Remember all the headlines of 2017? Here are some of the highlights we found as we went back through our archives for the past year:
January
After 18 hours of labour and an emergency C-section, baby Maximus make his debut at Burnaby Hospital. He is the first baby born at the hospital in 2017. “We’re just glad he’s out and there’s no problems with him,” says dad Kevin Tam.
Property values in parts of the city shot up 50 per cent. For instance, the value of a typical single-family home in the Buckingham neighbourhood built in 1971 is now worth $2.72 million – up 46 per cent over 2016, says B.C. Assessment.
Protesters brave freezing temperatures to show their opposition to Kinder Morgan’s expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline. Around 50 members of Burnaby Residents Opposing Kinder Morgan Expansion banged drums and chanted outside the Executive Plaza in Coquitlam while upstairs, Trans Mountain staff hosted an open house inside.
Wynn (Winifred) Richmond leaves more than $600,000 to the Burnaby Retired Teachers’ Association Scholarship and Bursary Foundation. It was the former Burnaby teacher’s dying wish that the retired teachers’ association provide a scholarship in her name to Burnaby high school students who plan to study at a B.C. university and become teachers.
The B.C. government gives the green light to Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project. The province says the company has met its five conditions, which includes: a successful environmental re-view; world-leading marine oil spill response and prevention plans; First Nations participation; and a fair share of the economic benefits.
Streamkeepers say high salt levels in local waterways is a threat to salmon eggs nestled in the gravel of the creek beds. The city confirms creeks that flow off Burnaby Mountain are experiencing higher-than-normal salt levels above the allowable 600 milligrams per litre set out in B.C.’s water quality guidelines.
Burnaby Village Museum moves forward on plans to overhaul its school programs. The museum wants to get its teaching strategies in line with the new B.C. curriculum’s focus on aboriginal perspectives by creating programming that explores First Nations’ connections to Burnaby. To help make this a reality, the museum has partnered with the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh and Kwantlen First Nations.
The Burnaby school district receives $2 million from the provincial government to hire new teachers. The money is Burnaby’s share an extra $50 million in funding the province is rolling out following the Supreme Court of Canada ruling that sided with B.C. teachers in a battle over contract language related to the size and composition of classes.
The City of Burnaby is on the hunt for a new finance director. Current finance director Denise Jorgenson plans to retire and a search is underway for her replacement. The finance director oversees a half-billion-dollar annual operation that has a near billion-dollar reserve.
February
Masjid al-Salaam and Education Centre imam Yahya Momla warns the local Muslim community not to give in to fear after a deadly shooting at a Quebec City mosque. “This was an isolated incident. It was an act of cowardice. We should still be strong as a community and stand united, and show individuals like this what we’re not going to be scared of them,” he says.
Father-and-son duo Craig and Orion McCaw invite everyone to checkout the newly renovated planetarium at BCIT. The men run Roundhouse Productions, a laser and light show company that for 30 years ran the shows at the H.R. MacMillan Planetarium before moving to BCIT IN 2015. To the BCIT planetarium, they’ve added a full dome digital video projection, RGB lasers and 360 sound.
Burnaby Family Life shuts down its Metrotown location after a flood. A small leak in the bathroom because of a clogged pipe turned into a big problem when crews cleared the pipe of what turned out to be grease only to discover more clogs, which flooded the entire office. Repairs are expected to be complete in April.
City officials worry flooding could become a big problem after the most recent dump of snow. Erik Schmidt, the roads and drainage superintendent, tells the NOW that all available crews are out clearing catch basins and removing snow banks.
After months of speculations, New Westminster-Burnaby MP Peter Julian announces he is running for leader of the federal NDP. “It’s time to make the priority regular folks rather than the rich and the well-connected,” he tells a group of supporters an event in New West. Julian says his campaign will focus on tackling inequality between the “top one per cent” and the majority of Canadians by ending tax breaks for the wealthy and shutting down tax havens.
Twenty-five low-income Burnaby residents living at Stratford Gardens lose their homes in a fire. “The fire suite was gutted. ... The fire came out the glass doors, so there was charring on the outside of the building and heavy, extensive smoke damage to the rest of the building. It’s not inhabitable right now because everything in contaminated,” says assistant fire chief Barry Mawhinney. There were no injuries and a three cats and one rabbit were rescued from the flames.
Residents receive letters from Trans Mountain alerting them that they live on the proposed pipeline route for the twinned pipeline. The company must alert all affected landowners in writing and any landowners opposing the plan must reply with a statement of opposition within 30 days.
A 36-year-old Pitt Meadowns man dies in a car crash on Lougheed Highway near Production Way. Police say the driver was travelling eastbound when he veered off the road and into a pole. Speed was a factor, say Burnaby RCMP.
