Vote Vancouver
Leader Rebecca Bligh · 12 candidates across 4 contests · Official site ↗ · 0 elected (official results)
Commitments · 120
Housing and land use 19
- Support housing that connects residents with mental health and addiction services, case management, and employment and training services.↗
- Support new approaches to seniors housing, including Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities, to help people age in their communities.↗
- Ensure new public housing is planned alongside childcare, schools, public spaces, healthcare, and community services.↗↗
- Combine supportive housing with mental health and addiction services, childcare, and training and employment support, leveraging provincial and federal funding.↗
- Build housing to keep unhoused people connected to their communities, create jobs, and provide stability.↗
- Reverse the ban on supportive housing to enable construction of new homes connected with mental health services, addiction supports, social work, and employment and training opportunities.↗
- Replace existing SROs with dignified, self-contained, purpose-built housing options while allowing existing facilities to continue operating until reasonable alternatives are available.↗↗
- Work with community land trusts and community groups to keep public land in community ownership, build co-operative housing, and ensure housing remains affordable.↗↗↗
- Support the Downtown Eastside through the Community Land Trust and the SRO Collaborative to keep housing affordable, in line with the Uplift the DTES motion.↗
- Work with the False Creek South Community Housing Trust to review City leases and develop a solution to maintain community and co-operative housing long-term.↗
- Continue to support societies such as Hogan's Alley in establishing affordable community housing with integrated services and community centres through land trusts.↗
- Hold landlords to the City's maintenance standards and take action when buildings fall into serious disrepair, particularly where life-safety risks threaten residents' ability to remain safely housed.↗
- Use city land, partnerships, and resources to build more affordable housing that includes childcare and create complete communities.↗↗
- Identify underused or unused City-owned sites and use them to build affordable housing, with five parcels chosen, named, and announced with a timeline within one month of entering City Hall.↗
- Use innovative programs like DASH (Digitally Accelerated Standardized Housing) to build homes faster with pre-approved models and sustainable materials, especially for modular housing developments.↗
- When a faith organization chooses to redevelop rather than sell, partner with them to redevelop their land for housing, community services, and childcare while keeping the land in the organization's ownership.↗↗
- Partner with Community Land Trusts to convert vacant buildings suitable for housing and community spaces into community-owned housing.↗
- Leverage the Vancouver Affordable Housing Endowment Fund, combined with City land, to build deeply affordable housing directly, piloting projects targeting 30% of units as deeply affordable under an affordable housing asset class model.↗↗
- Reduce market-rate housing costs by building deeply affordable housing on public land instead of relying on the private market to deliver below-market rate housing.↗
Social policy, health, and community services 18
- Advocate with senior governments for better wages for early childhood educators, and explore ways to help ECEs afford to live in Vancouver.↗
- Set a childcare space-creation target tied to the city's estimated shortfall of approximately 4,200 spaces, and report publicly each year on spaces built, spaces still needed, and the investment plan.↗
- Include not-for-profit childcare in every new public-land housing development and in community centres, libraries, and major redevelopments.↗↗
- Use development contributions to fund new childcare spaces.↗
- Work with faith-based organizations to include childcare in their new developments and prioritize those applications.↗
- Work with the Province and regional partners to expand $10-a-day childcare and distribute spaces effectively in Vancouver and across Metro Vancouver, and ensure every City-built or City-owned facility is ready to join the program.↗↗
- Fast-track permits and reduce fees for licensed childcare, especially for small and home-based operators.↗
- Work with the Vancouver School Board to bring before- and after-school care to the 15 elementary schools that currently lack it, expand spaces where it already exists, offer pre-kindergarten care in school facilities during the school day, and extend care to Professional Development days and summer breaks using existing buildings.↗↗
