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“We stand out for being consistent in our policy decisions. Every developer who comes in can expect to get the same deal as the developer before him and the one after him,” he said. “They don’t want to think that the next guy might dobetter than them.”

Burnaby levies extra fees from developers for community benefits. Corrigan said 20 per cent goes into an affordable housing fund and the rest toward local benefits such as libraries, parks and pools.

“We extract a lot from our developers, too. I don’t want to leave the impression that we are leaving anything on the table. We’re very aggressive. We are very clear about what you have to do and how much you have to pay.”

Vancouver Coun. Geoff Meggs dismisses such comparisons. He said his city applies a rigorous rezoning process that may be slow compared to Burnaby, but it gets better results.

“I think they’re different places at different stages of development,” Meggs said. “I don’t think the numbers by themselves tell us anything. I’m not sure how many people in Vancouver would want to win that race anyway.

“It’s not like a race to get as many built as possible in the shortest timeframe. It’s to get a good job done. I don’t have any comments on their processes, but I think ours is pretty careful,” Meggs said. “The people who complain about the timing are developers, but the community feels that things are going far too quickly.”

Jane Pickering, Vancouver’s acting general manager of planning and development services, couldn’t say for sure why developers are building highrises in Burnaby instead of Vancouver.