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

Tom Digby

Candidate for Park Board · Green Party of Vancouver Elected

Website ↗ Official site ↗ Facebook ↗Instagram ↗X ↗

Candidate commitments & stances
No personal commitment or stance has been extracted for Tom Digby yet. The party's shared record appears below.
Shared party record · 417

Positions published by Green Party of Vancouver that apply to this slate — shown as party positions, not Tom Digby's own statements. Candidate and party authorship are never blended.

Commitments · 394

Schools, students, facilities, and education governance 99

  • Work with other school districts, education partners, unions, parents, and community organizations to advocate for a stable, multi-year provincial funding model that reflects inflation and the real cost of delivering public education in Vancouver.↗↗
  • Publish clear estimates showing the gap between available provincial funding and the cost of maintaining existing school services.↗↗
  • Advocate for stronger targeted provincial funding for inclusive education, student mental health, food programs, and other areas of growing student need.↗
  • Make the impact of funding shortfalls clear to educators, parents, and the public during budget consultations.↗
  • Request that the Province provide predictable capital funding so school upgrades and renewals can be planned over the long term rather than on a per-project basis.↗↗
  • Seek creative additional capital and operational funding sources, including grants, partnerships, donations, and activating capital assets, provided they do not compromise universal access or public accountability.↗↗
  • Advocate to the Ministry to ensure new schools have adequate space and are designed to be climate-resilient, particularly as climate impacts worsen.↗
  • Advocate for increased provincial funding for students with diverse learning needs, noting the current Ministry allocation supplemented by VSB is inadequate.↗
  • Seek a provincial commitment to fund Living Wage for all BC school district employees and contracts.↗↗
  • Maintain strong financial oversight and independent auditing of school board finances.↗
  • Make audited school financial information easier for the public to understand.↗
  • Track major school board initiatives against clear objectives and strengthen long-term asset-management planning.↗
  • Use evidence to identify school programs that should be expanded, improved, or discontinued.↗
  • Protect public school property for long-term educational and community benefit.↗
  • Improve reporting on implementation so that announcements are followed by measurable results.↗
  • Regularly review Board policies for relevance, effectiveness, and accessibility.↗
  • Put student learning and frontline supports at the centre of budget decisions and protect targeted funding for the students and services it is intended to support.↗
  • Publish school budgets in clear, accessible language with explanations when programs are expanded, reduced, or changed.↗↗
  • Conduct a review of middle and upper management school board salaries.↗↗
  • Improve long-term forecasting for enrolment, staffing, facilities, and other major cost pressures.↗
  • Track whether major school spending decisions are producing the outcomes trustees were told to expect.↗↗
  • Avoid short-term financial decisions that create larger costs or service gaps in the future.↗
  • Prioritize teachers, educational assistants, counsellors, support workers, and other student-facing positions when making school budget decisions.↗↗
  • Advocate for provincial funding that reflects the actual cost of adequate school staffing.↗
  • Develop multi-year staffing plans to anticipate enrolment changes, retirement pressures, and hard-to-fill positions.↗↗
  • Strengthen recruitment partnerships with universities, colleges, and training institutions to support school staffing.↗↗
  • Ensure educators are provided with a variety of professional development opportunities, mentorship, and career pathways to retain experienced staff and attract new staff.↗
  • Maintain a robust teacher and support staff on-call list so that classroom absences are fully covered.↗
  • Work constructively and regularly with employee groups to identify recruitment, retention, workload, and workplace-safety challenges before they become crises.↗
  • Review school-related fees and costs to identify barriers that prevent students from fully participating.↗↗
  • Strengthen awareness and accessibility of financial-hardship policies for students.↗↗
  • Prioritize adequate supports for students with diverse learning needs and assess decisions that led to reductions in vice-principals, music teachers, and librarians.↗↗
  • Advocate for provincial funding that reflects the real cost of inclusive education.↗
  • Strengthen access to educational assistants and other support staff based on student need.↗
  • Improve accessibility of school facilities, programs, communications, and learning materials.↗↗
  • Expand access to nutritious school food programs.↗↗
  • Advocate for stable provincial and federal funding for school food programs.↗↗
  • Reduce avoidable food waste through food recovery and composting in schools.↗↗
  • Advocate for more school-based mental-health resources, including counsellors and appropriate support staff, to improve pathways for students and families seeking support.↗↗
  • Continue support for SOGI123 and ensure students of all sexual orientations and gender identities feel safe, supported, and welcomed in Vancouver schools.↗↗
  • Continue implementation of the Accessibility Act, supporting the Accessibility Plan, Accessibility Committee, and acting on feedback received.↗↗
  • Support English language learners, Multicultural Liaison, and Settlement Workers in Schools (SWIS) and family support programs through advocacy to all levels of government, and ensure the district works collaboratively to support new immigrant and refugee families.↗
  • Expand opportunities for climate and sustainability learning consistent with provincial curriculum requirements.↗↗
  • Partner with trades organisations and expand skilled-trades opportunities and connections to apprenticeship programs for students.↗
  • Build stronger pathways into careers in clean energy, construction, electrification, and other key sectors, and expose students to a wider range of career options.↗↗
  • Support preschool programs such as Strong Start, Ready Set Learn, and Welcome to Kindergarten, as well as adult education, to provide a continuum of lifelong learning.↗
