Major Metrotown development

Monday night, Burnaby council sent a major Metrotown development rezoning application to public hearing.

The public will soon get to learn more about the proposed high density high-rise which will sit atop four storeys of commercial space.

According to the staff report, the 37 storey high-rise — on the corner of Beresford Street and Willingdon Avenue — will have a plaza for public art and  the commercial space will include a 40 seat liquor establishment.

The site is also to have two electric vehicle plug-in stations and nine adaptable units for handicapped residents.

Coun. Colleen Jordan pointed out that there would be a $6.9 million amenity bonus, 20 per cent of which would be used for affordable housing.

The public hearing will be May 28 at 7 p.m. at City Hall.

Public to have a say in Burnaby's environmental strategy

Courtesy Just Us 3's

Burnaby council voted to move a step closer to a comprehensive plan for the environment Monday night when it approved the first phase of its Environmental Sustainability Strategy (ESS).

Phase one will involve an open house, information kiosks, and online engagement to educate Burnaby residents on what the city hopes to do to protect the environment moving forward.

"It is an opportunity for the public to come forward," said Coun. Sav Dhaliwal.

According to a report by city staff the idea is to "introduce the concept of sustainability and the realities of what Burnaby's situation is today within that context." In addition, the public consultation project is meant to find out what the public sees as goals and priorities for the community.

Burnaby's ESS is based on nine themes which the report describes as like petals on a flower. The themes outlined are:

• Live-land use
• Move-transportation
• Green-green space and habitat
• Build-buildings and energy
• Flow-water management
• Conserve-resource and waste management
• Breathe-climate change and air quality
• Thrive-holistic prosperity
• Manage-governance, community partnership

Mayor Derek Corrigan said this themed approach involved "interesting ways to look at the issues," and he hopes citizens will look at the report.  "We want the public fully engaged," he said. 

Following the public consultation process of phase one, a summary report will be presented to the ESS steering committee to confirm the theme areas going forward to phase two. 

Phase two will be "a mix of broad and deep engagement activities," according to the report. Proposed engagement in phase two includes keynote speakers, interactive exercises to rank actions the public wants council to take and online surveys to evaluate options. 

More background 

Burnaby takes three-pronged approach to environmental sustainability

Anne Waller - Another person to watch in Burnaby

Anne Waller is the administrator in charge of volunteers with Citizen Support Services [CSS] in Burnaby. We recently caught up with her to ask her a few questions about her line of work and why she does it.

Anne Waller 

Tell us a little about your position and previous work.

I have enjoyed working in this department for 20 years. I manage a small department with a big heart! We have five staff who manage almost 300 volunteers —volunteering in programs and services that we provide to enable seniors to live independently in Burnaby. Volunteers also assist nurses at Fraser Health immunization clinics, breast feeding clinics, flu clinics and as a home visitor in our baby cuddle program. Please check us out at www.burnaby.ca.
My experience and education in volunteer management and working with seniors in the community for 34 years are the perfect fit for this job.

Why do you enjoy it? 

I love helping isolated seniors keep connected with the community and managing our fantastic volunteers is an honour.

What have you learned about who volunteers? 

Anyone can volunteer! We have some of our clients who cannot get out, who volunteer as phone buddies or take grocery orders over the phone.

Volunteering with people who require a little help to be able to stay at home for as long as they wish, gives pleasure to the senior and to the volunteer. It only takes a few hours a week to make a huge difference in the lives of those who are often not visible out in the community. A volunteer helps provide the maximum quality of life with a minimum of effort.

What is the relationship CSS has with Burnaby Family Life? 

The Pacific Post Partum Society approached us about partnering with them to supply “cuddle” volunteers to assist with babies whilst mothers attended a weekly workshop. Burnaby Family Life supply some child care workers to assist with older siblings.

What do you hope for the organization moving forward? 

Looking into the future – with the number of seniors living in Burnaby growing at an accelerated rate over the next 20 years, more of the kind of services we offer will be needed to meet the demands.