March
New Westminster-Burnaby MP Peter Julian is endorsed by four Quebec MPs in his bid to be elected leader of the federal NDP. “This is something that doesn’t happen very often, that you get that kind of endorsement from back east for a B.C. candidate running for the NDP leadership,” Julian tells the NOW.
Riverside residents call on the city to clean up the mess at the site of the old Globe Foundry on Willard Street. Mattresses, construction debris, old appliances and piles of trash litter the site. It is unbearable, say residents. “It’s the ugliest place in the neighbourhood,” says Elena Zhukova. City staff says it’s trying to get the property owner to comply with the city’s bylaws but it takes time.
Burnaby students at Moscrop Secondary school make quilts and fabric bones for the dogs at the Burnaby SPCA. The upcycling project is part of a new textiles class offered to students in grades 9 to 12 at the high school.
A family and two international students narrowly escapes a fiery blaze at their 10th Avenue home. They lost almost everything, so the community rallies together and raises more than $10,000 to help with costs for the family.
Trustee Meiling Chia calls out Burnaby school district for covering the costs of a trip to China four district officials. Chia says in past years, anyone who wanted to go on the trip had to pay their own way. The decision to have the district pay this year was never discussed in a public meeting, she says. She calls the trip a “super waste of money” and says it could cost taxpayers more than $37,000.
The Crown argues a former Burnaby school bookkeeper be sentenced to time in prison after she was found guilty of two counts of fraud over $5,000. “There would be a high risk that she reoffend because she fails to appreciate that she committed these offences,” says the Crown.
Teacher-librarians are a hot commodity thanks to a Supreme Court ruling in the previous year that restored class size, class-composition and specialist-teacher ratio provisions that were stripped from the teachers’ contracts in 2002. The ruling means school districts have to have one teacher-librarian for every 702 students.
Luminescence II lights up the night at the Deer Lake Gallery. The art show featuring two- and three-dimensional artwork is a celebration of light and marks the spring equinox. The show follows last year’s successful Luminescence, which saw thousands of people wait hours to get in.
It is not the ending the city was hoping for. After a two-and-a-half-year legal battle, the B.C. Court of Appeal rules against the City of Burnaby, confirming the National Energy Board can override municipal bylaws. The city had launched the lawsuit back in 2014 when Trans Mountain started cutting down trees in the conservation area on Burnaby Mountain. The news was disappointing to Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan. “They (the courts) have a great deal of faith in the National Energy Board and that the NEB has the best interest of Canada in mind in its ruling, and unfortunately, that hasn’t been true.”
An RCMP officer who shot a 35-year-old man after a fatal stabbing at a Burnaby home in 2015 is cleared of wrongdoing by the Independent Investigations Office, the province’s police watchdog. The shooting victim, a suspect in the stabbing, died later that day in hospital. The chief civilian director found that the officer did not commit any offence during the incident.
APRIL
Burnaby Hospital gets some good news. The province announces it will kick in $8.8 million toward building a new emergency mental-health and substance-use zone and consolidating outpatient clinics currently scattered around the hospital. After waiting years for funding, medical staff at the health-care facility say they’ll take what they can get. Work on the project is set to begin immediately and is scheduled to be complete in 2020.
The 2017 homeless count takes place and Burnaby’s homeless population shows an increase by 19 per cent when compared to 2014 data. The 24-hour snapshot shows of 69 homeless people, 49 of whom are unsheltered, meaning they live outside, sleeping in alleys, doorways, parks and in cars. Wanda Mulholland, organizer of the count, says “it’s a crisis that can’t be ignored,” adding since the last count in 2014, 24 Burnaby citizens have died, with 15 in the last year.
A woman is hit by a car on Hastings Street as she tries to save her dog. The 30-year-old rushed into the street after her pooch, “just that natural instinct to protect another person or pet from injury,” according to Burnaby deputy fire Chief Chris Bowcock. Emergency crews provide first aid to the woman, who was rushed to hospital with life-threatening injuries.
Katrina Chen, the B.C. NDP’s candidate for Burnaby-Lougheed, apologizes for a “poor choice of words.” During a TV interview in Taiwan in 2012, she told the reporter Indo-Canadians don’t know much about politics and only run because they want the profile. In April 2017, Chen said those comments didn’t represent her views, and that she has a lot of respect for many of the South Asian families she’s worked with over the last decade.
Local resident Marcello Battiston strikes it rich when he wins $25.9 million in the Lotto Max draw. He purchased his winning ticket at International News at the Brentwood mall and is shocked to learn he’d won. The Burnaby man says he plans to use the money to help his family and has plans for a trip to Hawaii with his wife.
Chevron Canada Ltd. sells its Burnaby refinery for $1.46 billion to Parkland Fuel Corp. As part of the deal, Parkland also acquires 37 commercial card lock stations, three marine fueling stations and 129 Chevron-branded retail service stations, in addition to the 44 it’s already operating in eastern B.C. The company also takes over aviation fuel sales at Vancouver International Airport.
