ORR Report: Blocking OPS sites, Data Centres, & The Hotel TRPP Loophole

High and lows. That’s the nature of this job. While I’m writing this on my birthday, I’m still thinking about everything that’s happening in our city. I’m thinking about this announcement to bring data centres downtown and to Mount Pleasant. As I asked in this Daily Hive article, “If we were to ask the people of Vancouver how we should use our infrastructure, our energy, and our space, would they pick data centres or would they pick something else?”

Then there’s the story of the BC Sports Hall of fame which is being forced out of BC Place by FIFA. Every day we are hearing more stories like this. Then there’s the hotel in Mount Pleasant which will displace renters. But because the project is a hotel, they won’t get the right to return to the new building like other projects in the Broadway Plan. I intend to fix this loophole. 

There was also the tragic news that a woman fell to her death after being on the edge of Granville Bridge for 9 hours. Back in March, ABC voted to quietly shelve Christine Boyle’s motion to install fencing on the bridge. This was preventable. Shame. 

This also comes on the heels of the Standing Committee two weeks ago where ABC voted against life-saving cooling kits, tiny homes, eco-stewardship grants, and reinstating the Vancouver Music Fund. But hey, don’t worry, we’re getting robots on our sidewalks. 

The day before they voted to block a life-saving overdose prevention site, something they have no power to do. I tried to rule the emergency motion out of order, as it conflicts with Ministerial order 488. On hearing the news, my friend and harm reduction advocate Guy Felicella returned his proclamation to the mayor’s office. 

But on the ‘highs’ side of things, COPE got ourselves a mayor and a slate of incredible candidates. It was a special night at the Rio, an East Van icon. I can’t wait to campaign with Stephanie Allen, and Solomon Yi-Kieran, Chloe Leslie, Devyani Singh, and Angela Liu. When we win, we are going to reverse the damage done by ABC and build the city we need. 

Speaking of damages done, the integrity commissioner’s office ruled that Ken Sim 'misused' power of office and harassed me on two different occasions (not counting the time he said I was handing out illegal drugs). While this is great news, especially for people speaking out against the genocide in Gaza, it feels hollow because it’s up to council to sanction him and I doubt they will. The mayor disagrees with the report and has doubled down on calling me antisemitic. 

This week I have a simple motion asking for a policy on workforce housing for our healthcare workers. Too often we are seeing our frontline workers priced out of the city. The motion asks staff to identify city-owned land within 5km of hospitals and to partner with senior levels of government to build affordable housing. 

Councillor Fry has a really important motion relating to the elimination of two Sex Work Social Planner positions. But I think the big one is the mayor’s motion to reinstate gas in new builds, again. This time under the guise of affordability. I really don’t see how this aligns with existing policies like the Climate Emergency Action Plan, the Zero Emissions Building Plan, or the Healthy City Strategy. 

Well that’s the update. 

With love,

Sean Orr