Burnaby council on board with #savebcfilm

Photo by  Maximino C. Fuentes

If Burnaby council has its way there will be a whole lot more "lights, camera, action" in the city after the upcoming provincial election.

Council tabled an extensive report on the film industry Monday night and voted to send letters to the leaders of the campaigning provincial political parties, stating the value of the film and TV industry to Burnaby.*

The report states that the industry is "a key economic driver in Burnaby" supplying at least $408 million directly and indirectly into the local economy in 2012.

"We can't afford to lose this industry and we can't afford to be bullied by other provinces," said Mayor Derek Corrigan.

According to the report, and to the Save BC Film campaign by film and TV insiders, B.C. has been losing productions to other key players in North America, including Ontario, which offer richer tax incentives and do not apply the PST to the industry.

The report suggests that "carefully reasoned and timely steps be taken to maintain" B.C. as an attractive place to do business.

Coun. Colleen Jordan said that 73 Burnaby businesses are directly involved with the film industry and many of those have seen their revenue go down by some 40 per cent.

Jordan said it doesn't make sense that provinces are fighting each other to win productions, however, "we didn't start this war," she said. "This is no way to run a country. We should have free trade within the country," said Jordan.

Corrigan agreed. "This same kind of dumping would not have been tolerated between other countries, but for some reason between provinces it is OK," he said.

Coun. Nick Volkow, who is himself a member of Teamsters Local 155 — the film drivers local union — said he was surprised by the variety of businesses which are impacted by the industry. He said he was picking up clothes at the dry cleaners on Canada Way in Burnaby and noticed they had a costumes ready for pick up. "They told me they do most of their business for the film industry," he said.

Volkow said he rejects the argument that giving tax incentives to the film industry is supporting the one percent. "It isn't. It is giving to the 99 per cent. Grunts like me and other grunts moving stuff around," he said. He said the small majority of the wealthy will always get more than their share, unless people rise up. Until then, tax incentives will help the local economy, he said.

Coun. Dan Johnston supported the motion, but said that productions are also being lost to other countries such as Australia.
"We need a national directive or policy on this one," he said.

Coun. Sav Dhaliwal agreed. "We need to take very decisive action, " he said, but eventually we should work with other provinces, "better for all of us if we pay attention to better ways to deal with this," said Dhaliwal.

So far the big two political parties seem to be listening. Adrian Dix of the NDP has said his government would raise B.C's film tax incentive to 40 per cent from its current 35 per cent.

The Liberals, led by Christy Clark, have also said they would take steps to help the film industry. Former Liberal finance minister Mike De Jong has called for consistency in tax incentives across the country.

Voters go to the polls May 14.

*Full disclosure, my husband is involved in the film industry — though he isn't a supporter of the save film campaign.

Talking education with Janet White

Photo: Wanda Chow/NewsLeader

Janet White is part of a group writing a book about the history of schools in Burnaby. Here's a story in the local paper about the book.

I contacted Janet White to ask her some more questions.

Why this book now?

People who were in on the early history of Burnaby are gone, and those from the 1920's are well into their 80's, sons and daughters of our pioneers, and their memories are not so good. Next, many current principals did not grow up here and do not have a feeling for saving our history, chucking old "stuff" out.

So, most of all we all are proud of our Burnaby schools, and our experience in them. We value the emotional stories as well as the historical influences which made the schools the way they were. Some have disappeared, some have been renamed, some have moved, and some have been rebuilt, for a total of 69 schools.

What inspired the book?

I had a librarian friend in Prince George, who, when she retired, got together with three other teachers and went around to each school in the Prince George School District and collected the history of each school and any memorabilia the school did not wish to keep.

