Council motion just before election is ‘grandstanding’ for voters: councillors

Well, it’s the end of the road for Burnaby’s current city council, which held its last meeting before the Oct. 15 municipal election earlier this week.

When the new council convenes for its first meeting on Oct. 24, there will be at least two new faces around the table—longtime council members Dan Johnston and Colleen Jordan have decided not to run for re-election.

Here are the highlights of what council talked about in its very last meeting Monday night.

Cooling centres

Executive director for the Burnaby Society to End Homelessness, Carol-Ann Flanagan, presented to council on the success of pop-up cooling centres during periods of extreme heat over summer 2022.

The society, in partnership with the city, had set up outdoor cooling centres with washrooms, tents, misting stations, WiFi, drinks, and snacks at two locations—one at Civic Square and the other at Kensington Park.

Flanagan told councillors that cooling centres were opened for 23 days in total during this summer, including for the first time on June 25. The longest consecutive time that centres were open was for seven days between July 25-July 31, and the hottest day of the summer—July 29—saw temperatures reach 35C.

Between the two centres, Flanagan said 2,616 people were served throughout the season—676 of whom were homeless. Families also frequented the centres, along with seniors and people of all ages, genders, and ethnic backgrounds.

Apart from the misting stations and cooling aspect, Flanagan said there were other services onsite at the centres—like harm reduction and wound care. Workers were also available to help people find shelter space.

“There was one homeless gentleman who was actually able to get into a detox centre. That wouldn’t have happened if we weren’t where we were,” Flanagan said.

She described the cooling centres as an “asset” to Burnaby’s emergency heat response plan, and recommended that the city invest more resources into the program next year. She said being open for 23 days in the summer led to fatigue and burnout among volunteers, and suggested some core funding be used to hire coordinators for each site.

Vibe check

Mayor Mike Hurley thanked Flanagan for her presentation and for her work over the summer, and noted that with the realities of climate change, extreme heat has become an eventuality that municipalities and regions have to plan for.

Non-residential EV chargers

A new motion submitted by Coun. Joe Keithley, who is running for re-election under the Burnaby Greens, seeks to explore how Burnaby can develop a bylaw requiring new non-residential developments to install electric vehicle charging stations.

Keithley’s motion says a rapid transition to zero-emission vehicles is necessary for Burnaby to meet its carbon reduction goals.

He notes that there are already bylaws in Burnaby requiring new residential developments to install EV charging stations, but the city “has not yet developed a similar bylaw requirement for parking stalls in new non-residential development, including commercial, institutional, industrial, and workplace uses”—something that other municipalities have already explored.

Vibe check

Coun. Pietro Calendino said that while he’s not opposed to the motion itself, he was disappointed at the “process”—because he said that he had previously asked the planning and development committee to examine similar actions.

Calendino suggested that the timing of Keithley’s motion was equivalent to “grandstanding because of election time.”

“So that disappoints me. Of course, Coun. Keithley is free to do whatever he wants, at any time. But again, I think that he was a member of the committee, and he was aware that we were asking staff to do something like this,” he said.

“In spite of this, I’ll be supporting the motion because I think we need to be heading towards carbon neutrality by 2050. And this can accomplish some of the goals, and will give staff more material to work on the direction I’d given.”

Johnston said he disagreed with Calendino’s characterization of “grandstanding,” saying councillors actually should be showing what they stand for in the weeks leading up to an election. He said he strongly supports the motion, and also wants to see the city making it easier for single-family homes to retrofit their buildings for EV charging.

“But as for the commercial buildings, this is where people are going to work. There’s that sector of the population that refuses to use transit, because it’s not convenient or whatever other reason. This is at least giving them the option to use electric charging and get that exhaust and such out of our atmosphere,” he said.

Dhaliwal said he would also support the motion, but agreed with Calendino that the timing was “suspect.”

Vote check:

Motion carried.

Rapid fire rezonings

Marine Way film studio: Coun. Alison Gu opposed a second reading for a rezoning that would allow a film studio to be built at 3990 Marine Way, in the Big Bend neighbourhood.

She said earlier this year that she didn’t approve of the project going to a public hearing, noting some objections to the city doing business with Larco Investments and Larco owner Mansoor Lalji.

Particularly, she pointed out that both Larco and Lalji were named in the Panama Papers, leaked documents that detail global tax evasion using offshore accounts.

Wayburne Avenue townhouses: Coun. Colleen Jordan opposed a third reading of a townhouse development on Wayburne Avenue near BCIT. The embattled project has seen a slew of opposition from area residents, although developers did promise to make some changes to their design after a lively public hearing on the matter.