Burnaby Now November 14 2019

Page 1

CITY 4

COMMUNITY 12

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ARTS 30

5

Gallery unveils echoes show

THINGS TO DO THIS WEEKEND THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2019

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LOCAL NEWS – LOCAL MATTERS.

SEE PAGE 15

SAFETY

City looks to move fire dispatch Cornelia Naylor

cnaylor@burnabynow.com

A space crunch at Burnaby’s main fire hall has the city looking at relocating the fire department’s nerve centre. The department’s busy, in-house dispatch centre, currently housed at Fire Station 1 on Sperling Avenue, handled more than 13,000 emergencies last year, according to documents posted on the BC Bid website. The centre also deals with a multitude of other public inquiries and intradepartmental communications every year. But it takes up about 500 square metres of space at a fire hall that “outgrew its capacity more than a decade ago” and needs more space to meet current and future Burnaby Fire Department needs, according to the documents. The city is looking into moving the centre to the second floor of Fire Station 7 at 3151 Gilmore Diversion. It plans to hire a consultant by the end of December to conduct a feasibility study and provide conceptual design options for the new centre. A report on the study should be complete by July. The Gilmore fire hall was built in 2009.The Sperling hall was built in 1970. Burnaby has retained its own fire-dispatch service while many other Lower Mainland municipalities have joined E-Comm, a multi-city agency created in 1997 to provide shared emergency communications operations for police and fire in the region.

LEST WE FORGET: Burnaby North-Seymour MP Terry Beech (second from left) and Burnaby South MP Jagmeet Singh (centre) were some of the dignitaries laying wreaths on Remembrance Day at the Ambassador of Peace Korean War Memorial in Burnaby’s Central Park. See more on Page 11. PHOTO JENNIFER GAUTHIER

HOUSING

Council trims licence fee after backlash Some Burnaby landlords called the fee ‘class warfare’ that would punish renters Kelvin Gawley

kgawley@burnabynow.com

When the landlords of Burnaby spoke up, city council listened. City council voted last week to slash some fees for its new home rental licence after hearing what Mayor Mike Hurley called “a fair bit of feedback and concerns from residents.” The city originally planned to charge homeowners a $570 annual fee, plus $50 application fee if they rent out their home without living there.

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“I fail to see how this benefits tenants,” Laura Brunoro wrote in a letter to the NOW. “Perhaps the city is more interested in class warfare and a cash grab from those that they perceive will elicit no sympathy than benefiting tenants who run the risk of eviction after landlords sell their properties because they finally get sick and tired of being taxed and regulated to death.” The fee was first created last year to replace a utility surcharge for homeowners with secondary suites. It

was set to extend next year to all homeowners who do not live in a home they rent out. As declarations forms and information about the new program were distributed, the city heard back from homeowners, unhappy about the new expense. “We have taken these concerns to heart and restructured our approach in a way that I think is fair,” Hurley said. The licence for those renting out the main unit of their home will be $130 annually, with the planned

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$50 application fee eliminated. The city has also reduced the fee for a rented suite in a duplex to $428.50 – approximately half the 2019 water and sewer charges for one of two main units in a duplex. The $570 annual licence and $50 application fee will still apply to homeowners who live in the main unit of their home but rent out a secondary suite.The charge replaces a $570 utility surcharge previously charged to all homeowners with a secondary suite, whether

they earned rental income from it or not. Anyone who rents out both the main unit and a secondary suite in a home will be charged both the $570 and the $130 fees. “These proposed changes would ensure that all rental property owners in Burnaby are treated equally across the board,” Hurley said. Homeowners have until Nov. 30 to return rental declarations, whether they rent out or not.The city plans to send out bills for rental licences in the new year.

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Boring legal stuff: Offer includes 5 whole flame grilled wings for $5.00 and 20 oz draft of Steam Whistle, bottled beer, and cider for $5.00 plus tax. Dine in only. Available only at Nandos Kingsway, no cash value. Cannot be combined with any other promotion. Tax not included. Offer expires Dec 31st 2019.


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