A Serious Plan to Build a Thriving City

A platform in three parts: City Council, Park Board, and School Board.

Our Plan for City Council

A Stronger Economy & Good Jobs

1. Reinstate the Vancouver Economic Commission. Vancouver needs a dedicated body to attract new head offices and help businesses put down roots. We will bring back the Economic Commission and give businesses a concierge service that guides them from startup to success, with a goal of cutting permitting time to three months. We will create a single door for all permitting requests.
2. Reinvigorate Granville Island with the federal government. Granville Island is one of Canada's top tourist attractions, a home for working artists, and an incubator for businesses that have grown across the country. It is federal land, so the City can't renew it alone. We will work with the federal government on a shared plan to keep rents within reach for artists, makers and small businesses, fill empty spaces, improve transit and access, and keep the Island a working place where things are made as well as sold.
3. Modernize the rules for today's economy. We will streamline business licensing and update the zoning and business bylaws that were built for factories and warehouses, not the digital economy of studios, startups, and online creators, clearing the barriers that hold back new businesses and keeping the rules flexible for what comes next.
4. Make room for pop-ups and mixed-use spaces. We will offer simple, low-cost permits for pop-up shops and markets so empty storefronts come alive, and let one space serve more than one use, so a producer can make and sell candles, clothing, or handmade goods in the same room and a shop can double as a studio, without a separate approval for each.
5. Bring back corner stores and cafes. Allow small-scale shops, cafes, and restaurants in all residentially-zoned areas.
6. Create an Industrial Land Reserve. Protect the city's remaining industrial land so well-paying blue-collar jobs stay in Vancouver, and surround it with affordable housing for the people who work there.
7. No AI data centres on land that can be used for homes. We will press for clear provincial and federal rules, so data centres are built where the land, power and water can support them and pay their full share of the energy and water they use.
8. Put in the pipes and power before the growth. We will press the Province to speed up investment in water, sewer, clean energy and electrical capacity, so new homes and businesses aren't left waiting on hookups.
9. Open artist land reserves. Set aside artist studio and production space in four non-contiguous locations throughout the city and cut its property taxes in half, building on Vancouver's standing as the city with the highest concentration of artists in Canada.
10. Create a Vancouver Arts Council. Artists and cultural organizations need a direct voice at City Hall. We will create an Arts Council to advise on funding, space and policy, so the city with Canada's highest concentration of artists has a plan to keep them here.
11. Tax commercial spaces by how they are used. A corner store should not be taxed like a development site. We will use development-potential relief so small businesses are not taxed on land they will never build on and push the province for a small-business tax class, so commercial property tax reflects the real use of a space, not what a developer might someday do with it.
12. Protect our venues, grow the night economy. We will adopt an Agent of Change rule so new development soundproofs itself instead of closing venues, cut red tape on permits and licensing, and bring the late-night support that exists downtown to neighbourhood streets like Commercial Drive, Main Street and West 4th.
13. Enable flexible visitor accommodation. Amend zoning and regulations to allow a greater diversity of accommodation such as hostels and pod hotels to help boost our tourism industry and ensure that there are affordable options for tourists to visit our city.
14. Create good local jobs with every major project. We will use community benefit agreements on major developments and city construction to open apprenticeships, training, and hiring opportunities for local workers and equity-seeking groups, alongside living-wage and responsible-contractor standards, so our growth creates good, fair-paying careers close to home.
15. Bid for CANZUK headquarters. Champion Vancouver as the North American home of the Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and UK partnership.
16. Bring major teams and events to Vancouver. Major-league teams, championships, and international events fill our hotels, put Vancouver on the world stage, and inspire the next generation of local athletes. We will be a ready host, with the venues, fast approvals, and events framework to win them, and we will channel that momentum into kids' sport and community fields across the city.
17. Keep the Whitecaps in Vancouver. The Whitecaps are at real risk of leaving the city. We will work with the club, the Province and the business community to explore every option for private investment to secure the team a long-term home here, from new local ownership to privately financed stadium solutions. Public land stays in public hands, and taxpayers will not carry the cost.
18. Pay a living wage. Everyone who works for the City should earn enough to live in it. The City, Park Board and Library will stay certified living wage employers, and every City contractor, including janitorial, security and food services, will pay a living wage. We will encourage local businesses to do the same and give them public recognition when they do.
19. Lower property taxes for family doctors' offices. Too many neighbourhoods have no family doctor nearby, and high commercial rents make it harder for clinics to open. Most clinics lease on terms where the tenant pays the property tax. We will use tools available to council to reduce property taxes on family practice offices so more clinics can open close to where people live.

