Burnaby
Burnaby is a city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada. Located in the centre of the Burrard Peninsula, it neighbours the City of Vancouver to the west, the District of North Vancouver across the confluence of the Burrard Inlet with its Indian Arm to the north, Port Moody and Coquitlam to the east, New Westminster and Surrey across the Fraser River to the southeast, and Richmond on Lulu Island to the southwest. It has a population of 249,125 as of the 2021 census.
Burnaby was incorporated in 1892 and achieved its city status in 1992. A member municipality of Metro Vancouver, it is British Columbia's third-largest city by population, and is the seat of Metro Vancouver's regional district government. 25% of Burnaby's land is designated as parks and open spaces, one of the highest in North America.
The main campuses of Simon Fraser University and the British Columbia Institute of Technology are located in Burnaby. It is home to high-tech companies such as Ballard Power, Clio, D-Wave, and EA Vancouver. Burnaby's Metropolis at Metrotown is the largest mall in British Columbia, the third most visited in Canada and the fifth largest in the nation. Canada's largest film and television production studio and more than 60% of BC's sound stages are in Burnaby, contributing to the growth of Hollywood North.
The city is served by SkyTrain's Expo Line and Millennium Line. Metrotown station in Metrotown is the busiest station on weekends and the second-busiest on weekdays in regional Vancouver's urban transit system as of 2021.
History
Pre-colonial (before 1850)
Early inhabitants were the Halkomelem- and Squamish-speaking Coast Salish Nations. Local landmarks such as Burnaby Mountain, Deer Lake, and Brunette River feature prominently in Indigenous history passed down through oral traditions. The northern shorelines of Burnaby, along the second narrows of Burrard Inlet was the site of an ancient battle between the attacking Lekwiltok and the defending Musqueam according to Chief Charlie Qiyəplenəxw.The Coast Salish people living in BC and Washington state numbered more than 100,000 people, a level of population density supported by agriculture in other geographies. Techniques to preserve and store surplus food sustained a hierarchical society. Burnaby's marshlands along its rivers and lakes were cranberry harvesting areas for numerous villages, some numbering over 1,000 residents. Indigenous people travelled through Burnaby to reach the mouth of Brunette and Fraser River for the bountiful fishing seasons, eulachon in the spring and sockeye salmon in the late summer. Early European explorers and fur traders introduced diseases that decimated the Indigenous population. This false appearance of Burnaby as a vast open space, along with traditional Indigenous farming techniques which did not permanently alter the landscape, meant Indigenous land in Burnaby was mislabelled as terra nullius.
Incorporation (1850–1990)
The Fraser Canyon Gold Rush of 1858, the first of many gold rushes in British Columbia, brought over 30,000 fortune seekers, including many American miners. The fear of an impending annexation by the United States led to the creation of the Colony of British Columbia in 1858 and the establishment of New Westminster as its capital.Settlers in Burnaby acquired land through a process called pre-emption which allowed people to claim a piece of land by clearing forests and building houses. Indigenous people were excluded from pre-emption. Royal Engineers dispossessed land from Indigenous people with the assistance of military force including the original routes of North Road, Kingsway, Canada Way, and Marine Drive. Logging permits given to settlers destroyed the forests of southern Burnaby which had provided vital sustenance for Indigenous people.
The City of Burnaby is named after Burnaby Lake, in turn named after Robert Burnaby, who was a Freemason, explorer, and legislator. He was previously private secretary to Colonel Richard Moody, the first land commissioner for the Colony of British of Columbia. In 1859, Burnaby surveyed a freshwater lake in the city's geographic centre. Moody named it Burnaby Lake.
Burnaby was established in 1891 and incorporated a year later in 1892. In the same year, the interurban tram connecting Vancouver, Burnaby, and New Westminster began construction.
Recent
The expanding urban centres of Vancouver and New Westminster influenced the growth of Burnaby. It developed as an agricultural area supplying nearby markets. Later, it evolved into an important transportation corridor between Vancouver, the Fraser Valley and the Interior. The introduction of the Skytrain's Expo Line cemented this trend into the 21st century.As Vancouver expanded and became a metropolis, Burnaby was one of the first-tier suburbs of Vancouver, along with North Vancouver and Richmond. During the suburbanization of Burnaby, "Mid-Century Vernacular" homes were built by the hundreds to satisfy demand by new residents. The establishment of British Columbia Institute of Technology in 1960 and Simon Fraser University in 1965 helped Burnaby gradually become more urban in character. In 1992, one hundred years after its incorporation, Burnaby officially became a city.