With the provincial election weeks away, Christy Clark makes a stop in Burnaby. She takes a tour of D-Wave Systems, an international leader in quantum computing. The company, founded in 1999, introduced the world’s first commercially available quantum computer system in 2011.
The Wildlife Rescue Association of B.C. announces it has gutted its animal hospital after a harsh winter. Staff at the Burnaby-based facility run into water damage, wood rot and a rat infestation – something they credit to the brutal winter that had passed. Wildlife technicians find at least a dozen rat entries when the building is emptied in February. The board of directors isn’t sure whether it will renovate the existing facility or bring in a modular unit.
MAY
The B.C. NDP take all of Burnaby’s four ridings in the provincial election, with Raj Chouhan, Anne Kang, Katrina Chen and Janet Routledge declared the winners. The New Democrats pickup two seats in Burnaby, with Liberal incumbent Richard Lee failing to hang on for another term in Burnaby North, and Liberal Karen Wang not securing enough votes in Burnaby-Deer Lake. Overall, the B.C. Liberals fall short of a majority and are defeated in a confidence vote. With the support of the B.C. Greens, B.C. NDP leader John Horgan becomes premier.
Longtime volunteers Jim and Lindy McQueen are the City of Burnaby’s Outstanding Citizens of the Year for 2016. The couple first started volunteering in 2005 after they retired. They have donated thousands of hours to different organizations, including the Edmonds City Fair and Classic Car Show, the Edmonds Festival of Lights and the Taekwondo World Championships. “I guess what we do is we just consider it fun and when the opportunities present themselves, we go and do it,” says Lindy.
Ryan Voutilainen says farewell after two decades with the Burnaby chapter of the B.C. SPCA. The branch manager gets a new gig with the Delta Community Animal Shelter. Voutilainen started working at the SPCA when he was 19 years old, studying meteorology at Simon Fraser University. One thing led to another and he would go on to work at every single branch in the Lower Mainland.
Thieves steal from the Burnaby Gogos. Gail Roberts had about $900 worth of denim children’s wear in her car when she went to Vancouver to see a ballet. When she returned to her vehicle, both windows had been smashed in and the merchandise was gone. The event is upsetting for the Gogos because they sell the denim to raise money for the Grandmothers to Grandmothers campaign. The campaign supports African grandmothers carrying for children orphaned by AIDS.
A young family gets a rude welcome to Burnaby. Two weeks after moving to the city from Vancouver, a burglar breaks into their home, in a neighbourhood north of Lougheed Town Centre. Thousands of dollars’ worth of cash, computers, sound gear and family jewelry are taken. After the incident, a friend launches a GoFundMe crowdfunding campaign to raise money for the family.
Curl B.C. names Burnaby’s Sterling Middleton as the 2017 Junior Male Athlete of the Year (along with Langley’s Tyler Tardi). Middleton’s squad becomes the first B.C. men’s team to capture the Canadian junior men’s title since 2000, and competes at the 2017 world junior championships in South Korea.
Longtime social activist Betty Griffin dies at the age of 94. The teacher spent a decade pushing for teachers’ pensions to be indexed to the cost of living, which came to fruition in 1980. Griffin also helped implement a locally run plan for Burnaby teachers who ran out of sick leave. She served as the Burnaby Teachers Association president and was part of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation’s negotiating committee for 14 years, helping establish a collective agreement for Burnaby teachers before there was even a union. She was spotted out on the picket line well into her 90s.
A 200-pound black bear makes an appearance near Cascade Heights Elementary School. The three-year-old bruin, which had been up in a tree, was eventually shot with a tranquilizer dart. The bear is euthanized after being captured. Reports show it had come from the Deer Lake area and had been pressing father into Vancouver, triggering nine garbage and compost complaints.
JUNE
Eighteen North Burnaby homes are evacuated after a resident calls Fortis B.C. to report a smell of rotten eggs. A technician sent to the scene determines another company working on a sewer line had punctured a gas line in the laneway behind 4060 Eton. St. Residents are taken by bus to the Confederation Community Centre, where they waited for about two-and-a-half hours. There are no injuries as a result of the incident.
A Burnaby parent takes the school district to task for blocking a school trip to London, England because of terrorism concerns. Alpha Secondary School parent Stuart Ramsey makes a slideshow presentation to school trustees, one that combines terrorism and traffic-related statistics and shows students are actually less safe in Canada than London. The one-week trip includes three West End show, theatre workshops and visits to the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace. After the presentation, board chair Ron Burton says the district needs to weigh educational value versus risk.
