In any ordinary year, there might have been a debate about which event, person or group was the most important, controversial or prolific in the news. We’re all tired of the plague, so here’s something a little different.
Burnaby Now’s Almost Newsmaker of the Year is city council.
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The Burnaby Citizens Association started 2020 still fully intact and still holding a majority of the seats on city council.
Now, the formidable municipal slate is ending the year down to just three councillors – Pietro Calendino, Sav Dhaliwal and James Wang. The BCA began its term, following the 2018 election, with six councillors – that in and of itself was a blow to the slate, putting a dent in the BCA’s stranglehold over the council chamber for the first time after it had previously swept three consecutive elections.
The trouble was evident early on, with councillors Colleen Jordan and Dan Johnston frequently speaking and voting against the grain. Indeed, independent Mayor Mike Hurley and Burnaby Greens Coun. Joe Keithley have often seemed more aligned with the three remaining BCA councillors than their ostensible allies.
This culminated in a defection in early February – though Jordan and Johnston weren’t the only ones to ditch their former party. They were joined as independents by late Coun. Paul McDonell, who was more of a wild card in meetings, often voting with the informal majority but also frequently taking the side of the new independents.
While the remaining BCA councillors have by and large shifted to a new course charted by Hurley, Jordan and Johnston adhered to more traditional BCA policies from the era of former mayor Derek Corrigan.
“Some people in the BCA decided anything and anything the BCA stood for in the last 45 to 50 years doesn’t matter anymore, and what the new mayor brings forward seems to be what the agenda of the day is,” Johnston said at the time.
The summer brought the worst news of all for city council. Within just a few weeks, Coun. Nick Volkow and McDonell died in late June and early July. Volkow had been fighting brain cancer for years and had been absent from city council for months by the time he died, while McDonell’s death was more sudden, after he succumbed to an infection that resulted from a knee injury.
Both councillors were mourned by the community, their fellow councillors and politicians in and beyond Burnaby as passionate champions for the city.
Despite all the upheaval, council still managed to accomplish or get started on a number of things in 2020, including finalizing the rental-use zoning and tenant-assistance policies, bringing the city closer to finally getting a cannabis shop and making strides toward regulating short-term rentals.
Perhaps most important, however, is the work that is yet to come. In 2020, council approved a draft of the transportation plan and the finalized climate action framework, and it continued consultations on its forthcoming housing and homelessness strategy.
Each of these is vital to adapt to this changing world, the city needing to play a part in addressing the global climate crisis and mitigating the region’s housing affordability crisis. How council carries this momentum moving forward will be key in these crucial years.
Follow Dustin on Twitter: @dustinrgodfrey
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