Newly elected Vancouver councillors pledge to reverse previous council’s decisions

Vancouver city councillors say they are ready to work on their campaign promises in a new term led by the city’s first Green Party mayor. On Saturday, voters elected four councillors from COPE and the Vancouver Green Party, along with Lucy Maloney of One City and ABC’s Mike Klassen.

The Greens and COPE have some shared commitments, including a review of the city budget. COPE Coun. Sean Orr, who received 83,038 votes—the highest total of any council candidate—said the review would be one of his first priorities after the November inauguration. He said the last budget lacked transparency, was notably short and did not provide line-by-line details. The new council needs to examine it for problems to address and potential savings, he said.

Newly elected Green Coun. Annette Reilly also supports a budget review. Afterward, she said, the party wants to reintroduce initiatives scrapped during the previous four years under ABC, including the Renters’ Office, which closed in 2023, and the equity office, which closed last year. Reilly also wants to champion co-op lease renewals and faster permitting for child-care spaces. “That’s something I’d like to focus on right away,” she said.

Orr, Maloney and Reilly support reversing the ban on new supportive housing. Orr said he will also bring forward a motion to restore the city’s living wage policy, which was scrapped in January, and advocate for more funding for libraries and recreation centres. Vancouver has substantial resources and can fully fund the things that make the city great, including arts organizations, he said.

COPE’s platform included a mansion tax: a one per cent levy on homes worth more than $5 million to pay for public housing. Orr said Vancouver has considerable wealth that could be redistributed.

On the Vancouver Police budget, Orr said he believes there are savings to be found. He also supports the Greens’ campaign promise to establish a Community Response Outreach Workers Team to handle non-emergency calls concerning homelessness, public intoxication and mental health crises. Orr said mental health work should be taken off police officers’ plate; he added that officers do not want to do that work either and that the city needs to address these issues proactively rather than reactively.

Orr and Reilly said they look forward to the coming term and plan to work across party lines. Maloney said Vancouver residents had clearly expressed a desire for a progressive majority that works collaboratively. She is committed to delivering the results residents expect by drawing on diverse perspectives. Klassen expressed a similar wish to work constructively with colleagues regardless of political affiliation. He said his role will be different this term, but he will seek common ground wherever possible while ensuring Vancouverites have a strong, independent voice at City Hall.