Since the 1970s, Burnaby has seen a decline in resource sectors and a subsequent rise of high value-added services and technology sectors. The presence of BCIT and SFU promoted research & development in the area. For example, manufacturing plants near Still Creek closed in the late 1970s, only to reopen few years later as film production studios. The continued expansion of media production in Burnaby contributed to Hollywood North.
Geography and land use
Burnaby occupies and is located at the geographic centre of the Metro Vancouver Regional District. The city has four areas of urban density known as "town centres": Lougheed, Edmonds, Metrotown, and Brentwood. The city's governmental and cultural precincts are located in Burnaby's Deer Lake area. Situated between the city of Vancouver on the west and Port Moody, Coquitlam, and New Westminster on the east, Burnaby is bounded by Burrard Inlet and the Fraser River on the north and south, respectively. Burnaby, Vancouver and New Westminster collectively occupy the major portion of the Burrard Peninsula. The elevation of Burnaby ranges from sea level to a maximum of atop Burnaby Mountain. Due to its elevation, the city of Burnaby typically has more snowfall during the winter months than nearby Vancouver or Richmond. Overall, the physical landscape of Burnaby is one of hills, ridges, valleys and an alluvial plain.Burnaby is home to many industrial and commercial firms. British Columbia's largest commercial shopping mall, Metropolis at Metrotown, is located in Burnaby, as well as malls in Brentwood and Lougheed town centres. Still, Burnaby's ratio of park land to residents is one of the highest in North America. It also maintains some agricultural land, particularly along the Fraser foreshore flats in the Big Bend neighbourhood along its southern perimeter.
Parks, rivers, and lakes
Major parklands and waterways in Burnaby include Central Park, Robert Burnaby Park, Kensington Park, Burnaby Mountain, Still Creek, the Brunette River, Burnaby Lake, Deer Lake, Squint Lake, and Barnet Marine Park.Climate
Burnaby's Simon Fraser University weather station is located above sea level on Burnaby Mountain. Therefore, climate records are cooler and wetter, with more snowfall, as compared to the rest of the city.Burnaby has an oceanic climate with mild, dry summers and cool, rainy winters.
Demographics
In the 2021 Canadian census conducted by Statistics Canada, Burnaby had a population of 249,125 living in 101,136 of its 107,046 total private dwellings, an increase of from its 2016 population of 232,755. With a land area of, it had a population density of in 2021.In 2016, the median age is 40.3 years old, slightly younger than the British Columbia median of 43.0 years old.
Ethnicity
Burnaby has diverse ethnic and immigrant communities. For example, North Burnaby near Hastings Street has long been home to many Italian restaurants and recreational bocce games. Metrotown's high-rise condominium towers in the south have been fuelled in part by arrivals from China during the 1990s, Taiwan, and South Korea. According to the 2021 census, ethnic Chinese make up the largest ethnic group of Burnaby with 33.3% while Europeans make up a close 2nd with 30.5%.Language
According to the 2006 census, 54% of Burnaby residents have a mother tongue that is neither English nor French. The 2016 census found that English was spoken as the mother tongue of 41.33 percent of the population. The next three most common languages were Mandarin, Cantonese and Tagalog.| Mother tongue | Population | Percentage |
| English | 91,850 | 41.33% |
| Mandarin | 32,295 | 14.53% |
| Cantonese | 27,375 | 12.32% |
| Tagalog | 7,435 | 3.35% |
| Korean | 7,010 | 3.15% |
| Punjabi | 5,000 | 2.25% |
| Spanish | 4,165 | 1.87% |
| Persian | 4,080 | 1.84% |
| Italian | 3,975 | 1.79% |
| Russian | 2,650 | 1.19% |
Religion
According to the 2021 census, religious groups in Burnaby included:- Irreligion
- Christianity
- Islam
- Buddhism
- Hinduism
- Sikhism
- Judaism
- Indigenous spirituality
- Other
Industry and economy
Major technology firms such as Ballard Power Systems, D-Wave Systems, Clio, Creo, and Electronic Arts Canada have their headquarters in Burnaby.
Metropolis mall located in the Metrotown neighbourhood, the downtown area of Burnaby, is the largest mall in British Columbia with West Vancouver's Park Royal in second place. It is the second largest in Canada behind the first-place West Edmonton Mall in Alberta. Metropolis was the second most visited mall in Canada in 2017 and third most visited in 2018.
Heavy industry companies including Chevron Corporation and Petro-Canada petroleum refines oil on the shores of Burrard Inlet.
Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers, Pacific Blue Cross and Nokia have significant facilities in Burnaby.
Other firms with operations based in Burnaby include Canada Wide Media, Doteasy, Telus Communications, Teradici, Mercedes-Benz Fuel Cell, HSBC Group Systems Development Centre, and TransLink. eBay ceased local operations in 2009.