They put it all in an old school and have groups of students come through, much like our Seaforth School in Burnaby Village Museum. A spiral bound book was later produced. After I retired, I wanted to do the same for Burnaby, and was told it had already been done by retired teachers in the 1980s, ending in 1989. I interviewed two people, still alive, from that committee and found their book had never been published, as they were not able to obtain funding. It was another year before I accidentally found a copy, in a filing cabinet at Schou Education Centre. I advertised for people to update this mimeographed copy, with its corrections, add an old picture and a new picture, spiral bind it and get it out. By this time, I had seen Langley Retired Teachers' School Histories Book, and based our idea on theirs. This was 2005. We, too, set out to get funding, while we were doing the research. We finally found our mentor and sponsor in Jim Wolf, City Planner for Burnaby City Hall.

Through the Burnaby Heritage Commission, he was able to obtain good funding. We were later surprised with a small grant from the BC Retired Teachers' Association. Our small committee of five or six were on our way... until we realized WOLF's vision of the book was different from ours. He wanted to use just a few schools from each era in the book. We wanted the History of every school. Things stalled, although we plugged slowly along. Finally in late 2010, we revived our committee with a different commission representative, Harry Pride, and he brought on board, his friend, Dave Carter, who has proved a valuable asset — both were retired Burnaby administrators. Rosemary Cook, a retired elementary teacher and Gail Yip, a community member, and historian, who grew up in Burnaby stayed on from our 2005 Committee. We all loved history, and we all believed in the book.

We soon realized that the story of the schools were incomplete without stories about the main reason the schools were built, the students and the people who worked with, and for them. Then the fun began ... collecting all these stories. And the pictures to go with these stories had to be worth 1000 words, not just cold pictures of buildings.

So, here we are, in 2013, with 168 articles written and edited, which include stories of the blind, the deaf, the crossing guards, the custodians, the ESL learners, the sports, the fine arts, the famous and not so famous.

What was the one thing you were really surprised at, doing this research? 

Committee members were surprised at the change in tone in the schools, the change in methods, getting and recording information— Internet, computers, the line of decision making, i.e. funding decided by teams not just the principal; specialization of schools. A surprise for some, including me, was the building of a Russian submarine at Barnet Beach (WWI), rifle ranges in school basements in Burnaby North and South schools; air raid sirens on the schools, air raid mask practices — which scared some students — and a bunker kitty-corner to Moscrop Secondary.

Burnaby goes back to the past

Photo of Burnaby Village Museum courtesy Tjflex2's

From neon signs to gates, protecting Burnaby’s history seems to be all the rage at city hall these days.

Councillor Colleen Jordan said, in addition on the community heritage commission, she has a personal reason for caring about the past.

“Having just become an official senior citizen I am more than ever occupied with making sure we preserve the legacy of previous generations,” said Jordan.

The neon sign

Council voted Monday to use gaming money to buy the iconic arrow-shaped Lost in the 50’s Drive-In sign from its original owner, Neon Sign Crafters, for $2000. Council also agreed to spend another $9000 to restore the neon sign, which sits on city owned land on Edmonds Street.

According to a planning and building report, the sign is the only neon sign left in south Burnaby and “has been a much-loved community landmark on Edmonds Street for over 50 years.”

The sign will need maintenance every month at a cost of $1,800 a year.  This amount will come from the property’s lease expense. The leaseholder of the land would also have to pay for the hydropower required to operate the sign.

Brian Tahrriha bought the drive-in last summer. He is happy the city is going to restore the sign, which points at his restaurant. He said he was inspired to purchase the iconic drive-in because it represents “a concept being lost due to the misdirection of other establishments.” He says he offers “50s style and 50s taste.”

Signs from the era of bobby socks and Elvis are one thing, but for anyone who has visited Europe, saying Burnaby and heritage in the same sentence may seem ridiculous. Burnaby city archivist, Arilea Sill, says people would be surprised how far back this city’s past goes.

“One of the first deeds of land granted to a European settler … went to William Holmes, for lot one, block 1—close to North Road and Brunette River in Burnaby. The title is dated March 5, 1860.  Holmes is considered Burnaby's first resident,” said Sill.

