Election Digest Vancouver 2026
| Est. 12,026 HE | |

Kathleen Larsen

Candidate for City Council · TEAM for a Livable Vancouver Not elected

Website ↗ Official site ↗ Instagram ↗X ↗

Candidate commitments & stances
No personal commitment or stance has been extracted for Kathleen Larsen yet. The party's shared record appears below.
Shared party record · 347

Positions published by TEAM for a Livable Vancouver that apply to this slate — shown as party positions, not Kathleen Larsen's own statements. Candidate and party authorship are never blended.

Commitments · 302

Governance, consultation, and accountability 65

  • Make the permit approval process more transparent and accessible for affected third parties.↗
  • Introduce a bylaw to elect Vancouver city councillors from geographic wards rather than at large, advancing it through the normal legislative process.↗↗↗↗↗
  • Create a clear process for escalating unresolved or recurring Van311 cases.↗
  • Appoint an independent Electoral Boundaries Commission, provide it with resources, and have it recommend ward boundaries considering population, existing neighbourhood boundaries, geographic continuity, and public submissions.↗↗
  • Submit the ward boundary bylaw to the Lieutenant Governor in Council for provincial approval and work with the Province to complete the statutory process under the Vancouver Charter.↗
  • Establish a system of Neighbourhood Councils across Vancouver to provide neighbourhoods with a formal, ongoing advisory connection to City Hall, including the right to review significant City proposals, submit recommendations, hold regular meetings with ward councillors and staff, and escalate unresolved concerns.↗↗↗↗
  • Properly resource Van311 so residents can reach City services efficiently.↗
  • Restore the QuickFind Directory to the City website, including a public organizational chart of City staff and management with email and phone contact information for each person.↗↗
  • Establish clear service and response standards for resident requests to Van311.↗
  • Allow residents to track the status of their Van311 request and know which City department is responsible.↗
  • Retain Vancouver's independent elected Park Board.↗
  • Return administrative and operational resources transferred from the Park Board to City departments.↗
  • Protect the Auditor General from political or administrative interference.↗↗↗↗
  • Make Freedom of Information requests more accessible and timely.↗
  • Require City departments to establish annual service plans, measurable performance benchmarks, and public reporting on results.↗↗
  • Require City departments to provide public responses and timelines for audit recommendations, maintain a public tracker showing their status, and require a public explanation when recommendations are not implemented.↗
  • Continue using independent audits to identify waste, inefficiency, and opportunities for better services.↗
  • Strengthen protections for the Integrity Commissioner's independence, ensure complaints involving elected officials receive independent and impartial investigation, use qualified outside investigators where appropriate, review the Code of Conduct, and seek provincial changes where additional authority is required.↗↗
  • Establish a public Lobbyist Registry disclosing who is lobbying City Hall, who they represent, what decision they seek to influence, and which elected officials or senior City decision-makers they contacted.↗↗↗↗↗
  • Create public Community Amenity Contribution and Development Cost Levy registers.↗↗
  • Release Council information early enough for residents to meaningfully review it.↗
  • Publicly report audit findings so residents can see what is being spent, what results are being achieved, and where further action is required.↗
  • Reinstate participatory community-based planning as the fundamental framework for Vancouver's future planning.↗↗↗↗↗↗
  • Restrict participation in City engagement processes to verified Vancouver residents (owners and renters), business owners, and property owners.↗
  • Develop diverse, inclusive City Advisory Committees for both renters and homeowners, with members randomly selected from volunteer pools to represent Vancouver's diverse perspectives.↗
  • Publish all materials relating to public proceedings, including staff correspondence, financial documents, and Freedom of Information requests, at least one month before Council discussion, and notify residents, businesses, and local groups of their availability.↗↗
  • Review current policies and practices around in-camera meetings with recommendations to limit them to only when truly essential, and ensure general staff briefings of Council are open to the public.↗↗
  • Increase transparency in the budget process and give residents a meaningful voice in spending decisions.↗
  • Change the budget process to enable Council and the public to review and set priorities within the operating and capital budgets, including review and approval of departmental budgets, service plans, and performance benchmarks.↗
  • Enact a municipal moratorium on approval and permitting of AI data centres while local planning and regulatory frameworks are developed to mitigate negative consequences.↗
  • Restore finance, operations, and facilities to Park Board jurisdiction to preserve its independence and self-sufficiency.↗↗
  • Withdraw the City's request to the Province to amend the Vancouver Charter to eliminate the elected Park Board.↗
  • Protect all public view cone corridors and reinstate view cones that were amended or eliminated over the last term.↗
