THEVOICE |

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Burnaby
shelters
test free
tampons

City's pilot project
could make more
dispensers available to
low-income residents

= By LIAM HILL-ALLAN

urnaby residents in poverty
B could see widespread access
to free menstrual products,
pending the success of a recently
approved pilot project for the city.
Ata city council meeting on Jan.
27, Burnaby city council approved
the Period Promise Pilot Project, a
plan to “expand access to menstrual
products in city facilities.” The pilot
project will install free menstrual
product dispensers at six city-run
facilities around Burnaby aimed at
fighting “period poverty.”
According to a staff report to
city council, “period poverty, which
affects girls, women, and transgender
individuals, refers to having a lack
of access to sanitary products due to

“(Menstrual
products] are not
always available to
everyone.”

— SAV DHALIWAL, BURNABY CITY COUN.

financial constraints.”

Burnaby city Coun. Sav Dhaliwal
said low-income Burnaby residents
could have access to free menstrual
products at “all facilities all over the
city” if the pilot project is successful.

The staff report identified 168
washrooms at 38 “potentially viable
locations” across Burnaby capable of
housing dispensers.

“(Menstrual products] are not
always available to everyone,” Dhali-
wal said. “Considering we have a
very diverse population.”

According to a 2016 study by the
Canadian Centre for Policy Alterna-
tives, Burnaby has the fourth highest
rate of poverty in Metro Vancouver.

Beresford Warming Centre
located at 5970 Beresford Street in
South Burnaby is one of the six loca-
tions approved to receive a dispenser
for the pilot project. The centre is
one of a number of warming spaces
made available to homeless Burnaby
residents over the winter months.

Ifthe project is successful, dispens-
ers could be made available to low-
income Burnaby residents at other
similar spaces around the city.

According to Dhaliwal, the project
was inspired by United Way’s Period
Promise Campaign.

Natalie Hill, in charge of media
relations at United Way, said that
the campaign is dedicated to provid-
ing “greater free access of menstrual
products.”

Hill added that Burnaby will be
joining other B.C. cities like New
Westminster and Victoria in the
wide adoption of menstrual product
dispensers.

“There’s a] domino effect of
municipalities,” Hill said. “We are
seeing this plan ripple across the
Lower Mainland.”

THURSDAY, FEB. 13,2020 |

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EDITOR SOUBHIK CHAKRABARTI

e> a

The notorious post at the Dairy Queen parking lot on 56th Street in Tsawwassen. AUSTIN EVERETT PHOTO

This post makes you pay

Atlarge

A particularly unlucky post Is creating nightmares for drivers

= By AUSTIN EVERETT

ara Mellish wanted to treat
her elderly mother to a soft-
serve ice cream cone. But
an encounter recently with
a notorious post in a parking lot
left her with a detached car fender,
a wheel that could barely turn and
an expensive appointment with an
autobody shop just up the road.

The post, in the centre of the park-
ing lot of the Tsawwassen Dairy
Queen on 56th Street, has been
blamed for causing Tsawwassen resi-
dents expensive repairs and frustra-
tion for decades.

The black and red post, which
has been there since 1970, has been
a well-known factor for ICBC
claims, according to residents, and
has brought autobody repair shops a

lot of business.

Mellish, who lives in Powell River
and often visits Tsawwassen, was the
latest casualty.

“I think somebody should do
something because I know I’m not
alone in this,” Mellish said.

When she took her car into the
Tsawwassen Collision, they knew
exactly what she was referring to
when she told them she had a single-
vehicle accident with a post, she said.

Tsawwassen Collision did not
want to comment for the story.

Mellish said she was turning into
the Dairy Queen parking lot when
a truck came her way. Deciding to
go around it, she turned left. But
the sun was low and the post, being
short in stature, was blocked by the
frame of Mellish’s car window. She
hit the post.

“T had to make a claim, so I did
lose my safe driving discount that

I'd had for decades,” Mellish said.
“It was totally not visible to me, zero
visibility.”

