Today, we are putting forward a Vancouver Agenda: a clear set of actions we are asking the next provincial government to commit to delivering. These are specific, measurable, and focused requests designed to make Vancouver safer, more affordable and better equipped for growth.
Vancouver is growing, building and investing, but we cannot solve regional and provincial challenges on our own. From mental health and public safety to housing, childcare, infrastructure and education, Vancouver needs a provincial government that will work with us, not leave Vancouver to carry the burden alone.
We will continue to do our part, and we look forward to the Province doing theirs.
ACTION 1
PROVIDE AT LEAST 100 NEW INVOLUNTARY/SECURE CARE BEDS LOCATED IN VANCOUVER.
Vancouver needs dedicated involuntary and secure-care capacity within the city, not elsewhere in the Metro region.
While the Province has announced 60 new secure-care beds in Surrey and 72 in Prince George, Vancouver has yet to receive a comparable expansion despite being on the front lines of B.C.’s mental health and addictions crisis.
The ask: Commit to at least 100 new involuntary and secure-care beds in Vancouver, at the former St. Paul’s Hospital or other appropriate secure sites, a clear delivery timeline and permanent operating funding.
Vancouver does not need another study. It needs treatment capacity.
ACTION 2
INTRODUCE PROVINCIAL POLICY PROHIBITING PUBLIC HARD-DRUG USE WHERE SHELTER AND TREATMENT OPTIONS EXIST.
This would be paired with tools for police to easily and effectively seize open-air hard drugs, and a requirement that any remaining overdose-prevention sites stay away from parks, schools, and major commercial streets. This should be paired with a general change in public health policy around hard drug use. This matches Mayor Ken Sim’s own civic plebiscite language and the multi-mayor “contract with communities” by Save Our Streets, pushed at UBCM.
ACTION 3
SUPPORT PRIME MINISTER MARK CARNEY’S DECISION TO MAKE THE FORTHCOMING PACIFIC LINK PIPELINE A PROJECT OF NATIONAL INTEREST.
Mayor Ken Sim welcomes Prime Minister Carney’s national infrastructure designation for the new pipeline to the West Coast and calls on the provincial government to support its advancement.
At a time of growing global uncertainty, Canada must diversify its trade, strengthen its economic independence, and reduce its reliance on a single export market. Nation-building projects like Pacific Link can strengthen Canada’s economic sovereignty while creating jobs and generating long-term economic benefits for British Columbia and Canada.
ACTION 4
INTRODUCE A BINDING REGIONAL FAIR-SHARE RULE FOR SUPPORTIVE HOUSING AND SHELTERS.
Vancouver is approximately 25% of Metro’s population, yet is home to the vast majority of the region’s supportive housing and shelter space.
The Province should establish binding municipal targets so new supportive housing and shelter capacity is prioritized in communities that have historically under-delivered. Every municipality must do its fair share, so Vancouver is no longer treated as the region’s default provider.
ACTION 5
FUND REPLACEMENT OF REMAINING SRO STOCK WITH SELF-CONTAINED UNITS.
SROs were never meant to be long-term housing solutions. The Province should establish a multi-year, fully funded replacement program to replace aging SROs with safe, self-contained homes that include private bathrooms and kitchens.
Vancouver has already identified priority buildings and redevelopment opportunities. What is needed now is sustained BC Housing capital funding, not one-off announcements, to systematically replace the remaining SRO stock while protecting existing residents from displacement.
ACTION 6
DEVELOP A HOUSING PLAN MEASURED BY AFFORDABILITY AND RESULTS, NOT RHETORIC AND PLATITUDES.
Vancouver’s housing policy should ultimately be measured by one thing: Affordability for the people who live here.
For too long, governments have announced increasingly complicated housing programs while the fundamental problem has remained the same. When there are too few homes and too few vacancies, renters compete for scarce housing and prices rise.
Over the last four years, Vancouver has focused on increasing housing supply, reducing permitting barriers and making it easier and less expensive to get homes built. We are encouraged that rents have begun to decline over that same period, and we believe that reinforces the direction we have taken.