  • Simplify and make more publicly transparent the zoning, development, and building permitting processes to reduce costs and approval times for new development and renovations.↗↗
  • Repeal the Official Development Plan (ODP), including related plans for Broadway, Jericho, Rupert & Renfrew, and Villages, to enable neighbourhood-based participatory community planning.↗↗
  • Identify permitting bottlenecks and ensure staff are properly trained to handle permits appropriately.↗
  • Streamline processes for smaller projects, including more flexible on-site review for renovation building permits.↗
  • Re-establish the One Stop Renovation Centre and a similar service for approval of small construction projects, including laneway housing, secondary suites, duplexes, and small-scale ground-oriented infill without land assembly.↗
  • Reinstate third-party appeals to the Board of Variance, which had been in place for 50 years, as a check and balance on the discretionary powers of the Director of Planning.↗
  • Ensure that members of the Urban Design Panel have a strong track record for representing the public interest in design and planning.↗
  • Develop a professional standard requiring that all development proposal photos and 3D renderings accurately portray impact on the entire neighbourhood and skyline, including all surrounding buildings, using a 50mm lens (or equivalent digital perspective) to replicate human vision.↗
  • Require shadow studies at all four seasonal solar positions — winter solstice, spring equinox, summer solstice, and autumnal equinox — for all development initiatives, using 3D renderings that accurately portray impacts on the surrounding neighbourhood and skyline.↗
  • Work with other municipalities to challenge and change provincial zoning legislation (Bills 44, 46, 47 of 2023; Bill 18 of 2024; M216 of 2025), including supporting judicial review, to reconsider the one-size-fits-all approach and ensure planned growth is supported by necessary infrastructure and amenities.↗↗
  • Rethink the Broadway Plan, Rupert/Renfrew station area plans, and the Vancouver Plan, which are being implemented through area-wide prezoning and ODP adoption without meaningful public input.↗
  • Publish a public housing and development dashboard to make City Hall's results transparent.↗
  • Make City Hall more accessible.↗
  • Establish a transparent, ongoing public process—involving residents, experts, businesses, and government representatives—to examine AI data centre opportunities and risks, forming the foundation for a broader, evolving municipal AI policy.↗
  • Require the city to disclose to residents when an AI system was involved in making or recommending a decision that affects their lives, and explain the AI's role when appropriate.↗
  • Prohibit AI from independently making final decisions involving residents' rights, access to essential services, enforcement, or significant financial consequences, requiring meaningful human oversight at every such step.↗
  • Establish clear rules governing what resident, business, property, and public-service information can be provided to AI systems, how it is protected, and who is responsible when something goes wrong.↗
  • Require AI systems used in consequential city services to be tested for accuracy and fairness before deployment, monitored during use, and subject to a challenge mechanism, with human supervision at every step.↗
  • Ensure major uses of AI by city government are preceded by open public discussion about where AI belongs and where it does not, rather than appearing without prior consultation.↗
  • Reform the public hearing process so residents are not required to queue for days or submit mass written objections to influence council decisions.↗
  • Use transparent, verifiable, and publicly accessible data — including Vancouver's existing zoning capacity, StatsCan Census, CMHC, and regional/BC stats — for planning purposes.↗
  • Re-establish neighbourhood planning offices.↗↗
  • Urge City Council to listen to West End residents regarding the proposed 27-storey hotel rezoning on Barclay Street.↗
  • Launch a neighbourhood consultation process following rescission of the Villages Plan.↗
  • Launch a petition urging City Council to ensure all voters can cast a ballot in the October 17 civic election.↗
  • Conduct a Downtown Eastside Audit examining City grants, programs, contracts, and other municipal spending; identify gaps and duplication across governments and service providers; and publicly report findings including what is working, what is not, and where resources are still needed.↗↗↗
  • Build a new ODP through a grassroots-up, democratic, and participatory process rather than adopting the current version.↗
  • Introduce digital identity authentication with privacy protections so councillors can verify whether speakers or correspondents are Vancouver residents, whether they are affected by the issue, and whether they represent an organization or commercial interest.↗
  • Change the counting of written correspondence so that submissions from unidentified contributors are no longer counted as multiple pieces while a verifiable petition with many names counts as one.↗
  • Present a plan for a more democratic and participatory approach to municipal governance and city planning at the neighbourhood tour events.↗
  • Reverse the current process in which Council changes zoning rules to accommodate developer proposals, returning to planning the city according to what residents want.↗
  • Run candidates for mayor, council, and the school and park boards in the October 17 election.↗

