City Hall Update: September 19-26

City Council Update

Last week I spent most of the week at the Vancouver Convention Centre at the 2026 Union of BC Municipalities Convention (UBCM) in Vancouver. UBCM is a yearly conference for local government representatives from all over BC to vote on issues that affect local governments and meet with provincial Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs), agencies and department staff.

It’s a useful opportunity to influence provincial policy on important issues like housing, transport, childcare, road safety and our local economy. These crucial issues are often at least partly the responsibility of the province, so this conference is an important opportunity for City Councillors to make the case for legislative changes and increased investment in the City of Vancouver. Constructive working relationships with the Provincial government can be the difference between influencing Provincial laws, or not, and between receiving funding or missing out.

PUBLIC SAFETY 

The City of Vancouver scheduled six meetings with Ministers. In a surprising turn of events, Mayor Ken Sim showed up to one of them - the Meeting with Ministers Krieger and Yung regarding public safety.  Mayor Sim opened the meeting by claiming that crime is at a 23 year low in the City of Vancouver, but “street disorder” is up “41 percent”. Minister Krieger understandably asked Mayor Sim what definition of street disorder this was based on and how this figure was calculated. Mayor Sim was unable to answer, but did make reference to “when people feel unsafe” and “trading in illegal goods”. 

Mayor Sim and his ABC colleagues are trying to have it both ways. Are Vancouverites safer or not? The focus on street disorder and open drug use distracts from their failures to address the root causes of social dislocation, deaths and injuries in our city.

OneCity has announced its Progressive Public Safety Plan: Safe Streets & Public Spaces for ALL. The plan will deliver proven public safety standards, support and safety for first responders, emergency, social and health workers, and make streets, parks, and public spaces feel safe for everyone, no matter who they are or how they get around. I hear from Vancouverites all the time about how ABC has abandoned the things we know make us safer. We know what works based on Vancouver’s own success stories, and those in other cities. OneCity’s plan delivers safer streets, crisis response when people need it most, housing first as the foundation to a safe city, and basic maintenance of public spaces so people will feel safer and BE safer in every neighbourhood.

Mayor Sim and ABC didn’t bother to show up for the meetings with the Ministry of Economic and Business Development about bolstering our local economy in the face of the tariff threat, or the meeting with the Honourable Lisa Beare, Minister of Education and Childcare, despite Vancouver having a shortage of around 4,000 childcare places. ABC also didn’t come to our meeting with the Honourable Sheila Malcolmson Minister of Social Development and Poverty Reduction - a reflection of the lack of commitment of Mayor Sim and his ABC colleagues to prevent social problems rather than just responding reactively.

ACTIVE TRANSPORT AND ROAD SAFETY

Municipal leaders and road-safety advocates also seized the opportunity of UBCM to call on the BC Government to improve road-safety legislation, establish consistent rules for emerging mobility devices and help municipalities implement Vision Zero and make streets safer. I was one of them.

This helped build support for the five resolutions successfully voted through about road safety.

These resolutions addressed several barriers municipalities face as they work to prevent deaths and serious injuries on our roads, like an active transportation grant program, funding gaps for ambitious road-safety projects, data safety and sharing, inconsistent electric kick scooter regulations and provisions of the B.C. Motor Vehicle Act that has not kept pace with changing transportation needs.

If I'm re-elected, I’ll continue to work with my OneCity council colleagues to make sure the needs of Vancouverites are at the forefront of the Provincial Government’s minds when making investment and policy decisions to address the housing crisis, the childcare shortage, our infrastructure deficit, climate change mitigation and adaption, road safety, transit and active transportation.

If you’d like to see more OneCity councillors in City Hall please donate to the OneCity Victory Fund and sign up to volunteer.

You can reach me at lucy@onecityvancouver.ca or Lucy.Maloney@vancouver.ca. Have a great weekend.

Lucy Maloney

OneCity Vancouver City Councillor

Contact Lucy

Park Board Update

The writ has dropped, advanced voting starts on October 3rd. Time to tell all your friends to vote the OneCity slate!

We have a real shot to improve things! With our policy platform set to release very soon, you'll get a better idea of what you can expect with more OneCity members on Council, Park Board, and School Board.

On Park Board, we've had some great town halls, Q&As, and forums - this past week, we attended the Vancouver Public Library's Civic Candidates Open House, All Candidates events for the Vancouver Botanical Gardens Association, the Mount Pleasant Community Centre, and the Killarney Community Centre Society. Things are heating up, with much more in the pipeline!

There are a few All Candidates events this week if you missed the ones from last week:
On Monday, I'll be at the Eastside Community All Candidates event in Britannia Centre (Gym D).

On Tuesday, I'll be at the Kerrisdale Community Centre Society All Candidates event, at Kerrisdale Community Centre.

On Saturday, I'll be at the West End Community Centre Association's All Candidates event at the West End Community Centre.

Stop by, say hi, ask questions, and hear what we (and other folks) are saying! We've met with organizations, farmer's market affiliates and organizers, community gardeners, Hogan's Alley, urbanist associations, and so much door knocking (and we have much more to come, so please consider signing up here for a shift or ten! We'd love to have you!).

In gratitude,

Tyler Petersen
OneCity Park Board Candidate

Contact Tyler