  • Seek student input, especially from underrepresented communities, before major decisions affecting school experience, facilities, or programs.↗↗
  • Expand opportunities for students to speak directly to the Board on policies affecting them.↗↗
  • Keep seismic safety at the top of Vancouver's capital priorities, noting that 43 of 106 VSB buildings remain seismically high-risk at an estimated $1.63 billion.↗↗
  • Advocate for provincial approval and funding of outstanding seismic upgrade projects.↗
  • Ensure accessibility improvements are delivered alongside major school renewals.↗
  • Improve long-term public reporting on the condition of school facilities.↗
  • Coordinate capital planning with expected neighbourhood growth and enrolment changes, prioritising King George Secondary (at 166% capacity) and Carr Elementary (over capacity and using portables).↗
  • Work with the City and Province to ensure new neighbourhood growth is matched with sufficient school capacity.↗
  • Prepare schools for extreme heat, wildfire smoke, flooding, power outages, and other risks.↗↗
  • Reduce energy use and emissions from VSB buildings where technically and financially feasible.↗
  • Incorporate naturalised areas, water retention, shade, and biodiversity into school-ground planning.↗
  • Pursue dedicated provincial capital funding for adaptation and energy-efficiency upgrades, including heat pumps and ventilation, during facility renewal.↗
  • Prioritise the most vulnerable schools when allocating limited retrofit resources, including those most at risk from extreme heat requiring cooling and improved air quality.↗
  • Create a shade inventory for key schools and use it to prioritise tree planting; develop Miyawaki pilots to accelerate forest growth in partnership with the Parks Board.↗↗
  • Ensure sufficient emergency planning is established by the City of Vancouver, health authorities, surrounding community facilities, and other partners.↗
  • Request a pause on the use of AI chatbots in schools to enable proper consultation with students, parents, and educators, and conduct a full review of policy and procedures including ethics and cognitive impacts.↗↗
  • Evaluate the role and structure of any school liaison or police partnership based on student safety, evidence, community input, and the educational mandate of the Board.↗
  • Identify schools and sites where additional childcare capacity can be accommodated.↗↗↗
  • Expand appropriate community use of gyms, fields, libraries, kitchens, and other school spaces outside instructional hours.↗↗
  • Review barriers that prevent community organizations from accessing suitable school facilities.↗
  • Build stronger partnerships with neighbourhood houses, arts organizations, recreation providers, and nonprofits for shared school space use.↗
  • Explore joint-use agreements with the City, Park Board, and other public bodies for school facilities.↗
  • Improve public information about which school facilities are available for community use.↗
  • Work with Vancouver City Council and Park Board to improve walking, rolling, and cycling connections to schools.↗↗
  • Advocate for traffic-calming measures around schools where warranted.↗
  • Improve secure bicycle and mobility-device parking on school sites where feasible.↗
  • Coordinate school-site improvements with the City's transportation network to address dangerous intersections, missing sidewalks, unsafe crossings, and cycling-network gaps affecting students.↗
  • Expand partnerships with post-secondary institutions and employers to increase student opportunities.↗
  • Work with arts and recreation organizations to increase student opportunities.↗
  • Strengthen connections between schools and community-based health and social services.↗
  • Coordinate more closely with elected representatives on City Council and Park Board on cross-jurisdictional issues, and invite City Council to meet with the school board to discuss common issues.↗↗
  • Strengthen meaningful consultation with students before major decisions affecting their education or school experience.↗↗
  • Improve engagement with parents and caregivers.↗
  • Respect and strengthen the role of Parent Advisory Councils and the District Parent Advisory Council.↗
  • Create predictable opportunities for employee groups to raise systemic issues with trustees.↗
  • Listen earlier when staffing, workload, safety, or implementation problems emerge.↗
  • Encourage collaborative working groups where district-wide operational problems can be addressed constructively.↗
  • Improve transparency around non-confidential workforce trends such as vacancies, recruitment, and retention.↗
  • Align City land-use decisions with Vancouver School Board needs and projections.↗
  • Explore expanded equipment lending programs for activity gear to reduce financial barriers to student participation.↗
  • Make arts, trades, and enrichment opportunities available to students regardless of income.↗
  • Address a five-year decline in literacy and numeracy outcomes, with particular focus on Grade 10.↗
  • Support school gardens as a hands-on food literacy initiative.↗
  • Support English language learners, Multicultural Liaisons, and Settlement Workers in Schools.↗
  • Continue pursuing provincial capital funding to make climate-ready school upgrades possible.↗
  • Expand student access to leadership, arts, athletics, and enrichment extracurricular activities on an equitable basis.↗
  • Make Board decisions and reporting easier for the public to understand.↗
  • Embed reconciliation commitments — including relationships with the Nations — into measurable, publicly reported action within the School Board.↗
  • Monitor implementation of the Education Plan using system data and qualitative feedback to assess student success improvements and identify and rectify achievement gaps.↗
  • Monitor the current Seamless Day child care pilot and push the provincial Ministry of Education and Child Care to provide additional support and funding aligned with the Ministry's mandate.↗
  • Call for implementation of comprehensive SLO training and the development, communication, and enforcement of clear SLO expectations and responsibilities, including civilian oversight as recommended by BC's all-party police reform committee.↗
  • Build on existing collaborative efforts to advance the Food Framework Vision and find creative ways to introduce food systems into all Vancouver schools, including nutrition education.↗
  • Urge Vancouver MLAs to advocate for transparent reinvestment of Additional School Tax revenue into Vancouver public schools.↗

