, East Lawn (then, the Female Chronic Unit) opened to ease crowding of female patients at the Public Hospital for the Insane in New Westminster.

After the First World War, more spaces for war veterans were needed in British Columbia. Thus a new Veteran's Unit opened at Essondale Hospital in 1934. In 1936, BISCO was moved; the school underwent renovation and reopened as a geriatric care unit called the Home for the Aged (later, Valleyview). This unit was administered under the Provincial Home for the Aged Act (1935). After the Second World War, veterans were moved to the Riverside unit on Colony Farm grounds. The original Veteran’s Unit expanded and became the Crease Clinic of Psychological Medicine, which opened in 1949 and operated under separate health legislation than Essondale Hospital. The Crease Clinic allowed for voluntary admission of patients who could terminate their hospitalization at will. In 1950, Essondale Hospital changed its name to Provincial Mental Hospital, Essondale. North Lawn (then, the Tuberculosis Unit) opened in 1955 to stem the spread of the tuberculosis common in the hospital's other units. By 1956 there were over 4,700 patients at the Provincial Mental Hospital, Essondale, the Crease Clinic, and the Home for the Aged combined.

In 1959 the charge of mental health services was transferred from the Provincial Secretary to the new Department of Health Services and Hospital Insurance. That year, the Valleyview geriatric care unit opened. Five years later in 1964, the British Columbia Mental Health Act was enacted. The Crease Clinic amalgamated with Essondale Provincial Mental Hospital in 1965 to function as one facility named Riverview Hospital. That same year, the Riverside unit was converted to a maximum security facility and was renamed the Forensic Psychiatric Institute.

From the 1960s to the 1980s Riverview Hospital began to face changes because of deinstitutionalization. Patient populations declined at Riverview Hospital due to a move toward outpatient care and community based centres for mental health services. Although Riverview Hospital was given formal status as a teaching hospital affiliated with the University of British Columbia in 1974, by 1981 patient population had dropped and parts of the hospital were closed and sold off to developers. In 1983, West Lawn closed and farming operations at Colony Farm were discontinued. Next followed twenty years of unit closures: Crease Clinic (1992), East Lawn (2005), North Lawn (2007), and in 2012, the last patients were moved from Centre Lawn. That year Riverview Hospital ceased its operations.

Currently, the Riverview Lands are home to three lodges where long-term intensive psychological rehabilitation is provided for individuals, administered through Fraser Health’s Mental Health network of services.

Donna Rodman is a registered landscape architect. Rodman is the founding principal of Our Designs Inc., established in 1992. Rodman holds a Diploma in Nursing (The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C.), a Bachelor of Arts in Urban Geography (The University of British Columbia), a Certificate in Building (British Columbia Institute of Technology), and a Master in Landscape Architecture (The University of British Columbia).

Peregrine Photographics was a photo studio at 35-Sixth St., New Westminster, British Columbia.

Joseph William Harris was born on April 29, 1876. He was a rancher and labourer from Handbury, England who immigrated to Canada in 1909 and lived in Grand Forks, B.C. before settling in Coquitlam. He was married to Hannah Hollingworth and they had two children, John Edward and Wilfred. Harris enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force on June 2, 1916 at the age of 40 and served with the 225th Overseas Battalion. He was discharged as medically unfit on January 22, 1917. He passed away on November 18, 1955. It is believed that Harris Ave is named after him.

Wilfred Harris was born in Grand Forks, British Columbia in 1911 to Joseph William and Hannah Harris. Wilfred worked as a lumber grader. He married Katherine Margaret Sitter in 1942 in New Westminster and they had a daughter, Linda Harris. Wilfred Harris died in 1998.

John Edward Harris was born in 1910 in Derbyshire, England, to Joseph William and Hannah Harris. They emigrated to Canada. Harris was a mill worker. He married Gladys Hannah Larson in 1936. He died in 1983.

Linda Harris is the daughter of Wilfred and Katherine Margaret Harris.

Hannah Hollingsworth was born in Bredsall, England. She moved to Canada and married Joseph William Harris and they had two children, John Edward and Wilfred. She passed away on March 6, 1956.

Alain (Al) Joseph Boire (1957–) is an author, founding member and first president of the Maillardville Residents’ Association (MRA), and an active and passionate advocate for the Maillardville community.

Boire was born in Maillardville on October 15, 1957. He was raised in a French Canadian family and spent his formative years in the Maillardville community. He attended Notre Dame de Lourdes school, St. Thomas More Collegiate, École Montgomery Middle School, and Centennial School. Boire became a professional home inspector, and resided in Maillardville for most of his life.

Boire has been active in the Maillardville community in many ways. In 1981–1985, he was the Director of Notre Dame de Lourdes Catholic Church, and during 2000–2005, Boire served as the director of Village Credit Union. Concerned with the developments in the community, Boire and a group of neighbours joined and founded the MRA in 2005, where Boire became the first president. The MRA was very active between the years of 2005 and 2011 and Boire was instrumental in starting long-standing community initiatives, such as its “Clean Up Maillardville” days, an Adopt-a-Street program, a Forum on Crime and a community website and directory. Boire was a founding member of the Maillardville Commercial and Cultural Revitalization task force committee on the MRA. Additionally, Boire joined the board of Place Maillardville Community in 2006, where he was Executive Director from 2011 to 2013.