More Housing, Faster and Cheaper

1. Adopt the BC Building Code, keep our climate lead. Harmonize Vancouver's building approvals by adopting the BC Building Code to cut cost and delay, while keeping the city's leading zero-carbon and energy standards. Protections and enforcement for heritage buildings are not affected.
2. Take down the viaducts and restore Hogan's Alley and Chinatown. We will work with the Province to speed up removal of the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts. The viaducts cut through Hogan's Alley and split Chinatown from the waterfront. We will work with the Hogan's Alley Society to rebuild a home for Vancouver's Black community on that block, and with Chinatown to reconnect and revitalize the neighbourhood.
3. Deliver the Northeast False Creek Plan. The Northeast False Creek Plan was approved years ago and has sat stalled ever since. Once the viaducts come down, we will get it built: homes across all incomes, a larger waterfront park, and jobs on land that has sat empty for too long, with transit, childcare and community services in place from the start.
4. Plan every neighbourhood with the people who live there. We will engage in neighbourhood planning across all 22 neighbourhoods, with public consultation at the start, not the end. Families, youth, seniors, renters and local businesses get a real say before plans are drawn. Every plan will set out how growth comes with the schools, parks, childcare, transit and city services to support it.
5. Merge 12 permit departments into one. Consolidate the twelve separate housing-approval departments into a single permitting path with one point of contact, so projects stop getting lost between desks. The permitting will be included in our commitment for a single door for all permits.
6. Clear out the rules that slow building down. We will review every bylaw and policy that applies to new construction in our first year, resolve contradictory requirements, repeal outdated rules and bring the rest into one clear rulebook. New rules will need to show what they add in time and cost.
7. Reform development charges on new housing. Modernize development cost charges with phased rates, clear exemptions for priority and non-market housing, and disciplined inflation indexing. Community amenity contributions will be paid in cash and published for every rezoning, so builders know the cost up front and residents can see what they get.
8. Supportive housing that works for residents and neighbours. Everyone who needs a home should be able to get one, in a neighbourhood that stays safe for everyone living there. We will lift the City's pause on new supportive housing and work with the Province to build well-staffed homes with the health and social supports residents need. Every new site will have an operator held to clear, enforceable standards. We will also work alongside our neighbouring municipalities so supportive housing is available across the region, close to where people have family and community.
9. Keep public land working for the public. Once the city sells a site, it is gone for good. We will create a community land trust to hold city-owned land so it can't be sold off and put it to the uses Vancouver needs most: affordable and co-op homes, sports and recreation, childcare and community space.
10. Secure and grow co-op and non-market housing. We will extend every co-op and non-profit lease on City land at once, with automatic renewals, so no household fears losing its home. We will back repairs with City financing, open more City land for co-op and non-market homes, and press the federal and provincial governments to fund deeply affordable housing in Vancouver.
11. Stand up for renters. Restore the renters' office and protect tenants from renoviction and unfair eviction that occur during City-led major redevelopment projects such as the Broadway Plan.
12. Protect shelter-rate homes in the Downtown Eastside. The "Uplifting the Downtown Eastside" changes weakened protections for the neighbourhood's lowest-income residents. We will undo that damage and keep a strong share of new social housing at the shelter rate, backed by City funding so projects still get built.
13. Help seniors stay in their neighbourhoods. We will make it easier for seniors to add a suite or laneway home, require more accessible units in new buildings, and work with the Province on more seniors' and assisted living in every neighbourhood. We will partner with community groups on housing for queer seniors, Chinatown and immigrant seniors, and Indigenous Elders.
14. Protect heritage and save homes from the landfill. We will crack down on neglect of heritage buildings and expand incentives to preserve them. When an older home has to make way for new housing, relocation or deconstruction will come first, with an early removal permit so a house can be moved without holding up construction.
15. End service in-kind for community amenity contributions. When developers get extra density through rezoning, the public benefit too often comes back as vague in-kind services the community never asked for and cannot hold anyone to. We will standardize community amenity contributions as transparent cash and publish what each rezoning delivers with the proceeds going directly to the childcare, parks, and community amenities the neighbourhood needs.
16. Reserve below-market homes for essential workers. Set aside a share of the below-market homes developers are required to build in new projects for firefighters, paramedics, nurses and teachers, with the share set by how many of these workers Vancouver needs living in the city to keep our schools, hospitals and fire halls fully staffed.
17. Let faith groups, co-ops and non-profits build homes without rezoning. Churches, co-ops and non-profits own land across Vancouver and want to build affordable homes on it, but the rezoning process adds years and cost. We will allow them to build non-market and affordable housing on their land without a rezoning, so these homes get built faster.

