Economic development and local business
122 commitments from 8 parties, grouped by who published them.
OneCity Vancouver 39
- Apply a Good Jobs Procurement Standard to city contracts that rewards companies offering good jobs, strong safety standards, and youth training programs.↗↗↗
- Extend the Good Jobs labour standard to city capital projects — including community centres, libraries, housing, and infrastructure — requiring apprenticeships, local hiring, and training pathways.↗↗↗
- Launch Youth Jobs Vancouver, creating up to 375 youth-only positions per year at a living wage.↗↗↗
- Give the City's Chinatown Advisory Committee a funded mandate, with public annual reporting on the Plaza's empty storefronts, and ensure storefronts are filled for the community.↗↗↗
- Create a direct link between Chinatown Plaza's empty storefronts and Council's storefront activation pilot, alongside the City's broader commercial vacancy work.↗↗
- Connect Chinatown Plaza investment to the City's broader neighbourhood plans and economic revitalization strategy to reinforce rather than duplicate existing work.↗↗
- Direct staff to report back within one year with an Enabling the Neighbourhood Economy Action Plan, including a review of zoning and licensing barriers, a modernized home-based business policy, and a public engagement process with renters, seniors, small businesses, immigrant entrepreneurs, and other cultural organizations and stakeholders.↗↗
- Begin implementation with pilot areas representing different neighbourhood contexts — a neighbourhood facing commercial displacement, an outer-city area with limited local services, and a high-growth apartment corridor.↗↗
- Bring forward zoning and licensing amendments citywide within two years.↗↗
- Establish a new Business & Investment Office funded at $3 million, and work to reform, fund, and stabilize the regional Invest Vancouver as a partner agency.↗↗↗↗↗
- Establish an Entrepreneur Liaison Office with dedicated staff to help entrepreneurs and small and medium businesses navigate permits, licensing, and funding across all levels of government.↗↗↗↗↗
- Create a tiered micro-grant system for small businesses and non-profits, administered by a non-partisan committee of business, labour, and community representatives.↗↗↗↗↗
- Establish a three-year procurement pilot — Buy Vancouver — prioritizing City spending on goods and services from Vancouver, British Columbia, and Canada, and redirecting away from foreign multinationals.↗↗↗↗↗↗
- Establish a Good Jobs Procurement Standard that rewards fair wages, responsible contractors, apprenticeships, safety, and local and inclusive hiring in City contracts rather than awarding solely on lowest price.↗↗↗↗↗↗
- If elected with a council majority, urgently move additional measures to bolster the local economy and leverage the Vancouver Charter in response to U.S. tariffs.↗↗
- Direct city staff to identify actions the City can pursue to support businesses, workers, and residents in response to U.S. tariffs, via an emergency motion.↗↗↗
- Assemble, and where necessary purchase, land; prepare it with roads, water, and sewer; and sell or rent it to businesses needing distribution warehouses or commercial/light-industrial space.↗↗↗
- Streamline City permitting processes so businesses pursuing important projects receive quick, clear answers.↗↗↗
- Offer tax breaks to businesses that create jobs, provide training, and construct buildings in Vancouver.↗
- Commission a study on how to incentivize businesses to put idle, unused land parcels to productive use, including examining how such land is taxed relative to active properties.↗↗↗
- Direct city staff to identify and evaluate additional opportunities, using powers under the Vancouver Charter, to support Vancouver businesses (particularly small and medium enterprises and not-for-profits), workers, and residents against U.S. tariff impacts, including measures conditioned on measurable outcomes such as quality employment, apprenticeships, continued industrial use, and other public benefits.↗↗
- Direct city staff to evaluate options for using the City's authority and resources to support redevelopment of underutilized industrial and employment lands, including establishing a modern Industry Commissioner under Section 337 of the Vancouver Charter and considering applications of Section 193A to assemble, expedite, and approve investment in industrial lands.↗↗↗↗↗↗↗↗
- Direct city staff to facilitate dialogue with affected businesses, workers, and residents to consult them about how to support them most effectively.↗↗
- Direct city staff to report back to Council before the end of Q4 2026 with a recommended action plan to advance Vancouver's economic resilience, covering measures to support businesses and workers, intergovernmental opportunities, consultation findings, and the financial and operational resources needed.↗↗
- Direct Labour, Economic Development, and Inclusive City policy teams to identify concrete municipal actions to strengthen economic resiliency for communities and the province.↗↗
- Expand affordable commercial space by making fuller use of second-storey commercial opportunities under the Villages Plan to support small businesses.↗
- Create a pilot micro-grant program to provide quick funding to businesses, non-profits, and service organizations for repairs, replacements, and responses to vandalism and property crime.↗
- Establish impact-management rules covering noise, waste, accessibility, and hours of operation to accompany expanded neighbourhood business permissions.↗↗
