Council approves additional $7.3M for Brentwood Community Centre

Burnaby City Council started and ended its last meeting of the year with some holiday-related agenda items. The nearly three-hour meeting began with the distribution of Christmas cards and the recognition of the Burnaby schoolchildren who created the cards. 

“Tonight, we’re here to recognize some incredible young artists in our community. We’ve invited Burnaby students to submit their artwork for a holiday card for each council member to select their favourite design. Let me tell you, it was definitely not an easy pick,” Mayor Mike Hurley said. “Thank you to all 95 Grade 4 artists who took the time to share their drawings with us.” 

This was followed by the recognition of each of the nine schoolchildren whose designs were selected for each council member. Each student was called to receive a gift from council and to be part of a group photo. 

The meeting ended almost three hours later after heated discussions about the city’s various projects. Each council member showed off their linguistic skills by wishing Burnaby residents a happy holiday season in all the languages they speak, in the true spirit of modern-day Burnaby’s diversity. Coun. Pietro Calendino came ahead of all other council members; he wished the public a Merry Christmas in six languages!  

Brentwood Community Centre approved despite controversy

During the meeting on Dec. 16, council members discussed the necessity of the Brentwood Community Centre and whether the area really needs something of the sort. Although the council had approved the project, to the tune of $139 million back in 2022, and the city released renderings of the planned eight-storey community centre, some councillors believe the money is better spent elsewhere. 

Coun. Sav Dhaliwal was the first member of council to speak about the project. Dhaliwal opposed the idea of adding an extra podium park for $7.3 million and also questioned the project’s purpose in general. Dhaliwal said that the city is currently building several large projects, such as the Cameron Community Centre and the Burnaby Lake Recreation Complex, and the timing is not right for the Brentwood Centre. 

“A lot of things are happening, and I don’t believe that currently, the capacity is there for us to take on any other amenity at this time. Secondly, I think the facility is, in my view, very poorly designed. Less than half of the space that will be built will be programmable, which is a problem for the life of the amenity. And normally, when we build these amenities, they are 75% programmable space,” Dhaliwal said. “I want people to really take this seriously: there’s no parking at all, zero parking, neither for staff nor for the seniors or people with disabilities, people with families, with children.” 

Most of the council members supported the project, except Dhaliwal and Calendino.  

Calendino said the city should prioritize the Confederation Park Community Centre project, which was put on hold earlier this year.

“Prioritization of the Confed is shifted to the Brentwood Centre, and it is unfair to that community who has been waiting 12 years while this community Brentwood, most of the people in those areas don’t even know that we are planning this,” Calendino said. 

Most of the other council members supported the new centre, with some speaking more strongly in favour of it. 

“Not only do I think there is a desperate need in Brentwood for this type of amenity, I do think that we have to remember where Burnaby had its reserves from the $1.5 to $2 billion that fluctuated over the course of the last few years in reserves, and that came from growth,” said Coun. Alison Gu. “We need to be building amenities that benefit where the growth generated the revenue. It’s a fairness issue, but we also have a lot of other benefits, like the RCMP facility, that are going to benefit every resident in Burnaby. I think it’s about time that Brentwood got its fair share.”

Mayor Mike Hurley echoed Gu’s comments, adding that this centre is part of the area’s future planning. 

“In the northwest quadrant, we have 55,000 people. By 2041, we will have 80,000 people. So this is where the growth is happening. This is why we need to plan for the future,” Hurley said. 

Council also approved an additional $7.3 million in funding for the Brentwood Community Centre for a “podium park” on the roof, described in the council report as “additional public and programming space on the roof plus improved acoustics, durability and lighting.” 

Council discusses new Urban Forest Strategy 

The city’s new strategy for protecting and increasing the number of trees in Burnaby came to council on Dec. 16. The strategy outlines five “quick starts” or actions the city is already starting to take. 

• Establish an interdepartmental implementation team. 

• Review the Civic Tree Reserve Fund. 

• Explore new (external and internal) funding sources to support UFS implementation. 

• Update landscaping requirements and guidelines. 

• Update the Tree Bylaw and City Tree Management Policy for Public Lands to strengthen protection. 

The strategy also outlines six “big moves” or more long-term actions requiring more planning. 

• Embed City-managed natural assets into asset management planning. 

• Consider standardizing tree canopy cover/tree density targets, pervious area, and landscaped areas by land use.

• Develop a 10-year urban tree planting program. 

• Develop a 10-year natural area restoration planting program. 

• Explore the creation of a ‘Parks Tree Reserve Fund.’ 

• Expand community stewardship opportunities.

The strategy also aims to increase tree cover to 40% by 2075, and even the strategy team and staff members presenting it to council agreed that is an ambitious goal. 

Hurley asked how the city will manage and increase the tree canopy with the new provincial legislation around densification and the expected increase in density around Burnaby. 

“I think the strategy is an ambitious, aspirational target for all of us that I think there’s a lot of unknowns, especially with some of the changes that are happening or coming forward with the OCP,” said Melinda Yong, parks planner with the city. “The strategy really is an opportunity for the city and city staff to aim to improve tree canopy or maximize tree canopy with all the opportunities that it has, and I think with the performance targets of assessing where we are every five years, it’s also an opportunity for us to see how we’re doing in the five years and adjust those targets as required.” 

Gu called the new strategy “frustrating” and made some critical remarks about the pace of its implementation and the “inflexibility” of the funding and development permitting process.

“It’s still a plan to make more plans, and it’s quite frustrating. It’s been three and a half, almost four years of commitment towards this urban forestry strategy, and at the end of the day, it’s trees. I know it’s challenging to implement all of this, but it’s not rocket science, and the challenges and the barriers that are in place in large part, I see them as human-created,” Gu said. “They say the best day to plant a tree was 100 years ago. The next best day is to plant one now, and we’re going to end up wishing we had planted trees 20 years ago or 30 years ago.”

Burnaby residents will have the opportunity to vote on different aspects of the strategy and provide feedback when the next round of public engagement on the Urban Forest Strategy begins in January or February 2025.  

This piece was made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.

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