Like those that came before it, the year 2016 proved to be a busy one with story after story flying across our desks. Of the stories we wrote this year, a handful caught the public’s attention more than others. So here they are, the top five most-read stories in Burnaby:
#1: CRA scam gets $8,000 in iTunes cards from Burnaby resident
Unfortunately, it’s a story we hear time and time again. Folks get a call from some mysterious person claiming to be with the Canada Revenue Agency. The person says money is owed on previous taxes and if not paid immediately, the victim will be thrown in prison. It’s easy to understand why people pay up – they panic. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.
An incident in April, however, put a spin on the usual ploy. Burnaby RCMP reported a woman in North Burnaby received a similar call except this time the caller demanded $8,000 in iTunes gift cards, or else. The resident paid up, and by the time she realized it was a scam and called police, the money on the cards was spent.
“It’s really sad,” said RCMP Staff Sgt. Maj. John Buis. “It’s sad to say that people are taking advantage of other people’s goodwill.”
#2: Burnaby car-meet clamp down
Car lovers from across the Lower Mainland had to find a new place to meet after complaints about a weekly gathering at Market Crossing caused the property manager to shut it down.
At its height, the meet saw hundreds of car owners gathering in the parking lot of the Burnaby strip mall to check out each other’s rides. Following allegations of violence and unruly behaviour, mall management hired a security team to set up at the entrances to explain to anyone coming to the car meet that the event was not allowed and the mall was on private property. It worked. Within a couple of weeks the meet was history.
#3: Burnaby Mounties to provide update on recent sexual assault cases
Burnaby garnered attention from across Metro Vancouver following a series of five sexual assaults between Jan. 29 and March 6.
In three of the five incidents, women were approached by men who attempted to grab at them or grope them – one suspect went so far as to drag his victim into nearby bushes before she fought him off and escaped.
The remaining two incidents were more severe, according to Burnaby RCMP.
Unlike the other three attacks, the Feb. 18 and March 6 incidents took place during the day and on popular trails in the Forest Grove neighbourhood. In both cases, the women were taken to hospital for treatment.
In May, a suspect was arrested in connection with the two Forest Grove incidents.
No suspects were ever arrested in the other cases.
In November, SFU student Grayson Barke added his voice to the chorus of folks in Burnaby who opposed the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion.
Barke had one goal in mind when he contacted the NOW, to inform his fellow students of the potential calamity a fire at an expanded Burnaby Mountain tank farm could cause.
“I don’t think students know about the risks,” Barke told the NOW. “I think the company itself has done a very good job of keeping it quiet that there’s a facility there. It’s not something you see easily. It’s not something you learn about when you come to SFU. There is some information posted on SFU’s website, but it’s not something they talk about, the administration. There’s that general lack of awareness just about where SFU is located and what’s next to it.”
Barke compared a possible disaster on Burnaby Mountain to a 1982 fire at a tank farm in Venezuela, which killed 150 people and injured or burned another 300.
Despite his worries, the federal government approved the expansion project the following month, setting in motion Kinder Morgan’s plans to twin the existing pipeline from Edmonton to Burnaby, nearly tripling the line’s current capacity and adding 14 new tanks to the tank farm on Burnaby Mountain, bringing the total to 27.
#5: Burnaby MP's parents lost everything in housing market
It was personal experience that had MP Kennedy Stewart speak out against rising house prices in August.
As housing prices across the Lower Mainland continued to break records throughout 2016, Stewart was urging his constituents to be careful when considering taking the leap into home ownership. In an interview with the NOW, the South Burnaby MP told readers about how his parents lost everything they owned, including their home, when interest rates went up in the ’70s.
His family was forced to move from their home to a backwoods cabin where they stayed for five years, burning wood for heat and fetching water from a nearby lake.
“It was a really traumatic and shocking change,” Stewart said.
Since then, Stewart has remained wary of home ownership. He didn’t buy his first home until he was living in North Burnaby, but when his old riding of Burnaby Douglas changed boundaries, Stewart and his wife sold the condo, opting to rent in his new riding of South Burnaby.
Other most read stories of 2016 include, There’s a new competitor in town: Whole Foods set to open in Burnaby; Companies cited for safety violations in worker's death; City restaurants run afoul of health inspections in 2015; 'People say we're better than Starbucks'; and Nurses at George Derby Centre receive layoff notice.
