Dear Editor re: City leaders can’t have it both ways, editorial, Burnaby NOW, Feb. 4.
This recent NOW editorial astutely observes city council’s hypocrisy over jurisdiction. The Burnaby Citizens Association cries “not my turf” when it is on its own jurisdictional turf – city zoning – violating its own zoning bylaws and community plans and causing hundreds of low-income families to lose their homes. Yet it invades provincial turf spending millions building daycare centres and promising more just before the 2014 civic election. And on federal turf – the pipeline – council is rumoured to have spent over $2 million in guaranteed court fails over a dozen alder trees defending its right to enforce local bylaws. (How many trees could local ecology groups have planted with that cash?)
In 2009, Maclean’s magazine rated Burnaby “F for effective governance.” Surprised? This was in the same article that named us the “best run city,” which Mayor Corrigan repeats ad nauseum. Now, seven years later, his failure to provide effective governance is catching up with us and cancelling any credible claim to being “best run.”
But what is effective governance? At a minimum effective governance requires respect for provincial law and Burnaby’s own bylaws. For example, the BCA violates the province’s Local Government Act which prohibits rezoning for increased density without first amending official community plans. And the BCA violates its own local bylaws, including the bylaw that prohibits placing election signs on public property, and the bylaw limiting the maximum height of buildings to 180 feet.
Effective governance also means fairness and inclusion in the democratic process, thus ruling out taking unrestricted election donations from developers and unions, which stand to benefit directly from rezoning decisions or long-term civic contracts. This makes a mockery of democracy.
The BCA as the municipal level of the NDP would be on solid turf attacking the provincial Liberals both for not restricting donations in local elections and for not enforcing the Local Government Act. The province’s non-enforcement leaves it to us citizens to “vote them out or take them to court” when cities violate these laws, according to staff at the Ministry of Community, Sport and Cultural Development.
Instead Mayor Corrigan perhaps discreetly thanks the provincial Liberals for allowing unlimited cash from special interest groups to support his party and for not enforcing the laws governing B.C.’s local governments. How else could he maintain his grip on our city despite his “F for effective governance”?
Janice Beecroft, Shakila Eric, Charter Lau, Heather Leung, Nick Kvenich, Helen Ward, Franca Zumpano for the board of Burnaby First Coalition