In 2009, on behalf of the MRA, Boire completed research into the history of Maillardville for the community’s centenary. On their website they published ten short biographies each month on a specific decade in Maillardville’s history. Over the next seven years Boire intermittently returned to the project. In honour of Coquitlam’s 125th anniversary in 2016, Boire completed his research and published his book, "With Hearts and Minds: Maillardville, 100 Years of History on the West Coast of BC."

Boire was a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Award in 2012. In 2018, Boire and his family moved to Smiths Falls, Ontario.

Established in 1999, the Dogwood Lifewriters' Group is a seniors group of around twenty core members that meets every fourth Monday at the Dogwood Pavilion seniors centre. It began as a course taught by Russell Hellard to help seniors write their memoirs. The group comes together to share life stories, write personal histories of place, and preserve family history. The stories are periodically published by the Group.

Road & Motor Sport Magazine reported on races held at Westwood Racing Circuit.

Selkirk Remote Sensing Ltd. was an aerial survey and mapping firm based in Richmond, British Columbia.

Walter Bruce MacDonald was born in New Westminster on December 5, 1956 to Shirley MacDonald (Bowell) and Walter Charles MacDonald. He was raised in New Westminster where he attended Herbert Spencer Elementary School and New Westminster Secondary School. He received his BA in English Literature in 1982 from the University of Victoria, and his MA in Fine Arts in 2016 from the University of British Columbia.

In 2011, MacDonald published "The Good Hope Cannery." In 2013, he published "Salmonbellies vs. The World," which is the story of the most famous team in lacrosse and their greatest rivals. He has published poetry in many Canadian periodicals and in 2018 published "The Massacre Confirmed Our Worst Suspicions." Two books of short fiction inspired by MacDonald’s summer experiences in Crescent Beach, "Henry The Dwarf" and "Blackie’s Spit," were published in 2008 and 2015 respectively.

MacDonald’s great grandparents, Alex and May Matheson, arrived in New Westminster in 1886. Another set of great grandparents, Samuel and Sarah Bowell, settled in Enderby, B.C. in 1893 and came to New Westminster in 1905. His third set of great grandparents, Ernest and Elizabeth Wiltshire, arrived in Surrey in 1887 and moved to Coquitlam in 1907. His grandfather, Roderick Charles MacDonald, arrived in New Westminster in 1907 and married the Wiltshires' daughter Daisy. Drawing on a wealth of family papers, memoirs, photographs, interviews, and his own experiences, MacDonald published a history of his Matheson ancestors and family, "The Lives and Times of Alex and May Matheson," in 2008. He then published a history of his MacDonald and Wiltshire ancestors and their offspring, "Catch-As-Catch-Can", in 2019 and a history of his Bowell great grandparents and their children, "God’s Unexplained Loving Kindness," in 2020.

The Coquitlam River Watershed Roundtable (CRWRt) came about as the successful outcome of a multi-phase watershed strategy (2007-2011) aimed at improving collaboration and problem-solving amongst the many stakeholders in the watershed. The Coquitlam River Watershed Roundtable was launched in February 2011 at an inaugural meeting of watershed partners and the community.

The Dominion Photo Company was a commercial photography firm established in Vancouver in 1914 by Percy Bentley. The company was involved in photojournalism, theatre slides, timber surveying photographs, police photography, postcards, amateur developing and printing, commercial/industrial work, and portraiture.

Operated by Paul Seligman (1913-1914); H. Charlton and H. Rathbun (1915-1920); and C.B. Wand (1921-1922).

Sidney Malcolmson was an accountant in New Westminster, British Columbia. He was elected as the city auditor in 1911. He died on December 20, 1927.

Trinity was a UK newspaper company founded in 1832. It merged with the Mirror to become Trinity Mirror PLC in 1999. In 2015, the company purchased Local World and became the United Kingdom's largest newspaper company. Trinity Mirror purchased the publishing assets of Northern & Shell in 2018 and changed its name to Reach plc.

Over the decades, the company owned many large regional and national newspapers in the United Kingdom and eventually expanded into the North American market. Trinity ran a collection of Canadian community newspapers under its North American subsidiary, Trinity (NA) Holdings, until 1997 when it sold 33 Canadian newspapers to Black Press.

The Greater Vancouver Transit System provided bus, SeaBus, and Skytrain service in the Metro Vancouver area as GVTS from 1973 until 1983. It operated under contract by the British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority until March 31, 1980. In the 1970s, the system was commonly still referred to by the general public as BC Hydro Transit (or the "Hydro Buses").

On April 1, 1980, GVTS was operated by the Metro Transit Operating Company and was branded commonly as Metro Transit. In 1983, the system was renamed the Vancouver Regional Transit System. From 1983 until 1999, the system was generally referred to as BC Transit. VRTS continued operation until April 1, 1999, when it was taken over by The South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority, now known as Translink.

The Green Book (Enterprises) Inc. developed directories or "green books" compiling contact information for businesses and services for Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, and Port Moody.