Rhetoric heating up in Vancouver campaign as city-paid mayor’s office staff release election promises

Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim is accused of crossing a line by issuing a news release about his campaign promises from an official city channel.

It came as no surprise when Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim used an address to a business crowd as an opportunity to campaign.

“That’s why I’m running for mayor again in October,” Sim told hundreds at the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade luncheon, while listing some accomplishments and making some promises.

It was a later news release, on city letterhead, which caught people off guard.

“Mayor Sim also announced that if re-elected with a majority on council, taxpayers would receive a second consecutive zero per cent property tax increase in 2027, with tax rates returning to the rate of inflation in the years following,” it said.

The release had contact details for Taylor Verrall, press secretary for the office of the mayor, using his City of Vancouver email address.

Some see the tax freeze promise as campaign material that should have come directly from the A Better City Vancouver party – and not taxpayer-funded staff at City Hall.

Green Party councillor and mayoral candidate Pete Fry called the release offside, suggesting it might violate the city’s code of conduct.

He said it is also contrary to Sim and ABC’s own platform in the last election.

“They talk very specifically that an ABC majority will limit partisan activity for mayoral office staff, which was a pretty clear commitment,” Fry said as he pointed out the section in a hard copy of that ABC platform with Sim’s face on the cover.

“It was a repudiation of Kennedy Stewart at the time.”

Former mayor Kennedy Stewart did come under fire for using his office budget to produce a campaign-style video.

University of British Columbia political science professor Stewart Prest said using city letterhead and taxpayer-funded staff to release election promises blurs the lines between a politician’s office and their campaign.

“It is not the City of Vancouver that is pursuing that agenda. And so, to separate those kinds of communications makes it easier for voters to understand what’s going on and avoids that perception, the optics, of using city resources to support a re-election campaign,” he said in an interview with CTV News.

In an email, Sim’s office said the release reflected the mayor’s remarks at the luncheon.

“Vancouver operates within a partisan electoral context, and references to a ‘majority’ reflect a commonly understood characterization of council,” it said.

It added that as election day approaches, any mayor’s office staff who wish to participate in a campaign will take unpaid leave to do so.

With just over six months to go until voters head to the polls, the rhetoric is heating up, highlighted this week by another rival’s response to a different platform plank put forward by Sim and ABC.

Following Sim’s Wednesday speech, OneCity Vancouver raised eyebrows with a news release of its own.

It referred to a plan floated by Sim to upgrade city recreational facilities through the upcoming capital plan as a “$400-million slush fund.”

The party’s lone sitting councillor stands by the use of the loaded phrase, which often refers to shady or illicit deals.

“I think that that will play out and it’s up to the voting public as to whether they trust that commitment by ABC,” said Lucy Maloney. “And whether they trust ABC to carry out its election promises.”