Two McGill University students, including one from Burnaby, set out on two wheels and ride across Canada in protest of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain expansion project. Alison Gu and Sarah Mitchell set a fundraising goal of $4,461, a dollar for each kilometre travelled. The money is for the Pull Together campaign, which supports First Nations and their legal battles against Kinder Morgan. The pair start in Ottawa and end in Burnaby.
A Surrey woman makes the news after hitting two flaggers in Burnaby – on 10th Avenue near Kingsway – and then taking off. An online video of one of the hit-and-runs shows an SUV stopped in front of a female flagger, who is then knocked down and run over after stepping in to stop the SUV from merging into a moving line of traffic. After police arrive to the scene, they learn of a woman assaulting two children, and find out it’s the suspect driver in the hit-and-run. The woman is taken into custody.
A serial armed robber from the Yukon who once escaped custody by running shoeless from a Whitehorse courtroom is arrested in Burnaby. Transit Police found Richard Linklater, who was under a 10-year long-term supervision order, forcing his way through a faregate at the Edmonds SkyTrain station. Linklater lies about his name, according to police, but eventually gives his real name, leading to the discovery of a warrant. Linklater, who has 50 adult convictions, including eight violence offence, is taken into custody without incident.
JULY
A possible end is in sight for a Burnaby man who has been lobbying for a change to the Criminal Code since his sister was killed in a car accident on Feb. 28, 2005. George Sojka has been petitioning the federal government to change the law when it comes to obtaining a warrant to get a blood sample – an amendment that Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould is putting forward with Bill C-46.
The Burnaby Arts Council gets turned down by the City of Burnaby in its long ongoing quest for a new art gallery. A city staff report says the city will not support a new art gallery and that the need for the project isn’t widely accepted by the community. But the arts council’s David Handelman is critical of the report, saying it “doesn’t express much of a vision” for arts in the city.
About 13,000 people turn out to Deer Lake Park under sunny skies for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s Symphony in the Park event – another resounding success for the always popular concert.
The Burnaby Art Gallery marks 50 years in operation at Ceperley House in Deer Lake Park. Over its five decades in operation, the gallery has built a national reputation for its collection dedicated to works on paper.
A plan announced during the 2014 municipal election campaign to triple child-care spaces in Burnaby is inching forward – but it’s unlikely to produce a single new child-care space before the next municipal election, according to city staff. The city approves a plan to spend $300,000 on assessments at six school sites and detailed design for the first facility.
Burnaby firefighters are in the thick of the battle against wildfires burning in B.C.’s Interior. Two engine companies, including a captain and three firefighters each, along with a support vehicle and supply trailer, are deployed to Williams Lake.
Ten years have passed since the day oil rained down on Burnaby, and a Burnaby NOW special report looks back on what happened on July 24, 2007, when a 24-inch oil pipeline on Inlet Drive was ruptured by a construction crew. “It was one of the hardest days of my entire career,” remembers Lambert Chu, Burnaby’s city manager, who was then the chief engineer.
The body of 13-year-old Marrisa Shen is found in Central Park. Her family reported her missing just after 11:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 18, and her body was found in brush in the southeast corner of the park at about 1:10 a.m. on Wednesday, July 19. Investigators urge residents to be vigilant. Police confirm the death is a homicide and later reveal they believe Shen’s killer was in fact a stranger in a random attack.
Burnaby MLA Katrina Chen is the only one of four Burnaby NDP representatives to be named to cabinet, after Premier John Horgan names her minister of state for child care.
More than 30 protesters with the Stop Demovictions campaign take over council chambers during a meeting at Burnaby city hall. Burnaby city council takes a recess while the protest continues for two hours. Once Burnaby RCMP are called in and the protesters leave, city council resumes and passes its controversial Metrotown development plan.
A pedestrian overpass collapses after a truck heading east on Beaverbrook Drive from Eastlake Road smashes into it. The driver had been in the process of lowering the truck’s box but didn’t get it down in time to avoid hitting the overpass.
AUGUST
The city finds itself in a cloud of smog as Metro Vancouver issues an air quality advisory, citing high concentrations of “fine particulate matter” coming from the wildfires burning in the B.C. Interior and Washington State.
The city welcomes 13 new eco-sculptures to its collection – a baker’s dozen of owls, taking up residence in Central Park. The city opted for 13 sculptures to have one representing each Canadian province and territory, helping to mark the country’s 150th anniversary.
The Burnaby-based Wildlife Rescue Association of B.C. is asking people to be vigilant and watch for animals showing signs of distress during the ongoing heatwave. The heat is a particular concern for nesting birds such as gulls, cormorants and songbirds.
While B.C.’s New Democrats have vowed to “use every tool in the tool box” to stop the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion, the company says it’s forging ahead with construction in the next month. The controversial Trans Mountain pipeline project received federal approval in 2016. Meanwhile, the provincial NDP government names Thomas Berger as its external counsel for all legal actions related to the pipeline.