Climate, environment, and resilience 48

  • Expand tree planting and neighbourhood greening projects, and support community gardens, pollinator spaces, and local stewardship initiatives.↗
  • Encourage partnerships through the federal Deep Retrofit Accelerator Initiative and BC Retrofit Accelerator to fund climate-smart retrofits, and simplify conditions around green retrofits by reducing triggers for extraneous upgrades.↗↗
  • Ensure every neighbourhood has access to climate-safe public spaces and buildings during extreme heat, smoke, flooding, and other climate emergencies, while investing in cooling, shade, and community resilience for those most at risk.↗↗↗
  • Restore interdepartmental sustainability work to ensure new and retrofit construction is built cleaner and greener, prioritising resident health and comfort against a changing climate.↗↗
  • Re-establish policies banning fossil gas heating for heat and hot water in new construction and return to standard emission reporting and targeting.↗↗
  • Expand cooling, shade, and clean-air infrastructure throughout Vancouver to protect tenants from extreme heat and wildfire smoke.↗↗
  • Return a standalone Sustainability and Climate Office to City Hall to lead climate action, clean energy, resilience, and environmental stewardship, with improved accountability and cross-departmental coordination.↗↗
  • Expand emissions reporting to include embodied and lifecycle emissions to inform City decisions about long-term climate impacts.↗↗
  • Mandate green roofs by-law on larger new and existing buildings to reduce urban heat, manage stormwater, improve biodiversity, and create a more resilient city.↗↗
  • Streamline permitting, modernize regulations, and reduce red tape for rooftop and plug-in solar to expand access to clean, affordable energy.↗↗
  • Strengthen tree protection bylaws, preserve mature trees, reward tree retention with development incentives, plant climate-resilient species with dedicated funding, tighten technical removal rules, require stronger replacement planting, make occupancy permits conditional on post-construction tree health reviews, and create a municipal arborist office.↗↗↗
  • Maintain and strengthen Vancouver's Bird Friendly City certification.↗↗
  • Support a Youth Climate Corps for Urban Forestry with matching funding to plant and maintain tree canopy expansion, providing living-wage climate work for youth.↗
  • Require rezonings to increase the urban tree canopy and green spaces, particularly in areas targeted for new development and density, funded by a restored park acquisition developer cost levy.↗↗
  • Ban the sale of prohibited invasive plant species in Vancouver and create an incentive program to help gardeners identify and remove invasives.↗↗
  • Incorporate Natural Asset Accounting into City decision-making and budgets, treating trees, wetlands, waterways, and green spaces as critical infrastructure assets.↗↗
  • Invest in climate resilience enhancements for public facilities and infrastructure, including cooling, warming, and air-quality upgrades, rain and storm surge management, blueways, greenways, bioswales, sewer separation, and eliminating raw sewage outflows.↗↗
  • Ensure major infrastructure investment is designed for future climate conditions including heat, flooding, drought, and sea-level rise.↗↗
  • Accelerate investments in seawalls, flood defenses, drainage systems, and shoreline restoration to protect against rising seas and extreme weather.↗↗
  • Work with BC Hydro and regional partners on grid modernization, energy storage, solar power, and renewable energy solutions to strengthen electrical grid resilience and reliability.↗↗
  • Score and integrate expanded tree canopies, rain gardens, urban forests, permeable surfaces, and cooling strategies into growth planning to improve climate resilience and livability.↗↗
  • Continue investing in district energy—shared energy infrastructure to heat and cool multiple buildings—to reduce emissions, lower long-term energy costs, and improve resilience.↗↗
  • Expand public recycling, organics, and waste-separation infrastructure city-wide, and add satellite Zero-Waste drop-off centres supported by industrial hubs at False Creek Flats and on Kent Avenue.↗↗
  • Modernize the Kent Avenue Transfer Station as part of planned long-range capital upgrades to support waste and resource recovery.↗↗
  • Strengthen local composting and organics recovery systems to improve service reliability, reduce emissions, and advance zero-waste goals.↗↗
  • Divert pet waste from landfill through dedicated collection, treatment, and recovery systems.↗↗
  • Support reusable foodware, takeout containers, and packaging in restaurants and public venues, and advocate to the province for extended producer responsibility covering common single-use items through a deposit-and-refund system.↗↗
  • Facilitate energy retrofits of buildings as part of climate adaptation and mitigation.↗
  • Promote zero-waste initiatives as part of climate adaptation and mitigation.↗
  • Develop local clean energy as part of climate adaptation and mitigation.↗
  • Examine safety, permitting, and equity requirements for small-scale plug-in solar systems, and coordinate with BC Hydro and Technical Safety BC to prepare Vancouver for this technology.↗↗
  • Direct City staff to explore zoning and bylaw changes to support better recycling infrastructure.↗
  • Require improved recycling access in new multi-unit buildings.↗
  • Identify locations where compact recycling systems could be implemented.↗
  • Introduce a motion proposing community recycling hubs to improve access in dense, car-light neighbourhoods in support of zero-waste goals.↗↗
  • Develop a 100-year plan for Vancouver's 28 km of coastal parks to address sea-level rise and biodiversity loss.↗
  • Provide incentives to developers that protect significant trees.↗
  • Provide dedicated funding for planting climate-suited tree species.↗
  • Tighten rules on tree removal for construction logistics, while maintaining clear pathways for legitimate removals.↗
  • Strengthen tree replacement requirements and canopy restoration after removal.↗
  • Tie occupancy permits to post-construction tree health reviews.↗
  • Establish a Municipal Arborist Office with in-house arborists to independently review tree assessments.↗
  • Create a Youth Climate Corps offering living-wage jobs for young people planting trees.↗
  • Pursue the 3-30-300 standard: 3 trees visible from every home, 30% canopy cover, and green space within 300 m of every resident.↗↗↗
  • Plant native plants and establish micro-forests to support biodiversity through rewilding.↗
  • Provide small grants for community stewardship of ecological corridors and green spaces.↗
  • Restore wetlands and uncover buried creeks to improve flood protection and biodiversity.↗
  • Upgrade city infrastructure to modern seismic standards.↗