Parks, recreation, and natural spaces 50

  • Cut parking fees at Spanish Banks and Jericho Beach and review the parking system with the goal of restoring free public access.↗↗
  • Restore ongoing funding for maintenance, renovations, and facility replacement.↗↗
  • End the practice of deferring park facility maintenance until facilities require costly replacement.↗
  • Support Community Centre Associations and their role in operating local facilities, including renewal of the Joint Operating Agreements.↗
  • Retain a world-class 50-metre pool at the Vancouver Aquatic Centre.↗
  • Support the construction of Sunset Pool and a renewed Kitsilano Beach Pool.↗
  • Keep Park Board assets publicly owned and operated, and prevent parkland from being sold, privatized, or used as a City revenue source.↗↗
  • Plan and fund new parks as Vancouver's population grows, including dog parks within walking distance of every neighbourhood.↗↗↗
  • Increase Vancouver's neighbourhood park space by at least 20%, targeting at least 1.1 hectares of neighbourhood parkland per 1,000 residents.↗↗
  • Improve park maintenance and accessibility by conducting a review of park walkways.↗
  • Strictly enforce existing parks bylaws and toughen enforcement to address cleanliness and safety concerns.↗↗
  • Protect Langara and Fraserview Golf Courses from development.↗
  • Protect parks and green spaces by retaining and fully funding the elected Park Board.↗
  • Expand tree planting, mature tree protections, green space retention and enhancement, and account for heat island impacts in community planning.↗
  • Give preference to in-house employees over outside contractors in parks projects, and follow all WorkSafe BC guidelines to protect workers.↗
  • Add more green spaces, recreational facilities, and parks to address increasing density and existing park deficiencies, with priority for the historically underserved east side of the city.↗
  • Keep parks green by working with Engineering to improve bike access to parks and beaches without paving over existing lawns and gardens.↗
  • Facilitate gardens and urban farming in public and private spaces to support community resiliency and food security.↗
  • Enforce maintenance bylaws on vacant or under-construction private property and boulevards to ensure lawn trimming and litter pick-up.↗
  • Increase planting and maintenance of the urban forest on City-owned lands including street boulevards, with the goal that all city boulevards have healthy tree coverage.↗
  • Retain, protect, and upgrade heritage facilities within the parks and recreation system.↗
  • Resolve accessibility issues in Stanley Park in collaboration with the public and user groups, ensuring the park and its facilities are accessible to all citizens including cyclists.↗
  • Restore pre-COVID access to Stanley Park and Beach Avenue while allowing new alternative cycling and walking infrastructure without impeding vehicles.↗
  • Assess and plan for the impact of climate change on Vancouver's parks and recreation system, including beaches and seawalls, and protect and expand the tree canopy city-wide.↗
  • Expand the park ranger program, maintain lifeguards on beaches, and add fencing on parks adjacent to busy roads.↗
  • Discourage park encampments and work collaboratively with the City and other levels of government so parks are not used as a substitute for housing and services.↗
  • Prioritize local neighbourhood community centres, recreation facilities, amenities, pools, and parks to achieve walkable neighbourhoods with universal access.↗
  • Avoid further development of regional-serving parks and facilities within the city, with an exception for replacing existing citywide special-use facilities such as the Vancouver Aquatic Centre.↗
  • Reconsider the Vancouver Aquatic Centre replacement to include a 50-metre pool as originally approved by voters, including investigating renovation of the existing building if that is the only way to retain a 50-metre pool.↗↗↗↗
  • Provide an integrated swimming and lifeguard training program so all Vancouver children may learn to swim, with more accessible community-based pools and cooperation between community centres and schools targeting early learning for young children.↗↗
  • Support local Community Centre Associations and their roles in joint operation of community centre facilities, and ensure renewal of Joint Operating Agreements with all CCAs in 2027 and beyond.↗
  • Encourage collaboration with schools and libraries for use of their facilities for community centre programs.↗
  • Withdraw Park Board support for the City-initiated policy of imposing housing over new community centres.↗
  • Establish a strict policy rule against sacrificing existing public parkland for industrial or corporate infrastructure developments.↗↗
  • Plan for community centre maintenance, upgrades, renovation, and expansions on a long-term basis to avoid deferred maintenance and expensive replacements.↗
  • Ensure annual and long-term budgets for operations and the capital plan include established funding for all existing community centres on an ongoing basis.↗
  • Rescind the Park Board's authorization for the land use agreements that allow BC Hydro to build an underground electrical substation at Nelson Park.↗↗↗
  • Restore Park Board authority over its operations and facilities by transferring finance, operations, and facilities back under Park Board jurisdiction from the City's planning, real estate, and facilities departments, with line-by-line budget oversight.↗
  • Advocate for secure, ongoing funding for the Park Board as a specified portion of the City of Vancouver tax base.↗
  • Protect and expand the parks and recreation system targeting a ratio of 1.1 hectares of parks per 1,000 people, and designate existing temporary and de-facto parks as permanent parks.↗↗↗↗
  • Protect Stanley Park by halting current logging operations until a full scientific review and independent risk assessments are conducted, with written records retained and only imminently dangerous trees felled by a provincially certified assessor.↗
  • Ensure public engagement and multiple expert opinions are considered before major projects are undertaken in Vancouver parks.↗
  • Save the Vancouver Park Board and protect parkland.↗
  • Pledge investment in recreation facilities.↗
  • Prevent five years of construction, excavation, and heavy machinery placement inside Nelson Park.↗
  • Prevent the removal of up to 83 mature trees and disruption of community gardens in Nelson Park.↗
  • Work with BC Hydro to examine alternative locations that could meet the West End's electricity requirements without using existing parkland or displacing residents.↗
  • Fund the Park Board's capital plan.↗
  • Invest at least $739 million over four years in parks and recreation, including the $496 million identified in the elected Park Board's draft 2027–2030 Capital Plan for recreation facilities.↗↗↗
  • Protect Vancouver's parkland, reverse the erosion of independent parks governance, and invest in recreation facilities.↗