A squirrel wreaks havoc at a Burnaby cheese factory after it chews through a piece of equipment on a hydro pole and starts a power pole fire that knocks out power at the Scardillo Cheese factory. The company loses about 82,000 litres of milk during the outage.
The death of a 22-year-old man after an altercation at a Burnaby Starbucks in July is being investigated as a homicide. Michael Page-Vincelli died after getting into an argument outside the Starbucks with a woman who had tossed a cigarette butt from a car window. Witnesses said the woman went into a nearby bank and came out with a man, and they both followed Page-Vincelli into the Starbucks – where he was punched and struck his head on the counter.
The Burnaby Blues + Roots Festival is a success once again, as thousands of concertgoers turn out at Deer Lake Park to enjoy two stages of music, headlined by Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue.
The Burnaby Fire Department reminds residents not to smoke or cook in any of Burnaby’s tinder-dry parks after a 1,000-square-foot duff fire in the middle of Central Park. Firefighters were called to the park at about 7:15 a.m. on Aug. 11, where they found about 1,000 square feet of the forest floor smouldering with lots of smoke but no visible flames.
Just-released election spending reports show that former Liberal MLA Richard Lee spent the most money on his re-election campaign when compared to the other candidates who ran in Burnaby's four ridings.According to financial reports released by Elections B.C., Lee - who lost the riding of Burnaby North to NDP candidate Janet Routledge by 2,157 votes - spent $141,567. All of that money came from the B.C. Liberal Party.Routledge spent $99,720, receiving $87,196 from the B.C. NDP and another $14,113 from unions.
Burnaby firefighters are heroes once again as they rescue a man trapped on a balcony and a small white dog caught in a smoky apartment after a three-alarm fire at a Burnaby apartment building. The fire started in a third-floor apartment at the back of the three-storey walk-up on Balmoral Street.Seven engines, three ladder trucks and about 45 firefighters responded to the blaze, which scorched two units and smoke-damaged the entire third floor.
The union representing more than 600 Blue Cross workers is set to head to mediation on Sept. 8 and 9, two months after workers were locked out by the company. CUPE Local 1618 and the Burnaby-based benefits provider remain at an impasse over wages and retiree benefits. In fact, they also remain at an impasse over whether the job action was, in fact, a lockout (as the union says) or a strike (as management says).
A Burnaby nine-year-old dominates grown-ups and kids alike to win his section of the 45th annual World Open chess tournament in Philadelphia. Daniel Wong, a Sperling Elementary School student, earns $8,000 for the win.
Doing away with tolls on the Port Mann and Golden Ears bridges is good news for Burnaby, according to city councillor Colleen Jordan. She said the elimination of tolling will help to ease traffic in Burnaby because the polls ended up putting pressure on the Pattullo Bridge and Canada Way.
SEPTEMBER
Two officers involved in the fatal shooting of an armed man who had just shot to death his estranged wife’s boyfriend are cleared of criminal wrongdoing by B.C.’s police watchdog. The Independent Investigations Office reports that the two Burnaby officers shot the man when he pointed a loaded, bayonet-mounted rifle at them during a tense incident in September of 2015. The man was high on a cocktail of drugs and alcohol.
Trans Mountain has met all the pre-construction conditions for the expansion of the Westridge Marine Terminal in Burnaby, according to the National Energy Board. The company says construction at the terminal is scheduled to start this month.
As vacancy rates have shrunk and rents soared, Burnaby has lost more purpose-built market rental housing units over the past six years than any other Metro Vancouver municipality. Since 2006, Burnaby has seen a net loss of 478 units, according to data from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
The Burnaby fire department sends its sixth deployment to the B.C. Interior to help fight the Elephant Hill wildfire, east of Highway 97 between 70 Mile House and 100 Mile House, after hot, dry weather breathed new life into the blaze.
Burnaby RCMP are looking for witnesses after a double stabbing at a South Burnaby townhouse complex. Two men, a 21-year-old from Vancouver and a 20-year-old from Burnaby, suffered non-life-threatening injuries in an incident on 14th Avenue.
The labour dispute between Pacific Blue Cross and CUPE Local 1816 comes to an end after both sides ratify a six-year collective agreement with the help of mediator Vince Ready.
A North Burnaby resident starts a petition in hopes of getting the city to fast track the approval of laneway housing in her neighbourhood. Lucy Abreo, who cares for her 90-year-old mother, says her family could benefit from having a laneway home where she and her mother could live – while her son and his wife could move into the main house.
Burnaby celebrates World Rivers Day – an international event that began in Burnaby when Mark Angelo organized the first-ever B.C. Rivers Day 37 years ago. The inaugural event was a cleanup of the Thompson River. It has since expanded to include all kinds of cleanup and other events focusing on rivers and waterways all over the world.
