Community Policy Forum
Policy dialogue must serve as the cornerstone of how we cast our ballot, engage with public servants, and advocate to the electorate. The abandonment of critical thinking has caused public trust in our political systems to deteriorate significantly — and in the end, it is the voter who is left without a voice and without recourse.
Debates over education, civic society, and public funding should be grounded in shared values rather than partisan interest. However – over the past two decades, we have seen governments increasingly subordinate these essential concerns to political calculation.
Our team is openly inviting qualified partners to join our Community Policy Forum. Together, we must promote meaningful dialogue and encourage greater engagement with Burnaby residents to restore public trust on our government.
Who Are We Actually Helping? Revisiting Our Responsibility on Supportive Housing
How should local governments and community organizations share responsibility for the planning, funding, and oversight of supportive housing to ensure it serves both residents and the surrounding neighborhood effectively?
What Does Living Better Really Mean? Bridging Wellness and Health for Stronger Communities
How might integrating traditional Chinese medicine practices — such as acupuncture and other evidence-informed pain relief therapies — alongside conventional cancer treatment help reduce the demand on our public health system, and what would responsible, equitable access to these complementary approaches look like?
What is the Purpose of Education? Rebuilding the Dialogue and Parent Engagement
How can we create structured, two-way dialogue between parents, students, and schools — where community knowledge is genuinely valued alongside institutional knowledge — to ensure that education decisions reflect the real needs of Burnaby students rather than top-down policy alone?
What is the Purpose of a Government? Restoring Public Trust
If city government was originally founded to serve the collective welfare of its residents through shared infrastructure, fair regulation, ensure public safety, and democratic dialogue — how do we measure whether Burnaby’s current governance model is still fulfilling that original mandate?
Who Should Pay? Rethinking How Burnaby Funds Its Roads and Infrastructure
If non-resident commuters are using Burnaby roads as a transit corridor between destinations, driving up road maintenance costs and traffic congestion, what user-pay mechanisms should be explored to ensure those costs are shared fairly rather than absorbed entirely by local taxpayers?
How Should We Regulate? Underlying Truth on Housing Affordability
Is Burnaby’s housing affordability crisis driven by excessive regulation on landlords, insufficient protections for property owners, or a fundamental failure of government to manage the balance between housing supply and demand — and what policy reforms would best serve both landlords and renters equitably?
A Question of Values, Not Just Policy
Policy Strategist for Health Care and Resident Well-Being
Ragina.naidu@restoreburnaby.ca
Policy Strategist for Public Safety and Affordability
Neil.chapman@restoreburnaby.ca
Policy Strategist for Infrastructure and Transit
infrastructure@resotreburnaby.ca
Policy Strategist for Youth and Interpersonal Skills
IITTI is an independent global credentialing system designed to measure and encourage ongoing development of soft skills—including empathy, civility, business etiquette, resilience, and intercultural awareness. It uses a continuous-learning and continuous-assessment model, with participants earning points toward a “World Civility Index” through activities such as reading lessons, watching educational content, attending sessions, and completing assessment civility@restoreburnaby.ca