Transportation, streets, and public space 46

  • Lower parking rates and ensure parking accessibility on main streets.↗
  • Work with TransLink to electrify the bus fleet to reduce noise, GHGs, particulates, and diesel air pollution.↗
  • Encourage the transition of commercial trucks in the city to electric vehicles.↗
  • Not implement road pricing.↗
  • Not adopt city-wide parking permits.↗
  • Support EV adoption by requiring minimum onsite parking in new construction to allow expansion of charging infrastructure.↗
  • Establish policy and incentives to expand public EV charging infrastructure.↗
  • Simplify Building Code and regulatory requirements to make it easier to add EV charging in existing and new homes.↗
  • Reinstate minimum parking requirements for new buildings.↗
  • Retain parking minimums in the Parking Bylaw for new construction to support future electric vehicle charging and provide adequate parking for each development.↗
  • Reconsider city support for the UBC SkyTrain extension (UBCx) and related development planning with meaningful public input, and through the Mayors' Council of TransLink, ensure the business case includes all facts and considers alternatives.↗
  • Expand bus service and implement new stops in under-served neighbourhoods to create an accessible city-wide public transit network.↗
  • Not adopt city-wide punitive parking permits as previously proposed by Council.↗
  • Repair broken or lifted sidewalk sections, add sidewalks in underserved areas, and upgrade street and pedestrian lighting to prioritize pedestrian safety.↗
  • Add small community bus routes to underserved parts of the city.↗
  • Work with TransLink to electrify the bus system — both trolleys and battery buses — to reduce noise, GHGs, particulates, and diesel air pollution.↗
  • Restore neighbourhood-friendly streetcars on selected arterial streets where ridership justifies it, informed by a review of the 2019 City of Vancouver Streetcar Feasibility Study.↗
  • Cooperate with fast-growing neighbouring cities and TransLink to strengthen regional transit routes and reduce pressure on the existing road network.↗
  • Prioritize safe, low-traffic, cost-effective cross-town and connected cycling routes with better signage, lighting, and pavement markings.↗
  • Review contentious cycling and road projects — including the Granville Bridge Connector, Stanley Park and Beach Avenue bike lanes, and traffic lane closures — consulting with affected neighbourhoods, businesses, and road users.↗
  • Review traffic lane closures and removal of street parking for under-used bike and scooter share depots, consulting with local neighbourhoods and businesses.↗
  • Advocate for secure, sheltered bicycle storage at major transit stops, bus loops, and schools.↗
  • Address pedestrian-bicycle conflicts on public sidewalks through education and enforcement.↗
  • Work with the Park Board to ensure pavement markings regulating bicycles in parks are clearly visible and maintained.↗
  • Work with TransLink to deploy more electric buses (battery and trolley), increase service frequency, and expand service so all city areas have convenient pedestrian access to transit.↗
  • Work with the School Board to ensure elementary students receive training on rules for cyclists under the Motor Vehicle Act.↗
  • Focus on repairing broken or lifted sidewalk sections to improve accessibility for people using walkers or mobility aids, and add sidewalks in underserved areas.↗
  • Work with neighbourhood groups to encourage residents to keep sidewalks clear of low branches and bushes that obstruct the full width.↗
  • Work with BIAs to ensure commercial sidewalks are unobstructed and cleared of leaves, snow, and ice.↗
  • Upgrade street and pedestrian lighting where needed.↗
  • Improve traffic flow on major arteries to reduce shortcutting through residential neighbourhoods; prohibit non-vehicular traffic on major arteries and bus routes where a defined cycling or rolling route exists nearby.↗
  • Consult with neighbourhoods on ways to make residential streets safer (speed limits, roundabouts) and on strategies for better movement of commercial goods.↗
  • Require off-street parking in all new construction, with adequate provision for electric vehicle charging.↗
  • Not implement road pricing.↗
  • Not adopt city-wide parking permits as previously proposed by Council.↗
  • Work with TransLink and local communities to build a more equitable transit network serving all city neighbourhoods with cost-effective, appropriately scaled options.↗
  • Review access, parking, and stopping areas for tour buses, taxis, and chartered services at popular locations, with input from tourism and hospitality sectors.↗
  • Ensure adequate access to gas stations and electric charging, given that the majority of vehicles remain hybrid or gas powered.↗
  • Promote cycling routes on the City website.↗
  • Repair and widen sidewalks in all neighbourhoods to make walking safer for pedestrians.↗
  • Improve traffic flow by synchronizing traffic lights and designing roads for better flow, including improved turn lanes, commercial loading areas, and signal prioritization for public transit.↗
  • Support the transition to electric vehicles by making it easier to convert existing onsite parking for EV charging, requiring pre-wiring of new parking stalls, and providing on-street and public charging options.↗
  • Restore minimum parking requirements for new construction to accommodate future parking needs and onsite EV charging.↗
  • Work with TransLink to implement service improvements including restoring and electrifying neighbourhood and express bus services cut in recent years, and ensuring affordable fares.↗
  • Aim for a level of bus service that puts all residents within a 5-minute walk of a local transit stop.↗
  • Work with residents in the Hastings-Sunrise area, block by block, to establish alternatives to current traffic obstructions, including more speed bumps, four-way stops, designated pedestrian crossings at key intersections, and rigorous policing of speeding and dangerous driving especially around schools and during rush hours.↗

