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Burnaby considering sealing donation bins following West Van death

The City of Burnaby is considering sealing clothing donation bins following the Dec. 30 death of a man in such a bin in West Vancouver.
clothes bin

The City of Burnaby is considering sealing clothing donation bins following the Dec. 30 death of a man in such a bin in West Vancouver. 

The District of West Vancouver has shut donation bins in that city and is looking at options to either make them more secure or remove them following the death of a 34-year-old Vancouver man who was found stuck in the opening of a bin near Ambleside Park on Sunday. Paramedics were unable to revive him.

At least seven people have died in donation bins in Canada since 2015. 

But it’s not clear whether Burnaby will make a similar move.

On Thursday, Mayor Mike Hurley said he was going to be meeting with staff about the issue.

“It’s certainly concerning and something that we will have staff look at right away,” he said. “And if we need to shut down the bins until the needed changes are made, then we will do that.”

Hurley made the comments during a wide-ranging interview with the NOW looking back at 2018 and forward to 2019. He said encountering homeless people as a firefighter and seeing their struggles was what first led him to consider running for mayor.

“In my last few years in the fire department, the homeless issue really started to bother me and really kept me awake at night,” he said.

- With files from the Canadian Press