The claim amounted to $8,000.

Ina Facebook post by Mellish that
received more than 80 comments,
Tsawwassen residents shared their
stories and opinions about the post.

Posting on Facebook, Thea
Wessler shared her story, and said
the post should stay: “I think the post
should not be changed. My sister
and her first high school boyfriend
hit this post, my friend’s mom hit the
post then hit the school president.
I've hit the post after a much needed
dipped cone.”

Aaron Asp, the CEO of Parking
BOXX, a company which manu-
factures and designs parking lots
and equipment throughout North
America, said that while bollards, or
posts, are installed to protect items

such as equipment or signage, there
are other ways to provide protection
if the post is hazardous for motorists.

Infrastructure such as “adding a
curb, positioning a bollard closer
to the asset or painting the exist-
ing bollard a bright reflective colour
or a combination of these options
[would work],” said Asp in an email
response to The Voice.

Mellish said she was suggesting
changes to the post in a letter she
was writing a letter to the owner of
the Dairy Queen.

Karen Gill, the manager of the
‘Tsawwassen Dairy Queen, told The
Voice she has hit the post herself.
She said she is committed to ensur-
ing the store owner Rahul Mehta
takes action.

“T will talk to my owner about it,
but for now I have no clue what we

can do,” Gill said.

Richmond city council looks to
solve city's birth tourism issue

City passes vote
to ask feds for
changes in the
Immigration Act

= By STEVEN CHANG

- Ghe City of Richmond took
its first step against birth
tourism after city council

voted 6-3 to ask the federal govern-

ment to change the Immigration

Act.

Multiple public speakers attended
the council meeting on Monday
night to express their thoughts on
stopping birth tourism in Rich-
mond, which led to Coun. Kelly
Greene raising her concern about the
exclusion of refugees from govern-
ment services if citizenship rules are
changed.

Coun. Harold Steves said Canada

should open its door to refugees, but

that refugees are entirely different
issue than ending birth tourism.

“The resolution is to keep it
simple. I don't care if they come back
or not. These are wealthy people
clogging our housing space and
hospital space,”
Steves said.

An SFU grad
student, one of
several public
speakers who at
council Monday
night, presented

KELLY GREENE his thesis on birth
CITY COUNCILLOR, . t
RICHMOND tourism and said

66 per cent of
all non-resident
births in B.C. are born in Richmond.

Richmond is seeking help from
the federal government to prevent
automatic citizenship for babies born
in Canada to non-resident parents.
Birth tourism is an ongoing practice
by foreigners who come to Canada
to give birth so their child can
receive Canadian citizenship with
the option of returning to Canada

in the future.

Greene said she is 100 per cent
against birth tourism. But changing
the Immigration Act will also harm
vulnerable people and refugees who
are trying to resettle in Canada, she
said.

“It has been extremely disrup-
tive to our neighbourhood, hospi-
tals and maternity services. I have
been personally impacted by birth
tourism,” Greene said. “This motion
doesn’t ask the federal government to
stop birth tourism. It is ending birth-
right citizenship for everyone who
aren't Canadian citizens.”

Councillors Greene, Alexa Loo
and Michael Wolfe opposed the
motion.

The challenge of birth tourism is
beyond the city’s jurisdiction, says
the city’s spokesperson, Clay Adams.

Adams said while the city is
concerned about birth tourism, it
can only enforce businesses licences
and bylaws.

“Changing the immigration law
is not meant to punish people from

gaining a Canadian citizenship. The
issue is people are essentially paying
money to get their child a Canadian
passport,” Adams said.

BIRTH TOURISM

STATISTICS

» 313 newborns

Total births in Canada to mothers
who resided outside Canada in
2016

» Richmond Hospital
The hospital had 469 births to
mothers who reside outside
Canada, the highest in Richmond
in 2017-18.

» 1.5% of total births

The percentage of total births in
Canada to mothers who resided
outside the country between
2010-2017.

SOURCES:

WWW. CIHI.CA
STATCAN.GC.CA