Superior City Services

1. Hire 400 new CUPE frontline workers. Add 400 unionized frontline staff, the people who actually deliver day-to-day city services. They will keep libraries and community centres open longer, maintain our parks and fields, pick up garbage, and keep streets clean.
2. Empower frontline supervisors. Audit the City Manager's office and remove the bureaucratic barriers that slow service, so supervisors are freed to deliver better direct services.
3. Fix potholes, graffiti, and litter on day one. Launch an immediate repair-and-cleanup blitz with visible results in the first weeks with the results being measured and published.
4. Create an independent Firefighters' Board. Establish an independent board to oversee stable long-term fire funding and transparent deployment that reflects the workload of firefighters becoming first-responders to medical emergencies.
5. Phase in firefighters as outlined in the Darkhorse report. Follow the next phase of the Darkhorse report to grow the service gradually and avoid sudden tax spikes while keeping our first responders safe.
6. Publish a civic accountability dashboard. Report a problem and see when it gets fixed. A public dashboard will show repair times, 311 wait times and results for every neighbourhood.
7. Adopt a Public Celebrations Framework. Instead of scrambling for each playoff run or cultural celebration, we will set a standing playbook for security, capacity, ticketing, and cost-sharing in advance, so Vancouver can host big moments quickly, safely, and downtown where they belong.
8. Get ready for the Big One. Vancouver is in one of Canada's most active earthquake zones. We will publish a list of the buildings most at risk and press the Province and federal government to fund their seismic upgrades, with tenants protected. As community centres are renewed, they will become neighbourhood emergency hubs with backup power and supplies. We will also have a recovery plan ready before we need it.
9. Bring down the noise. Nobody should be woken at 3 a.m. by a modified exhaust or a motorcycle revving down their street. We will raise penalties under the City's motor vehicle noise bylaw, fund targeted enforcement where complaints are highest, and press the Province to increase fines for illegal exhaust modifications under the Motor Vehicle Act.

Thriving, Healthy Public Spaces

1. More childcare spaces and minding services close to home. Reduce barriers for new licensed child-care and create new drop-in child-minding spaces using city land, new development, and community centres.
2. Build and maintain more public washrooms. Add accessible public washrooms where they are missing and keep the ones we have clean and open.
3. Reclaim our downtown streets for people. We will explore how to pedestrianize portions of Robson and Gastown year-round, repave Gastown's streets, add a permanent street market, and allow more accommodation, turning the heart of our city into a thriving place for people.
4. Expand the Pocket Parks Program. Work to create pocket parks across the city in areas well served by transit, expanding community spaces for public use and enjoyment while increasing tree cover.
5. More accessible automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in key public places. Improve cardiac-arrest response by installing publicly accessible AEDs in high-frequency public spaces.
6. Accessible libraries. Build and co-locate new library branches near SkyTrain and transit hubs, with study space and digital resources, so growing neighbourhoods have a library within reach.

