Transcript
Speaker: I'm Jane Williams. This is the Red Eye Podcast. You can hear our live broadcast on Saturday mornings from 10 till noon at 100.5 FM in the Lower Mainland.
Speaker: Coming up in this episode, City Beat for April 11th. Next week, Vancouver City Council is going to be talking about the homeless count, a huge money ask from the Park Board to deal with the poor condition of our recreation facilities and parks, and lots more.
Speaker: Ian Mass joins me today to talk about all this in his City Beat Report. Hi, Ian. Hi, Jane. Let's start with the homeless count. Over a year ago, Vancouver participated in the count for Metro Vancouver, and staff is going to hear about it next week. What does the report say?
Speaker: Well, it is old news because it was about a year ago, but it's worth hearing again. staff are saying to council, the data count, the 2025 data count shows again an increase the total number of people experiencing homelessness. Across the metro region, not just Vancouver, but the whole metro, the total number of individuals experiencing homelessness reached an all-time high, 5,200 approximately in 2025, and that's up 9% from the 2023 count. In Vancouver, the number of people experiencing homelessness reached 2,715, which is about 12% more than 2023 count. Close 2,000 people were actually staying sheltered locations. That's Vancouver, which leaves about 700 people totally unsheltered. And they looked at who these people are yet again, and an increasing proportion of those are identifying as women, lot of seniors in there, and a continued over-representation of people identifying as Indigenous. 42% of those 2,700 people identify Indigenous.
Speaker: Lack of income and eviction were the primary drivers for these people's housing loss, and factors identified in the report include, obviously, a lack of affordable housing, but they also get into the systemic issues, the legacy of colonialism in residential schools, racism, gaps in the health and child protection system.
Speaker: Now, interestingly, the city downplays its role and financial liability in the report, but concedes that it still continues to work in partnership with senior government and non-profit. But just last meeting, Mayor Sim and his ABC majority voted against any additional support of housing in Vancouver, until Metro Vancouver takes more themselves. But supportive housing is a hard sell anywhere in Metro Vancouver these days. There's many examples.
Speaker: Just recently, Richmond, Burnaby, South Surrey, all saying no to supportive housing. The report itself, no big announcements. Give you a sense that they just want to continue to do what they're doing But unfortunately, homelessness grows. It's up 141% over the last 20 years.
Speaker: A recent auditor's report showed that 72% of Vancouver's recreation facilities were in poor or very poor condition. Now, both the Park Board and Mayor Sim made promises this week to do something about this. First of all, what is the Park Board proposing?
Speaker: Well, the Vancouver Park Board Commissioners, they have the biggest request. They're voted to ask City Council for $1.43 billion dollars over the next four years. and they're going to use that to replace the Kitts pool, build a new 50-meter pool. and renewing the Britannia Community Center in East Vancouver. Those are the big three. But they also have about $200 million dollars for community center renewals that prioritizes east side community centers, Hastings, Kensington, and Renfrew, and $300 million dollars for seawall repairs and playgrounds, sports fields, infrastructure upgrades, all of those kinds of things.
Speaker: How about Mayor Ken Simm? Well, trying not to be outdone, ah Mayor Ken Sim used his State of the City address this past Wednesday at the Vancouver Convention Center to announce he'll commit $400 million dollars to rebuild and renovate five community centers. He didn't say which five, but those are that. One city mayoral candidate, William Azaroff, immediately called his $400 million dollars a slush fund and wanted to know where's the money coming from since Sim also re-announced a zero increase in property taxes in 2027, two years in a row. Sim seemed to dismiss the parks board's plan as just another plan, and so we're going to have to wait till July. City Council debates the overall capital plan, including the Park Board's request in July, with the public getting to vote on it on Election Day, October 17th.
Speaker: Now, this council has had a very heavy load dealing with multiple public hearings over the winter, but that seems to have changed. What's up with that? Well, it's the first one where they've got five rezoning in front of them, council has, but they're being asked to approve these without a formal public hearing this coming Tuesday.
Speaker: Council is now, and I want to quote the law, it's now prohibited from holding... A public hearing for a development that is consistent with the official development plan and contains majority residential use. And speakers aren't even allowed to address counsel on this, let alone a more formal public hearing. But they can write in if anybody listening can write in about these things, but no talking is allowed. And since all five of these rezoning fall within this newly passed official development plan, council's either going to pass them or defeat them with little public input.