Housing and land use 28

  • Repeal the Official Development Plan, Vancouver Plan, Broadway Plan, Jericho Lands ODP, and Rupert & Renfrew Plan if a TEAM majority council is elected.↗↗↗↗↗
  • Repeal the Villages Plan if it is adopted before the end of the current council term.↗↗
  • Replace the Official Development Plan with a new Respect for Neighbourhoods plan that gives residents a direct role in community planning.↗
  • Require multiplexes to meet neighbourhood-specific form rules, including reduced maximum units based on lot size, minimum onsite parking of approximately one stall per unit, reconsidered setbacks to protect trees and streetscape, and design guidelines for local fit.↗↗↗
  • Restore and retain existing RT zoning that promotes retention of character houses with multifamily conversions and infill, ensuring character-house retention options remain viable in multiplex zones.↗
  • Replace the Official Development Plan with a 'Respect for Neighbourhoods Plan' addressing concerns including the Broadway, Jericho, Rupert & Renfrew, and Villages Plans.↗
  • Protect existing affordable rental housing from demolition.↗
  • Provide a broad mix of housing types — including co-ops, co-housing, secondary suites, multiple conversion dwellings, infill, laneways, duplexes, multiplexes, townhouses, and apartments — that fit within local built-form scale and context.↗
  • Withdraw current rental programs that do not create meaningful affordability, are out-of-scale with surrounding neighbourhoods, and inflate surrounding land values — specifically the Moderate Income Rental Pilot Program (MIRPP) and the Secured Rental Policy.↗
  • Protect the existing stock of affordable rental buildings by reversing current policies that target older, more affordable rental buildings for redevelopment.↗
  • Provide incentives to landlords to maintain rental properties rather than upzoning them for demolition.↗
  • Avoid excessive new housing development in areas where local school capacity is at full and student commuting would be required.↗
  • Establish a renters office to support renters navigating development rules and protections, distinct from provincial roles.↗↗
  • Improve renter supports and protections under municipal jurisdiction.↗
  • Retain and upgrade existing co-ops, ensure they retain subsidies to remain viable, working with provincial and federal supports.↗↗
  • Use public resources and land to prioritize affordable rentals rather than market rentals.↗
  • Prioritize the kinds of affordable rental housing most needed, such as larger ground-oriented units for families.↗↗
  • Rethink the Jericho Lands development plan to favour more ground-oriented and low- to mid-rise building forms.↗
  • Make it easier to retain heritage and character buildings through a more flexible development and permit process, zoning incentives for retention, disincentives for demolition, and allowing multiple secondary suites or infill development through the Secondary Suite Program.↗
  • Support new incentives for retention and conservation of heritage resources and character buildings through tax and fee exemptions, and prioritize heritage retention as a desirable development option.↗
  • Reverse Council's decision and restore off-street parking minimums for all new construction.↗
  • Restore neighbourhood-based community planning across Vancouver.↗
  • End mass rezonings if a majority council is achieved.↗
  • Revisit the previous neighbourhood plans that were discarded upon adoption of the 2022 Vancouver Plan.↗
  • Ensure that growth occurs within infrastructure capacity, with infrastructure planned in parallel with growth.↗
  • Pursue and evaluate the 14 directions proposed in the 'New Directions for Prioritizing Middle-Income Secure Affordable Housing' paper if a majority is elected.↗
  • Ensure the Villages Plan remains defeated after the election and is not revived.↗
  • With a TEAM majority on City Council, strengthen tenant relocation protections and put the Broadway Plan and the city-wide Official Development Plan on hold.↗