A Cleaner City

1. Take on rats with a real strategy. We will create a blue-ribbon committee of public health experts, pest control specialists, businesses and residents to build Vancouver's first formal rat-control plan, drawing on what has worked in Toronto and New York. The plan will come back to Council with clear targets and public reporting.
2. Smarter garbage collection. We will explore new tools like underground bins, sensors that signal when public bins are full, and automated sorting to keep our streets cleaner, cut collection costs and keep more waste out of the landfill.
3. Stop sewage overflow into our ocean. We will accelerate the separation of sewers to reduce sewer overflow events and divert waste to water treatment, so our beaches are safe from E. coli and our marine life is kept healthy.
4. Make recycling easy and cut waste. We will add recycling depots across the city so dropping off is simple, run a campaign to keep food waste out of the landfill, and publish an open dashboard so everyone can see our progress.
5. Grow the urban forest. Vancouver has more than 160,000 street trees, but shade is spread unevenly and the hottest neighbourhoods have the least. We will plant more trees where they are needed most, cooling streets and protecting people through heat waves.
6. Fund a Youth Climate Corps. We will fund a Youth Climate Corps that hires young people to plant and care for trees, starting in the neighbourhoods with the least tree cover. Corps members will also restore habitat and help neighbours through heat waves and smoke events. Every placement will pay a living wage and build real skills for careers in the green economy and the trades.
7. Protect nature and grow community gardens. We will restore native ecosystems, pollinators, and wildlife corridors, and expand community gardens and urban growing spaces, so our parks are green and alive and give residents more room to grow their own food.
8. Pilot Saturday city cleanups. Designate a day each month when residents are encouraged to clean up and beautify their community.
9. Keep people safe in heat and smoke. During heat or wildfire smoke warnings, community centres and libraries will stay open late as cooling and clean-air spaces. Community partners will check on seniors and at-risk residents who live alone. We will keep our zero-carbon building standards and fund the Climate Emergency Action Plan, with public reporting on progress.
10. Set clear GHG emissions targets for transportation. The City has made real progress cutting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from buildings, but vehicles, the port and the airport remain major sources. We will set public GHG emissions benchmarks for transportation aligned with provincial and federal targets, speed up the switch to electric vehicles where possible, and work with the Port of Vancouver and YVR to cut GHG emissions from their operations, reporting progress every year.

Accountable Budget, Leaner Management

1. Cap property tax increases and keep them fair and clear. We will hold increases to the rate of inflation, keep them predictable, and always be upfront about the reasons for any changes, so you know how the city spends your money.
2. Put parks and pools ahead of a second City Hall. The City Hall campus plan is already in motion, with council policies allowing a new civic office building we estimate at around $800 million. We will stop it before it reaches a capital plan and direct that capacity to community centres, pools, and parks instead.
3. Reform middle-management roles & make every department justify its spending. Reform middle-management roles and require every department to justify its spending by running the city with leaner staffing and fewer management layers, while reviewing every program's cost, performance, and value instead of automatically carrying forward last year's budget.

