With just over three weeks until the municipal election, campaign promises from the Vancouver municipal parties are starting to pile up — especially on housing, public safety, and jobs and the economy.
Daily Hive Urbanized compared the platforms of five major mayoral candidates. Here is what Kareem Allam and the Vancouver Liberals are promising.
On housing, Kareem would replace the Vancouver Building Bylaw with the B.C. Building Code and merge the 12 city departments that approve housing into one.
On public safety, Kareem is going after the high-level organized crime behind poverty, drug use and homelessness, which the campaign calls Vancouver’s “Tony Sopranos.” He committed to increasing VPD funding, working more closely with the Canada Border Services Agency, and said he would “advocate for the increases in the Canadian Coast Guard’s underwater marine intervention capacity.”
On the economy, Kareem wants to modernize industrial-era zoning and business rules so small businesses, entrepreneurs and creators can do things like make and sell products in the same place.
Kareem also committed to bringing free Wi-Fi to the Downtown Eastside by working with non-profit organizations.