Trouble dogs city society

By Dan Hilborn
Published April 26, 2005


The doors to the Burnaby Multicultural Society's Metrotown-area office were locked temporarily last week, but its executive director says the group is not planning on shutting down anytime in the near future.

Roop Virk, executive director of what may be the best-known immigrant services agency in the city, is vowing that the society will remain open even after some of its staff are laid off when its 'bridge funding' from the province expires this summer.

"We will not be folding this year," the former City TV host said after the Burnaby NOW learned that the doors to the agency's Nelson Avenue office were locked due to an ongoing police investigation.

"We are investigating an incident of violence in the workplace, and that's all I can say about that," Virk said. "The investigation has not concluded and I'm not at liberty to say anything, for fairness' sake."

The society is operating, however, clients must make an appointment to get into the office when staff are working alone, Virk said.

He also confirmed that the society's bridge funding will run out on June 30, and the association needs to come up with both a formal plan and funding if it hopes to continue its work. Those plans are being worked out, he said.

"We're in a period of transition," Virk said, adding the society expects to direct its focus towards community justice issues and their impact on immigrants. "The mandate has always been to create a fair and just society for all Canadians and within that vein we want to see what we can do.

"But the association has a clear plan to keep the operation going in the same location from Monday to Friday," he said, adding that the society does receive funding from other sources that will enable it to keep some services operating.

Virk noted that 50 per cent of Burnaby's population now speaks a language other than English at home, and simple settlement issues, such as helping people find a family doctor or learn to use the public transit system, are only small parts of their work.

"We're talking about issues like violence in the South Asian community with young people and the need for mentoring programs," Virk said. The society has already approached a variety of groups, including the federal government, VanCity and the United Way, for funding, and Virk is hopeful that some money will come through. And Virk noted that even he has volunteered his own time to help the society get over its funding crunch.

He chuckled over suggestions that he has not done enough to pressure the provincial government to continue the society's funding. "You know, it was me who raised a stink with the province, and I'm sure I'm not in their good books at the moment."

In a two-page letter delivered to the Burnaby NOW, Virk also lamented the lack of funding information coming from Victoria.

"As you know, it had been our hope that the provincial government would provide our organization with some clarity prior to the election writ being dropped, but that has not proven to be the case," he wrote.

The society's ongoing English language and life skills program will definitely continue beyond the June 30 funding date, and Virk is seeking opportunities within the "settlement services delivery hole" identified in Burnaby and mentioned by Murray Coell, the minister of community, aboriginal and women's services, during his visit to the agency last fall.

"The future for the BMS, like the future for many in the 'helping organizations' located throughout the province, is one with challenges, but not without its opportunities," Virk wrote. "Though the look of the society may be different after June 30 ... its commitment to helping the citizens of Burnaby and New Westminster will not falter."

Those concerns were echoed by Mary Begin, the president of the society.

"It's very hard for a non-profit agency to plan its life when you have to go through a bidding process like you were building a highway or a house," Begin said. "Certainly, the board of directors has strongly said that is our absolute desire to stay open, but it may be be with the services we're now offering.

"But you do what you can, and we do have good volunteers and we could get along for a little while with volunteers."

Begin said the association has about seven or eight part-time staff people plus two full-time employees who will all be formally laid off at the end of the month.