Members of Occupy Vancouver cleaning up the encampment at the Vancouver Art Gallery November 10, 2011 so they can meet a a 2p.m .deadline to be fire safe.John Lehmann/The Globe and Mail
AFFORDABLE HOUSING FOR WORKING PEOPLE
NON-PARTISAN ASSOCIATION: Increase supply by making development easier for the private sector. Cut red tape, reduce waiting times, prezone whole areas instead of rezoning building-by-building; allow very high density in key areas where it works.
VISION VANCOUVER: Use city land, some city money, and things like changes to parking requirements to get various partners – developers, governments, non-profits – to build housing that can be rented or sold at less than current market rates.
COPE: A moratorium on condo development in the Downtown Eastside until enough low-income housing is in place. A promise to create 1,000 affordable units a year throughout the city.
OTHER: Neighbourhoods for a Sustainable Vancouver and the Green Party's Adriane Carr are opposed to Vision's current program for creating rental housing, saying it gives too many breaks to developers in return for only a few units priced at market rates and pushes too much density onto neighbourhoods.
ENCOURAGING BUSINESS
NPA: Continue for the next three years a shift of the city's tax load from businesses to residents.
VISION VANCOUVER: Continue the tax shift from business to residential for one more year, then re-assess, but aim to make business taxes "globally competitive."
COPE: Create a lower tax rate for small business.
TRANSIT
NPA: Build a downtown streetcar line through a public-private partnership.
VISION VANCOUVER: A downtown streetcar line would be nice, but an expensive thing to ask city taxpayers to take on. Continue to push to get a rapid-transit line on Broadway, the busiest transit corridor in the region.
COPE: Create a neighbourhood U-Pass, giving neighbourhoods the right to vote on collectively buying into a special transit pass like the ones university students get.
WHAT OUR PARTY HAS BROUGHT YOU IN THE PAST
NPA: Careful money management. A push to solve homelessness in 2005-08 that resulted in province agreeing to build 14 social-housing sites. A city plan promoting density that led to Vancouver's reputation for greenness and livability. A bike-lane plan that didn't pit cyclists against drivers.
VISION VANCOUVER: A homelessness plan that got people off the streets in the winter and into indoor shelters. A commitment to get the province to pay for the 14 social-housing sites promised. Food trucks. Separated bike lanes downtown that have produced dramatic increases in cycling. A plan for a greenest city and economy.
COPE: Constant advocacy for affordable housing that resulted in Bruce Eriksen Place and social housing at Woodward's. The supervised-injection site for drug users. An ethical purchasing policy for the city.
Frances Bula