Rajen Toor’s 2023 harvest should have been an occasion to celebrate. Toor and his wife Bree, the duo behind wine label Ursa Major, had just purchased their own vineyard in the fall of 2022. For six years, Toor had been making his small-batch wines from grapes purchased from his family winery in Oliver, B.C., and, more recently, from a vineyard he and Bree leased on the Naramata Bench. Harvesting the first crop from their own vineyard would have been a triumph for two young winemakers.

“We’d seen the place and fallen in love,” Toor says of their Keremeos vineyard. But after a mild winter —

The City of Burnaby took in $175 million less than expected in developer money last year – and that spells trouble for the future of the city’s major community amenity projects.

Burnaby expected to pocket almost $237.2 million from developers in 2023, but the city only took in about $62.2 million, almost three-quarters less than expected, according to the city’s annual municipal report.

The city took in $250.7 million in 2022.

Through its community benefit bonus program, the city funnels the developer money into its reserves dedicated to affordable housing and community amenities like recreation centres, cultural facilities and space for non-profit organizations.

The City of Burnaby has a total of 1,040 non-market housing units, including rentals and co-ops, just built or in development on its land, according to a new city report, and there’s more on the way.

The city lands program for non-market housing, which was adopted in 2015, leases city-owned lands at a nominal rate to non-profit housing providers through a public request for proposals (RFP) process.

The city has contributed about $172.44 million as part of the program, including land, grants and on-and-off-site works, according to the report which accounts for 11 projects that recently completed or were in progress as of March 2024.

The assessed value of the land makes up more than $120 million of that $172-million total contribution for the 11 projects.