Public safety and emergency services 24

  • Work through the Vancouver Police Board to strengthen VPD's chronic-offender capacity, prioritizing individuals responsible for repeated assaults, robberies, and serious street violence, while pressing senior governments for stronger bail, prosecution, and supervision measures.↗↗
  • Improve coordination between police, city bylaw services, neighbourhood organizations, and local businesses.↗
  • Establish a Victims Response Standard through the Vancouver Police Board ensuring residents and business owners reporting crime receive respectful treatment, a file number, timely updates, acknowledgement of new evidence, and notice when a case is closed.↗↗
  • Support School Liaison Officers in partnership with the Vancouver School Board and school communities.↗
  • Strengthen youth-at-risk, anti-gang, and crime-prevention programs.↗
  • Adopt a zero-tolerance approach to open drug use in shared public spaces, working through the Vancouver Police Board to prioritize enforcement of existing drug laws while connecting people in crisis to treatment and recovery services.↗
  • Direct city bylaw enforcement resources toward chronic disorder, obstruction, nuisance, cleanliness, and unsafe behaviour, and work through the Vancouver Police Board to make open drug trafficking, repeat property crime, theft, threats, and intimidation enforcement priorities.↗
  • Develop transparent public reporting on neighbourhood-level crime and street disorder.↗
  • Strengthen district and neighbourhood-based policing so officers are more closely connected to the communities they serve, building on Vancouver's existing geographic policing structure.↗
  • Provide stable support for Community Policing Centres.↗
  • Expand Block Watch, including greater outreach to apartment buildings and rental communities.↗↗
  • Enforce by-laws to crack down on public disorder and ensure public parks are accessible, family-friendly, and streets safe for residents.↗
  • Work with police and the province to prioritize crime prevention, protect residents and businesses from petty crime and vandalism, and enforce laws against public drug use.↗
  • Improve disaster and emergency resilience by helping neighbourhoods prepare locally and building a disaster-proof emergency command centre.↗
  • Implement a city-wide program to reduce the rat population.↗
  • Provide additional mental health support for emergency responders.↗
  • Support recruiting and provide cultural awareness training for police and other first responders.↗
  • Review the adequacy of police, fire, and other emergency services to meet current and future needs arising from increasing density and population, with new resources as required.↗
  • Implement district policing and increase support for community policing initiatives such as Block Watch, school program coordination, youth-at-risk supports, and anti-gang supports.↗
  • Improve safety and sanitation through more public washrooms and frequent collection of syringes on streets and playgrounds.↗
  • Improve cleaning of public spaces and address repeat petty crime.↗
  • Implement a residents' safety action plan, a community-first approach to policing, and a violence-against-women prevention strategy.↗
  • Implement a public safety and recovery plan focused on repeat offenders, community-first policing, violence against women, a new Victim Response Standard, and a recovery-oriented response to addiction.↗
  • Establish a Municipal Intimate Partner Violence Task Force, strengthen victim services and risk assessment, expand prevention education, and appoint a City Women's Safety Lead to coordinate action and report publicly on progress.↗

Social policy, health, and community services 20

  • Establish a Violence Against Women Prevention Strategy focused on prevention, victim support, and accountability, drawing on priorities advanced by Battered Women's Support Services.↗
  • Establish a Municipal Intimate Partner Violence Task Force bringing together city departments, VPD, victim-service organizations, Indigenous organizations, housing providers, health partners, justice representatives, and community advocates.↗
  • Advocate for a 15% increase in senior-government funding for victim services, anti-violence programs, and transition houses, while reviewing city grants for additional targeted support.↗
  • Work with VPD and provincial partners to improve standardized intimate-partner-violence risk assessment, identify service gaps, and publish regular reporting.↗
  • Invest in prevention education on healthy relationships, consent, and violence prevention through city facilities, libraries, community centres, and recreation programs, in partnership with the Vancouver School Board and community organizations.↗
  • Appoint a City Women's Safety Lead responsible for coordinating municipal action, tracking implementation, and publishing an annual report on progress and outstanding gaps.↗
  • Establish an Immediate Treatment and Recovery Pathway with Vancouver Coastal Health so police, outreach workers, and other frontline services can connect people in crisis to same-day clinical assessment and referral to appropriate treatment or recovery services.↗
  • Negotiate a Vancouver treatment-capacity agreement with the Province and Vancouver Coastal Health to expand provincially funded detox, treatment, and recovery beds and reduce wait times for care.↗
  • Advocate to the Province to expand secure-care capacity for people who meet B.C.'s Mental Health Act criteria, with admission determined by qualified clinicians and subject to appropriate legal safeguards.↗
  • Support smaller, tightly regulated recovery homes across Vancouver through city land, zoning, permitting, and partnership agreements, with conditions including 24/7 professional staffing, sobriety and behaviour rules, zero tolerance for violence and drug use on site, and Good Neighbour requirements with compliance conditions attached to continued city support.↗
  • Measure service needs against available resources in the Downtown Eastside and publicly identify gaps in services and funding.↗
  • Work with provincial, federal, and other agencies to identify their spending and responsibilities in the Downtown Eastside and secure resources to address unmet needs.↗
  • Improve coordination between governments and service agencies in the Downtown Eastside to use resources more effectively and reduce unnecessary duplication.↗
  • Enhance food security and promote community development by encouraging local gardening on private or public property and neighbourhood farmers' markets.↗
  • Work with the Province to address the complex needs of people experiencing homelessness, addiction, and mental health issues through long-term, holistic solutions rather than emergency services, including voluntary treatment on demand, involuntary care beds, transition services, and long-term supports.↗↗
  • Work with provincial and federal governments to secure resources for vulnerable individuals, including full implementation of the Four Pillars (treatment on demand, harm reduction, prevention, enforcement), safe housing matched to individual needs, addiction and mental health care, addressing the overdose crisis and safe drug supply, and expanding the Car 87 program subject to needs assessment and confirmed provincial funding.↗
  • Replace the current management of addiction with a recovery-oriented approach.↗
  • Audit Downtown Eastside funding and outcomes, review programs for effectiveness, and publicly report findings.↗↗
  • Use City land, zoning, permitting, and partnerships to expand access to treatment and recovery-oriented housing; establish an Immediate Treatment and Recovery Pathway with Vancouver Coastal Health; and work with the Province to expand detox, treatment, recovery, and secure-care capacity.↗
  • Get the River District community centre and childcare facility built by the end of the council term, contingent on winning a majority on City Council.↗