- Expand existing policies and working groups to advance a gender-based violence prevention strategy, building on a prior council motion.↗
- Invest in more public washrooms to protect public health and provide universal access.↗
- Help build and fund recovery programs to support people suffering from substance use disorders.↗
- Pair recovery programs with affordable supportive housing.↗
- Create a Seniors Desk at City Hall to provide older Vancouver residents with direct, personal help accessing City services.↗
- Advocate to the province for more mental health services for young people, more school counsellors, expanded psychiatric beds and treatment capacity, and more recovery programs.↗↗
- Support the St. Paul's Road to Recovery program, including building more supportive housing for program graduates and continuing to fund Vancouver Coastal Health.↗↗
- Build more Recovery Community Centres across the city to connect people with peer support and wellness activities as a bridge between starting recovery and accessing detox and treatment facilities.↗↗
- Recommit to a larger capital commitment for childcare in the 2027–30 Capital Plan, matching the previously pledged but unspent amount from the 2023–26 Capital Plan.↗↗
- Audit underused public buildings and land to identify opportunities for additional childcare spaces, including options with extended hours and modular childcare facilities on underused land.↗↗↗
Transportation, streets, and public space 15
- Repair broken streetlights within 72 hours of a report being made.↗↗
- Make every timed crosswalk in Vancouver accessible within 12 months.↗↗
- Ensure sidewalks remain clear, clean, and accessible by building housing for everyone.↗
- Partner with TransLink to provide a free transit pass for all Vancouver residents under 18, launching a pilot program within the first 100 days of taking office, running throughout 2027.↗↗↗
- Launch a seasonal pilot free bike valet program from April 1 to October 31, 2027, using existing underused city-owned EasyPark parking spaces to provide monitored bicycle storage, with publicly reported end-of-season results covering usage, operating costs, location performance, user satisfaction, business impacts, and cycling mode-shift effects.↗↗↗
- Deliver an all-electric passenger ferry service connecting Downtown Vancouver with Bowen Island and the Sunshine Coast.↗↗
- Extend the SkyTrain line to UBC.↗↗
- Address known cycling safety problems in the city, including sightlines, signal timing, turning conflicts, accessibility concerns, and connections to existing bike routes.↗↗
- Enforce more accessible sidewalks by constructing and fixing curb cuts where they do not exist or are not sufficiently accessible.↗
- Set a two-hour maximum in short-term parking areas to improve turnover and manage demand.↗↗
- Protect short-term, affordable, and accessible parking near medical facilities and senior-serving destinations.↗↗
- Introduce a prepaid parking pass for seniors who do not use smartphones, so they can park without requiring a parking app.↗
- Introduce clear safety rules for e-scooters.↗
- Complete the Broadway bike lane and improve connections to surrounding routes.↗↗
- Create 10 new pedestrian plazas across Vancouver neighbourhoods over four years.↗↗
Parks, recreation, and natural spaces 13
- Fully fund lifeguards to keep them on public beaches by Summer 2027.↗
- Increase the number of designated dog-friendly spaces in Vancouver's parks.↗
- Keep the Park Board independently elected and properly funded so that it can be independently responsible and accountable to residents.↗
- Protect the Champlain Heights forest and trail network.↗
- Provide dedicated municipal funding for environmental stewardship of local green spaces.↗
- Maintain Vancouver's 30% tree-canopy target while separately measuring mature canopy and newly planted trees.↗
- Invest in the long-term health of Vancouver's urban forest.↗
- Set clear standards for maintaining parks, beaches, trails, and recreation facilities.↗
- Deliver a 50-metre pool.↗
- Commit to pools at Sunset and Marpole Community Centres.↗
- Advance the Britannia Community Services Precinct renewal and work to keep pools open wherever possible during renewal.↗
- Restore full practical public access to Kitsilano Pool.↗
- Deliver a Community Health in Our Parks Plan with outdoor fitness and calisthenics equipment.↗
Governance, consultation, and accountability 11
- Open the north doors to City Hall within 10 days of taking office.↗
- Create Neighbourhood Hubs that connect residents with City services, community resources, and support closer to home.↗