The gate

Council dealt with far more ancient Burnaby history Monday when it voted to send to public hearing the proposal of having the city owned W.J. Mathers estate gate and wall protected by a heritage site bylaw.

The report to council says William and Mary Mathers began construction of their estate, which was designed by Frank Macey, at Deer Lake in 1912. The estate was known as Altnadene and was a unique example of the Romanesque Revival style.

The estate was surrounded by a granite capstone wall and had an elaborate wrought iron gate, which was designed by New Westminster’s James Blair, a Scottish blacksmith. The extremely rare gate and wall were saved from their original location when road improvements threatened to destroy them. They now sit on what would have been the driveway to the original estate on Deer Lake Avenue.

Archivist Sill said the casino revenue spent for the sign and the gate are well worth it because cultural assets are beneficial to the community as a whole.  

“ If we don't capture these assets when we have the chance, they will be destroyed and we will lose a piece of our past,” she said.

2012 YouTube video featuring the drive-in. 

Burnaby activist to watch

Photo courtesy of Trevor Ritchie

Every city needs people who stand up and say what they think is wrong in their community. Burnaby has its share of people who speak their minds. Whether you agree with activists or not,  their opinions often spark healthy debate.

Trevor Ritchie is a 23 year old UBC student, activist, blogger and Burnaby resident. His opinions can be found in more than a few letter to the editor sections of local papers.

Lately, his dissatisfaction is with city council and its cancellation of plans for an Edmonds area childcare centre, slated for the current Value Village site.
I contacted Ritchie and asked him to elaborate on his issue.

Background

In February a report to Burnaby city council recommended that a 70 spot daycare be built at the corner of Kingsway and Edmonds Streets, to accommodate a growing need in the rapidly developing Edmonds area.

Council sent the recommendation back to the community development committee. On the committee's advice, council voted early in March not to go ahead with the planned daycare. Councillor Colleen Jordan said at council that the $5 million estimated for the centre was a lot of money to spend on only 70 daycare spots. She said the issue needed to be looked into further to see what the need actually is and the best way to go ahead.

Childcare is a provincial responsibility, though cities can fund centres.

Ritchie's opinion

"What I’ve been seeing in the past couple of years from Burnaby city Council is an unwillingness to delve into the issues that are most affecting Burnaby families. 

At this point, the lack of childcare spaces in Burnaby is a crisis.  According to the city’s own statistics, there are only 4,110 full time childcare spaces within the city, or enough for 15 out of every 100 children who require such care facilities.  What few facilities we do have in Burnaby are often quite costly to families, with the city also calculating that the average cost of the facilities being used as between $700-$1200 a month.  

 [This is] unacceptable, especially when the city has the ability to create some meaningful changes in policy that would alleviate at least some of the lack of facilities in the region.

Specifically, the Edmonds location could have been built. ...  If we are to create childcare that is that affordable, that is going to require additional spaces to be built. 

I’m appreciative of the fact that less expensive facilities could be created in greater numbers than the Edmonds location would have allowed for under existing bylaws and provincial legislation, but the problems associated with that one particular project should not preclude the municipal government from engaging in discussions with senior government and private developers about the creation of childcare spaces in other locations throughout the city. 

What Ritchie proposes

What I would like to see out of the municipal government is for council to be more assertive in the construction and zoning of childcare facilities in Burnaby  ... with funding coming from developer grants issued to the city in exchange for the zoning density bonus, in lieu of cash in hand or other specific community amenities that would otherwise have been required to increase the density of a specific zone.  Funding for a dedicated childcare facility fund could also be done in partnership with the federal government through the renewal of the infrastructure transfers for municipalities.  Both would be solid ways of creating a fund that could develop Burnaby’s childcare stock and provide stable funding for the maintenance of those facilities."

What do you think of Ritchie's proposal?  Share your views with us.