Vancouver parties unveil new municipal election platform pledges

Two parties running candidates in Vancouver’s upcoming municipal election unveiled new platform pledges on Tuesday. OneCity Vancouver, which is not fielding a mayoral candidate, officially opened its campaign office on Main Street. Its council, Park Board and School Board candidates stood together and said the party would create multi-use community hubs by renovating existing community centres and building new ones.

The party would begin with a 10-year plan to renew recreational and educational facilities at the Britannia complex, which currently includes a community centre, a Vancouver Public Library branch and two public schools. OneCity Park Board candidate Tyler Peterson said the goal is to use Britannia as a model for integrated public amenities with shared services on shared sites wherever possible. The party sees a similar hub at the existing Kingsgate Mall property, owned by the Vancouver School Board. The proposal could include a new pool, public library and rental housing.

OneCity also criticized incumbent ABC Mayor Ken Sim and councillors over property taxes. ABC has promised another “Zero Means Zero” budget, freezing property taxes for a second consecutive year if re-elected with a majority. Incumbent OneCity councillor Lucy Maloney called the plan unsustainable and said it would lead to higher fees for other city services. She said property taxes should rise by a predictable, moderate amount that people can anticipate and plan for, rather than swing wildly as they have during Ken Sim and ABC’s time in office, resulting in a large overall increase.

ABC used its majority to freeze property taxes in the most recent budget, after increasing them by 10.7 per cent in 2023, 7.3 per cent in 2024 and 3.9 per cent in 2025. At the end of the previous council term, ABC held an emergency meeting and used its majority to add two plebiscite questions to the ballot for the upcoming election. Sim has called the plebiscite necessary to give the city tools to strengthen laws on public drug consumption and to pressure the province to convert parts of St. Paul’s Hospital into a medical facility with 100 involuntary care beds. ABC has launched a dedicated website urging voters to answer yes to both questions.

On Tuesday, the Vancouver Liberals compared using St. Paul’s Hospital for involuntary care to creating a prison in the heart of the city. The party launched its own website to counter Sim and ABC’s argument and urge voters to answer no to the plebiscite questions. Mayoral candidate Kareem Allam said, “It is a prison. Let me be clear. The worst place for a prison is between Davie Village and our central business district.” He also said no downtown business district in any other major city in the world is planning a prison in its core.

Allam called the question on open-air drug use unnecessary because the practice is already illegal. “The VPD already has the authority to enforce current drug laws on open-air drug use. Rather than ask the public to strengthen laws that already make this illegal, Ken Sim should use the powers at his disposal to get the VPD to enforce the existing laws,” he said.