- Apply a policy evaluation framework (the 'Vancouver Test') requiring that every City Hall decision meet four criteria: service improvement or urgent need, long-term benefit, public trust, and measurable resident outcomes.↗
- Re-establish meaningful, genuine, transparent community-based neighbourhood planning, removing the Communications Group from those processes and re-empowering the Planning Department to lead them.↗
- Improve response times for essential public services including street cleaning and sanitation, snow and ice removal, and broken streetlights.↗
- Establish a 10-day response commitment for City Hall inquiries, meaning residents will hear back within 10 days about what the City plans to do to address their issue.↗
- Establish a dedicated team to streamline rezoning applications and help faith organizations navigate municipal development guidelines.↗
- Create single-point-of-contact service desks (concierge desks) for businesses, events, and community organizations navigating City Hall departments.↗
- Create a Seniors' Concierge Desk at City Hall where seniors can speak to a real person by phone or in person to navigate City departments.↗
- Publish the City's budget publicly online in a clear, understandable format.↗
- Leverage relationships with all orders of government to advocate for increased funding and support for affordable childcare, supportive housing, mental health and addiction supports, and schools, including advocating to the federal government for tax exemptions on municipal bonds.↗
Schools, students, facilities, and education governance 11
- Work to create more opportunities for school spaces to serve their communities beyond the school day.↗
- Expand school programs to include pre-kindergarten childcare during school days in Vancouver School Board facilities.↗
- Advocate for better provincial funding for more school counsellors and early childhood supports, including faster access to neurodivergence assessments.↗
- Work with the VSB to expand school nutrition programs and reduce funding gaps between schools, incorporating food literacy, culinary education, and school/community gardens, and developing sustainable cost-sharing rather than relying on municipal budgets, individual schools, or non-profits.↗
- Review the Nutritional Standards Guide to ensure it provides appropriate nourishment for learning.↗
- Protect core arts, music, physical education, and enrichment programs from budget cuts.↗
- Establish School Liaison Officers focused on early intervention and youth protection, operating out of uniform with independent equity-centred reviews, and paired with expanded counsellors, youth workers, and restorative justice programs.↗
- Address staffing gaps in schools where funding exists but dedicated resource teacher assistance is insufficient.↗
- Ensure the Vancouver School Board provides equity-lensed opportunities for all students to be represented through student council initiatives.↗
- Conduct an inventory audit of elementary school grounds to evaluate current restrictions and upgrade needs; ensure seismic renewal keeps pace with requirements; carefully evaluate repair vs. rebuild costs without liquidating public assets; advocate for acceleration of the Olympic Village School development with community consultation on storey options; and partner with the City and Park Board to improve facilities in high-density and underserved neighbourhoods.↗
- Create new classroom technology guidelines requiring mandatory consultation before new AI tools are implemented, providing clear teacher guidance on acceptable AI use (excluding direct instructional delivery), and restricting cellphones in elementary and younger grades.↗
Arts, culture, libraries, and civic life 10
- Invest in community centres, libraries, and pools to ensure welcoming places for Vancouverites of all ages to learn, play, exercise, gather, and connect.↗
- Within six months of taking office, establish an Arts, Culture and Creative City Navigator at City Hall to help artists and cultural non-profits navigate permitting, liquor licensing, and special-event approvals, while coordinating collective marketing for arts and culture.↗
- Give the Independent Arts Council a dedicated annual allocation from the City for arts grants, with at least 90% flowing directly to the arts and creative sector and no more than 10% available for administration and operations.↗↗
- Work with business, philanthropic, and creative communities to establish a Vancouver Arts Foundation as a permanent vehicle for private donations, sponsorships, and philanthropic investment in arts and culture.↗
- Create more small outdoor music and performance spaces.↗
- Increase the funding cap for arts and culture events and expand event security funding so that inside-perimeter security is funded at the same rate as outside-perimeter security.↗