Public Safety & Organized Crime

1. Follow the money to dismantle the drug trade. We will fund 15 new Vancouver Police Department financial-crimes officers to investigate and trace the proceeds of crime to take apart the local and international drug economy, going after the kingpins and their money, not just the street-level players.
2. Shut down Bitcoin ATMs and predatory lending. Close the Bitcoin ATMs, unregulated currency exchanges, and predatory lenders used to launder criminal proceeds tied to organized crime and the toxic drug trade, in step with the UK, Australia, and many US states.
3. Fund community policing centres. Stabilize and expand the neighbourhood centres that connect residents, businesses, and police to keep our streets safe.
4. Fully staff the nurse-led crisis teams. Fill every funded position on the mobile crisis and car teams that cut repeat police calls and ER visits.
5. Help the highest-risk people before they reach crisis. We will fund one team that brings police, health, housing, and social workers together to act quickly on the people who cycle through emergency calls, getting them into care before a crisis hits. It is a proven model already used across Canada.
6. Stop violence before it starts. Launch a Vancouver Violence Reduction Unit that brings police, schools, health, and community and sports groups together to reach at-risk youth early and steer them away from crime using a proven public-health approach.
7. Address intimate partner violence as the crisis it is. We will declare intimate partner violence a public health and public safety crisis and back a victim-survivor-led action plan with Battered Women's Support Services and other front-line groups. Through the Police Board, we will push for a more responsive Intimate Partner Violence Unit and thorough investigation of every incident under the Province's Violence Against Women in Relationships policy.
8. Protect communities and businesses targeted by crime and hate. Hate crimes are a crisis in Vancouver, and we will treat them as one. We will fund rapid graffiti and vandalism cleanup and security grants for small businesses, community organizations and faith institutions that are repeatedly targeted. We will work with the VPD so at-risk community groups get support for their security, with more officers deployed to those communities during religious holidays and cultural events. Hate-motivated attacks, including antisemitism and Islamophobia, will be cleaned up and acted on immediately.
9. Keep access to community spaces safe. We will extend safe-access protections to include community centres, so residents can reach the places they gather without harassment or intimidation.
10. Coordinate on serious threats. Through the Vancouver Police Board, we will push for closer coordination between the VPD, RCMP and CSIS on organized crime, violent extremism and foreign interference targeting people in Vancouver.
11. Stand against hate in every form. We will keep the IHRA working definition of antisemitism the City adopted in 2022, and work with Muslim community organizations to adopt a working definition of Islamophobia, so hate against Muslims is recognized and acted on with the same seriousness.

Transparency, Integrity and Democracy

1. Give University Endowment Lands residents a vote in Vancouver. People living at UBC on the University Endowment Lands can vote for School Board but not for mayor, council or Park Board. We will ask the Province to set out the legislative steps to bring the University Endowment Lands into the City, so residents there have a municipal voice and the area can be planned with the rest of Vancouver.
2. Create a lobbyist registry. Publish who is lobbying City Hall and on whose behalf.
3. Let voters decide how they are represented. We will put electoral reform to voters on the 2030 civic ballot, whether to keep the at-large system, move to neighbourhood wards, or adopt another model. Since the change rests with the Vancouver Charter, we will bring the result to the Province and push to make it happen.
4. Honour our commitments to the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. Council will meet quarterly with the three Nations and work with them on housing, jobs and land stewardship. We will strike an UNDRIP Task Force to deliver on the UN Declaration and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Calls to Action, with public reporting on progress.
5. Create a Mayor's Task Force on Urban Indigenous Relations. Many Indigenous people in Vancouver come from First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities across Canada. We will create a Mayor's Task Force with urban Indigenous organizations to improve how the City works with those Nations and communities to support their members living here, with culturally safe services, housing and gathering spaces, and public reporting on progress.
6. Residency requirement for Council. Vancouver needs councillors who actually live here. Require members of Council to live in Vancouver, so the people making our decisions share our streets.
7. Strengthen the Integrity Commissioner. Empower the office so it can do its job without interference.
8. Implement a proactive disclosure registry. Make publishing City records and data the default, with exemptions monitored by the Auditor General.
9. Audit the projects and agencies wasting money. We will use the city's Auditor General to open the books on major projects and city-owned agencies that are over budget or bleeding money, from the Vancouver Art Gallery build, now running well above its original forecast, to the finances of the PNE and other city corporations. Residents deserve to know where their money is going before more is committed.
10. Require cryptocurrency holdings disclosure. Make elected officials disclose their cryptocurrency and alternative-currency holdings.
11. Set responsible, sovereign AI rules for City Hall. We will govern how the city uses AI, protecting privacy, keeping a human accountable for every automated decision, and keeping residents' data under Canadian control.
12. Lead the reform of Metro Vancouver. Metro Vancouver has wasted taxpayer money that has led to higher utility costs. We will call for an independent audit and work with partner municipalities to reduce waste and reform how the region is run, so we all get better services at a fair price.
13. Reverse the Freedom of Information fee hikes. Make public records requests faster and cheaper again.
14. Restore the Equity Office. We will restore the City's Equity Office and its funding, so every department is held to the same standard for serving residents fairly, and report publicly on its work each year.