Economic development and local business 19

  • Establish the Vancouver Economic Development Agency (VEDA) as an independent, arm's-length, not-for-profit corporation with a mandate to retain and support businesses, attract investment, create high-paying jobs, and pursue senior-government funding.↗↗↗↗
  • Expand the existing Commercial Tenant Assistance Program to provide practical assistance — including relocation help and City permitting support — to established businesses facing displacement.↗
  • Establish a $4 million Neighbourhood Shopping Streets Revitalization Fund over four years to support projects that strengthen neighbourhood commercial areas, with clear eligibility criteria and project limits, leveraging private, provincial, and federal investment where practical.↗↗
  • Protect existing industrial and commercially-zoned lands by not rezoning them for primarily residential development.↗↗↗
  • Work with Destination Vancouver and other destination marketing organizations to support the local visitor economy.↗↗
  • Support the film and television industry through ease of permitting, resolution of parking issues, and use of city properties and facilities for film production.↗↗↗
  • Support the convention industry by addressing concerns of event planners and visitors related to crime and safety, community vibrancy, transportation, and other considerations.↗
  • Support the work of the city's 22 Business Improvement Associations to address issues and opportunities for local business owners, reduce barriers to business establishment and operation, and leverage neighbourhood branding in community planning.↗
  • Provide local economic development opportunities to leverage regional, provincial, and federal economic development initiatives led by Invest Vancouver and other agencies.↗
  • Retain curbside parking in neighbourhood business areas except during peak travel periods on arterial roads.↗
  • Lower parking rates in neighbourhood business areas to support local shops and services.↗
  • Reduce the property tax burden and regulatory fees for local small businesses, including insulating them from excessive tax increases resulting from area upzoning.↗↗
  • Support local businesses during periods of construction disruption.↗↗
  • Streamline the permitting process for business establishment or expansion, covering businesses from small local shops to major industries and large employers.↗↗
  • Review the City of Vancouver's procurement process to prioritize opportunities for local businesses.↗↗
  • Leverage City-owned commercial properties to support local economic development through targeted leasing and more affordable rents.↗↗
  • Listen to local small businesses and the city's 22 Business Improvement Associations to understand business issues, and implement policies and services to ensure the long-term viability of local business districts.↗↗↗
  • Push for Vancouver to host a WNBA team, using the existing Rogers Arena.↗
  • Support economic diversification beyond real estate development by backing sectors including technology, life sciences, critical minerals and mining, film and digital media, and tourism.↗

Schools, students, facilities, and education governance 19

  • Expand evidence-based drug-prevention education in public schools, with clear warnings about the risks of illicit drugs, addiction, overdose, and long-term consequences of substance use.↗
  • Work with the Province to locate K–12 schools within walking distance of students to reduce car trips.↗
  • Redirect financial resources from school administration to classrooms, with programs that prioritize student learning outcomes across the academic spectrum.↗
  • Ensure existing neighbourhood schools remain open and prioritize new school construction in under-served communities.↗
  • Work with the City to end school enrolment lotteries through long-range planning that places schools where students need them.↗
  • Demand the province fund seismic upgrades for four annexes, twenty-eight elementary schools, and eleven secondary schools that remain at high risk in a seismic event.↗
  • Coordinate with the Park Board to enhance school fields and green spaces for use by both host schools and the broader community.↗
  • Provide an integrated swimming and lifeguard training program so that 100% of Vancouver students can learn to swim, in cooperation with qualified agencies, and expand access to community-based pools through cooperation between community centres and schools targeting early learning for young children.↗↗
  • Incorporate childcare into school sites with a long-range view of implementing an early education preschool program for all 3- and 4-year-olds, in keeping with Ministry of Education plans.↗
  • Include music programming at every elementary school, restoring Elementary Band and Strings programs.↗
  • Increase focus on alternative, applied skills, and dual credit programs to provide pathways for students across the academic spectrum.↗
  • Prioritize keeping siblings from one family together in the same school.↗
  • Work with the District Parent Advisory Council on neighbourhood school planning.↗
  • Pause the rollout of Microsoft Copilot for students 13 and older in secondary schools until research demonstrates benefits outweigh risks and students, families, and educators have been meaningfully consulted.↗↗
  • Ensure City growth planning does not outpace school capacity, and prioritize new schools in newly developed neighbourhoods, citing Olympic Village as an example that has waited nearly two decades.↗
  • Stop disposing of school land and commit to retaining ownership of school buildings and property for future population growth, using underutilized space for community uses such as childcare, seniors care, or community programs.↗
  • Take action by any means possible to reverse the leasing of Fleming's field and the closure of Carleton.↗
  • Negotiate with the province to direct more Vancouver school tax revenue to local Vancouver schools rather than provincial general revenue.↗
  • Examine whether senior management expansion is justified relative to direct classroom spending.↗

