Canada has three levels of government – local, provincial and federal. Each level is responsible for certain areas of government and each level raises money through taxation of the people. There are some areas of overlapping responsibility between two or more levels of government – for example, water conservation, wastewater treatment and water pollution.
In general, local governments engage in urban planning, provide local services such as water and sewers, provide local amenities such as community centers, art galleries and local parks, issue permits for businesses and construction and work with other levels of government to ensure the local region has satisfactory transportation infrastructure.
Provincial governments have primary responsibility, in their province, for such things as affordable housing, education, health care delivery, social welfare, transportation and infrastructure.
The federal government is responsible for things that affect the entire country such as setting national standards for health care, banking, trade and commerce, citizenship and immigration, foreign policy, national defence, fisheries and oceans, interprovincial oil and gas pipelines, employment insurance and the postal service. The federal level has historically been “responsible” for the wellbeing of Canada’s indigenous peoples, however, the federal government has been strongly criticized for their failures in this regard. First Nations are now rightly demanding that self-governance be returned to them.
(a) City Council and School Board
Burnaby’s local government consists of a 9 person City Council, including the Mayor, and a 7 person School Board that is accountable, along with the provincial Ministry of Education, for the provision of a high quality education for Burnaby students from kindergarten to grade 12, as well as for the provision of school buildings/spaces. City Councillors and School Board Trustees are elected every four years in Burnaby. The next local elections will be in the fall of 2026.
Burnaby residents may have the greatest opportunities to bring forward things that matter most to them to their local politicians – in terms of meeting with local leaders and seeing how responsive they are on certain issues.
Local issues are varied and often reflect broader regional issues – for example transportation networks and water supply. Local leaders have influence with the provincial and federal governments and, sometimes, local politicians go on to become provincial or federal politicians.
Given the importance of having open-minded, hard-working, and representative local politicians, it may be disappointing to learn that Burnaby’s local elections have typically seen low voter turnouts. For example, in the 2022 local elections, only about 20% of eligible voters voted – in other words, about 80% of eligible voters did not vote.
(b) Other branches of local government
Burnaby City Council has appointed various committees, task forces and boards to assist/advise City Council on local government issues. See https://www.burnaby.ca/our-city/meetings-and-public-hearings/advisory-bodies-and-boards.
Some advisory bodies include citizen representatives and stakeholders who work closely with the City as well as City Councillors and City staff.
Members of the public are entitled to attend any public City Council meeting and any public advisory body meetings as an observer. Members of the public may also send emails on matters of concern to legislativeservices@burnaby.ca and Legislative Services (formerly the City Clerk’s Office) will forward the concern to City Council or the appropriate advisory body.
If one or more members of the public wishes to speak at an advisory body meeting or to City Council, they are required to apply to be “a delegation”. A delegation can be just one person. See https://www.burnaby.ca/our-city/meetings-and-public-hearings/appear-as-a-delegation#:~:text=To%20appear%20as%20a%20delegation%2C%20complete%20the%20online%20webform%20below,before%20the%20desired%20meeting%20date.
Local residents can evaluate the performance of their local government politicians every four years at election time. If residents approve of what their local representatives (politicians) have been able to accomplish in the previous four years and how they have governed the City, they can vote to re-elect them. If residents are dissatisfied with their civic leaders, they can vote for other people who they believe will better address local issues.
It may be challenging to find out what progress is being made on local issues in Burnaby. You could try finding answers on the City of Burnaby website. However, it not always clear from the City of Burnaby website how (or even if) the City of Burnaby measures its own progress on important initiatives such as the “Burnaby Climate Action Framework”.
If you have specific questions you wish to ask, you could write to the City of Burnaby at legislativeservices@burnaby.ca.
You could try to learn about what Burnaby City Council is doing by participating in the City’s many surveys, although surveys tend to be a mostly one way flow of information from residents to the City.
If you want to participate in more robust community/public engagement, your opportunities may be limited in Burnaby. Burnaby does not currently have a Community/Public Engagement Department – only a communications/marketing department that is asked to “sell” City Council’s decisions to the public (for example, see https://www.burnabynow.com/local-news/massive-green-waste-facility-planned-for-burnaby-park-heads-to-public-consultation-6513052).
Neither does the City have a Community/Public Engagement Framework that formalizes and provides clarity to decision-makers, staff and residents about how Burnaby informs and involves the community and interested parties in the City’s decision-making processes.
You may be able to find out what progress the City is making on one or more initiatives by reading articles and “Letters to the Editor” in the Burnaby Now online newspaper – see https://www.burnabynow.com/local-news.
Also, “X” , TikTok, Instagram and other forms of social media may provide insights as to how well local government initiatives are working.
