THE ORR REPORT: Recapping a busy summer, wrestling with austerity, and organizing to win in 2026

Well, even though Council is on a break for all of August I’ve managed to keep busy. Pride weekend started with a blast as I took to the ring for the wrestling and drag event to Love and to Lariat, where I took out the classic heel – a pro-ABC landlord complaining about the noise. The Trans March and Dyke March were both extremely well organized and well attended and the vibes were immaculate. For the parade I donned watermelon facepaint and marched with Lucy Maloney and Pete Fry alongside city employees in solidarity, while ABC marched with Mark Carney and his heavy security team. 

Casting a pall over the march however was Vancouver Pride Society's refusal to sever ties with corporations that profit from Israel's occupation and oppression of Palestinians, but also huge funding cuts to the parade itself as pink-washing corporations lost their backbone over Trump’s executive order which targets private companies that support DEI measures. Similarly, the grand marshalls of the Dyke March, PACE society, also just lost their funding. 

On top of that, many festivals are feeling the pain over policing costs. While the VPD are one of the most well-funded forces per capita in North America, we still charge festivals to cover the cost of policing, begging the question, how much more do they need? Indeed, I asked this very question last month when Sarah Kirby-Yung struck and replaced an arts motion to include policing costs as part of the grant process. 

Speaking of losing funding, it was with a heavy heart that I attended a fundraiser for Watari counseling services, who along with Aboriginal Front Door lost provincial funding for critical DTES services. When you combine this with pausing supportive housing, voting against extending the leases of modular homes, Operation Barrage, and Uplifting the DTES, there’s a lot to be worried about. On top of that, our former mayor pens a wildly revisionistic op-ed that former COPE councillors Libby Davies and Jean Swanson responded to. I spoke with CBC’s On the Coast to set the record straight: the DTES is not something to be fixed, it's a community to be nourished and decades of neoliberalism has made that almost impossible. 

But that’s exactly what’s on the horizon. More austerity. More neoliberalism. The Mayor has directed staff to look at finding a way to have a 0% property tax increase for 2026. It’s imperative we tell the city we don’t want any services or community programs cut. The City’s 2026 Shape Your Budget process is now open and we encourage you to fill out the survey. Of course, if we were serious about maximizing our revenue, we would triple the Empty Homes Tax and fix the loopholes that allow developers to build new homes that sit empty for years. 

This week, I’ll be meeting again with my Council advisory committee - as we prepare for the resumption of Council business in September. I plan to hit the ground running by bringing forward a motion to strengthen that Empty Homes Tax. 

As I get ready for Council, COPE’s getting ready to finish the job of evicting ABC next year. We had a great garden party fundraiser earlier this month, celebrating our wins and beginning to raise the funds we’ll need to beat ABC and their billionaire backers’ unlimited funds. 

All summer, COPE’s been out at festivals, in neighbourhoods, at Farmers Markets, and even at the beach talking to residents about what they need from their municipal government. This weekend, members of our new Membership and Outreach committee joined the picket lines in solidarity with Air Canada flight attendants. 

While our mayor attends crypto conferences to discuss things like heating Kits Pool with heat captured from Bitcoin mining, the rest of us are struggling. A new report states that one-third of renters in Canada spend more than 50% of income on rent. Another report highlighted the alarming rise of food insecurity in Vancouver and across B.C.  

It’s all related to the disproportionate power of the super-rich. And that’s what I’m fighting to change. We’re 14 months away from the next election. Democratic socialist policies are more necessary than ever. As I said during the by-election, this is our moment. If you’re not already a member, consider joining COPE and getting involved in this fight for Vancouver. We’re having fun and, next October, we’re going to win. 

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Photo: Skye Portman skyeoftheportman