A City That Works for Everyone
The alliance’s programme grows out of a decade of volunteer work in the harbour district, out of the habit of sitting down with organisers, small employers and residents in every neighbourhood we serve, and out of a record of getting very different groups into the same room to tackle the problems that press hardest and to open up chances that make daily life better for everyone here.
A City That Works for Everyone rests on six linked and mutually reinforcing fields of opportunity, each supporting the others, so that our city grows into a safe, people-first, economically healthy, fair and welcoming place to live.
Housing
A home for every resident
- Speed up the city housing strategy, the rapid affordable-housing programme and the villages and corridors plans
- Take a second look at the missing-middle housing initiative
- Set up a municipal land bank programme
- Plan and rebuild the older terrace housing lands
- Finish the comprehensive development plan for the main corridor
- Deliver the ten-year official community plan review
- Look at a time-limited property tax break for purpose-built rentals
- Reward purpose-built affordable and rental homes
- Reward schemes that keep tenants from being displaced
- Offer incentives for arts and cultural amenity space
- A small-scale housing ambassador
- Heritage allowances for energy retrofits and efficiency work
- Turn empty commercial floor space into homes
- Set requirements and rewards for spreading density around
- Loosen zoning for tiny homes and secondary suites
- Work with the province to speed up housing for unhoused neighbours
City Services
Public works built around what residents need
(“Not one pothole left open”)
- Raise budgets for roads, sidewalks, active travel, accessibility and upkeep
- Replant the public gardens that earn us the name ‘a city of gardens’
- Encourage more food growing inside the city
- Keep services quick to answer and shaped by what residents ask for
- Deliver public works on a predictable, openly published schedule
- Commission a service master-plan update for the city fire service
Well Being
A Community That Is Healthy, Safe and Active
Social Spaces
- Rebuild the community aquatic centre
- Wider use of the central athletic grounds, including school district fixtures, community groups’ programmes, and open public access
- A parks acquisition strategy funding new recreation space, playgrounds, plazas and parklets, putting the parks and open space master plan to work
- Development rewards for building, or contributing toward, improvements to the public realm and to shared community space
- More support for arts and culture – carrying forward the arts and innovation district plan, the cultural spaces road map, and the city arts and culture master plan
- Tax relief or reduction, plus extra funding, for groups that serve the community
Health Services
- Housing, financial and practice incentives for health professionals and for the wellness workers who assist them
- Permissive tax exemptions for non-profit health societies, health co-operatives and clinics staffed by doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners, and other health and wellness workers
- Support for places where wellness workers can train
- Advocacy for harm reduction services across the region, and for safe supply
Comfort & Safety
- Better funding for civilian community crisis response teams
- Greater emphasis on, and targeted funding for, community policing
- A safety and security initiative covering the whole city
- More cleaning and upkeep of the public realm, more bylaw staff, more street ambassadors etc.
- A revived ‘welcome and thank you’ programme for businesses and residents
- Backing for what residents already do to lift their own neighbourhood’s well-being
- Support for every recommendation of the provincial review of policing legislation, set out in the report Transforming Policing and Community Safety.
Climate Adaptation
Caring for the planet, one neighbourhood at a time
- Deliver the city’s climate leadership plan, its electric vehicle and charging strategy, our zero-waste strategy and our mobility strategy
- Run regular hot- and cold-weather shelters and relief services
- Expand tree and native-species planting programmes
- Refresh the urban forest master plan and the tree protection bylaw
- Require shore power for ships tying up at the outer wharf
- Teach households how to be ready for a climate emergency
- Strengthen local emergency response services
- Widen free transit services
- Find more parking bays for car share
- Work up a curbside management strategy
- Create incentives for households to upgrade their systems
- Finish the bicycle master plan
Economy
A strong economy pays for what comes next
- Put our economic action plan to work
- Safeguard industrial and manufacturing land
- Grow the downtown business improvement programmes
- Renew the civic conference centre
- Bring the arts and innovation district into being
- Make it simpler to invest in the city
Inclusion & Civic Engagement
Building a future everyone helps shape
Reaching Everyone
- Publish a plain-language summary of every consultation before it opens
- Hold sessions at hours shift workers and parents can actually attend
- Take consultation out to community centres, libraries and workplaces
- Set a target for renter participation in every neighbourhood process
- Pay a stipend to residents who give their time to advisory panels
- Report back to everyone who took part on what their input changed
Newcomers and Language Access
- Offer interpretation at public meetings on request, at no cost
- Translate key notices into the languages most spoken in the district
- Run an orientation programme for residents new to the city
- Work with settlement agencies on outreach to arriving families
- Train volunteers to help neighbours through municipal processes
- Keep a plain-language glossary of planning and budget terms online
Accessible by Design
- Hold every public meeting in a venue that is step-free and reachable by transit
- Provide captioning, hearing loops and accessible documents as standard
Younger Residents and Older Ones
- Give a standing seat to youth representatives on advisory panels
- Fund a small grants stream for youth-led neighbourhood projects
- Run drop-in sessions at schools and colleges ahead of budget season
- Work with seniors’ groups on outreach that does not depend on the web
- Keep paper and telephone routes open for every consultation
- Support intergenerational projects in parks and community rooms
- Train staff and volunteers in accessible, jargon-free communication
Council Practices
- Publish an annual account of who took part in consultation, and who did not
- State plainly which decisions are open to public influence and which are not
- Give at least three weeks’ notice of any hearing that affects tenants
- Cover childcare and travel costs for evening public meetings
- Rotate meeting locations between neighbourhoods across the year
- Stream and archive meetings so anyone can catch up afterwards
- Answer every written submission, even if only briefly
- Review these commitments each year and publish the findings
Working Agreements
- Agree shared terms of reference with the neighbourhood associations
- Sign simple partnership statements with tenant and disability groups
- Keep a standing forum where community organisations meet council staff