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LETTERS: Burnaby is failing to protect the environment

Dear Editor: Riverside was a rural-looking area when I first moved here 30 years ago.

Dear Editor:

Riverside was a rural-looking area when I first moved here 30 years ago. There were hundreds of barn swallows, a cacophony of frogs/toads in the ditches in the spring, and pheasants running through the neighbourhood, herons in the ditches eating small fish/frogs, market gardens.

Today all that remains are some singing frogs/toads and an occasional heron and a couple of market gardens. The city rules are useless in Riverside as they are against Kinder Morgan. This city government pats itself on its back for chasing Kinder Morgan and championing environmental issues - the environmental issues that make the news. The city has not effectively enacted any of its powers of environmental laws or concern for our area. Mega homes with rental homes disguised as garages, work area, secretive religious buildings, are the norm. The city has a permanent visual squint, for any and all infractions.

I am sure that Riverside is not the only area in Burnaby environmentally neglected. The environment issue is an awareness tool for the city for re-election purposes only and to support the NDP MLAs and MPs in Burnaby/New West. As callous as the city was in approving mega building projects without concern for the outcome, it has a callous approach to protecting the environment in Riverside specifically and Burnaby in general. They do have environmental showcases, restricted to rivers, lakes and streams. But the greater eco-system is allowed to rot without a plan to integrate the large area like Riverside into the Byrne Creek rehabilitation and others in the area and municipality.

Frank Mesich, Burnaby