Every week, we'll send you an update on what happened at City Hall, School Board, and Park Board in the last seven days. Hear directly from OneCity Councillor Lucy Maloney, OneCity School Board Trustee Jennifer Reddy, and OneCity Park Board Candidates on the goings on in City government.
City Council Update:
Hi everybody! Here’s a rundown of this week’s action-packed goings on at City Hall.
ABC Cancels Final Standing Committee Meeting
A surprise motion from ABC Councillor Montague blocked opposition Councillors from bringing forward a series of planned and scheduled motions prior to the summer break and the October 17th election.
By approving the motion, Mayor Sim and the ABC Councillors canceled the scheduled July 29 Standing Committee Meeting. This was a brazenly political move to prevent opposition Councillors from showcasing ABC’s failures and forcing ABC to show its cards on contentious issues in the countdown to the election.
I had submitted two motions for the now-cancelled meeting. One proposed a fairer progressive property tax system for Vancouver, and the other would have targeted developers who put up a chain link fence around their undeveloped land and call it a “dog park,” thereby reducing their tax obligation.
With your help and support, I’ll be in a position to bring these motions forward after October 17.
Vancouver General Hospital to be Rebuilt Bigger, Better and Safer
Council updated and expanded the Broadway Plan to include the overdue redevelopment of Vancouver General Hospital. The good news: This decision paves the way for upgraded, seismically-safe healthcare buildings that will better serve our region.
Sure enough, the ABC majority council found a way to take the shine off it by passing an amendment that would relocate the recently-completed 10th Avenue separated bike lanes to a single bi-directional path on the north side of the road. Staff had advised Council that bi-directional bike lanes are more crash-prone on two-way streets like 10th. The hospital has been pushing for the switchover, and promised to pay for the work to the tune of $20 million.
It’s not like the current setup is in some way broken. It is the result of extensive consultation, and has proven effective, reducing crashes by 60%. And if VGH has $20 million to move a successful bike lane across a street, perhaps it should instead be paying for some actually necessary community amenities in the neighbourhood. It definitely shouldn’t come out of the public purse. At least the cyclists won’t be far from an emergency room…
Community Center Upgrades Are Not in the Least Bit Politically Motivated
Council finished its deliberations and approved the 2027-30 Capital Plan.
There are a lot of good things in the Plan, but the most controversial part remains the move by the ABC majority to reshuffle the list of community centres prioritized for renewal and upgrades. In 2022, the Park Board released a Community Centre Strategy that used a rigorous approach to prioritize the facilities most urgently needing attention, but ABC reshuffled the list and added three—Dunbar, Kerrisdale and Yaletown Roundhouse—that weren’t at the top.
Though it is almost certainly a coincidence, those three newly prioritized centres also happen to be the voting locations where electors cast a disproportionately high number of ballots for ABC candidates in the 2022 election, both in the advance polls and on general election day.
So if your neighbourhood community centre is Renfrew, Strathcona, Thunderbird, or Douglas Park, you’d best get used to that broken paper-towel dispenser, because Mayor Sim and ABC bumped you down the list.
I brought forward five amendments that would have increased the Plan’s allocation for seismic preparedness in city buildings and fire halls, improved accessibility and road safety, and upgraded fire hall heating, cooling, and ventilation systems. The ABC nixed all except one:
Prioritizing a 50m Indoor Competition-Standard Swimming Pool
One of my Capital Plan amendments did make it through ABC; Council approved my motion to expedite planning for a year-round, 50-metre indoor swimming and diving pool complex that would be suitable for training, competition, and water polo. The motion ensures that critical consultation and design work, as well as a location decision, can occur in time to ensure consideration of construction funding in the 2031–2034 Capital Plan.
I am one of the many Vancouverites that would like to have seen a brand-new 50m, competition-appropriate indoor swimming pool completed before the decommissioning of the current Vancouver Aquatic Center. As a result of this amendment, a future Council will cut the ribbon on a rebuilt Vancouver Aquatic Centre in 2030—and will also have the key pieces in place to move ahead with a new 50-metre indoor competition swimming pool four years later or sooner.
Villages Plan Public Hearing Underway
Tuesday night public hearing was the start of the Villages Plan. We will continue to hear from public speakers on Monday. If you would like to have your say you can send an email to the Mayor and Council or find out details about how to speak here: Public Hearing Villages Plan. Here is a podcast interview with Chief Planner Josh White explaining the Plan.
I brought three member motions before council this week, and ABC ditched the lot.
ABC Votes Against Expediting Approvals for Life-Saving Temporary Shade Structures
ABC Councillor Montague justified his vote against my attempt to fast-track permit approvals for community-led, temporary shade structures during extreme heat events on the basis that they would inevitably turn into permanent encampments of unhoused people.
Childcare Spaces Deficit a Broken ABC Promise
During the 2022 election campaign, ABC candidates promised to deliver 5,000 new childcare spaces for the City’s families, despite childcare being a Provincial responsibility. Almost four years later only about 52% of Vancouver’s childcare needs are being met. Despite thousands of new spaces planned, we still face a persistent shortfall of over 4,000 spaces for children under the age of five, and we’ll fall well short of ABC’s 2022 election promise.