Care for Vulnerable Residents

1. A new six-pillar framework for action. The Four Pillar approach did not solve the crisis, and the drugs on our streets have changed with the proliferation of fentanyl and meth. We will build a renewed framework around Vancouver's real needs, with new pillars for housing and early intervention for youth mental health, focused on moving people into care and recovery and on results we can measure.
2. Build Vancouver's first meth response strategy. Stimulant addiction has outrun a system built for opioids. We will produce a city strategy inside the first year, covering outreach, shelter and treatment siting, and business and residential impacts, with published targets and a public report card.
3. End the encampments by helping the people in them. Nobody chooses to live in a tent on a sidewalk. People end up there because of addiction, mental illness, job loss or eviction, and encampments are often not safe for them or for the neighbours around them. We will work with service providers to make sure every person is offered stable housing and the support they need.
4. Expand crisis teams so the right responder shows up. Mental health calls should get a mental health worker. We will scale Peer Assisted Care Teams and Car 87 to real citywide coverage, so people in crisis get care instead of getting trapped in a vicious cycle that harms them and our communities.
5. Signed accountability agreements for new supportive housing sites. New supportive housing or shelters that open in Vancouver will require an accountability agreement where the named operator, their contract, committed staffing levels, and service standards are available for the City to enforce.
6. Push out predatory lenders, bring in community banking. Payday loan shops cluster where people have the fewest options. We will use the City's licensing and land use powers to remove operators and work with credit unions to expand savings-style banking where people actually live.
7. Give food security a real mandate. Vancouver has a Food Policy Council with no teeth. We will fund it, give it a mandate to coordinate food banks, schools and health partners, and hold it to targets for reaching seniors and youth at risk.
8. Stop taxing food banks. The Greater Vancouver Food Bank pays property tax on the Vancouver space it uses to move food to 15,000 people a week. Council has the power to exempt it and has not used it. We will exempt it in our first budget and the savings will go back into food.
9. Free public wifi in the Downtown Eastside. Many people in the Downtown Eastside have a phone but no data plan or SIM card, which cuts them off from housing applications, health appointments, income assistance and help in a crisis. We will provide free public wifi across the neighbourhood so everyone can reach the services they rely on.
10. Open community food hubs in empty City spaces. The City owns commercial spaces that sit vacant while families skip meals. We will expand the UBC food hub model into these spaces, offering low-cost groceries and food support close to where people need it most, working with the Food Policy Council and local partners.

