Direct democracy in action: Burnaby Community Assembly wraps up its work

This year, Burnaby became one of a handful of municipalities that initiated a planning process for the city’s future that heavily involved input from the community. The Burnaby 2050 official community planning process has many moving parts, gaps, and issues. It also involves multiple layers of engagement with the community and host nations.

As part of a parallel process in creating the official community plan (OCP), the city partnered with the SFU Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue to form an assembly comprising 40 community members who would help create the OCP. 

“Burnaby is the first city that we know of in Canada to commission an assembly to look at its official community plan. Together with Gibsons and with the city of New Westminster, it is part of a cohort of cities right now that are doing this type of really innovative work in BC right now,” said Robin Prest, chair of the assembly and program director at the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue. 

“Our hope is that there will be future processes with Burnaby, but also that the work that Burnaby has done will become a precedent that encourages other cities to follow suit and to really raise the bar as far as what residents and decision-makers expect from each other,” Prest added. 

Within less than six months, the assembly thoroughly examined the city. Its members met with experts from multiple fields who spoke about the logistics and costs of running the city. The 40 members also went on guided tours throughout Burnaby, where they could see, in person, the connections between the city’s various parts. 

The assembly met with members of the Board of Trade, the Burnaby District Parent Advisory Council, the city’s Youth Advisory Council for the OCP, and community groups in Edmonds, among others. The meetings aimed to educate assembly members on the inner workings of the city and its different moving parts to help inform their recommendations for the future. 

“It’s one thing to have a conversation about transportation or housing or climate change or density or livability in the city but to be able to talk about how all those different issues impact each other and how to create the best holistic future for the city, that’s what all those interactions in the process allow them to do,” Prest said. 

The experience of “direct democracy”

The Beacon spoke with several members of the Burnaby Community Assembly, each with a unique perspective on their experience with the assembly. They each agreed that it was a positive experience to interact, converse, discuss, and listen to one another. 

Prest has referred to the assembly on multiple occasions as the most diverse and representative group of people in Burnaby. Although some groups were not represented, such as people struggling with homelessness, the organizers made every effort to include as many people from various backgrounds as possible. 

“I think it would be an unrealistic expectation that most people experiencing homelessness could dedicate seven Saturdays when they have other urgent priorities on their minds, and that’s why the assembly is, I think, a really important achievement,” Prest said. 

For some assembly members, this was an enlightening and engaging experience. Gloria Cooper, a mortgage specialist who has lived in Burnaby for 50 years, found it eye-opening to listen to people with life experiences vastly different from hers. 

“One thing that I really liked was the diverse group of people,” Cooper said. “A lot of times, we stay in our own little bubbles, and my bubble got a lot bigger. Because we had a lot of one-on-one and group discussions that made you realize, wow, I never thought of that before.”

Jess Li, a telecom company tech support agent, was skeptical about the assembly at first, wondering if it would deliver on its promises of inclusivity and diversity. 

“I wanted to see if it was really what it said it was going to be, that it was going to be diverse to basically represent the population and demographics at large of the city of Burnaby,” Li told the Beacon. “I was curious to see if it was actually going to be sort of like a bunch of more well-off people who have the time to go to, you know, daytime meetings and council.” 

Li found that the discussions were surprisingly positive and people from vastly different backgrounds were able to find common ground in envisioning the city’s future. 

“The thing that surprised me the most at first was that regardless of background, income levels, age groups, everyone was concerned about housing,” Li said. “That included homeowners, renters, people who were living with family. So it’s not just renters. It’s not just people who are trying to find rentals or worried about being evicted, who are concerned about housing. It’s literally everybody.” 

Assembly member Ray McDonald, a stream keeper at Byrne Creek and board member at the Burnaby Lake Park Association, shared a similar experience. McDonald survived a stroke several years ago that resulted in partial vision loss, and subsequently survived being hit by a car while crossing Kingsway. McDonald is also an advocate for Vision Zero, a strategy to eliminate pedestrian deaths and injuries that is part of Burnaby’s official transportation plan. 

“We discussed all kinds of things, anything that could affect the life of people in Burnaby going forward that would improve their lives or accommodate more people coming in. Two big topics I brought forward were pedestrian traffic safety, specifically wanting the city to get more serious about bringing in Vision Zero,” McDonald said. “The range of ideas expressed by everybody was great. The preliminary work they did with us in fostering a sense of community and of accepting others’ ideas willingly was excellent.”

McDonald added that despite the differences in ideas and opinions expressed, people were respectful, listened to one another, and made every effort to empathize. 

Joseph Rzeplinski echoed the same sentiments, adding that assembly members tried to find common ground despite political ideology or affiliation. 

“It was very interesting as well that people didn’t break up or separate, saying, ‘Oh, I’m from this kind of political party, or I’ve got this kind of philosophy.’ We got around that by going back to our interests,” Rzeplinski said. “We actually have to engage with each other as neighbours, and we have the power and the opportunity to respond positively.”

Housing at the top of everyone’s mind

The assembly’s recommendations covered several key areas, including the OCP’s vision statement for Burnaby’s future, land use, accessibility, growth and density, and housing and affordability. 

Every single assembly member the Beacon spoke with had the issue of housing affordability as their main priority. Despite their diverse backgrounds, income levels, ages, and abilities, this microcosm of Burnaby residents recognizes the importance of housing affordability for the city’s future. 

Rzeplinski, who works with Canada Post, often sees the effects of housing insecurity daily. 

“I recall from a medical geography course that housing is actually the number one element of health,” he said. “When I go downtown and other places, I see people who are ill-housed or under-housed or have insecure housing. It actually shows up in their bodies after a few years.” 

For Li, the issue of housing affordability was also a number one priority, but for different reasons.

“I had a personal interest because I live in one of the buildings in Metrotown that are going to be torn down, and high rises are going to be built in its place. Burnaby has a tenant assistance policy for people who are going to be evicted or demovicted, or because of the zoning of buildings, but I don’t qualify for that assistance policy,” Li said. 

Li added that there are gaps in the system that cause some people to be left behind and struggle to get the assistance they need. 

If you had to do it all over again…

Once council has had an opportunity to review the assembly’s 24 recommendations and provide feedback, and the city completes its draft OCP, the assembly will reconvene early next year to give its input on the OCP.  

Some assembly members said they would happily join the conversation again, but others cited time constraints. All assembly members are volunteers who dedicated many hours of their time over almost six months to the process. It may be too much to ask them to continue dedicating their time on an ongoing basis, but Prest does think the process could have benefited from more time. 

“There’s only so much you can do on seven Saturdays, although that’s an extraordinary amount of time compared to the average two-hour workshop somebody might attend for a municipal engagement activity. At the same time, the longer you make it, the less accessible it becomes,” Prest said. “We’re always trying to design something that weighs all those different important factors as far as accessibility, as far as depth of discussion, as far as breadth of representation.” 

“It’s always important to remember that that is one of a constellation of engagement activities that are important to make sure that the city is making decisions that are in the best interest of everyone,” Prest said. 

For more on the recommendations and how they will affect Burnaby’s future, make sure to read the Beacon’s coverage in the coming days.

This piece was made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.

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