Burnaby NOW • Wednesday, January 23, 2013 • A07
ZONING BYLAW AMENDMENTS
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Immigrants not given entry continued from page 6
and refugees to the criminalization of asylum seekers so desperate to come to Canada they will travel by any means possible, our immigration system is in dire straits. But not for the reasons that Jason Kenney would have us believe – that all the world’s criminals are sneaking in the back door – but rather that people like Mr. Nguyen are no longer allowed in. Wendy Chan, via email
Paying for propaganda Dear Editor:
It’s enough to make you wonder why we pay taxes. Recently, the B.C. Liberals spent $15 million of taxpayer money to promote themselves and their economic action plan, which according to recent statistics has not succeeded in producing jobs at anywhere near the rate promised. And we have the newest outrage from Ottawa – a partisan attack against the NDP by Julian Fantino, minister of international cooperation, was posted on the Canadian International Development Agency website. This is nothing new, but it’s startling to see the extent to which our right-wing governments spend taxpayer money and violate the impartiality of government agencies simply to deliver partisan attacks. Even if we’re generous and say that work time was not used to produce the B.C. Liberal ads or that staff time wasn’t
used to post the CIDA rant, that still doesn’t explain why they’re being posted on sites meant for government information. A reminder, I think, is needed for our provincial and federal governments; Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four was not meant to be an instruction manual, and we have no need for the endless propagandizing, particularly when the government is using our tax dollars to finance the propaganda. We do not need a Ministry of Brainwashing; use our tax dollars for programs and services, not banal attempts to talk down ideological opponents. Trevor Ritchie, Burnaby
Legalize secondary suites Dear Editor:
There are at least 10,000 nonconforming “illegal, suites in Burnaby. The city knows this and has chosen to ignore the problem. Their unwritten policy is to investigate only upon receipt of a complaint and enforce only when forced to. This is unacceptable. Strict enforcement would result in large numbers of people being forced from their homes. Ignoring the law results in disrespect for authority. Both alternatives are unacceptable. Secondary suites should have been legalized a long time ago. This has happened in most if not all of the surrounding cities so there are good precedents for how to implement such a policy.
PUBLIC HEARING The Council of the City of Burnaby hereby gives notice that it will hold a Public Hearing TUESDAY, 2013 January 29 AT 7:00 P.M. in the Council Chamber, Burnaby City Hall, 4949 Canada Way, Burnaby, B.C., V5G 1M2, to receive representations in connection with the following proposed amendments to “Burnaby Zoning Bylaw 1965”. 1)
BURNABY ZONING BYLAW 1965, AMENDMENT BYLAW NO. 1, 2013 – BYLAW NO. 13164 TEXT AMENDMENT
The purpose of the proposed zoning bylaw amendment is to amend the rezoning application fees in the Burnaby Zoning Bylaw. All persons who believe that their interest in property is affected by a proposed bylaw shall be afforded a reasonable opportunity to be heard or to present written submissions respecting matters contained in the bylaw. Written submissions may be presented at the Public Hearing or for those not attending the Public Hearing must be submitted to the Office of the City Clerk prior to 4:45 p.m. the day of the Public Hearing. The Director Planning and Building’s reports and related information respecting the zoning bylaw amendment are available for public examination at the offices of the Planning Department, 3rd floor, in Burnaby City Hall. Copies of the proposed bylaw may be inspected at the Office of the City Clerk at 4949 Canada Way, Burnaby, B.C., V5G 1M2 from 8:00 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. weekdays from Tuesday, 2013 January 15 to Tuesday, 2013 January 29. NO PRESENTATIONS WILL BE RECEIVED BY COUNCIL AFTER THE CONCLUSION OF THE PUBLIC HEARING M. Manuel, ACTING CITY CLERK
Garth Evans, Burnaby
Election: 15 weeks to go continued from page 6
out any fiscal plan of its own. Nevertheless, we can expect the premier to continue her complaint that Dix and the NDP are being secretive and therefore dishonest about their intentions. Clark’s challenge is to not come across as a chronic complainer. The latest Angus Reid poll shows her party is 15 points back of the NDP in public opinion, with 15 weeks until election day. That’s a lot of ground to be made up over a very short period of time, and complaining about your opponent’s tactics isn’t going to be enough to close that gap. ◆
A few columns back I wrote that Education Minister Don McRae and the province’s school boards were about to combat each other over his apparent insistence that the boards find savings within the system to pay for wage hikes for unionized support staff. Trustees were getting apoplectic at the prospect of finding money to pay for, say, a 1.5 per cent wage hike while they were scrambling to pay for existing services. McRae has now backed off. He says all he made was a “request” that boards find a way to pay for wage increases and that he never actually “demanded” anything. No board acceded to his
request, so McRae has simply let the matter go. Though there may be no fight on this issue, there will still be a likely loser: support staff workers, mostly members of CUPE, may well be staring at yet another wage freeze. We may well see job action down the road from some CUPE locals. But any strike would last only a short time, as the government would move swiftly to legislate an end to one. If CUPE thinks they may get better treatment from an NDP government, it should remember that party legislated ends to CUPE school strikes when it was in power. Keith Baldrey is chief political reporter for Global B.C.
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