The Burnaby-Deer Lake riding extends from Boundary Road on the west to Highway 1 in the east, from Imperial in the south to Canada Way and Deer Lake Parkway in the north.
It’s a very diverse constituency in many ways. We are about 52,500 people, 42,000 of which are Canadian citizens.
Almost two-thirds of my constituents are visible minorities and around 40 percent are Chinese. We also have South Asian, Korean, Filipino, English, Italian, German, Serbian, Scottish, Japanese, Iranian, Russian and Portuguese backgrounds, and I'm sure I've missed some others.
Only one in three of my constituents’ mother tongue is English. It makes for an amazing community with residents whose family history includes tales of logging businesses into the 1800s, living next to neighbours who have only recently made the life-changing decision to uproot themselves and start a new life in Canada and Burnaby.
Burnaby-Deer Lake is also very economically diverse. A significant proportion of residents live at or below the poverty line, but the riding also includes the beautiful neighbourhood of Buckingham, with some of the most expensive homes in Metro Vancouver.
There are many other well-established single family neighbourhoods, like Cascade Heights and Garden Village in the Kingsway-Imperial neighbourhood area. The riding also includes Metrotown, which itself is very diverse, with a good supply of rental apartments and affordable housing that our city wants to protect.
While the city of Burnaby includes many areas which are densely populated, we are also very proud that 25 percent of the city is parkland. In Burnaby-Deer Lake we are fortunate to have Central Park, which is close to my home; the stunning Deer Lake Park, where I often walk my dog Rusty; as well as dozens of other smaller community parks.
From Kathy’s first speech in the House
August 31, 2009
http://www.leg.bc.ca/hansard/39th1st/h90831p.htm