ORR Report: ABC cuts road safety, my headlight motion passes at FCM, and Stephanie’s Plan for the Mayor’s Office
Wow, I can’t believe it’s been a month since my last Orr Report! Time really flies when you’re having fun! I’m being facetious of course, because Ken Sim’s Vancouver can often feel anything but fun. I had to sit through hours of Brian Montague cross examining the ad hoc integrity commissioner about stuff that had nothing to do with the scope of her report. All so the mayor could avoid having to *checks notes* write me a letter of apology. ABC refuses once again to take accountability, something that Stewart Prest says will erode public confidence in our local government.
We also had to watch them absolutely gut the Vision Zero Mobility Safety plan by taking out one of the most important factors in reducing pedestrian fatalities, reduced speed. This shameful decision to trade a few seconds of commute time for human life was also shrouded in misinformation. ABC repeated the lie on all their social media platforms saying that the opposition parties were ideological for wanting to save lives and that the speed reduction was for all arterials in Vancouver, when in reality it was for select streets downtown and three commercial high streets elsewhere. Think Commercial Drive, 4th Ave, Denman. Maybe they would have known this if they read the actual report. Or better yet, had one of Ken Sim’s 11 AI agents read the report instead.
There were a couple of other reports that day including changes to the Empty Homes Tax and the Election Bylaw. While it may seem egregious to support another exemption to the EHT, this is actually the only one I would tentatively support, as it targets smaller scale infill projects. On the election by-law, our mayoral candidate Stephanie Allen flagged a rather ableist amendment to reduce the number of locations where an assistive device for voting is available to one central location. I worked with Councillor Maloney on an amendment that increased the locations available to four, which shockingly passed. And finally a report back from Councillor Maloney and I’s motion on cooling rights passed unanimously, which will mean that Vancouver landlords will now face $1,000 fines for prohibiting air conditioners.
For the Standing Committee we actually had a bit of a win. My Low Income Transit Pass motion passed with amendments that turned it from being a made-in-Vancouver approach to one of just advocacy. Still, it’s not as bad as some of ABC’s recent tactic of totally gutting a motion so they aren’t seen as voting against it. We saw this a few weeks ago with Councillor Fry’s motion to replace the eliminated Sex Worker Safety Planning position, as well as turning Maloney’s cooling kits motion into a memo, and my Vancouver Music Fund motion into a bum note.
That being said, my motion to include protections for renters displaced by hotel developments in the upcoming TRPP review was, strangely, referred back to staff. And in a move that shocked nobody, the ABC majority voted against greater transparency and clarity around the budget process, and which departments at City Hall have been hit the hardest. Pretty funny because Ken Sim once said, “I think transparency is incredibly important. This is something that shouldn't be feared. We talk about transparency all the time. If we support transparency, I think we support it everywhere. You can't pick and choose."
Earlier in June I had the chance to attend the annual FCM conference in Edmonton where I presented my motion Blinded by the Light: Improving Public Safety by Looking at Headlight Glare. And it passed by a strong margin of 76% to 24%. They even played the song while waiting for the votes to be tallied! I also attended study tours on Vision Zero and multiplex zoning, heard keynote speeches from Dominic LeBlanc, Gregor Robertson and Eleanor Olszewski, and met with federal NDP leader Avi Lewis and other progressive councillors to talk about our climate priorities.
The next standing committee meeting will be on July 15th where I have a whopping four motions. The first is to recommit to our vision for a Central Waterfront Precinct that prioritizes world-class pedestrian connections and active transit hubs. The next is a motion to break the jurisdictional gridlock in False Creek, which is currently preventing environmentally and socially responsible management of this important urban inlet. Then there’s a motion called Prepping for the Relocation of St Paul’s, which asks Vancouver Coastal Health and the city to prioritize a local PReP clinic in the brand new Qminity building in collaboration with HiM. And finally, something I’ve been working on for a while: A Cultural Land Trust. This is a way to increase long term security of tenure of space for cultural and arts purposes in BC through ownership and stewardship of land and buildings.
As we head into summer this solstice weekend, the Coalition of Progressive Electors continues to ramp up outreach and canvassing activities. COPE organizers are also working on pulling together our election policy platform, based on the input of our membership and the series of thematic policy meetings we’ve held over the past months. Speaking of policy, our mayoral candidate Stephanie Allen just released her first policy priorities including negotiating, securing, and building 20,000+ units of truly affordable homes in Vancouver. Imagine how much more hopeful these Orr Reports could be next year after we evict ABC and get to work on the rebuild Vancouver so desperately needs.