Platform for a Better Burnaby

Our Housing Platform

  • Create a Housing Commission that will bring together citizens who are representative of demographics across the City, experts and City officials and staff to co-create solutions to Burnaby’s continuing housing needs over time
  • Providing 99 year leases to partners who are best able to provide co-operative, rental and social housing
  • Engage in public consultation regarding increasing the rental component of new medium and high rise buildings above the current 20%
  • In preparation for the 2021-2022 Official Community Plan, engage in broad public consultation/engagement regarding slowing the building of “tower islands” and, instead, re-zoning single family areas to allow for some 3-4 story rental housing (sometimes called “the missing middle” between high rise towers and single family homes)
  • Explore ways to reduce parking where it’s not necessary in order to reduce housing costs

Democratizing Our City

  • Encourage and work to facilitate representation of youth, women, racialized people, LGBTQ2+ people and people from different cultural backgrounds on City Council, on City Committees and in local government administration
  • Revise the City’s selection process for citizen representation on City Committees to one that is non-partisan and provides for citizen representation based, as closely as possible, on City demographics
  • Engage in much greater and more representative public consultation on issues such as the new Official Community Plan, housing, transportation, jobs and the local economy.
  • Fully support the City UNDRIP Coordinator to implement UNDRIP at the City level. A

Youth Support and Engagement

  • Propose partnering with Burnaby School District to invite the Mayor or City Councilors into the classroom and invite students to City Hall in order to increase student understanding of local government and democracy
  • Create a Youth Council whose members will sit on certain City Committees, provide recommendations to Citi Council, organize a youth climate conference, etc.
  • Invite students to a regular lunch meeting with the Mayor and/or a City Councilor
  • Students will be invited to accompany Mayor or Councilor to the Annual General Meeting of the Union of BC Municipalities and LGMA
  • Support lowering the voting age for local government to age 16
  • Free membership in the Burnaby Civic Green Party to youth age 18 and under

Building Community

  • Create many, free public spaces throughout the City where citizens can gather, share food (eg. a community soup kitchen), put on an outdoor concert and engage in free activities with a view to increasing intercultural interaction and human connection
  • Increase public washroom availability
  • Support arts, culture, sports and other social activities throughout the City
  • Facilitate local restaurants and bars to offer accessible outdoor patios and courtyards
  • Create commercial/community neighbourhoods that people can access by foot, wheels or transit within 15 minutes from home

Supporting Burnaby Businesses

  • Create policy that new high density residential buildings (100+ units) will provide a childcare space in the building or in the immediate area or at another location
  • Create incentives for local businesses to reduce their carbon footprint, recycle and reduce waste.
  • Encourage technological, and especially energy, innovation eg. hold an annual innovation fair for businesses and consumers to learn about the latest innovations that will help us get to net zero by 2050
  • Reach out to small and medium size local businesses to see how the City can support them post covid
  • Urge small and medium size businesses to pay a living wage to workers

Combating Climate Change

  • Engage the public in a discussion of the “15 minute city” urban planning concept and how that might tie in with “urban villages”
  • Actively support clean energy initiatives aimed at zero carbon emissions by 2050 such as using hydro, solar, wind and geothermal generated electricity and carbon capture cement (oppose fossil fuel expansion projects like TMX)
  • Support the expansion of electric vehicle infrastructure, including providing “car share” stalls and visitor stalls with electric vehicle charging stations in new multi-unit residential buildings, at public locations (eg. community centers) and commercial locations
  • Conserve and enhance our parks, conservation areas, right of ways and other natural areas to increase biodiversity, support pollinators (eg. butterflies, bees), capture carbon and provide shade for a heating planet
  • Partner with educational institutions and business interests to establish an urban agriculture research center to promote and showcase indoor and outdoor urban agriculture initiatives
  • Create more community gardens, and distribute Farmers’ Markets throughout the City

Active Transportation Plan

  • Immediately place emphasis on walking, cycling and public transit initiatives that will make Burnaby a less “car centric” City
  • Construct at least 30 kilometers of segregated and interconnected, paved bicycle transportation paths by 2025 to achieve a safe and vital network and provide a solid foundation to support future bicycle transportation growth
  • Create secure bike lock-ups at community centers, libraries, pools, shopping centers and other key locations throughout the City and require secure bike lock-ups at all new housing developments
  • Give priority to ensuring that sidewalks, intersections and access routes to public transit are safe for people of all ages and mobilities by addressing issues identified in SWAN audits (Stakeholders’ Wheelability and Walkability Audits in Neighbourhoods) eg. fixing cracked sidewalks, flattening curb ramps/cuts that are too high, extending light signal timing, etc.

Protecting Our Environment

  • Conserve and restore our parks, waterways and conservation areas for optimal resilience, recognizing that these areas capture carbon, preserve biodiversity and provide shade and cool spaces for a warming planet
  • Create pollinator corridors next to roadways or on right of ways to counteract the gradual extinction of pollinators (eg. bees and butterflies)
  • Promote urban agriculture as a way to enable citizens to become more self-reliant for food as well as to reduce waste from food packaging and GHG emissions from transporting food to the City from distant locations
  • Promote community gardens on City land and on right of ways
  • Zone for indoor agriculture in warehouses and in high rises (eg. vertical farming)
  • Expand Farmers’ Markets, “community kitchens” and other community based food initiatives throughout the City
  • Partner with educational institutions and business interests to establish an urban agriculture research center to promote and showcase indoor and outdoor urban agriculture initiatives
  • Ensure that the 2021-2022 Official Community Plan addresses rezoning for multiple types of urban agricultural production, processing, marketing and distribution
  • Eliminate single use plastics (eg. plastic bottles, cutlery and bags) in public facilities and encourage similar reduction of plastic in local businesses