Better Transportation

1. Finish the SkyTrain to UBC. Make the UBC extension our top transit priority and press the Province to commit funding and a construction schedule. It links BC's largest research centre to its largest employment hub and takes thousands of vehicles off the road each year.
2. Champion rapid transit for every neighbourhood. Advocate to begin bringing rapid transit to all 22 neighbourhoods, with new lines serving Stanley Park, the PNE, and South Vancouver, and use revenue from new development to pay for it.
3. Slow dangerous intersections. Align with Vision Zero by introducing slow zones where traffic injuries and fatalities happen most.
4. Convert painted bike lanes to protected ones. Add over 400 km to our All-Ages-and-Abilities cycling network with basic protective elements.
5. Synchronize one-way street traffic lights downtown. Make traffic flow more smoothly, but at a slower speed that enhances safety for pedestrians and cyclists.
6. Protect businesses hurt by construction. Cut property taxes on businesses disrupted by City-permitted construction, including transit expansion, and require landlords to pass the relief through as lower rent.
7. Study contraflow bus lanes downtown. Keep buses moving on Howe and Seymour alongside the pedestrianization of Granville Street.
8. Safer, more affordable micromobility. As e-scooters and e-bikes transform how people get around, we will create and enforce clear safety rules while lowering fees and supporting more providers.
9. Champion a Beach Bus route. Advocate to TransLink for a summer route serving Sunset, Kitsilano, Jericho, Locarno, Spanish Banks, and Wreck beaches.
10. A charge-ready city. Roll out EV and e-bike charging at city facilities and require it in new development.
11. A dedicated bus lane on Hastings from Boundary to downtown. Hastings Street carries some of the busiest bus routes in the city, and buses sit in the same traffic as everyone else. We will work with TransLink to establish a full-time, dedicated bus lane on Hastings from Boundary Road to downtown, with transit signal priority and better traffic controls at problem intersections, so buses run faster and more reliably and the street is safer for everyone using it.
12. Plan for how goods move. Fewer cars on the road means goods move faster. Every bike lane, bus lane, pedestrian street and rapid transit project will also include a plan for deliveries: loading zones that work, bike lanes wide enough for cargo bikes, and delivery windows so local businesses stay supplied. We will allow small delivery hubs where trucks hand off to cargo bikes and electric vans for the last trip, and keep heavy trucks off school streets where possible.
13. Secure bike parking across the city. Bike theft keeps people from riding. We will add secure, low-cost bike lockers, many with e-bike charging, at community centres, libraries, shopping streets and SkyTrain stations, working with TransLink.
14. Implement and report on Vision Zero every year. We will give pedestrians a head start at crosswalks and clear sightlines at the most dangerous intersections. Each year we will publish where people are hurt or killed, and what we've fixed.
15. Call on Vancouver Airport Authority to Rename YVR to Terry Fox International. Rename the airport to honour Terry Fox's legacy.

Our Plan for the Park Board

Keep Parks Public and the Board Elected

1. Keep the Park Board elected and in charge. We will defend Vancouver's Park Board, the only elected one in Canada, against being abolished, and restore its authority over parks and recreation so City Hall administration cannot override the commissioners residents elect.
2. Make a historic $1.35 billion investment in parks and recreation. We will renew pools, rinks and public spaces, and upgrade our 1960s and 70s community centres for earthquakes, accessibility and energy efficiency. Funding carries into the 2031-2034 capital plan so major projects are finished.
3. Protect and grow our parks. Keep public parkland off the market, refurbish our smaller neighbourhood parks, and explore new green space as the city grows.
4. Make the General Manager answer to the Board. Have the GM and senior staff report to the elected commissioners, not to central City Hall.
5. Give commissioners independent support. Provide commissioners their own legal and administrative help so they can govern.
6. Cut Park Board management bloat. Review the growth in director and associate-director roles and end duplication with City Hall.
7. Open the Park Board's books. Improve budget reporting to the Board and match spending to stated priorities, so failures like the lifeguard cuts cannot repeat.
8. Get Vancouver swimming again, safely. Water safety starts with pools people can get into and beaches with someone watching. A rebuilt Aquatic Centre with the 50-metre pool we were promised, modernized pools that cost less to run, and lifeguards back at every staffed beach including Trout Lake.
9. Get the River District Community Centre built. Work with the developer and Metro Vancouver to finally deliver this long-promised, badly needed community centre, ensure that the community benefits promised are delivered and developers held accountable.
10. Renew Renfrew Community Centre. Renfrew was ranked second for renewal in the Park Board's own Community Centre Strategy, then left out of the capital plan. We will put it back where the evidence says it belongs.
11. Foster sports at every level. Maintain and expand our fields, courts, rinks, and gyms, keep fees affordable for kids' and community leagues, and welcome the major and professional events that bring the city together.

