Here’s what’s on the agenda at Burnaby’s Jan 24 council meeting

After a brief hiatus over the holidays and the start of the new year, city council is back for a 2022 that will hopefully be filled with lots of municipal fun. Maybe not fun of the nature that a public hearing in Vancouver was subjected to earlier this month, with a Bart Simpson-esque prank caller, but fun nonetheless!

City council’s first meeting of the year takes place Monday at 5pm; here’s a few of the items we’re keeping an eye on.

What do your property taxes look like for 2021-2022?

The BC Assessment earlier this month showed that the value of single-family homes in Burnaby significantly increased over the past year, with an average assessment increase of nearly 19%.

Given that that’s higher than the average increase of 13.06% for all residential properties, some owners will see property tax increases greater than the city’s rate increase of 2.95%. A report to the financial management committee shows that will likely translate to an average increase of about $200.

Owners of strata or mixed family dwellings, meanwhile, saw an assessment increase of an average 8.59%—meaning their property taxes will actually go down by an average of $11.83.

Mail-in ballots

It’s an election year! As we’ve reported a couple of times before, the city is looking at allowing residents to vote by mail in the upcoming civic election.

The city expects to send out mail-in ballots at large this election, with applications beginning in September.

A new report to council looks at how best to accommodate residents at care homes. A survey in Dec 2021 found the majority of facilities would prefer mail-in ballots for their residents over ‘special voting opportunities’ at traditional voting places.

Rapid housing initiative

The city’s general manager of planning and development, Ed Kozak, is asking council to approve a grant request of $8 million to support the construction of a non-market modular rental building to house women and children who are at risk of homelessness.

The four storey building at 8305 11th Ave, built by the Elizabeth Fry Society of Greater Vancouver, will support 58 units with the added $8 million in funding.

The city already approved the amount in principle last August, and Kozak is asking council to formalize that approval. The money would come from Burnaby’s Community Benefit Bonus Affordable Housing Reserve, and the city’s total contribution to the project would be $8,773,300.

But it comes after a denial of funding from the Canada Mortgage Housing Corporation’s Rapid Housing Initiative program. The city had applied for funding via two streams; the major cities stream, and the project stream. While funding was approved under the major cities stream in the amount of just over $11 million, it wasn’t approved under the project stream.