The City of Burnaby is looking for public feedback on a new twin-rinks ice complex planned for 10th Avenue and 18th Street in the Edmonds neighbourhood. The complex, expected to be about 70,000 square feet, will boast a skate shop, concession, change rooms and plenty of lobby amenities.
Simon Fraser University’s sports teams find themselves under scrutiny – not for the quality of their play, but for their name. The SFU Clan is the subject of a petition after Holly Andersen, an SFU philosophy professor originally from Montana, starts a campaign to have the name changed in light of Neo-Nazi and Klan rallies in the U.S.
Keith Beedie, an iconic figure in Burnaby business, passes away. The founder and patriarch of the Beedie Development Group dies at age 91 on Sept. 20. Beedie and his second wife Betty, whom he married in 1966, formed the Keith and Betty Beedie Foundation, which became known for its charitable efforts – with major donations to Burnaby Hospital, SFU and others.
The Burnaby Citizens Association president says the organization will adjust if corporate and union civic election donations are banned – even though almost all of the half-million dollars it collected in 2014 came from those sources. Gord Larkin, president of the party – which currently occupies all the seats on Burnaby city council and school board – says the organization is not opposed to changes being proposed by the provincial NDP.
OCTOBER
A gondola up Burnaby Mountain is back on the front burner after being included under “major projects” in the Mayors’ Council’s 10-year vision update for transit and transportation. The idea of a gondola first surfaced years before but was scrapped in favour of other transit projects, like the Evergreen Line. Anticipated environmental benefits and growing transportation needs on the mountain puts it back on the menu.
Byrne Creek Community School is evacuated on a Monday morning after bullet holes are discovered in the school. RCMP would eventually confirm the shots were fired over the weekend, but students and staff already at the school at about 7:45 a.m. are cleared out after staff discover four or five bullet holes.
St. Thomas More Collegiate High School staff and students mourn the death of longtime teacher and coach Bernie Kully after his death from esophageal cancer, less than a year after he was diagnosed. The 41-year-old graduated from the Catholic independent school in 1994 and returned as a teacher, counsellor and coach in 2000.
Bike cops take a bite out of street-level drug dealing while responding to a hit-and-hit on Glenlyon Parkway. A 19-year-old suspect tried to flee the scene, but was chased down by RCMP bike section members. In the course of the investigation, cops seized drugs and $3,000 in cash.
Maywood Community School gets a donation of 4,000 books to give away to students for free thanks to First Book Canada, a non-profit dedicated to getting books in the hands of low-income kids and the Love Child Organics baby food company.
A lawsuit with the potential to stop the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain expansion project begins in the Federal Court of Appeal. The case, which included seven First Nations groups, the cities of Vancouver and Burnaby and environmental organizations, argued the National Energy Board didn’t properly review the proposal or consult and accommodate Aboriginal groups along the pipeline.
A contractor sues the City of Burnaby for nearly $900,000 in unpaid extra work it claims it did replacing an old culvert and stabilizing a creek bed. Some of the extra work the company did happened after a boot from one of its workers got sucked into a pump, causing the diverted stream to flow through construction area.
An audit six months after the city switched to bi-weekly garbage collection shows residents upping their recycling efforts. The diversion rate increased by 5.8 per cent for green waste and 5.6 per cent for recyclables.
The Wildlife Rescue Association of B.C. suggests smoke from forest fires raging in the B.C. Interior could be behind an “extreme” number of migratory birds smashing into windows. The centre’s animal hospital attended 300 wounded birds. “This is not normal,” said manager Janelle Stephenson.
Burnaby is ranked tops for cats on Amazon Canada’s annual list of cities with the most pampered pets. In rankings compiled by comparing the number of items purchased per capita for pets on amazon.ca, the city ranked first for felines and fifth for all pets.
After a year of unsuccessfully trying to reinvent itself, Sears Canada gets court approval to shut down all its remaining stores, including those at Brentwood Town Centre and Metropolis at Metrotown.The Metrotown store, first opened at 4750 Kingsway in 1954 before moving to Metropolis, employed 99 people, while the Brentwood store employed 122.
The City of Burnaby adopts measures to make local parks safer three months after 13-year-old Marrisa Shen was found killed in Central Park. Council approved six safety measures, including bike patrols by uniformed bylaw officers and security cameras at key access points.
Local Mounties sound the alarm after a Bitcoin scam hooks three local residents in one month. Posing as tax collectors and cops, the fraudsters contacted family and said Bitcoin payments were required for bail or to avoid arrest. One victim was swindled out of $28,000.
A 28-year-old Vancouver man driving through Burnaby with his mother -- and 21 pounds of pot -- is pulled over at Grandview Highway and Boundary Road for talking on his cell phone. After an officer noticed the smell of pot, a search revealed 43 Ziploc bags of pot and $1,000 in cash.
