Frankly Speaking

  The Burnaby Beacon, at least in its current form, is no more. It is the latest move by Overstory Media Group (perhaps its OMG abbreviation inadvertently tells part of the story) to stem its losses in a brave but apparently foolhardy attempt to resuscitate community journalism online. The Beacon’s two remaining staff members have been laid off. Much has been said about Overstory’s promises and ownership, particularly when it laid off half the staff at its flagship online outlet, the Capital Daily in Victoria. That move came just before it was announced that there was a unionization drive underway. The Beacon served Burnaby - a difficult community for local media. When I was a student at Langara journalism school, we were told by program director Nick Russell that “Burnaby was the graveyard of weekly newspapers.” Many had come and gone by that time (1977). Another one started up soon thereafter, and one of my classmates even took a job there. That newspaper and its staff are long...

Surrey Memorial Hospital has the busiest emergency room in B.C. The fact that there is just one hospital in the 12th-largest city in the country is a damning indication of the shortage of services in Surrey. Surrey had 517,887 residents in mid-2016, according to census numbers released last week. The continued growth makes it the 12th-largest city in the country, not far behind Vancouver, which sits in eighth place with 631,486 residents. Interestingly enough, Vancouver is not just smaller than the two largest Canadian cities, Toronto and Montreal. It also smaller than Calgary, Ottawa, Edmonton and Winnipeg, as well as the largest Toronto suburban city of Mississauga, which has 90,000 more residents than Vancouver. The Metro Vancouver area is the third-largest urban region in the country, and it wouldn’t be that way without large suburban cities such as Surrey, Burnaby, Richmond and Coquitlam. Burnaby is the third-largest city in the region, but at 232,755 residents, it is l...

Surrey may be part of a larger gang war which seems to be underway in B.C., but in general, violent crime is down significantly. Two young men were killed Friday night in Fraser Heights, in what could be some sort of retaliatory move. Apparently, the shootings are not gang-related. Media reports state that neither had criminal records, and no ties to gangs are apparent. However, there have been several other recent killings and shootings in various parts of the Lower Mainland which clearly have gang ties. These shootings have taken place in Langley and Burnaby, and they have brought back memories of the Lower Mainland gang warfare which took place in 2009. At that time, many of the shootings took place in Surrey and some people were alarmed about going out to do routine activities such as shopping, dining and recreation. Recent crime statistics released by Surrey RCMP show that violent crime is down by 13 per cent in the first nine months of 2016, when compared to the same...

The July 25 introduction of a 15 per cent property purchase tax on foreign buyers by the provincial government surprised many observers, and shocked the real estate industry. In particular, foreign buyers with transactions in progress were caught in a dilemma. If they were able to move the completion date up, they could avoid the tax. Some did so. Others walked away from signed contracts, forfeiting deposits which in some cases were substantially lower than the tax bill would have been. Philip Dumoulin of Sotheby’s International Realty in South Surrey said one realtor lost three buyers and a fourth asked for a referral to Toronto, planning to buy there instead of in the Greater Vancouver area. Foreign buyers have had less direct impact in Surrey than in some other parts of Greater Vancouver, such as the City of Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond and areas of the North Shore. However, there have been a significant number of such buyers in South Surrey and White Rock, and it is like...

Kinder Morgan photo Twinning of the Trans Mountain pipeline will have a profound effect on Surrey, the National Energy Board was told last week. The City of Surrey stated its position on the proposal to twin the Trans Mountain pipeline at National Energy Board hearings last week. It is not in favour or opposed to the pipeline proposal – it simply doesn’t want the project to cost local taxpayers more money. In addition, the city has concerns about portions of the proposed new route. It also would like to see the new pipeline route accommodate both the twinned pipeline and the original line, thus taking the line built in 1953 through portions of north Surrey out of commission. Surrey’s position in many ways dovetails with the general attitude of many B.C. residents, and the provincial government. The enthusiasm for the pipeline project is lukewarm at best, and specific benefits are demanded in return for support. At the same time, many other B.C. residents, including mem...