Housing and land use 41

  • Work with the Province to resolve housing targets that are not delivering amenities such as schools for growing families.↗↗
  • Partner with non-profits and senior governments to deliver co-op, social, and supportive housing in every neighbourhood, and fast-track zoning and permitting for affordable housing.↗↗
  • Update Vancouver's Standards of Maintenance By-law to require timely remediation of mold, moisture, water damage, and indoor air quality issues, while strengthening enforcement and tenant protections.↗↗
  • Reverse the ban on supportive housing and use occupancy permit requirements to ensure housing is adequately staffed and serviced for good living conditions and community relations.↗↗
  • Support a wider variety of housing types in all neighbourhoods including low-rise apartments (4–6 storeys), Single Egress Staircase designs, rowhomes, townhomes, and infill, and permit faster and more affordable construction including prefab, modular, and wood frame.↗↗↗
  • Support fine-grained development patterns with narrow storefronts, small commercial spaces, and flexible mixed-use zoning that allows homes, shops, studios, offices, and services to coexist, including active ground floors, small commercial frontages, and business uses on upper storeys.↗
  • Reduce regulatory complexity on larger multi-unit residential buildings while retaining and innovating within the Vancouver Building By-law, using Vancouver's statutory powers for climate, mechanical, built form, mass timber, decarbonization, egress, elevators, patios, and FSR exemptions.↗↗
  • Resolve departmental silos that add time and cost to building approvals and make construction approvals more efficient.↗↗
  • Offer city-approved pre-approved housing designs for homes and rental buildings to reduce permitting time and costs, explore 'kit' designs (modular or prefab), and enable targeted federal investment through Build Canada Homes with enhanced zoning and permits for pre-approved designs.↗↗↗
  • Expedite planning and lease renewals for co-ops on city-owned land such as South False Creek, with intention to preserve community mix, long-term affordability, and livability, and limit Capital Expenditure cost formulas that act as affordability barriers to lease renewal.↗↗
  • Reverse council policy permitting micro-suites as small as 250 sq ft including kitchen and bathroom.↗↗
  • Protect existing affordable housing and tenants through pace-of-change measures, enforce by-laws to prevent empty buildings, levy taxes on vacant buildings, and time-limit enactment-to-construction after rezonings.↗↗
  • Establish real affordability targets defined as 30% of median household income, replacing the current market-rent-based metric.↗↗
  • Ensure City of Vancouver policies are informed by the right to safe, adequate, and affordable homes.↗↗
  • Create a new city role focused on housing partnerships and policies to deliver non-market and supportive housing, modelled on the early 2000s Housing Centre.↗↗
  • Work with the province to close Empty Homes Tax loopholes that allow empty apartment buildings, and audit compliance and evasion rates ahead of incremental rate increases.↗↗
  • Create a Vancouver Public Housing Bond under Vancouver Charter authority, enabling retail and institutional investors to finance city-owned affordable housing in exchange for a modest, predictable return.↗↗
  • Strengthen and enforce the Tenant Relocation and Protection Policy on redevelopment of rental stock city-wide, including secondary-market rentals, with fair compensation, meaningful relocation support, and strong displacement protections.↗↗
  • Require large developments to provide affordable homes on-site or contribute land, units, or cash toward city-owned and non-profit affordable housing construction.↗↗
  • Prioritize fee and levy reductions and fast-tracked permitting for truly affordable housing projects.↗↗
  • Create a Rental Housing Acquisition and Preservation program with a dedicated rapid acquisition fund and partnerships to preserve at-risk rental housing before it is lost to speculation or redevelopment.↗↗↗
  • Urge replacement of the BC Community Housing Fund, lobby for return of Canada's RRAP, and lobby the federal government for $2 billion in funding for very-low-to-low-income homes.↗
  • Develop a toolkit with relevant partners and communities to fast-track delivery of affordable and non-profit housing on non-market lands.↗↗
  • Remove barriers to faith, community, and non-profit housing development.↗
  • Restore Vancouver's Renter's Office as a dedicated service for tenants, with functions including navigating City processes, tracking rental housing loss and displacement, maintaining a landlord registry, linking fair tenant practices to rental incentives, improving coordination with tenant advocates, and providing better data to staff and Council.↗↗↗↗↗
  • Fund the Renter's Office through the Empty Homes Tax, including underwriting security deposits and supporting access to stable rental accommodation.↗
  • Use taxpayer-owned city land for affordable housing, co-ops, and community land trusts.↗↗
  • Create more affordable housing options including shared housing, cohousing, rental homes, and family-oriented apartments.↗↗
  • Develop proactive, comprehensive strategies to prevent, reduce, and ultimately eliminate homelessness.↗↗
  • Direct City staff to report back on amendments to Vancouver's Licence By-law that would create business licence conditions for landlords operating multiple rental units, tie renewal to compliance with City standards and provincial tenancy law, require ownership and property management disclosure, mandate visible posting of landlord licence and contact information, enable fines or licence suspension or revocation for repeated violations, target unlawful short-term rental activity in multi-tenant buildings, and leverage new provincial authority for stronger municipal penalties.↗
  • Deliver faster development approvals, more housing choices, and Canadian-built construction.↗
  • Establish a Vancouver Affordability Index tracking real household costs against local incomes to guide housing, transportation, taxation, and planning decisions.↗
  • Pursue office-to-housing conversions and a more diverse, mixed-use downtown.↗
  • Plan city land for long-term public benefit rather than maximizing sale price.↗
  • Apply permit requirements and public benefit standards to vacant land used informally as parks.↗
  • Develop rapid shelter villages with private cabins and on-site supports as a transitional bridge to permanent housing.↗
  • Advocate to senior governments to reverse the supportive housing ban and secure federal and provincial funding.↗
  • Champion Canadian procurement and employment requirements for major developments, while prioritizing mass timber and wood-frame construction to support B.C. forestry industry and jobs.↗↗
  • Support updates to the Vancouver Building By-law to enable innovative solutions including mass timber, decarbonization, egress and elevators, patios, and FSR exemptions.↗
  • Preserve existing affordable homes where feasible through partnerships with the federal Deep Retrofit Accelerator Initiative and BC Retrofit Accelerator to fund climate-smart retrofits and support local green jobs.↗
  • Set housing affordability targets at 30 per cent of median household income rather than market rent.↗