- Create a Festivals Vancouver Fund to support neighbourhood festivals throughout Vancouver and continue to support large festivals such as the Vancouver Film Festival, the Vancouver Fringe Festival, and Khatsilano.↗
- Expand temporary occupancy permits so vacant buildings can be converted into creative and cultural spaces more quickly, including rooftop venues and second-floor activations.↗
- Support the Cultural Land Trust and efforts to preserve long-term cultural spaces by supporting the purchase of vacant commercial spaces for use as rehearsal spaces, performance venues, and artist workspaces throughout the city.↗
- Simplify permits and approvals for festivals, performances, street events, and live music, and reduce event-related fees and unnecessary administrative requirements.↗
Economic development and local business 9
- Create a Small Business Concierge — a single point of contact for help with permits, regulations, and City processes.↗
- Use better technology and simpler processes to cut permit delays and get decisions made faster.↗
- Open vacant City-owned commercial spaces to businesses, artists, and community organizations.↗
- Create incentives for new businesses that open in the Downtown Eastside and deliver a meaningful benefit to the community.↗↗
- Implement a head-lease model for City-owned commercial retail units in the Downtown Eastside, leasing them to a social enterprise operator who selects and supports tenants, removing City Hall from direct management.↗↗
- Launch a Business-to-Storefront program using suitable City-owned commercial spaces to help local entrepreneurs and community-serving businesses get started.↗↗
- Work toward automatic business registration triggered at natural transition points, reducing repetitive paperwork while maintaining appropriate safety and regulatory requirements.↗
- Conduct an economic impact study of Vancouver's creative industries to quantify jobs, investment, and economic activity generated by the sector.↗
- Work with regional partners to attract investment, talent, and jobs to Vancouver as part of the Cascadia region, strengthening its position as a North American innovation centre.↗
Public safety and emergency services 7
- Improve coordination between police, healthcare providers, housing providers, and community organizations so that police are not the only available response to mental health or addiction crises.↗↗
- Support Community Policing Centres to ensure they function as neighbourhood hubs for crime prevention, community referrals, youth mentorship, neighbourhood engagement, and resident services.↗
- Create an interdisciplinary working group to lead a Restorative Justice Program, backed by stable core funding.↗
- Develop a Community Safety and Wellbeing Strategy in collaboration with police, healthcare providers, non-profit organizations, Indigenous organizations, businesses, and community groups to create a framework for serving Vancouver residents.↗↗
- Expand existing policies and working groups dedicated to ending gender-based violence in Vancouver.↗
- Establish a Restorative Justice System by partnering with Peace of the Circle to train city staff, collaborating with Indigenous communities to create restorative frameworks, and applying The Vancouver Test to all future policies.↗
- Rework Community Policing Centres into neighbourhood hubs for crime prevention, community referrals, youth mentorship, neighbourhood engagement, and resident service connections, prioritising prevention, education, and support over criminalization.↗
Climate, environment, and resilience 4
- Maintain Vancouver's 30% tree-canopy target while separately tracking mature canopy and new plantings.↗
- Reinstate Energize Vancouver and focus on practical measures to reduce building emissions, improve energy performance, and strengthen climate resilience.↗
- Unpause the Energize Vancouver emissions-reporting program so the City can understand where building emissions are coming from and measure progress.↗
- Maintain the existing requirement for electric space and hot-water heating in new buildings.↗
City finances, taxation, and service delivery 2
Indigenous relations and reconciliation 1
- Foster equitable relationships with Coast Salish Nations to deliver more informed and accessible public services including housing, healthcare, and food services.↗
Stances · 1
- OpposesCurrent plans for involuntary care beds.↗
Candidates
City Council
Not elected6
Source coverage
74 sources discovered from www.votevancouver.ca — 3 platform, 17 release, 2 candidate.
Discovery enumerates sources; commitments and stances are decided at extraction. Each line above links to its source page.