A pair of Vancouver parties running candidates in the upcoming municipal election rolled out new platform pledges on Tuesday. OneCity Vancouver, which is not running a candidate for mayor, officially opened its Main Street campaign office. Standing shoulder to shoulder, the collection of council, Park Board and School Board candidates said it would create multi-use community hubs by renovating existing community centres and building new ones. It would start with a ten-year plan to renew the recreational and educational facilities at the Britannia complex, which currently includes a community centre, a Vancouver Public Library Branch and two public schools. “The goal is to use Britannia as a model for a new way forward in Vancouver to build integrated public amenities with shared services on shared sites wherever possible,” said Tyler Peterson, a OneCity Park Board candidate. OneCity sees a similar community hub rising from the existing Kingsgate Mall property, which is owned by the Vancouver School Board. The party said that proposal could include a new pool, a new public library and rental housing. OneCity promises consistent, moderate property tax increases The party also took aim at incumbent ABC mayor Ken Sim and councillors when it comes to property taxes. As part of its campaign, ABC has promised another “Zero Means Zero” budget, freezing property taxes for a second consecutive year, if re-elected with a majority. Incumbent OneCity councillor Lucy Maloney calls the plan unsustainable and says it will lead to an increase in fees for other city services. “We should always have a predictable, moderate property tax increase that people can anticipate and plan for, rather than the wild swings that have ended up with an overall, large property tax increase over the tenure of Ken Sim and ABC’s governance,” she said. Although ABC used their majority to freeze property taxes in the most recent budget, they did increase them by 10.7 per cent in 2023, 7.3 per cent in 2024, and 3.9 per cent in 2025. Vancouver Liberals challenge another ABC platform plank At the end of the last council term, ABC held an emergency meeting and used its majority to get a pair of plebiscite questions added to the ballot for the upcoming election. Sim has called the plebiscite necessary to give the city the tools it needs to strengthen laws around public drug consumption and for City Hall to pressure the province to convert portions of St. Paul’s Hospital into a medical facility with 100 involuntary care beds. ABC has launched a dedicated website urging people to vote yes on the two questions. On Tuesday, the Vancouver Liberals compared the idea of using St. Paul’s Hospital for involuntary care to creating a prison in the heart of the city. The party launched its own website to counter the argument put forward by Sim and ABC and urge people to vote no on the plebiscite questions. “It is a prison. Let me be clear. The worst place for a prison is between Davie Village and our central business district,” said Kareem Allam, the party’s mayoral candidate. “No downtown business district in any other major city in the world is planning for a prison in their downtown core.” He also said the question on open-air drug use was unnecessary because it is already illegal. “The VPD already has the authority to enforce current drug laws on open-air drug use. Rather than ask the public to strengthen the laws that already make this illegal, Ken Sim should utilize the powers at his disposal to get the VPD to enforce the existing laws,” Allam said.