My motion would have required developers to prioritize childcare centres in new projects—the most effective way to accelerate the creation of much-needed spaces. Mayor Sim and his ABC colleagues shut it down. ABC are continuing to point the finger at the Province rather than acknowledge their misleading broken promise, leaving Vancouver’s parents and kids to endure long commutes to find childcare far from home.
ABC Refuses to Tap the Brakes on Giant AI Data Centres
ABC dismissed my motion to properly regulate proposals for new AI data centres, calling it needless “red tape.”
The motion asked staff to propose a regulatory framework for data centres that would ensure our City learns from and does not repeat negative experiences of other places. It also asked staff to urgently investigate and make recommendations for a new data centre public impact assessment requirement. This would direct companies to commission a credible assessment of a planned facility’s impacts with respect to water, energy, pollution, noise, and heat. It would also have required information about how much employment a proposed data centre would provide, allowing comparisons with other potential uses.
On top of voting down my data-center accountability motion, ABC pushed through their own motion to allocate public money to a “tech innovation hub.” Industry would normally fund this sort of operation, and rightly so, as it would advance private interests. But now the public will help foot the bill for one of the most well-capitalized sectors of the economy.
From Bad to Worse: ABC Hijacks a Misguided Overdose Prevention Site Motion
This week Councillor Fry moved a motion that proposed a set of rigorous new approval and operating requirements for life-saving overdose prevention sites (OPSs).
While well-intended, the motion would have created additional barriers to harm reduction services by making it even more challenging for independent organizations, and even Vancouver Coastal Health itself, to run an OPS.
Everybody wants these sites to provide clean, orderly, and transparent services. But Councillor Fry’s proposed requirements would have increased barriers to establishing OPSs, limiting access to health services that save lives and connect people with care.
Things went from bad to worse when ABC Councillor Meiszner hijacked Councillor Fry’s motion with an amendment that broadened it to an extent that is likely to make it all-but impossible for even Vancouver Coastal Health to meet its requirements. The amendment passed. This was a real low point of a tough week.
Safer Streets at Fire Halls and Better Stewardship of False Creek
On a positive note, Council unanimously passed a motion to improve traffic safety at fire halls and once again advocate to senior levels of Government for a better coordinated and resourced approach to managing the murky waters of False Creek.
This week’s events once again underline the need for more OneCity Vancouver elected representatives on Council, Park Board and School Board and you can help make it happen.
Please donate to our election campaign and sign up to volunteer. We can’t risk another ABC majority, so please dig deep and get involved.
You can reach me at [email protected] or [email protected]. Have a great weekend.
- Lucy Maloney
OneCity Vancouver City Councillor
Park Board Update:
On July 13, 2026 the Vancouver Park Board passed a $793 million draft Capital Plan (2027-2030) to meet the Park Board’s priorities, including parks, trees, and community centre rebuilds/renewals. They followed the 2022 Community Centre Strategy (which had participation from 2,000 people) for Renfrew, Hastings, Kensington. Hastings Community Centre was also highlighted by an amendment which would fast track a 50m competitive pool collocated with a new community centre at Hastings. The oldest part of Hastings Community Centre is 90 years old.
All of your OneCity candidates for Park Board spoke largely in favour of the Park Board’s draft capital plan, while noting that funds for the urban forest renewal have been reduced. Apparently, part of the budget for renewing and planting trees has been moved over to the City-wide sections of the 2027-2030 Capital Plan. We also recommended expediting delivering the 50m pool rather than the presented Capital Plan that only included planning for it, which could delay the 50m pool until past 2030. Your OneCity Park Board Candidates also spoke strongly in favour of building/renewing community pools, and replacing Vancouver’s dwindling tree canopy.
Today, Mayor Sim’s ABC-dominated City Council passed the Capital Plan to allocate $500 million in the 2027-2030 capital plan for Dunbar, Kerrisdale, Roundhouse, Kensington, and Hastings Community Centres (five centres in total, likely listed in order of political importance), and ‘funding’ to plan the rebuild of Kits Pool and planning for a new 50m pool. The current draft 2027-2030 Capital Plan also seeks to build pools at both Marpole and Sunset. This is a fiscally unrealistic approach, as in today’s provision and inflationary context, it is very unlikely that all of this can be delivered for $496 million. This approach goes firmly against the decision of the elected Park Board for meeting the priorities of the city at large. Recent Capital Plan engagement shows that respondents identified recreation facilities (78%), park buildings and infrastructure (64%), park renewals and amenity upgrades (62%), urban forest and natural areas (60%), and seawall and waterfront (55%) as the key priorities. This was based on 500 participants and 4,265 online survey responses (from the 2027-2030 draft Capital Plan presentation delivered on July 14, 2026).
Once again, the mayor and ABC majority are ignoring the Park Board, the Community Centre Associations, and many of our city's residents. At the Park Board meeting on Monday, of 120 registered speakers, almost half supported the draft Park Board Capital Plan, while only 3 opposed it. The rest simply indicated ‘other,’ not open opposition. The Mayor and the ABC majority need to stay in their own swimming lane, and respect the jurisdiction of Vancouver’s duly elected Park Board.
In solidarity,
John Irwin
OneCity Vancouver Candidate for Park Board