Everyday Access for Everyone

1. Build more park washrooms. Deliver the Washroom Strategy, add public washrooms across our parks, and keep existing ones clean.
2. Scrap parking fees at beaches and community centres. Make it free to park when you go for a swim or a game.
3. Bring back the Stanley Park train. The miniature train has been a Vancouver tradition for generations of families and visitors. It lets people of every age and ability enjoy the park, including those who can't walk long distances. We will bring it back and keep it running.
4. Make community events affordable. Lower the policing costs that price out neighbourhood festivals and events.
5. Fair access in every neighbourhood. Direct recreation investment to underserved areas so access is equal across the city.
6. Free access for those who need it. Expand and fully fund a low-income access pass that lets youth, families, and seniors use community centres and pools at low or no cost.
7. Parks everyone can access and use. Redesign parks, pools and community centres so seniors and people with disabilities can get in, sit down and take part. That means wider, level paths, benches with armrests you can rise from, and accessibility built into every new Park Board project from the start.
8. Grow pickleball, pitch and putt, low-cost, easy-access recreation. We will refresh our pitch and putt courses and expand affordable options like pickleball, lawn bowling, and outdoor table tennis, low-intensity activities that keep seniors, families, and beginners active close to home.
9. Expand tree canopy. Vancouver has more than 160,000 street trees, but shade is spread unevenly and the hottest neighbourhoods have the least. We will plant more trees where they are needed most, cooling streets and protecting people through heat waves.
10. Protect nature, community gardens, and grow food in our parks. We will restore native ecosystems, pollinators, and wildlife corridors, and expand community gardens so our parks are green and alive and give residents room to grow their own food.

Our Plan for the School Board

Safe School Buildings

1. Make seismic safety our top ask. Even after the projects now in construction and design are finished, 43 Vancouver schools will still be at high seismic risk. We will put them at the top of the board's capital plan and campaign relentlessly for the Province to fund them on a firm timeline.

Room to Learn

1. Tackle overcrowding. King George Secondary is running at 172 percent of capacity. Its replacement is already in the board's capital plan and has been waiting for provincial funding. We will fight to get it built and make expansion for the next most crowded schools the board's clear priority.
2. Plan schools around new housing. Work with the City and developers so new schools and additions are secured as growing neighbourhoods add families.
3. Keep neighbourhood schools open. Protect catchments and rule out a return to mass school closures. Closures are the elected board's decision, but we will work with the Province on funding and with the City on housing growth, so schools stay open where families live.
4. Childcare on school grounds. The district owns the land. We will open before and after school care at every site that can host it, and attach a childcare plan to every seismic rebuild, so families stop waiting years for a spot.
5. Keep school land in public hands. The district is the second-largest landowner in Vancouver, and that land is a trust for future students. We will hold it for schools, childcare, playing fields and public partners rather than handing it to private interests, because growing neighbourhoods will need every site we have.

Support Every Student

1. Every student safe, every student included. We will enforce strong, clear protections against racism, bullying, and discrimination in every school, and back the supports that help students who face barriers feel they belong, because kids learn best when they feel safe and welcome.
2. More mental-health support in schools. Make counsellors and student wellbeing a top budget priority and press the Province for the funding to reach more schools.
3. Protect special education. Shield special-needs, inclusion, and learning supports from cuts when the board sets its budget.
4. Expand school meal programs. Grow and protect meal and nutrition programs, with the Province and community partners, so no child learns hungry.
5. Renew the Indigenous Education Enhancement Agreement. The current agreement covers 2016 to 2021. We will negotiate a new one with Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh and with urban Indigenous families in the first year of the term, with public annual reporting on graduation and completion.

Safe and Modern Classrooms

1. Keep the reformed School Liaison Officer program. Whether officers work in schools is the board's call, and we will keep the reformed program, building trust with students and families and steering young people away from drugs, gangs, and violence early.
2. Clear, responsible rules for AI in class. Students are using AI and the evidence is that outcomes get worse when it is used to skip the learning and better when it is taught properly. We will set district guidelines aligned with the Province and the BC Teachers' Federation, with age-appropriate limits on chatbot access, clear privacy and data protection standards for any tool used with students, and proper training for teachers before new technology reaches a classroom. Parents and teachers will be consulted before any expansion, not after.

An Accountable Board

1. Fight for fair provincial funding. Because Victoria controls the money, we will press hard for stable, adequate, and predictable funding.