Climate, environment, and resilience 12

  • Upgrade City infrastructure to withstand flooding, storms, extreme heat, drought, and other harsh weather events.↗↗↗
  • Factor tree canopy, sunlight, drainage, local ecology, and heat-island effects into development decisions.↗
  • Improve planting and maintenance of trees on City-owned land and boulevards.↗
  • Implement a Local Environment Action Plan with emphasis on parks and green spaces, low-rise wood buildings, and weather-resilient infrastructure.↗
  • Use incentives to encourage voluntary conversion of existing buildings to improved energy efficiency and zero emissions, rather than mandatory regulation.↗
  • Prioritize adaptive reuse and renovation of existing buildings over demolition and new construction.↗↗
  • Work with BC Hydro to reduce electricity costs to consumers by adjusting step energy charges to incentivize electrical use rather than discourage it.↗
  • Make it easier to add electric vehicle charging in residential homes by reviewing and simplifying Building Code and regulatory requirements.↗
  • Plan proactively for disaster and climate events throughout the city, including extreme heat events, and ensure the most vulnerable — such as low-income seniors and people in SROs — have access to air conditioning and/or cooling facilities.↗
  • Adopt a local environment action plan prioritising trees, water, and environmental infrastructure in every neighbourhood.↗
  • Strengthen tree-retention requirements, expand planting in neighbourhoods with inadequate canopy, and ensure development leaves enough room for healthy trees.↗↗↗↗
  • Prevent sewage and pollution from entering local waterways, improve water-quality monitoring, and upgrade aging sewer, stormwater, and drainage infrastructure.↗↗↗↗

City finances, taxation, and service delivery 10

  • Make core municipal services and infrastructure the highest priority in City budgeting, with increased investment in road and street maintenance, sidewalk repair and accessibility, clean streets and public spaces, maintenance and renewal of existing infrastructure, parks, recreation and neighbourhood amenities, and public safety and emergency services.↗↗↗
  • Cap annual property tax increases at or below the annual-average percentage change in Statistics Canada's unadjusted All-items Consumer Price Index for British Columbia.↗↗↗↗↗
  • Examine discretionary and non-core expenditures and redirect identified savings toward core municipal services such as roads, sidewalks, infrastructure, cleanliness, and public safety.↗↗
  • Undertake a comprehensive line-by-line review of the City's Operating and Capital budgets, examining cost increases, program results, alignment with core responsibilities, duplication, and consulting contracts.↗↗↗
  • Request detailed audits of Downtown Eastside funding and outcomes to determine whether public resources are being used effectively.↗
  • Conduct a line-by-line budgetary review, increase transparency, and capitalize on efficiencies identified by the Auditor General to ensure tax dollars are spent wisely.↗↗↗
  • Stop spending City funds on programs that are clearly provincial or federal responsibilities, while holding senior governments accountable for funding those services.↗
  • Continue the Long-Term Financial Sustainability and Municipal Finance Reform initiative—the joint UBCM–Provincial Government review of new options for funding municipal services and reducing property tax impacts.↗
  • Review the City's financial structure and policies to ensure consistency with best practices and transparency for citizens.↗
  • Request federal funding to support increased municipal costs associated with the federal government's immigration policies.↗

Arts, culture, libraries, and civic life 9

  • Review and encourage program funding for arts and culture.↗
  • Build an arts and culture page on vancouver.ca including promotion of all event listings.↗↗
  • Create and publish an inventory of arts spaces on vancouver.ca.↗↗
  • Provide incentives for retention and upgrading of creative spaces and disincentives for their demolition.↗
  • Pursue a one-for-one replacement and retention policy for City-owned creative space, including repurposing unused or underutilized properties such as Park Board and School Board facilities.↗
  • Encourage minimum space requirements for cultural amenities in densifying neighbourhoods.↗
  • Examine how Vancouver's civic theatres could be made more suitable and affordable for the local arts community.↗
  • Keep Community Centres and other Park Board facilities affordable for the arts community.↗
  • Plan for the arts and culture sector to ensure affordable spaces for artists by protecting more affordable industrial lands, theatres, community centres, and publicly owned buildings.↗

Stances · 45

Coverage — registry: the City of Vancouver's official candidate list. Party policy: extracted and shown above. Candidate-level policy: shown above when extracted from candidate sources.