Statement from OneCity Mayoral Candidate William Azaroff on Ken Sim’s unserious ‘plebiscite’ proposal

VANCOUVER (Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Territories) – OneCity Vancouver Mayoral candidate William Azaroff issued the following statement in response to Ken Sim’s unserious strategy for a deeply serious problem, and totally unnecessary proposal for a non-binding plebiscite that would cost half a million dollars of taxpayer money:

“If Ken Sim wanted to do something about improving public safety, he could have done so as Mayor, Police Chair, and head of a majority council. Instead, Vancouver has suffered a failure of leadership. Ken Sim has joined successive mayors and councils in doing too little for too long.  

In case Ken Sim doesn’t know: strengthening the City’s laws is literally the Mayor’s job. A plebiscite to ‘strengthen the City of Vancouver’s laws’ to tackle open air drug use is pure political theatre – he’s making grand claims that he can’t execute and playing politics with people’s lives as a stunt.

We will soon be announcing the first plank of our Public Safety Plan, which will achieve real action on public safety. It will take responsibility for what the city can actually do, right now:

• Address cleanliness and livability in the public realm

• Adopt models that have succeeded in other cities

• Invest in programs that work instead of catch and release on the public dime

It will be followed by our complete Public Safety Plan, which will address Ken Sim’s failure to reduce homelessness, street disorder, and poisoned drug deaths in the city. In the last four years, Ken Sim and ABC have overseen homelessness spike by over 12%, cancelled programs that get people off the street, and spent well over $1 billion taxpayer dollars on police with little to show for it.  

As Mayor, I and the OneCity team will act to protect all our neighbours instead of writing letters and wasting your time and money.” 

William Azaroff is available for further comment.

BACKGROUND:

ABC Vancouver and Mayor Ken Sim were elected in 2022 with a majority on Council, School Board, and Park Board, in which they could have done anything on an issue such as this in the three and a half years that they have been in power. 

Homelessness has surged under ABC Vancouver, with the homeless count up 12% between 2023 and 2025.

• Meanwhile, ABC Vancouver has successfully banned net-new supportive housing and killed years of work on the Social Housing Initiative, initiated by OneCity councillor Christine Boyle, that they initially supported.

• ABC Vancouver also voted multiple times (once against a motion brought by Christine Boyle, and once against a motion brought by Sean Orr) against temporary modular housing - leading to some modular housing being torn down and parking lots left in its place.

The following ABC platform promises have been broken:

• An ABC Majority will hire 100 New Police Officers and 100 Mental Health Nurses

  • They never hired 100 nurses, with CTV News calling the promise ‘unmet’

• An ABC Majority will work to establish a free, low barrier, 24-hour recovery centre for those struggling with drug addiction.

• An ABC Majority will work with the Province and the Canadian Mental Health Association to establish peer-assisted care teams.

  • This was initially a OneCity campaign promise. OneCity remains committed to implementing PACTs (now called CRCLs by the Canadian Mental Health Association) and will prioritize their implementation in the next Council.

• An ABC Majority will support all Vancouver Coastal and Providence Health Authority-led initiatives that enhance the safety of the drug supply to address the drug poisoning crisis.

  • Ken Sim has, famously, opposed VCH’s attempts to provide life-saving services in the Downtown South neighbourhood