Anti-pipeline protesters stage a “die-in” at the Production Way SkyTrain, outside Public Safety Canada’s regional office, and deliver a letter to Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale raising safety concerns over the Kinder Morgan tank farm expansion. Protester lay on the ground pretending to be dead, while others in hazmat suits carried them off in stretchers.
A flotilla of kayaks and canoes carrying anti-pipeline protesters from North Vancouver to Burnaby seeks to disrupt construction at Kinder Morgan’s Westridge Marine Terminal in the Burrard Inlet. The $7.4 billion Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project includes the construction a new dock complex at the terminal.
NOVEMBER
Mayor Derek Corrigan says Kinder Morgan tried to bully the City of Burnaby to speed up the permitting process around the $7.4 billion Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project. Corrigan said Kinder Morgan president Ian Anderson stopped by his office to complain about delays and put pressure on him “to do something.” The mayor said he had told the president his hands were tied and city staff were just doing their job.
New Westminster-Burnaby MP Peter Julian is appointed house leader of the NDP by newly elected New Democrat party leader Jagmeet Singh. Julian had stepped down as house leader the previous year to take a run at the leadership. He had been official Opposition house leader between 2014 and 2015.
Bonny’s Taxi applies to the Passenger and Transportation Board to approve 22 extra vehicles to add to its fleet of 141 cabs. The Burnaby-based company said it needed the extra taxis to meet its goal of picking passengers up within 10 minutes. Population growth and fewer people owning cars have led to increased demand, according to Bonny’s.
Mayor Derek Corrigan says his Burnaby Citizens Association party is “going to live with it,” after the B.C. NDP introduces legislation to ban corporate, union and out-of-province donations and cap individual donations at $1,200 per year. During the previous 2014 election, the BCA pulled in more than half a million dollars in corporate and union donations.
B.C.’s police watchdog steps in to investigate after a man suffers serious but non-life-threatening injuries during a nighttime collision between his van and an RCMP pickup. RCMP had been tracking the van as suspicious after it took off from a park. A couple of Mounties sustained minor injuries during the incident.
City staff estimate a new South Burnaby ice complex will cost $ $44.6 million. The project, at 10th Avenue and 18th Street will be paid for with density bonus dollars. The 90,600-square-foot facility will include two rinks, 150 parking spaces, pick-up and drop-off locations, an exterior and a new bike path.
Forest Grove residents are horrified after FortisBC cuts down a swath of trees in their neighbourhood in preparation for a pipeline expansion through Burnaby from Coquitlam to Vancouver. Residents called the work a “tree massacre,” while Fortis called it “vegetation removal,” saying the cutting was necessary for safety and for pipeline maintenance.
An eight-year-old visually impaired girl, identified only as Audrey, falls to her death from the 22 floor of a Burnaby high-rise. Emergency crews were called to the Timberlea Towers at 3771 Barlett Crt. near Lougheed Town Centre at about 2 p.m. on Nov. 4. By the time they got there, the girl had succumbed to her injuries. Police did not deem the death suspicious.
A City of Burnaby lawyer calls on the attorney general of Alberta to apologize after Don Morgan says publicly his province is “disappointed the City of Burnaby is deliberately slowing down” the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain expansion project by not issuing zoning and tree-cutting permits. Lawyer Greg McDade said the comments were “highly inappropriate” from an attorney general and Morgan should apologize to the city.
The Canadian Bankers Association offers a $10,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of an alleged bank robber captured on video jumping across a bank counter and waving a knife at tellers. The suspect, Dean Zastowny, was wanted in connection with robberies in Burnaby and Abbotsford, as well as other violent robberies around the Lower Mainland, according to police.
Racist flyers appear near Burnaby Library’s Metrotown branch twice in less than a month. A flyer promoting the white supremacist group Stormfront appeared on a utility pole beside the library on Nov 8. Ten days earlier, two posters emblazoned with swastikas and promoted the neo-Nazi group Iron Front were stuck on the library’s front door.
Transit Police arrest a Burnaby teen for allegedly bear spraying a man he thought was moving too slowly from a SkyTrain platform. A man and his son were walking down a staircase at a Burnaby station when they were confronted by the youth. When the man turned to talk to him, the youth allegedly sprayed him several times in the face, according to police. The teen was later arrested at his high school.
Tree-tagging along the Trans Mountain Trail in North Burnaby alarms people opposed to the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. Pictures of trees with red tags were posted to Twitter by Wilderness Committee member Peter McCartney, who thought the company was jumping the gun, since the city hadn’t issued tree-cutting permits. The city, however, confirmed the tagging was part of a required inventory.
