REPORT CARDS MAY BE FOUND WANTING
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DENIALS AND SMILES FOR 55-PLUS
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STONE NOT KEEN ON MAYORS’ PLAN
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FRIDAY
JUNE 27 2014
James Wang has been named one of Canada’s top immigrants. See Page A11
www.burnabynewsleader.com
Fix is in for city’s worst crash sites Mario Bartel
photo@burnabynewsleader.com
WANDA CHOW/NEWSLEADER
Burnaby’s Jamie O’Keeffe found herself caught in a cycle of debt ever since she turned to a payday lender similar to this one when she needed $50 to cover her phone bill. She plans to look into the new small loan product being offered by Vancity as a more affordable alternative.
A way to break the payday loan cycle? Vancity offers alternative to payday lenders with lower interest rate, longer time to repay Wanda Chow
wchow@burnabynewsleader.com
Vancity is offering an alternative to payday loans that could help low-income people get onto firmer financial footing. The credit union is one of the first financial institutions in Canada and definitely the first in B.C. to offer such a product, said Linda Morris, Vancity’s senior vice-president of
business development, member and cheque was late in arriving recently, community engagement. she asked at Vancity whether some A survey commissioned by of her bill payments could be Vancity found most people delayed. who turn to payday lenders do The Vancouver resident it because they have a sudden, was referred to a loans officer unforeseen expense or they’ve who explained the product. gotten behind on bills. She applied for the loan “It tends to be more of that, of less than $1,000 in the the urgent need,” Morris morning and it was in BUCKLAND her account by the same said. Heather, who declined to afternoon. give her last name, has always shied “I have a year to [repay it]. I away from payday loans because of could’ve had a shorter period their high interest rates. of time but they gave me a year But when her long-term disability because it keeps the payments small.
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They work with you, they look at your situation … and then they adjust it accordingly.” Burnaby’s Jamie O’Keeffe certainly plans to look into Vancity’s new product. For the past year she’s found herself increasingly drawn into debt to a payday lender. O’Keeffe, 55, is a member of social justice group ACORN’s Burnaby chapter which earlier this year called on Burnaby council to control the influx of payday lenders in lower-income neighbourhoods.
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Three of Metro Vancouver’s worst intersections for crashes are in Burnaby. But that could soon change, according to ICBC. Changes to the configurations of the Willingdon, Kensington and Cariboo interchanges to accommodate new bridges over an expanded Highway 1 were engineered with an eye to making them safer. At the Willingdon interchange, which was cited in an ICBC report as the worst intersection in Metro Vancouver with 350 crashes in 2013, that’s meant moving the offramp from Highway 1 eastbound from a direct merge onto Willingdon to a signal-controlled turn onto the busy thoroughfare. The old merge of northbound and southbound vehicles heading to the highway’s eastbound on-ramp is now also controlled by signals. “Most of those intersections were 50 years old,” said John Dickinson, ICBC’s director of road safety. “When they were originally designed, safety wasn’t part of the equation.” Please see CITY, A3