We will continue reducing unnecessary red tape, delays and costs at City Hall so more housing can reach the market, vacancy rates can increase, and competition can continue putting downward pressure on rents.
We will support purpose-built rental housing, market entry housing, co-ops and other innovative forms of housing that create more choices at different price points.
We will also use incentives that lower the cost of building housing without simply transferring those costs to Vancouver taxpayers.
Government-funded social housing plays an important role for people the market alone cannot serve, and we will continue working with the provincial and federal governments to secure Vancouver’s fair share of funding for social and middle-income housing.
But using City taxpayer dollars to subsidize housing across the broader market is not a sustainable long-term affordability strategy. City finances cannot sustain it, and Vancouver property taxpayers cannot be expected to carry that burden.
The better long-term approach is to remove barriers, lower unnecessary costs, create incentives for housing to be built and dramatically increase the number and variety of homes available.
Where public money is used, it should support well-managed housing that helps people move forward, not repeat the failed model of concentrating vulnerable people in poorly managed, low-barrier SROs without adequate healthcare, security and support.
Our housing plan will be measured by affordability and results, not rhetoric and platitudes.
More homes. More choices. Higher vacancy. Lower costs.
That is how we make Vancouver more affordable.
ACTION 7
ENFORCE A “THREE STRIKES AND YOU’RE OUT” FRAMEWORK FOR FAILING SUPPORTIVE HOUSING PROVIDERS.
Supportive housing should make vulnerable residents safer and healthier. It should not become a place where drug dealing, organized crime, violence, repeated overdoses and dangerous conditions are allowed to flourish.
Vancouver has seen too many buildings generate repeated calls to police, fire and paramedics while residents themselves continue to live in unsafe conditions.
That is unacceptable for the surrounding community, and it is unacceptable for the vulnerable people living in these buildings.
ABC Vancouver will establish a “Three Strikes and You’re Out” accountability framework for supportive housing operators.
When a building repeatedly experiences serious crime, open drug dealing, dangerous drug use, fires or other significant safety problems, operators will be required to take corrective action. That could include improved security, better building management, stronger tenant protections, and coordination with health and public safety agencies.
Providers that are formally warned and repeatedly fail to correct serious and persistent safety problems will face escalating enforcement.
After three qualifying strikes, the City will move to revoke the operator’s business licence, subject to the City’s legal authority and due process requirements.
Publicly funded housing should be held to a high standard.
Being vulnerable should never mean being expected to live in chaos.
ACTION 8
PUT SCHOOL TAX DOLLARS BACK INTO VANCOUVER CLASSROOMS.
ABC has already flagged the gap: hundreds of millions collected locally versus what the Vancouver School Board receives. A simple ask: provincial school-tax revenue collected in Vancouver should flow back to Vancouver students.
ACTION 9
ESTABLISH JUSTICE AND PORT MEASURES THE PROVINCE CAN ACTUALLY MOVE.
The Province should fully fund the prosecutors, courts and justice-system resources needed to implement tougher federal bail and sentencing laws and address repeat crime.
B.C. should also join Vancouver and other municipalities in pressing Ottawa for a comprehensive port-security strategy to combat organized crime, the movement of illicit goods and the export of stolen vehicles through our ports.
Mayor Ken Sim and other B.C. mayors have already jointly called for action on bail reform and stronger port security. The next step is ensuring those commitments are implemented and properly resourced.
ACTION 10
LAUNCH A CHILDCARE FUNDING MODEL THAT KEEPS PACE WITH GROWTH.
The Province should replace unpredictable project-by-project childcare funding with a stable multi-year funding model tied to population growth, housing growth and local demand.
Funding should reflect the real cost of delivering childcare in communities like Vancouver, provide capital to create new spaces, and guarantee the operating funding needed to actually open and staff them.
When cities approve thousands of new homes, provincial funding for the childcare spaces those families need should grow in a corresponding manner.
We know City Hall. We know the many changes we’ve made are moving in the right direction, and we will work to keep Vancouver moving forward. Here’s what we’ll do for you in our first 100 days:
