Under Ken Sim and the ABC, property taxes have gone up by 26%. Meanwhile, library hours have been cut, the renters’ office has been closed, and services overall have gotten worse.
We will ban foreign travel for councillors and staff. No more trips to the Junos, or buying $13 million worth of World Cup tickets.
The City of Vancouver has around 9,600 bureaucrats, and now Ken Sim and the ABC want to spend $800 million just to build more office space for managers.
The Vancouver Liberals will cancel this extravagant project and reinvest the money into services for you, like pools and parks.
We will instead rent already available vacant office space in Downtown Vancouver to save taxpayer dollars.
Under Ken Sim and ABC, festival organizers are having to pay increased policing fees, making the costs of hosting community events rise and adding to Vancouver’s ‘no fun city’ reputation.
With the unprecedented rise in the Vancouver Police budget, we will find a fair way to make policing affordable for all community events.
To protect essential services without burdening everyday Vancouverites, we will implement a tax on luxury yachts over 40 feet.
These vessels currently rely on our city infrastructures without contributing proportionately.
Funds raised will help provide property tax cuts for family doctors, walk-in clinics, food banks, and Vancouver’s creative sector; investments that strengthen our communities.
Vancouver is the only city in BC with its own building code – an unnecessary extra step for people seeking to build more housing in our city.
The Vancouver Liberals will remove the Vancouver Building Code and align our city with the rest of the province, simplifying the process of housing construction.
We will also consolidate the twelve departments that currently approve new housing construction into just one, making applications and approvals a smoother process.
The Canadian dream for young people to build a career, put down roots, and start a family is dying as rising costs push them out.
Vancouver has one of the oldest populations of any city in Canada – and it’s only getting older as young people continue to leave.
As mayor, Kareem Allam’s top priority is to bring back young people by creating more good jobs and building more affordable housing in every part of the city.
At a time when so many of our neighbours are struggling to put food on the table for their families, helpful resources like food banks are struggling to keep their doors open with rising costs and taxes.
On day one of a Vancouver Liberal government, we will join other municipalities by cutting property taxes on food banks to zero, helping lower costs and keep these vital community resources
open for all.
Across the board, city services are failing – more potholes, reduced library hours, missed garbage pickups, dirty streets, and so much more.
To tackle these growing issues, the Vancouver Liberals have promised to hire 400 unionised frontline workers who will do the real work of delivering services to you and serve our city from the ground up.
By cutting spending on external consultants and endless layers of managers, we can afford to have great services powered by frontline workers.
Vancouver taxpayers are stuck paying the bill for the upkeep of the yachts owned by billionaires, subsidising the water, sewer, and fire services these boats need.
The Vancouver Liberals will end this billionaire tax loophole by hiking the fees and taxes for motorised pleasure crafts over 40 feet long while exempting sailboats and commercial boats.
By making the wealthiest pay their own way for their luxuries, the City can afford to make the much needed tax cuts to food banks, doctors’ clinics, and creative professionals.
Vancouver has too few good-paying jobs – and Ken Sim’s plan to eliminate the last bit of industrial land in the city will push businesses and well-paying jobs out of Vancouver.
The Vancouver Liberals will establish an Industrial Land Reserve, keeping jobs in the city and surrounding it with affordable housing so that people can build their careers and keep their families in our city.
Vancouver has the highest concentration of artists and creatives in all of Canada, a rare competitive advantage that the city is failing to nurture and build. These artists struggle to build a vibrant creative economy here as the city prices them out of the few scarce creative spaces by hiking up their taxes.
Kareem has committed to establishing an Artist Land Reserve in four locations across the city, which would provide resources like studios and cut property
taxes in half for creatives working in these spaces.
Criminals shouldn’t be able to profit off our city. Money laundering fuels violence, instability, and predatory financial practices in our communities.
To protect Vancouverites, we will dismantle the systems that make it easy for illegal funds to move around.
We will:
Ban Bitcoin ATMs, a common tool for laundering cash
Gradually eliminate currency exchanges that provide unchecked transactions
Replace payday loan shops with trusted institutions like Pigeon Park Savings
Vancouver has a rat problem. We have the second-highest number of rats of any major city in Canada – and we’re about to pass Toronto to become the highest.
Rats are a major reason for the spread of disease and are a public health risk to our city.
The Vancouver Liberals will put together a blue-ribbon panel of experts to help gain control of Vancouver’s rat problem.
Our city streets and parks are covered with animal and human poop, a clear sign of how City Hall is failing to do its basic job.
Vancouver’s chronic lack of public washrooms not only fails to provide basic facilities to residents, but could cause even bigger public health problems as thousands of soccer fans visit our city for the World Cup.
Along with mobilising new frontline workers to clean up our streets, the Vancouver Liberals will also build new public washrooms across the city.
Ken Sim & ABC’s crusade to eliminate the Park Board is about putting Vancouver’s parks up for sale.
The Vancouver Liberals strongly support our elected Park Board, a democratic institution that protects our parks from being chopped up and sold off.
The Vancouver Liberals will keep the board in place and properly fund our parks to improve the quality of community centres, pools and other facilities people use.
