City Hall Updates: August 29-September 4, 2026

City Council Update:

A Perfect Score on Road Safety!

Each year, Vision Zero Vancouver ranks councillors on their commitment to advancing road safety, and I’m honoured and excited to report that I’ve topped the list for the second year in a row! 

The group identifies every road-safety motion that comes to council in a given year, assigns it an “impact” multiplier, then awards points based on how each councillor voted. (More details here.)

Fun fact: OneCity Vancouver councillors have consistently topped Vision Zero Vancouver’s road-safety index. If safer streets matter to you, this October 17 the choice is clear.

Vancouver Can’t Sit This One Out

Like many of you, I’ve been worrying about the impact of the new U.S. tariffs—not only on our jobs and businesses, but also on everyday affordability.

The latest tariff increase specifically targets small businesses and British Columbia is particularly vulnerable. And economists expect our province to feel the most pain; job losses and price increases are unfortunately inevitable. That means we need to find ways to support businesses that are pivoting away from U.S. trade and need land in Vancouver.

In response, this past week I drafted an emergency motion. As detailed below, it directs staff to identify actions that the City can pursue to support our businesses, workers and residents.

I emailed Mayor Sim and all councillors asking for their support to convene a Special Council Meeting. Two hours later, ABC pushed out a media release that assigned responsibility for tariff response solely to the federal government. I’ve since unsuccessfully attempted to contact the mayor and ABC councillors via phone. The response? Crickets. (I was able to discuss my proposal with all the non-ABC councillors, but so far only Councillor Orr has provided the written support requested in my email.)

While the federal and provincial governments are taking steps to protect Canadians, the City has unique powers and assets that can bolster Team Canada’s response. My motion spells them out:

• Land to build on. The City can already assemble, and where necessary, buy land, get it ready (clear it, add roads, water, and sewer lines), and then sell or rent it to a business that wants to build. This power already exists. It’s just seldom used. This is where federal and provincial trade support can meaningfully impact our businesses who need distribution warehouses and other commercial or light-industrial uses - and the City can help.

• One person in charge of making it happen: an Industry Commissioner. Right now, no one at City Hall has the main job of helping a business attract investment, find land, and get building. This motion uses powers that already exist in the Vancouver Charter. The Industry Commissioner would connect businesses that want to grow, including ones receiving federal and provincial support, with land and a real plan to build.

• Faster answers. A business trying to grow cannot wait two years for the City to say yes or no, even if Ottawa or Victoria has already offered them help. This motion asks the City to streamline processes so those pursuing important projects get quick, clear answers.

• A good reason to build here. This motion asks the City to offer tax breaks to businesses that create real jobs, real training, and real buildings. Paired with federal and provincial support, this gives a business every reason to plant its next building in Vancouver instead of somewhere else.

• A fairer way to tax business land. Empty unused land is currently taxed the same as a property humming with workers and machines. This motion asks the City to study how we can incentivize businesses to put idle parcels to work.

Hopefully the Mayor and his ABC councillors will come to the table so we don’t have to wait several months to protect Vancouver’s workers, businesses and residents— and help Team Canada weather this attack.

If Ken Sim and ABC fail to lead, I, William Azaroff, and a OneCity council majority will urgently move additional measures to bolster our local economy and leverage the Vancouver Charter to get into the fight.

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