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Burnaby WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2018
LOCAL NEWS – LOCAL MATTERS
SEE PG. 21
There’s more at Burnabynow.com
ANTI-BULLYING
Pink wave in city
GOTTA BE ME
Leadership students from Burnaby elementary schools donned pink shirts and mobbed a Burnaby board of education meeting Monday, dancing to a Kiera Weathers remix of Des’ree’s You Gotta Be as a prelude to Pink Shirt Day today. The students will be at Metropolis at Metrotown performing random acts of kindness … and maybe even dancing a little more.
By Cornelia Naylor
cnaylor@burnabynow.com
A pink wave is preparing to sweep through a Burnaby mall this month in the name of kindness and antibullying. Today (Feb. 28) is Pink Shirt Day, an annual day of solidarity against bullying, and Burnaby students will be out in full force, making nice at the Metropolis at Metrotown mall. For five years now, leadership students from Maywood Community School have donned pink shirts and descended on the mall with kind intentions, and Metropolis has helped out by pitching in shirts and giving students $10 gift cards to hand out as random acts of kindness. This year, however, the ranks of the pink-shirted
PHOTO CORNELIA NAYLOR
will swell nine-fold as nine other elementary schools join in the fun – and good deeds. “We are so excited to see our partnership between Metropolis and Burnaby
schools grow with student leaders from 10 schools spreading kindness on Pink Shirt Day,” said Maywood Community School principal KathrynYamamoto. “Spreading kindness builds
a community of generosity and care.The hope for our students is that they remember that moment when someone accepted their act of kindness, so they will continue to follow this path
of generosity.” Community school coordinator Gayle Beavil, who started the initiative when she worked at Maywood, agreed. “We wanted the kids to
experience the positive feelings that giving gives us, as the giver, not the receiver. We wanted this feeling to stay with the kids so that Continued on page 8
CITY FINANCES
Burnaby holds tax hike to 1.5 per cent Last time it was below two per cent was 1.97 per cent in 2014 – which, like 2018, was a municipal election year By Grant Granger
editorial@burnabynow.com
Property taxes in Burnaby in 2018 will rise by 1.5 per cent. That’s about half the average increase of the last three years and half what the hike is anticipated to
be in each of the next four years. A provisional budget was approved by council Monday that included the 1.5 per cent increase. The last time it was below two per cent was 1.97 per cent in 2014, which, like 2018, was a municipal election year.
“I don’t think we’ve seen a 1.5 per cent increase in a number of years in Burnaby.We worked hard to get it down,” said Coun. Pietro Calendino, who figured the increase would be at the low end of tax hikes in Greater Vancouver. “A lot of that is the increase (in rev-
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Council warned the low rise might be an anomaly. Finance committee chair Dan Johnston said last week’s provincial budget means extra expenses for the city next year. “I understand the cost of the Continued on page 5
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