Speaker: The downtown east side area plan, which critics say will gentrify the neighborhood, will be included in this official development plan process. So the high rises that may go into the downtown east side will just be a council decision.
Speaker: I understand there is one rezoning that actually isn't part of any official development plan. What's that for? Well, it doesn't fit in at all. It's on the water. It'll have a public hearing next Tuesday. It's a plan for a 250-room floating hotel tethered to the western part of the Trade and Convention Center. And along with the hotel, developers are promising fancy restaurants, shops, and other things most of us can't afford.
Speaker: Now, this council isn't known for its proactive approach to the climate crisis, but they do have something on the agenda for mitigation. What is that? Well, they paid some notice when the province of British Columbia recommends that local governments plan for at least a one meter rise in local sea level by 2100. So Vancouver's considering a report on Tuesday called Coastal Flood Management Policy.
Speaker: The policy, interestingly enough, is clear. It's designed to protect the city assets and that private property owners are essentially on their own. The city can rezone the land as it has down in River District here in South Vancouver or yeah up in Falls Creek. But at the end of the day, if you build on that land, you're on your own. So obviously, this is especially critical because much of the Fraser River foreshore, along with Falls Creek and all of the Vancouver Harbor are impacted by climate change and rising water levels.
Speaker: Now, looking ahead to the upcoming municipal election, the various parties have been reporting on their fundraising figures. So how's everyone doing? Well, these are 2025 numbers, but it gives you some idea of what they're doing. The Vancouver three progressive parties, Cope, Green, and OneCity, have raised about $563,000 last year, combined leading the way with close But that still puts them behind Mayor And ABC's financial juggernaut, they raised about $606,000. So they're pretty close, but still a little behind. and
Speaker: One thing I found interesting in the numbers, is Colleen Hardwick and her team for A Liveable Vancouver, a real right-wing alternative for people who like that kind of stuff. They raised a pretty respectable $165,000, which is close to $100,000 more than the Vancouver Greens could raise in 2025. So we'll have to see if Pete Fry's run for mayor's chair can fill up those green coffers because they're not getting much money at this point.
Speaker: Christine Boyle was a Vancouver City Councillor before she joined the provincial government, and she's introduced some legislation this week that aims to help some of her former fellow councillors. What's she proposing?
Speaker: Well, as you say, she's now the Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs, and she's introducing legislation that mandates a minimum of 26 weeks of paid parental leave for all local elected officials, which will be a minimum standard that all municipalities have to follow. Apparently, municipal parental leave policies are are all over the place in British Columbia and sometimes, unfortunately, influenced by politics. So this will set a standard that people can rely on.
Speaker: Now, you were expecting to be reporting on 10 motions coming up this week, but they've all been put off. What's going on? yeah they Yeah, I was waiting all day yesterday for the reports to come out for this meeting, and they never came out except I saw this little thing that said, They're all put off till April 22nd. There's 10 motions, and i don't have the full details. I don't really only have the titles. And they're intriguing. Mayor Sim has a motion called Enabling a Process for a Major so Sports Initiative in Vancouver. Now, what does that mean?
Speaker: I mean, we do FIFA. We've done the Grey Cup. We've done the Olympics. What else do we need? Is this something around the Vancouver Whitecaps who are looking... to get a stadium from the city. So we'll see what happens with that. Counselor Orr has one called no penalties for vehicle shelter during FIFA. I think that's ah people who live in their cars. I think that's what he's referring to with with that one. Counselor Fry has three motions. He also has lots.
Speaker: Supporting community stewardship. for eco corridors and neighborhood green spaces. He's got a second one called encouraging compact community serving options to boost zero waste. And a third called scaled up response with small rapid shelter systems. One thinks that one's about homelessness. We'll see. I can tell you a lot more about those things when the details are ah released in about two weeks. We have to look forward to that. You're going to be back in two weeks? Yeah, I'll be back in two weeks with the details of those ones. Thanks a lot, Ian. Thanks, Jane.
Speaker: I've been speaking with Red Eye Collective member Ian Mass with his City Beat report, and he'll be back, as we said, in two weeks, and we'll find out what those 10 motions are all about. You've been listening to the Red Eye Podcast, produced by an independent media collective based in Vancouver.
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Speaker: To keep up with the show, you can subscribe to Red Eye wherever you listen to your podcasts. And you can follow us on Blue Sky at Red Eye Radio. I'm Jane Williams.
Speaker: Thanks for listening.
