NEWS 3
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House arrest for escort
Weekend events highlights
SPORTS 17
Arena reaches milestone
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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2023
LOCAL NEWS – LOCAL MATTERS.
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Plan for waste plant in park draws scrutiny Lauren Vanderdeen
lvanderdeen@burnabynow.com
Burnaby could be getting a $182-million organic waste processing facility in Fraser Foreshore Park, but it would come with a hefty impact on parkland, say environmentalists. That impact, and other questions about the location of the proposed facility, has sparked criticism of the plan. City staff are proposing a Green Recycling Organic Waste facility — called GROW — by carving 21 acres out of Fraser Foreshore Park at 4800 Riverbend Dr. The facility could process up to 150,000 tonnes of green waste such as food scraps and yard trimmings. It would create high-quality compost for community gardens and Continued on page 3
GROUP EFFORT: Ukrainian students take part in an ice-breaker activity at Burnaby North Secondary School last month.
PHOTO CORNELIA NAYLOR
Ukrainian teens get help with stress, anxiety at Burnaby program Cornelia Naylor
cnaylor@burnabynow.com
Vika Izyhk hasn’t seen her father for nearly a year. The 17-year-old Burnaby North Secondary School student arrived in Canada via Poland with her mother and sister in August, but her father had to stay behind in Ukraine.
“It’s very bad for me,” she says, explaining she and her father have been close since the day she was born. “It’s hard. But he can’t be here now.” Izyhk says she worries about her dad, wonders if he is OK and how he is feeling. In the meantime, she’s also adjusting to life in a new country, a new
school, a new language, new friends. When it all gets to be too much, she closes her eyes and imagines holding a steaming cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows. She breathes deeply to take in the chocolatey smell and then blows gently at the imaginary, frothing cup.
It’s a mindfulness exercise she learned during a pilot program for Ukrainian teens at her school, and she says it helps. “I can use this practice at home when I feel bad. It works for me,” Izyhk says. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine nearly a year ago, the Burnaby school district has regis-
tered 130 children and youth whose families have come to Canada to escape the war, according to Natalya Khan, coordinator of Burnaby’s Settlement Workers in Schools (SWIS) program. Forty of the new students are in high school. Working with Ukrainian Continued on page 11