Colleen Hardwick says Vancouver went off track in 2008 and pledges a focus on livability if elected

Colleen Hardwick is running for Vancouver mayor for a second time. She served as a city councillor from 2018 to 2022 and finished third in the 2022 municipal election, behind Ken Sim and Kennedy Stewart. In an Oct. 7 interview, she discussed housing affordability, neighbourhood planning and public safety, saying she would pursue those priorities if she and TEAM for a Livable Vancouver are elected on Oct. 17. Hardwick said she would not be running if she believed another candidate could address the city’s complex problems, and called the campaign no career move. Her four main rivals are ABC Vancouver’s Ken Sim, Pete Fry of the Green Party of Vancouver, Rebecca Bligh of Vote Vancouver and Kareem Allam of the Vancouver Liberals.

Hardwick said residents she has spoken with are angry. When she asks whether things are better than four years ago, she said, the answer is generally no. Residents feel threatened by multiplexes in their neighbourhoods and are having to contend with zoning changes across the city, she said. Safety remains a priority concern both in the Downtown Eastside and in neighbourhoods. Hardwick added that people are struggling to afford to stay in Vancouver while job options are not expanding.

She sharply criticized the Official Development Plan (ODP), passed by city council in March, saying it “cancelled” previous neighbourhood plans. Hardwick wants to bring back neighbourhood-level planning and introduce a ward system so each neighbourhood has representation at City Hall. She described the current council approach as “centralized, top-down, autocratic control.” Neighbourhood planning, she said, means planning with residents and discussing how much change should happen and how quickly, not rejecting change.

Provincial legislation amended the Vancouver Charter in 2024 to require the city to adopt an ODP by 2026, bringing its planning standards in line with those already applied to other municipalities. In 2023, Vancouver had repealed dozens of older community plans and land-use guidelines dating back to the 1970s. City staff said they were outdated or incompatible with the Vancouver Plan, approved in 2022 and later replaced by the ODP.

Hardwick defines “livability” as a balance between housing and infrastructure, including roads, sewers, schools, community centres and economic infrastructure. She said Vancouver went “off the rails” in 2008, when Gregor Robertson became mayor: instead of prioritizing balanced growth, the city focused on meeting housing targets. In her account, the city began relying on developer contributions—fees on new developments used to fund infrastructure and community amenities—as a revenue stream. She said promoting rezoning to generate those contributions became a business model. The pitch was “let’s have growth fund growth,” she said, but land values rose sharply and speculation followed, rather than new supply bringing costs down.

Hardwick also criticized the city for taking on responsibilities outside its jurisdiction. TEAM’s platform promises to examine discretionary and non-core spending, including Community Climate Action Grants. She said the city should focus on its core responsibilities and build affordable housing efficiently and cost-effectively. To define affordability, she said, the city should look at evidence, including median income and population growth, and assess housing need using the 30 per cent rule: housing costs are considered affordable when they take up 30 per cent or less of a household’s income.

She cited False Creek South and Champlain Heights as examples of affordable housing built on city-owned land with provincial and federal funding. Each has one-third below-market units, one-third market units and one-third above-market units, she said. Hardwick proposed a similar model for additional housing: use city-owned land, reduce permitting costs and delays, and seek funding from the federal and provincial governments. She also said the city should prioritize existing affordable rental housing, which she believes is threatened by measures such as the Broadway Plan. Approved by council in 2022, the plan allows substantially greater density across six square kilometres and 500 city blocks. Its approximate boundaries are First Avenue to the north, Clark Drive to the east, 16th Avenue to the south and Vine Street to the west. Hardwick said rezoning for greater density under the ODP and Broadway Plan can raise land values and encourage speculation.

She said government should balance competing needs in the public interest, rather than align closely with the property development industry and prioritize its profits over people’s quality of life. Hardwick argued that Vancouver’s economy relies too heavily on real estate and property development, and said the city should encourage innovation and entrepreneurship. She acknowledged tourism as part of the economy but said tourism jobs are largely minimum-wage and tip-based. She also said immigration has been used as “fuel” for the housing production industry. Hardwick traced a turning point to Expo 86 and the sale of the Expo lands to Li Ka-shing, saying real estate’s financialization accelerated after that and especially after the 2008 financial crash.

Hardwick said public safety is a concern and is one of her party’s platform pillars. She called ABC Vancouver’s proposed public-safety plebiscite a “cynical vote-getting strategy.” Voters will be asked whether they support strengthening city laws to prohibit open-air hard-drug use in public spaces, and whether they support the city asking the province to convert parts of the former St. Paul’s Hospital into a medical facility with acute voluntary and involuntary care beds. Hardwick said a plebiscite was unnecessary for those issues, while affirming that Vancouver has problems involving safety and drug use that need to be addressed.

Hardwick questioned what would draw people to Vancouver, saying some residents are not having children or grandchildren, or are moving away because they see no future in the city. She said the imbalance between housing and infrastructure is central, and suggested her mayoral competitors either promote a growth agenda or do not fully understand the problems’ complexity. Hardwick said she has two children and two grandchildren, and that the prospect of another generation of Vancouverites being pushed out is devastating to her. She said she would fight for residents to be properly represented, with quality of life and affordability as the ultimate goals.