Parks, recreation, and natural spaces 38

  • Continue progress toward 30% city-wide tree canopy cover by removing 5,000 existing stumps and replacing them with new trees.↗
  • Increase tree canopy cover in the most underserved neighbourhoods, starting with Strathcona, which had only 9% tree canopy cover as of 2022.↗↗↗
  • Pilot three Miyawaki forests.↗↗↗
  • Work with City Council to actualise the 3-30-300 rule (three trees visible from every home, 30% neighbourhood canopy, and green space within 300 metres) for every home in Vancouver.↗↗
  • Subsidise fees for core activities including swimming lessons, field permits, and ice rentals to keep them within reach of Vancouver families.↗↗
  • Expand and promote the Leisure Access Program (LAP) to provide subsidised access to recreation for seniors and low-income families.↗↗
  • Prioritise youth and equity-seeking communities in the sports field booking system.↗↗
  • Implement SafeSport standards across Park Board sports programs.↗
  • Ensure park design and programming meets inclusivity standards for all abilities, neurodiversity, and senior communities.↗↗
  • Keep parks free of encampments by investing in community safety and peer stewardship programs for people with lived experience of homelessness, poverty, mental health conditions, and substance use disorders.↗↗
  • Increase the number of dog parks, especially in Mount Pleasant, Grandview, and Kitsilano.↗↗
  • Maintain focus on Britannia Community Centre renewal.↗
  • Enhance swimming pool infrastructure by renewing Vancouver Aquatic Centre, Kitsilano Pool, Kerrisdale, and Britannia Pools, and building a new 50-metre pool at Hastings or Kensington.↗↗
  • Build all new Park Board infrastructure to climate-resilient gold standards and minimize carbon emissions.↗↗
  • Continue investing in new safety-enhanced gender-neutral washrooms in parks and public spaces.↗↗
  • Establish a plant-based food mandate for all Park Board restaurants and concessions.↗↗
  • Eliminate excessive dependence on user-fee revenue and restore city-funded portion of the park budget to a historical level of 50%, returning $6 million into the Park Board budget.↗↗
  • Increase microactivations of parks and public spaces and permit small businesses to offer services within parks.↗↗
  • Add new green spaces as part of the broader Trees for a Healthier City strategy.↗
  • Develop a Community Environmental Stewardship program with small grants supporting low-cost, high-impact community care for eco corridors and green spaces.↗
  • Expand affordable recreation opportunities by increasing fee assistance, adding more low-cost programs, and ensuring community centre budgets remain properly funded.↗
  • Introduce a motion directing City staff to create a dedicated Community Environmental Stewardship Grant program providing flexible, small-scale, accessible, and equity-focused funding to grassroots and volunteer-led groups for habitat restoration, education, and community science in eco-corridors and neighbourhood greenspaces.↗
  • Continue advocating for the Park Board's unanimously adopted capital priorities for the 2027–2030 Capital Plan.↗
  • Protect mature trees, replace 5,000 tree stumps, and target schoolyard shade through coordinated commitments across the city, parks, and schools.↗
  • Expand tree planting, community gardens, and local stewardship in neighbourhoods.↗
  • Develop a citywide strategy for clean, accessible public washrooms in parks and public spaces.↗
  • Create food-growing spaces in every neighbourhood.↗
  • Work toward 30% citywide tree canopy by replacing 5,000 existing stumps with new trees.↗
  • Protect community gardens and pollinator corridors.↗
  • Support artificial turf only when paired with rainwater retention and biodiversity measures.↗
  • Pursue native shoreline improvements and accessible waterfront recreation.↗
  • Open park land and facilities to community food systems.↗
  • Convert historic park fountains to circulating or low-volume water features.↗
  • Support childcare provision at community centres and connected schools.↗
  • Support pop-up events and services at parks and beaches where consistent with neighbourhood values.↗
  • Prioritize renewal of Hastings, Kensington, and Renfrew community centres per the 2022 Community Centre Strategy, and keep Britannia on track.↗↗
  • Purchase land in dense areas for new green spaces through a park acquisition levy.↗
  • Remove 5,000 stumps in Vancouver parks and replace them with new trees.↗

Governance, consultation, and accountability 35

  • Bring in a wellbeing index for the City of Vancouver to measure residents' status on core issues using indicators beyond economic measures.↗↗
  • Re-embed equity, diversity, inclusion, anti-racism, and reconciliation policy coordination across city departments following the closure of the standalone Equity Office.↗↗
  • Re-instate the Older Persons Planner position that was eliminated in recent budget cuts.↗↗
  • Make City Hall more transparent, responsive, and user-friendly, with clearer processes, better communication, and a culture focused on helping people solve problems.↗
  • Support stronger provincial integrity legislation, safeguard the independence of ethics oversight, and ensure elected officials remain accountable to the public.↗↗
  • Strengthen transparency around in-camera discussions, improve public reporting, and support timely disclosure of decisions and records once confidentiality is no longer necessary.↗↗
  • Work with partners to bring ranked ballots to future mayoral elections.↗↗
  • Ensure members of the public have more access at City Hall, including the ability for Council to ask follow-up questions of speakers.↗
  • Expand the use of public performance dashboards so residents can track progress on major initiatives and monitor service standards.↗↗
  • Pursue proactive and integrated board-to-board planning to align Council land use and urban development decisions with Vancouver School Board school needs and projections.↗
  • Work to restore confidence in transparent and accountable Police Board operations.↗↗
  • Make public board meetings accessible and easier to follow.↗
  • Publish major reports and recommendations early enough for meaningful public review wherever possible.↗
  • Provide plain-language summaries of major board decisions.↗
  • Clearly explain the rationale for significant policy and budget choices.↗
  • Publish easily accessible performance indicators to track progress and corrective actions for major Board priorities.↗
  • Improve transparency concerning matters discussed in closed meetings while respecting legal privacy and confidentiality requirements.↗
  • Improve engagement before major catchment, program, or school changes, and explain how public and stakeholder input influenced the final decision.↗
  • Use multiple forms of engagement so participation is not limited to those able to attend traditional evening meetings.↗
  • Establish regular, predictable dialogue between trustees and employee representatives.↗
  • Amend the procedure by-law to allow public speakers on extraordinary zoning amendments, within provincial legislative limits.↗↗
  • Create an Office of Strong Communities to serve as the city's neighbourhood engagement hub, working with residents, community organizations, BIAs, and neighbourhood groups to identify local priorities and inform cross-departmental planning.↗↗
  • Introduce a motion at City Council to amend the City's Draft FIFA World Cup 2026 Human Rights Action Plan by adding clear standards, measurable targets, and independent monitoring.↗
  • Develop a Human Rights Measurement Framework including clear indicators, baseline data, targets, and public reporting to Council.↗
  • Establish a clear complaint and rapid response system to address urgent human rights concerns during the World Cup tournament.↗
  • Release a platform covering housing affordability, climate resilience, transit improvements, community safety, and City Hall governance.↗
  • Call for an immediate impartial review and unequivocal censure of Councillor Lenny Zhou's conduct.↗
  • Introduce a motion directing staff to report back on a by-law establishing a City Comptroller as an independent officer reporting to Council, with responsibilities covering expenditure monitoring, citywide asset management framework development, public reporting on infrastructure and investments, and compliance with Council-approved financial policies.↗
  • Establish a lobbyist registry so residents know who is influencing City Hall decisions.↗
  • Reverse limits on public engagement and follow-up questions at City Hall.↗
  • Give residents a direct role in funding neighbourhood projects through participatory budgeting.↗
  • Base City policy on data and research rather than political ideology.↗
  • Ensure the civil service is merit-based and separate from political direction.↗
  • Maintain an independent, elected Park Board with clear authority.↗
  • Maintain a commitment to transparent decision-making and accountability for results at City Hall.↗

