Opinion: Why Vancouver City Council is broken (and how to fix it)

Vancouver City Council, Fall 2018. (City of Vancouver)

Written for Daily Hive Urbanized by Alvin Singh, a Forward Together candidate for Vancouver City Council.

As Vancouver remained gripped by overlapping crises including a global pandemic, unaffordable housing, and poisoned drugs, Vancouver City Council met to debate not one, but two motions on lawn mowers. That’s right, lawn mowers.

The meeting perfectly summed up how broken our City Council had become, and how little urgency was being brought to the issues that matter the most. It wasn’t just that city councillors were spending precious time debating fringe issues, it was that they were actively delaying any meaningful action on important ones.

As first time buyers were being outbid by hundreds of thousands of dollars, this City Council chose to delay Mayor Kennedy Stewart’s affordable homeownership program by over a year.

And as young people, newcomers, and working families spent days scouring through Craigslist ads and queuing up for rentals only to be turned away, this City Council decided to delay a simple expansion of rental housing on commercial streets for 18 months.

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I know it’s been incredibly frustrating to the everyday resident who may have had, or heard of a great idea to tackle the city’s big issues and thought: “Why doesn’t the city just do that?”

Well, they’re not alone. That’s why I made a video to help explain why City Council is broken. And yes… I may have gotten a little worked up, because I believe this stuff really matters.

I went on a rant 😬

Why #Vancouver City Council is broken (and how to fix it).

🗳 On Oct 15th, we have a chance to elect a Council that takes our housing, poisoned drug, and climate crisis seriously – instead of blocking positive change.#vanpoli #VanElxn2022 @ForwardVan22 pic.twitter.com/HndTlHyX3z

— VOTE Alvin Singh #111 (@AlvinSingh) October 8, 2022

We are in the middle of a housing crisis and Vancouver cannot afford four more years of delays by electing a Mayor and City Council with vague housing plans like Ken Sim and ABC Vancouver, or even outright opposition to development like what we see with Colleen Hardwick and TEAM For A Livable Vancouver. Only Mayor Kennedy Stewart has an ambitious plan to build the housing we need –- but even that won’t work without electing a City Council that shares his level of urgency.

It’s natural for the Mayor’s race to get most of the attention.

The Mayor of Vancouver has real power, but most of it lies outside of City Council chambers. Mayor Stewart has used his relationships with Premier John Horgan and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to help attract over $1 billion in housing investment for our city. But when it comes to actually getting that housing approved and built, the Mayor and City Council all have an equal say — and many have used their votes to slow things down or take us off track.

The good news is that we do have real solutions to our most pressing challenges, like homelessness.

An example of this is the new Roddan Lodge and Evelyne Saller Centre in Railtown. It contains over 200 new homes — the majority renting at shelter rate to help lift people off the streets and into warm, safe housing. But there are also about 70 homes that rent at below-market rates, which help to pay for the entire building’s operations. From laundry to food programs, the entire facility is self-sufficient and run by the City of Vancouver. It’s a model that could be replicated all over the city, and happily accelerated by senior levels of government — but only with a City Council that is united around these issues.

The sad reality though, is that for the last four years we haven’t had this kind of City Council. Both Sim and Hardwick have said they would oppose projects like these. This election, we can change that by voting for a Mayor and City Council not afraid to commit to doing more of what works, and stop wasting time on what doesn’t.

We need to elect people who know we can’t keep reserving the majority of our city for large luxury houses only the few can afford. Folks who know we can’t arrest our way out of a homelessness, mental health, and overdose crisis. Folks who know renters deserve just as much peace of mind as owners with the strongest protections in Canada.

And folks who not just know these things — but will actually do something about them. Even when it’s hard. That’s why I’m running now, with Forward Together and Mayor Kennedy Stewart.

On Saturday, October 15, you have the chance to help fix a broken City Council and start building a Vancouver that works for all of us. I urge you to please get out there and vote.

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