NEWS 3
Nuggets trigger house fire
NEWS 5
Talking about fireworks
ARTS 11
Awe-inspiring photos FOR THE BEST LOCAL
COVERAGE WEDNESDAY JANUARY 20 2016
LOCAL NEWS – LOCAL MATTERS
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THE PIPELINE
Protesters kick off NEB hearings Jeremy Deutsch
jdeutsch@burnabynow.com
Carrying signs and a marching tune, dozens of people turned up to the Trans Mountain National Energy Board hearings in Burnaby to voice their opposition to the Kinder Morgan project. The rally was planned days before the hearings and was intended to send a message to the NEB, which was holding final arguments for intervenors inside the Delta Burnaby Hotel and Conference Centre Tuesday. The group of peaceful protesters gathered at Jim Lorimer Park at around noon first, before marching to the hearings taking place later in the day. Among those taking part in the rally was Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, who said he was there to support the First Nations opposed to the pipeline proposal. He called on new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to honour his campaign promise and revamp the federal environmental assessment Continued on page 4
ROAD RALLY Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, at centre holding sign, is joined by dozens of people rallying against the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project and National Energy Board hearings taking place in Burnaby at the Delta Burnaby Hotel and Conference Centre. PHOTO CORNELIA NAYLOR
Realty group slams Volkow for comments jdeutsch@burnabynow.com
City councillor Nick Volkow isn’t backing down from his stinging observations of the current real estate market in Metro Vancouver, despite a critical letter from the local board that represents the industry. Earlier this month, the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver wrote a letter to Burnaby city council re-
futing comments the councillor made during an interview with CBC Radio on the issue of property assessments. The letter from the board, signed by its president Darcy McLeod, takes issue with this specific statement he made: “The Canadian Real Estate Association, our local real estate board, and the local development community won’t be happy until ev-
REALTOR®
ery little chunk of the ALR is paved over in order to satisfy what they claim is the inability to be able to build in this community in order to bring prices down.” Volkow said it wasn’t the most “artful” way to make his point, but he’s not taking the comments back or apologizing. “I’m usually unartful, but usually the point comes across, and it must have come across because they
I’m usually unartful, but usually the point comes across took great umbrage to it,” he told the NOW. “They’re very sensitive at the Greater Vancouver real estate board.”
Volkow also said it was his job as a councillor to speak out on the issue. The city councillor has been vocal about the local real estate market in recent months after getting an assessment on his own property that increased by 35 per cent. Specifically, the value of Volkow’s home on Gilpin Crescent increases to $1.31 million from $956,000 just a year ago.
He’s concerned young people will continue to be squeezed out of the market and has called for what he described as an “onerous” speculation or vacancy tax. But the letter from the real estate board claims his statement “has no basis in fact,” noting the organization publicly supported the creation of the Agricultural Land Reserve in the 1970s and continues to support its Continued on page 8
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By Jeremy Deutsch