Social policy, health, and community services 30

  • Restore funding for Sex Worker Safety Coordinators and continue supporting sex worker safety measures, MMIWG2S+ Calls for Justice, and Red Women Rising recommendations.↗↗
  • Create a comprehensive municipal strategy and task force to prevent intimate partner violence, coordinating services, expanding survivor support, improving data and prevention education, and ensuring accountable leadership.↗↗
  • Complete means prevention infrastructure as part of the Granville Bridge upgrades.↗↗
  • Expand access to clean, safe, and accessible public washrooms through a coordinated citywide strategy identifying underserved areas, extending hours where needed, and integrating washrooms into plazas, community facilities, and major public spaces.↗↗
  • Expand low-barrier daytime spaces where people experiencing homelessness can access services, connect with housing supports, store belongings, and find respite.↗↗
  • Expand secure storage facilities and community lockers for people experiencing homelessness so personal belongings are protected while individuals access services, seek employment, and work toward permanent housing.↗↗
  • Deploy small-scale shelter villages with private locking micro-cabins, storage, sanitation, and on-site supports as a bridge to permanent housing, with clear pathways, case management, and housing placement goals for every resident.↗
  • Collaborate with the health authority and building use departments to create new conditions and opportunities for childcare in atypical locations and hours.↗↗
  • Support and grow food recovery organizations that rescue surplus food and redirect it to people in need.↗↗
  • Make it faster and easier to create childcare spaces in every community by allowing childcare wherever appropriate and streamlining approvals.↗↗
  • Reduce permit fees, streamline approvals, and remove unnecessary regulatory barriers for licensed childcare providers to lower the cost of opening and expanding childcare.↗↗
  • Lease or support suitable City-owned spaces at below-market rates to licensed childcare providers, and work with the Park Board to expand childcare in community centres across Vancouver.↗↗
  • Support equipment lending libraries giving residents affordable access to tools, sports equipment, recreational gear, gardening supplies, repair equipment, and other shared resources.↗
  • Expand support for community gardens, urban agriculture, farmers markets, and local food producers to increase access to healthy, affordable food, and reinstate and expand food planning roles cut under the previous administration.↗↗↗
  • Support community food hubs that integrate food distribution, meal programs, community kitchens, gardening, nutrition education, and local food services, especially in food desert areas.↗
  • Strengthen Vancouver's food system by supporting local production, processing, distribution, storage, and emergency food networks.↗
  • Create locations for community food gardens and food production in every neighbourhood.↗
  • Include in the Human Rights Action Plan a commitment to prevent displacement of unhoused and precariously-housed residents without safe, dignified alternatives.↗
  • Expand access to low-barrier spaces and essential services for unhoused and precariously-housed residents during the World Cup.↗
  • Establish real-time tracking and public reporting on shelter availability and service access during the World Cup.↗
  • Develop a policy framework and operating standards for overdose prevention and harm reduction services, using the City's zoning, permitting, and licensing tools.↗
  • Direct city staff to develop a scalable framework for small, rapid-deployment shelter sites, prioritising standardised and prefabricated units, shared facilities to reduce costs, and identification of underused or temporary sites suitable for immediate deployment.↗
  • Provide safe, dignified places for unhoused and marginalized people to gather, rest, and access support.↗
  • Establish workable licensing and zoning conditions for health and shelter facilities to reduce overdose risk and public substance use.↗
  • Prioritize diversion, outreach, and services before enforcement in public space management.↗
  • Fund affordable recreation programs and active transportation for healthy living.↗
  • Expand fee assistance and low-cost recreation programs at community centres.↗
  • Create affordable equipment lending libraries for tools, gear, and equipment.↗
  • Create neighbourhood food hubs combining food distribution, meal programs, and education in food desert areas.↗
  • Provide compassionate, evidence-based responses connecting people experiencing homelessness to shelter and services.↗

