THE ORR REPORT: Bright Lights, Big Changes Coming to City Hall

First off, the reaction to our successful motion asking Transport Canada to look at the brightness of LED lights has been quite something. It was the top story in the conservative paper Western Standard and spread from there, with Vision Zero doing interviews on CBC and Global and myself doing interviews on the Jas Johal show, CTV, Omni, and As it Happens. I knew this would have widespread popular support but I’m pretty blown away by just how many people this resonates with, from pedestrians, cyclists, people with an array of vision problems, and those in rural communities. 

Councillor Maloney and Fry had a motion for the City to recommit to being a Livable Wage certified employer but it failed. Ken Sim and ABC have once again revealed their disdain for workers, in this case those contracted out by the City like sanitation workers and security guards. 

That same day, Councillor Fry’s motion to crack down on unscrupulous landlords who take advantage of tenants, many of whom are foreign language students, also passed. It uses the business license tool to prevent landlords like Plan A and CAPREIT from partitioning apartments with particle board, spying on renters, and renting out units by the week. This is an important win for tenants. 

Of course the big news with Councillor Fry is that he officially announced his bid for mayor. COPE welcomes Fry into the race because we know that he has a collaborative approach and would work well with him. We have been proposing a “People’s Primary” where opposition parties can each take a swing at mayor, get a chance to build support and show their strength, but which will result in a narrow field over time. 

Ken Sim has also announced he’s running again, doubling down on his ridiculous Zero Means Zero budget and flip-flopping on bitcoin and the Park Board. Now he wants to spend $2 million on bringing back the fireworks. Core services indeed. Staying true to his brand of carceral logic, however, he wants to turn the recently closed London Drugs on Hastings into a police academy. 

Meanwhile, Kareem Allam and the Vancouver Liberals continue to expand their “ABC 2.0” slate of candidates - as they have recently added Victoria Jung and Scott Jensen to their party. Former School Board Chair Patti Bacchus, current chair of Vancouver District Parent Advisory Council Melanie Cheng, and Tamara Taggart among others have expressed concern over Jung’s record. 

Speaking of record, I feel I need to explain some misinformation about a recent vote on council. This site in question was previously zoned as stacked industrial with offices on top. Because of a downturn in the market, the developer wanted residential instead of office. Staff recommended to defer until the exceptional lands policy could be completed. I moved the staff recommendation but nobody seconded it. My concern was that this could set a precedent for the approximately 12 similar sites in the pipeline. A motion was moved to “ring fence” the project, meaning we would not ask staff to allow the flexibility clause on any other projects. This satisfied my concerns. No industrial was lost, the project will move forward with the potential for three floors of artist spaces, and rentals will be built across from Olympic Village. 

Speaking of Mount Pleasant, it was great to join hundreds of Vancouverites on Friday to protest Hootsuite’s contract with ICE. BC Greens leader Emily Lowan spoke well and noted that the city owns the Hootsuite building after offering them a sweetheart deal. She also mentioned that Pattison caved to grassroots organizing and won’t go through with the deal for a warehouse proposed as new ICE facility. COPE members also stood in solidarity with BC teachers at last weeks’ Vancouver #RedforBCED rally. 

This week at Council I’ve got two motions. One is a food recovery motion co-submitted with Pete Fry and put together by COPE members Chloe Leslie and Dr. Devyani Singh. We were wary of duplicating staff efforts so it’s primarily focused on committing to our climate targets. That’s Motion #3 on Wednesday’s agenda. 

Motion #4 is my motion to increase democratic participation and help the City meet its goal to increase municipal voter turnout to at least 60 per cent. We all remember the long lines and short staffing for last year’s by-election. In the last general election in 2022, turnout was a mere 36 per cent. We have to do what we can to make voting more accessible for everyone. My motion has a number of practical measures to help get us there including a “Vote Bus” polling station like they’ve had in Calgary, fare-free public transit on voting days, and moving to a ranked ballot for mayor for the 2030 elections. You can sign up to speak in support of these and other motions HERE. 

Finally, this morning Mario Canseco released some polling that confirms what we’ve been hearing since the by-election: Vancouver is ready for real change at City Hall. A significant majority of those surveyed are ready not just to evict Ken Sim, but to replace him and his billionaire-backed party with people committed to fighting for policies like those promoted by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani. 

It’s great to see that polling, but of course we know that ABC and the establishment and the super-rich behind them are not going to give up power without a fight. Right now, COPE’s growing team of volunteers is hard at work laying the groundwork for a massive grassroots campaign leading up to the election in the Fall. Stay tuned for some exciting news on that front this week.