City council votes to hike fines for businesses and home owners who don’t clear their properties of snow. After decided the previous fines didn’t appear to be a “significant deterrent,” councillors voted to increase fine to $400 for industrial and commercial properties, $250 for multi-family complexes and $100 for single family homes.
Manslaughter charges are laid against a man and a woman four months after the death of 22-year-old Michael Page-Vincelli. Page-Vincelli died of injuries sustained during an altercation at a North Burnaby Starbucks. Witnesses said an argument had started over a discarded cigarette butt and that Page-Vincelli had been punched and fell, hitting his head on a counter.
Anti-pipeline activists set up a small camper on the corner of Shellmont Street and Underhill Avenue to keep an eye on Kinder Morgan. Calling itself a “grassroots” movement not affiliated with any organization, the group monitored and recorded comings and goings at the Kinder Morgan tank farm, with possible plans to establish a media centre to record and livestream activity at the facility.
A B.C. Supreme Court judge rules Canada’s mandatory minimum sentence for possession of child pornography is unconstitutional in the case of an intellectually disabled Burnaby man. Matthew Christopher Swaby pleaded guilty to the offence, but Judge Leonard Marchand ruled the minimum jail sentence would be cruel and usual punishment in his case.
A transit bus t-bones a crossover utility vehicle and shoves it “a significant distance” during an early morning crash on Hastings Street near Sperling Avenue. The articulated bus was travelling eastbound when it slammed into the other vehicle which had turned in front of it. No one on the bus was hurt. The driver of the crossover was taken to hospital with minor injuries.
SFU communications professor Bob Hackett publicly severs ties with TD Bank after 20 years to protest the financial institution’s financial support of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project. The bank is one of the major banks (along with Scotiabank, RBC and CIBC) underwriting the $7.4 billion project.
DECMEBER
Former Burnaby MP Svend Robinson, Canada’s first openly gay minister of parliament, is on hand in Ottawa as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologizes in the House of Commons to gays and lesbians purged from the military and civil service between the 1950s and the early 1990s. Robinson called the apology and response from MPs on both sides of the House “incredibly moving and powerful.”
A $33 million Provincewide investment from the provincial government includes funding for 171 new child care spaces in Burnaby. The city will get roughly $1 million, with the funds split between three local providers: BrightStart Children’s Academy, Smilestones Junior Kindergarten and Burnaby Association for Community Living.
Randy Downes, a former Burnaby youth coach facing child porn and voyeurism charges, is found guilty of breaching his bail conditions by visiting Queen’s Park Arena in New Westminster. Downes argued he didn’t expect kids to be at the arena; the judge rejected his argument.
B.C. Corrections releases a suspected bank robber from the Surrey Pretrial Services Centre by mistake. Dean Zastowny had been arrested in connection with robberies in Burnaby and Abbotsford, but less than a month later, Surrey RCMP reported he was unlawfully at large and believed to be armed and dangerous. B.C. Correction had “inadvertently released him,” Surrey RCMP said.
City council approves funding for four of 12 child care centres promised by the Burnaby Citizens Association-dominated city council and school board during the 2014 municipal election campaign. The council and board promised to triple child care seats in the city by building centres on school district land. The first four should be finished the summer before the next election in October 2018.
Chief Supt. Deanne Burleigh becomes the Burnaby RCMP detachment’s first female top cop. Burleigh, whose dad once worked at the detachment, replaced Chief Supt. Stephan Drolet after he moved to a new job at E Division.
The Mayors’ Council on Regional Transportation elects Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan as its new chair, replacing Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson after three years at the helm. Corrigan said the mayors wanted a more “neutral” chair and one would be able to “communicate” the province’s NDP government. Not everyone was happy. On Twitter, New West councillor Patrick Johnstone called Corrigan “the most transit-regressive” mayor.
A North Burnaby woman gives fellow dog lovers a festive surprise on a local trail. A few hundred metres down the Confederation Park off-leash dog trail, Paula Candiago, with help from neighbour Mary Briggs, decorated a tree with Christmas ornaments, each bearing the name of a dog that regularly walks the trail.
The National Energy Board rules Kinder Morgan can bypass two City of Burnaby bylaws, allowing the company to begin work on its Westridge and Burnaby terminals as part of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. The energy company had asked the NEB to intervene after it alleged the city was purposely stalling the project by not issuing necessary tree-cutting and zoning permits.
The Burnaby Board of Trade cautions against raising B.C.’ minimum wage too quickly. In a report, BBOT recommended increases be made regularly over a period of several years because raising it to $15 per hour all at once would have a knock-on effect on other wage brackets that businesses might not be able to handle.
For the third time in as many weeks, group calling itself the Justin Trudeau Brigade blocks access gates at the Westridge Marine Terminal in Burnaby to protest Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project. The group took on the Prime Minister’s name, it said, because Trudeau had said during his last campaign that “government grant permits, but only communities give permission.”