Transportation, streets, and public space 29

  • Faster response to litter, illegal dumping, graffiti, and overflowing bins; more receptacles in high-traffic areas; enhanced street cleaning around business districts, transit hubs, parks, and schools.↗
  • Stronger enforcement against illegal dumping and chronic offenders; better reporting tools to identify problem areas; work with businesses and property owners to keep public spaces clean.↗
  • Expand curb cuts, tactile surfaces, audible crossings, and barrier-free infrastructure across every neighbourhood.↗↗
  • Work with City Council and the School Board to build a safe and green active transportation network connecting cycling routes to schools, community centres, parks, transit, and employment areas.↗↗
  • Establish and prioritize meaningful targets and funding for upgrading safe pedestrian crossings, expand Leading Pedestrian Intervals and audible crossings, and conduct an ongoing pedestrian safety audit of crosswalks and unsignalized intersections.↗↗
  • Expand and continue 30 km/h speed limits on residential streets and select arterials, particularly near parks and schools, with continued education and enforcement.↗
  • Dedicate stable funding and infrastructure, including retractable bollards and placemaking elements, to support seasonal and year-round pedestrian zones in partnership with local residents and BIAs.↗↗
  • Eliminate time and day restrictions for school zones, add more safe routes to schools, and expand School Streets — car-free zones adjacent to schools for active transportation and play before and after school.↗↗
  • Connect safe cycling and rolling routes to the AAA bike route and slowed streets network, with a particular focus on completing the Major Bikeway Network and addressing gaps in South and East Vancouver.↗↗
  • Add active transportation lanes to the Broadway corridor while the subway is still under construction.↗↗
  • Foster special open-streets events celebrating active transportation and calmed streets to connect neighbourhoods and activate public spaces.↗↗
  • Right-size neighbourhood parking by planning for actual demand, decoupling parking from housing costs, enabling paid off-street parkades for residents, and reducing parking requirements near high-frequency transit while replacing some parking with plazas, cycling infrastructure, and green space.↗↗
  • Expand shared mobility infrastructure, including public bike share, and ensure new facilities are integrated into communities to support last-mile connections to frequent transit areas.↗↗
  • Work with partners to establish a binding timeline for delivering a rapid transit extension to UBC.↗↗↗
  • Prioritize bus reliability, speed, and connectivity through transit-priority measures including bulges, bump-outs, and bus priority lanes, and expand late bus service and low-income transit concessions, in partnership with TransLink.↗↗↗
  • Select protected left-turn signals, add queue-jump lanes for buses, and implement smart adaptive traffic signal systems to manage congestion.↗↗
  • Prioritize targeted upgrades to aging road surfaces, potholes, and pavement markings, and deliver curb-cuts and accessibility with all new and renewed infrastructure.↗↗
  • Convert at least 11% of Vancouver streets from car use to community uses including tree canopy, parklets, dog parks, active transportation, food-growing spaces, and green spaces.↗
  • Enhance walking, cycling, and rolling infrastructure city-wide, prioritizing equity, safety, and comfort for active transportation, including repairing bike routes, enhancing sidewalks, and adding bulges and curb cuts.↗↗
  • Invest in accessible sidewalks, curb cuts, crosswalks, extended crosswalk times, transit connections, bus shelters, lighting, and public spaces to enable safe, independent movement for all.↗↗
  • Integrate low-cost smart information and communication technologies into all traffic and safety system renewals, and coordinate project timing using less disruptive repair technologies such as cast-in-place pipes.↗
  • Work with TransLink, the TransLink Mayor's Council, and senior governments to expand low-income transit programs and deliver more affordable fares.↗↗
  • Expand licensing for small neighbourhood zero-emission passenger shuttles and guided tours at destinations including Stanley Park, Gastown, and the downtown waterfront.↗↗
  • Bring forward a motion to limit micromobility devices and cars to 30 km/h on local roads also used by non-motorized transportation.↗↗
  • Continue to advocate for a safe active transportation lane on Stanley Park Drive and across city parks.↗
  • Support affordable alternatives to car ownership.↗
  • Implement Vision Zero through accessible sidewalks, curb cuts, and slower streets.↗
  • Convert at least 11% of street space to community use.↗
  • Install EV charging infrastructure on lampposts and utility poles across the city.↗

Economic development and local business 29

  • Expand the mandate and capacity of the City's Business and Economy Office by creating a user-friendly digital business portal, improving interdepartmental coordination, and providing stronger support for entrepreneurs and job creation.↗↗
  • Regularly compare Vancouver's permitting timelines, fees, regulations, and business climate against leading North American cities.↗↗
  • Create a Business Navigator Service with a dedicated point of contact to guide small business applications through permitting and licensing, coordinate across departments, identify issues early, and keep applicants informed throughout.↗↗
  • Simplify and fast-track change-of-use permits for existing commercial spaces, add flexibility for multiple uses, and open data to identify approved uses in advance.↗↗
  • Strengthen partnerships with Business Improvement Areas to provide greater flexibility and support for local initiatives and empower place-based solutions improving safety, economic vitality, public spaces, and communities.↗↗
  • Work with the Province to give Vancouver greater flexibility to protect small businesses from disproportionate tax increases while sustaining services and infrastructure.↗↗
  • Advocate to the Province for commercial tenant protections and use tax incentives, land-use policies, transition supports, and targeted financial assistance to preserve affordable commercial space for local businesses.↗↗
  • Require major redevelopment projects to replace affordable commercial space that would otherwise be lost, implementing a 'no net loss' policy for affordable commercial space.↗↗
  • Implement a night-time strategy including increased night transit, expanded live music venue zoning, 24-hour industrial and creative land uses, extended permits, and expanded hospitality.↗↗
  • Reinstate food policy planning at the City and develop a new strategy for distributing independent food and farmers markets city-wide.↗↗
  • Plan for a co-located food hub to replace and modernize aging regional food distribution infrastructure, supporting wholesale distribution, local food processing, food recovery, innovation, and food security.↗↗
  • Prioritize local businesses, social enterprises, and community-benefit organizations in City procurement to keep public dollars in the local economy.↗↗
  • Support buy-Canadian procurement policies and encourage mass timber, wood-frame mid-rise, and public infrastructure where possible to support Canadian forestry.↗
  • Create a streamlined regulatory framework for recurring farmers markets.↗
  • Require or enable vertical gardens, rooftop farms, and hydroponics in new developments.↗
  • Create shared commercial kitchen space for food entrepreneurs.↗↗
  • Deliver faster development approvals and modernized regulations to attract job-creating investment.↗
  • Support leadership in plant-based foods and green jobs.↗
  • Modernize zoning to allow narrow storefronts and flexible mixed-use buildings at human scale.↗
  • Shield employment lands from speculative conversion to protect job-creating uses.↗
  • Preserve land designated for manufacturing, logistics, and marine industries.↗
  • Support jobs in retrofit, clean technology, and climate adaptation sectors to grow the climate resilience economy.↗
  • Support local companies in green buildings and clean transportation as part of clean technology leadership.↗
  • Require higher standards and community benefit agreements for large-scale AI and hyperscale data centre facilities.↗
  • Complete a comprehensive Economic Resilience and Local Procurement Strategy prioritizing Vancouver and Canadian suppliers wherever legally and financially feasible.↗↗
  • Reinstate Community Benefit Agreements on major development projects to support local hiring, local procurement, and social procurement.↗↗↗
  • Prioritize B.C. mass timber and wood-frame construction in City projects and encourage its use in new public and private housing development.↗
  • Support micro-entrepreneurs, co-ops, social enterprises, and small businesses with affordable space, shared infrastructure, mentorship, and streamlined approvals.↗↗
  • Give home-based businesses, market vendors, makers, artists, and food entrepreneurs reasonable rules, flexible zoning, affordable permits, and business support.↗

