CITY 3
ELECTION 11
Worker killed in accident
COMMUNITY 16
Greens want ‘robot tax’
5
A long, loud trip for Joe Keithley
THINGS TO DO THIS WEEKEND THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2019
LOCAL NEWS – LOCAL MATTERS.
SEE PAGE 15
There’s more at Burnabynow.com
GIVING BACK: Elysha Moledina sorts food at the Greater Vancouver Food Bank in Burnaby on Saturday as part of Ismaili Civic Day. This is an annual day of service in which members of the Canadian Shia Ismaili Muslim community volunteer in their communities. Other volunteers were at Deer Lake cleaning up local trails. PHOTO JENNIFER GAUTHIER
ELECTION
Hurley ‘frustrated’ with feds on housing file Kelvin Gawley
kgawley@burnabynow.com
Less than a year after housing dominated Burnaby’s municipal election, the issue remains top-of-mind for many voters ahead of the Oct. 21 federal election. The major parties are promising distinct strategies to improve housing af-
fordability in Burnaby and beyond. Mayor Mike Hurley, who was elected on a housingfocused platform last October, said he has been “very frustrated” with the Trudeau government.The feds have promised billions to build social housing, but the mayor says that money has been completely inac-
cessible. A string of meetings with the Liberal MP for Burnaby North-Seymour,Terry Beech, and one with the Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in June, have all been fruitless, Hurley said. “Terry always seems upbeat about it, but the reality is unless you have a shovelready project [you can’t get
federal funding],” the mayor said. The feds have locked the promised funds behind a litany of onerous criteria city staff have found “too tough to crack,” Hurley said. Asked about Hurley’s concerns at a recent Burnaby campaign stop,Trudeau said he “was very happy to sit down with Mayor Mike
Hurley just a few months ago to talk about housing.” Trudeau said his national housing strategy promises $40 billion in investments across the country. He also pointed to his recent campaign promise to make more homes eligible for the first-time homebuyers incentive by raising the maximum value to
$789,000.The shared equity program will help “young families here in Burnaby and across the country,” he said. There are no detached homes on the market in Burnaby with an asking price below $789,000, according to an Oct. 1 multiple listing service search. Continued on page 3
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