Municipalities are engaging on the ground every day in our communities, we have the local insights necessary to make effective decisions about how our communities grow, where new housing, businesses and jobs can best meet local needs, and align with the delivery and maintenance of roads, water and sewer systems, fire protection, parks, recreation facilities and other public infrastructure.

Tens of thousands of people attended last year’s month-long Burnaby Halloween Festival which generated $10.85 million in economic benefit for the city. This year, close to 30 events are taking place across Burnaby throughout October. From Saturday’s Monster Dash 5K which brings a flavour of Burnaby’s active, outdoor spirit, to film screenings, art installations, haunted tours, the Day of the Dead market and performances, and pop-up experiences across our town centres.

That result recognizes the work being done across our City over the past eight years, from delivering landmark protections for renters and fighting for the promised redevelopment of Burnaby Hospital to standing up to the provincial government’s one-size-fits all housing policies and helping to step in as a municipality and start filling the affordable housing gap ourselves.

When I came to Canada from Italy in 1959, building a new life here was much harder than it is today. That was true for Italians, but also for people from many other countries and cultures.

When I first ran for Burnaby City Council, becoming its first Punjabi Indo-Canadian councillor was not what motivated me. It had never occurred to me to run because I was Punjabi, and I certainly did not see myself as a candidate for my own community. I wanted to serve the whole city, just as every councillor should. It was only after I was elected that I fully understood the importance of what it meant to everyone in the community, to me and to our city.

Burnaby is proof that a growing urban city can protect and improve its waterways at the same time. Around the world, many cities have lost the creeks and streams that once flowed through them. As communities grew, waterways were culverted, paved over and forgotten. Burnaby chose a different path. Thanks in part to its long-standing Open Watercourse Policy, roughly 70 per cent of the streams that existed here 125 years ago still exist today.

The Union of British Columbia Municipalities, or UBCM, brings local governments together to represent our shared interests and advocate to the Province on the issues affecting our communities. The annual convention is where local leaders, through policy sessions, workshops and resolution debates, discuss these common priorities and meet directly with provincial representatives.

In Burnaby, we are investing at record levels in the facilities, parks, trails and public spaces that help keep our community active. This investment is essential to meeting the needs of a growing city and ensuring Burnaby remains an outdoor and active city, which is such an important part of our identity and quality of life.

We are so proud in Burnaby to be a city where people can experience food from around the world within only a few blocks.

Over the years, family visiting from Ireland have always been excited to explore the Burnaby locations they recognize from film and television…