City finances, taxation, and service delivery 14

  • Require the City and its major contractors to pay a Living Wage to workers who deliver public services.↗↗
  • Make City spending easier to understand through clear, accessible line-item budgets showing how public funds are allocated and spent.↗↗
  • Adopt evidence-based asset management to guide infrastructure investment, reduce deferred maintenance, and ensure public assets are maintained in a state of good repair.↗↗
  • Give residents a direct role in deciding how a portion of City funding is invested in neighbourhood projects, community amenities, and local improvements through participatory budgeting.↗
  • Upon assuming office, push to reveal the final costs and revenues of the FIFA event.↗↗
  • Require permits, public benefit standards, and appropriate fees for privately owned land used informally as parks or gardens while awaiting redevelopment, to prevent tax-sheltered land banking.↗
  • Properly fund best-practice renewal schedules for infrastructure including streets, sidewalks, sewers, buildings, and green spaces.↗↗
  • Accelerate upgrades so that new infrastructure and development meet modern seismic standards, prioritizing investments that protect residents, essential services, heritage, and community resilience.↗
  • Create a Vancouver Affordability Index that tracks real household costs against local incomes and uses that data to guide housing, transportation, taxation, and planning decisions.↗
  • Respond faster to dumping and graffiti, add more waste receptacles, and enhance cleaning near transit and schools.↗
  • Strengthen enforcement against illegal dumping and chronic offenders.↗
  • Require fair contributions from high-volume e-commerce delivery operators to fund public infrastructure.↗
  • Deploy low-cost smart technology and less disruptive repair methods for city infrastructure.↗
  • Modernize City procurement to recognize Canadian value in technology, software, data, intellectual property, food, clean energy, and other sectors while maintaining competition and value for taxpayers.↗

Public safety and emergency services 12

  • Strengthen public reporting from the Vancouver Police Board through regular updates to Council on budgets, performance, strategic priorities, and community safety outcomes.↗
  • Establish an Office of Community Safety using an interdepartmental, centralized approach that integrates neighbourhood services including fire, police, licensing, property use, and planning into a proactive systemic approach.↗↗↗
  • Develop a legally-workable set of City-mandated licence, zoning, and permit conditions to support health and shelter facilities that minimize public substance use and overdose risk, ensure recovery and engagement with health care, and reduce impacts on surrounding communities, with conditions on service delivery, cleanliness, public safety, accountability, and good-neighbour standards.↗
  • Support an approach that prioritises diversion, outreach, and connection to services before enforcement in managing public spaces, while keeping public spaces safe and accessible for everyone.↗
  • Invest in crisis intervention and de-escalation programs to help residents, businesses, and communities respond to challenging situations.↗↗
  • Create a 24/7 non-police, non-medical mobile response team (CROW — Community Response Outreach Workers) to handle non-emergency calls involving people experiencing homelessness, addiction, or other vulnerabilities, accessible to neighbours, businesses, emergency services, and partner agencies via a dedicated service and number.↗↗↗↗
  • Unlock stalled resourcing for Vancouver's restorative justice programs and embed restorative practices into schools, community organizations, public institutions, and community life.↗↗
  • Require documentation and transparency around enforcement interactions involving vulnerable residents during the World Cup.↗
  • Introduce a motion directing City staff to allocate up to $600,000 to restore seasonal lifeguard services at Spanish Banks East and West, Sunset Beach, and Third Beach for the 2026 beach season, in coordination with the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation, and to report back with implementation timelines.↗
  • Establish a new 24/7 non-police Community Response Outreach Workers (CROW) team to divert non-emergency calls from police, and create a new Office of Community Safety to coordinate City departments on neighbourhood safety.↗
  • Introduce a motion to set standards for overdose prevention services to save more lives and provide neighbourhoods with clarity and trust.↗
  • Conduct independent performance reviews of police spending and outcomes.↗

Indigenous relations and reconciliation 11

  • Prioritise collaboration with Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations to explore opportunities for co-management of parklands.↗↗
  • Incorporate Indigenous naming, values, art, and healing gardens by centring cultural recognition in the design of Park Board facilities and outdoor spaces.↗↗
  • Build respectful, ongoing relationships with the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.↗
  • Work closely with the Indigenous Education Council and respect its statutory responsibilities.↗
  • Support improved educational outcomes for Indigenous students.↗
  • Strengthen the inclusion of Indigenous worldviews, histories, and perspectives in learning environments, consistent with provincial curriculum and local partnerships.↗
  • Review procurement and partnership opportunities that can support Indigenous businesses and organizations as appropriate.↗
  • Ensure reconciliation commitments are reflected in measurable actions and reported publicly.↗
  • Continue building working relationships with the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations and advance UNDRIP and TRC recommendations while improving outcomes for urban Indigenous people.↗
  • Seek guidance from and amplify the voices of Traditional Knowledge Keepers on ecosystem stewardship.↗
  • Include urban Indigenous organizations and community members in Park Board planning.↗

Arts, culture, libraries, and civic life 8

  • Strengthen the Eastside's identity as an arts and culture hub by preserving affordable creative space and supporting artists and cultural organizations through zoning, land-use conditions, and incentives.↗↗
  • Restore and expand arts and culture staffing and grants, and implement a new city-wide strategy to support arts economic development and employment.↗↗
  • Protect and create affordable studios, live-work spaces, workshops, and cultural venues through adaptive reuse, flexible land-use policies, and creative building conversions.↗↗
  • Reduce red tape around event licensing and occupancy requirements while maintaining safety standards, create a new licensing category for qualified venues, and in the interim raise thresholds to allow up to eight events per month and occupancy of up to 60 people.↗↗
  • Support Cultural Land Trusts to acquire and preserve creative spaces, cultural venues, artist studios, and live-work buildings as non-profit community assets.↗
  • Support a dedicated City-funded Festival Fund to provide reliable funding for arts, cultural, and community events.↗↗↗
  • Invest in libraries, community centres, and other third spaces as essential civic infrastructure.↗
  • Establish non-profit cultural land trusts to acquire and preserve creative spaces.↗

Stances · 23

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.