- Simplify the approval process for small cultural and community venues.↗
- Streamline permitting for pop-ups and temporary uses in vacant storefronts, plazas, libraries, and underused civic spaces for markets, food vendors, and local business testing.↗↗↗↗
- Match chronically vacant storefronts with short-term renters such as artists and entrepreneurs to foster community activity while identifying structural barriers and developing durable solutions.↗↗↗
- Reform the City's Change of Use process to allow low-risk businesses to occupy existing spaces faster, addressing licensing, upgrades, occupancy, zoning, and new development in one consolidated process.↗↗↗
- Create a good-paying youth-only job program to provide meaningful work experience and career pathways that allow young people to remain in Vancouver long-term.↗↗
- Create legal pathways for residents to run low-impact businesses from home, paired with rules on noise, food and workplace safety, accessibility, and standard hours of operation.↗↗↗↗
- Simplify late-night operating rules to allow responsible businesses to stay open later.↗↗↗↗↗
- Propose a certified Working Cat program in partnership with Vancouver Coastal Health to allow vaccinated cats in small shops for pest control.↗↗
- Update home-based business rules, establish a small business start-up liaison office, introduce small grants for small businesses, and require public spending to create good jobs, pay fair wages, and apply responsible procurement.↗
- Permit corner stores and small neighbourhood shops — including grocers, bakeries, cafés, florists, barbers, bike repair, and pharmacies — in residential areas, prioritized near schools, parks, transit, and seniors' housing.↗↗↗↗
- Offer tax breaks to businesses that create jobs, training programs, and new buildings.↗↗
Green Party of Vancouver 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.↗
TEAM for a Livable Vancouver 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.↗
Vancouver Liberals 14
- Reduce property taxes by 50% for local businesses for the duration of SkyTrain construction, and introduce incentives for commercial landlords to lower rent for affected tenants.↗
- Reinstate the Vancouver Economic Commission to attract head offices and support businesses, with a goal of cutting permitting time to three months.↗↗↗
- Use the City's licensing and land use powers to remove predatory payday lenders and work with credit unions to expand savings-style banking in underserved neighbourhoods.↗
- Amend zoning and regulations to allow a greater diversity of visitor accommodation, including hostels and pod hotels.↗
- Use community benefit agreements on major city developments and construction projects to create apprenticeships, training, and hiring opportunities for local workers and equity-seeking groups, with living-wage and responsible-contractor standards.↗↗
- Work with the Whitecaps, the Province, and the private sector to explore private-investment options — including new local ownership or privately financed stadium solutions — to keep the team in Vancouver, without public land or taxpayer cost.↗
- Champion Vancouver as the North American home of the CANZUK partnership by bidding for its headquarters.↗
- Position Vancouver as a ready host for major-league teams, championships, and international events through venues, fast approvals, and an events framework, and direct resulting momentum into youth sport and community fields.↗
- Work with the federal government on a shared plan for Granville Island covering rents for artists and small businesses, filling empty spaces, improving transit and access, and preserving it as a working and making place.↗
- Streamline business licensing and update zoning and business bylaws to reflect the digital economy, removing barriers for studios, startups, and online creators.↗↗
- Offer simple, low-cost permits for pop-up shops and markets, and allow a single space to serve multiple uses without requiring separate approvals for each use.↗
- Protect the city's remaining industrial land through an Industrial Land Reserve, and surround it with affordable housing for workers employed there.↗↗
- Cut permitting times from eight months to three months at minimum.↗
- Protect industrial and artist spaces to support small business.↗
Vote Vancouver 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.↗
ABC Vancouver 6
- Implement a One-Stop Business Desk to streamline support for businesses within the first 100 days.↗
- Allow restaurants and bars to stay open later.↗
- Revitalize Granville Street and its pedestrian zone and continue efforts to bring people downtown.↗
- Establish a new era of cooperation between the City and major events, along with a new funding model for those events.↗
- Help restaurants and bars operate with later hours.↗
- Create a vibrant entertainment district and downtown core.↗
COPE 4
- Create a Vancouver Local Business Office to help small businesses navigate permits, rules, and resources.↗↗
- Support new and existing worker co-ops with waived fees, expedited permitting, and city support.↗↗
- Support business license reforms to make it easier for start-ups to launch, including allowing businesses with different licensing requirements to share space.↗↗
- Push for changes to commercial tenancy agreements, including standardized leases, negotiation rules, landlord responsibilities, and protections against catastrophic rent hikes for small and local businesses.↗↗