Burkeville, British Columbia

Village in British Columbia, Canada

Burkeville, British Columbia is a village located on Sea Island in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada.

The village is the only residential area on Sea Island, which is primarily covered by the Vancouver International Airport.

History

Development

The village was constructed from 1941 to 1943 by Wartime Housing Limited, the crown corporation responsible for the development of homes for workers in wartime industries. With rubber shortages and restrictions on gasoline usage, the government considered the community essential in order to house the employees of the Boeing Aircraft Factory close to their workplace. The land upon which the neighbourhood is built was expropriated from farmers who lived in the area.

In an effort to expedite the construction process, the entire village was constructed with only three different floor plans for the original 328 houses. Houses were between 700 and 900 square feet, containing either four or six rooms depending on the layout, and came in three different exterior colours. The homes lacked lawns, garages, insulation, and furnaces, relying on wood or coal burning kitchen stoves for heat. The first residents moved into the neighbourhood in January 1944.

The community would later be named Burkeville, after then-President of Boeing Canada, Stanley Burke. The street names have an aeronautical theme, many of which bear the names of airplane manufacturers, including Boeing Avenue, Douglas Crescent, and Handley Avenue, or of specific aircraft models, such as Hudson Avenue, Catalina Crescent, and Lysander Lane.

Politics

From its inception in 1944 until 1947, Burkeville was not considered a part of Richmond nor Vancouver. Initially, the Richmond Council was averse to absorbing the new village, due to concerns that pre-existing landowners would be saddled with an increased property tax to cover the costs of services required by Burkeville. It was even suggested that Burkeville become an independent village, leaving the federal Government responsible for the associated costs. The city council debated this issue from before the development was built until after the war had ended.

Finally, in May 1947, a bylaw was passed by Richmond Council to incorporate Burkeville into the municipality of Richmond. Subsequently, the city took possession of the neighbourhood's houses and committed to resurfacing the community's roads and building an elementary school. The homes were then sold back to existing tenants and veterans returning to the country.

Sea Island School

After the war, residents of Burkeville quickly began demanding an elementary school to accommodate their growing families and remove the need for children to be bused off of the island for education. The grand opening of the Sea Island School took place on October 17, 1947. The school's name was chosen by then-Reeve of Richmond, Rudy Grauer; the other proposed options were Princess Elizabeth School and Frasea School. The facility was a cottage-style building located on Wellington Crescent, with six classrooms on the ground floor.

Notable people

Burkeville was the hometown of aviation pioneer Dan McIvor.

Demographics

Burkeville is represented in Canadian census dissemination area 59153602, which covers the entirety of Sea Island. Since Burkeville is the only residential area on the island, census results from this area can be used to determine the demographic makeup of the village.

In 2021, Burkeville had 819 individuals living in 304 of its 315 total private dwellings, an increase of 0.61% from its 2016 population of 814. The employment rate in the village was 60.6% as of May 2021, slightly above the Canadian average of 57.1%, while the median total income of residents in 2020 was $48,000.

Ethnicity

Ethnic and panethnic groups in Burkeville, 2021
Groups		Population	% of Total Population
Visible minority groups	South Asian	45	5.1%
	Chinese	170	19.3%
	Black	10	1.1%
	Latin American	40	4.5%
	Southeast Asian	15	1.7%
	Japanese	15	1.7%
	Total visible minority population	320	36.4%
Indigenous groups	First Nations	35	4.0%
	Métis	0	0.0%
	Total Aboriginal population	35	4.0%
European		525	59.6%
Total population		880	100%
Source: 2021 Canadian census

Languages

The 2021 census stated 625 persons or 76.2% of Burkeville's population have English as a mother tongue; Cantonese is the mother tongue of 45 persons or 5.5% of the population, followed by Mandarin (35 or 4.3%), Spanish (15 or 1.8%), Punjabi (15 or 1.8%), Hindi (10 or 1.2%), Japanese (10 or 1.2%), French (5 or 0.6%), Tagalog (5 or 0.6%), Vietnamese (5 or 0.6%), Polish (5 or 0.6%), and Thai (5 or 0.6%).

Religion

Religion	Population	% of Total Population
Buddhist	15	1.7%
Christian (total)	250	28.4%
Christian, not otherwise specified	85	9.7%
Anglican	35	4.0%
Catholic	65	7.4%
United Church	20	2.3%
Other Christian traditions	15	1.7%
Other religions and spiritual traditions	20	2.3%
No religion and secular perspectives	575	65.3%
Total population	880	100%
Source: 2021 Canadian census

Notes

Statistic includes all persons that did not make up part of a visible minority or an Indigenous identity.
Sum of ethnic or cultural groups may be higher than total population estimate due to rounding errors or individuals reporting more than one group
Sum of religious groups may be higher than total population estimate due to rounding errors or individuals selecting more than one group