NPA’S Ken Sim unveils plan to bring transparency and accountability back to City Hall
Vancouver: Ken Sim and the NPA team have released Bringing Transparency and Accountability back to City Hall, a plan to restore trust and faith in City services and the local electoral process. The plan calls for a return to transparency and accountability at City Hall by ending secrecy, separating politics from the public service, creating a lobbyist registry, and improving protection for whistleblowers.
“We will empower City staff to do their jobs without political interference so they can innovate and develop creative solutions to Vancouver’s challenges,” says Sim. “We’re also going to review City policies and programs introduced in the past 10 years to evaluate whether they are making Vancouver more liveable and affordable.”
The plan also calls for five immediate steps to respect taxpayers:
1. A full and independent review of City finances. 2. A review of City policies and programs introduced in the past 10 years to evaluate whether they are making Vancouver more liveable and affordable.
3. Target increases in municipal taxes to no more than the rate of inflation. 4. Restore Vancouver’s long-term fiscal stability with a plan to reduce debt.
5. A multi-partisan “Team Vancouver,” made up of all the MPS and MLAS, across all parties, to work together so that Vancouver can secure our fair share of investment and support from other levels of government. Finally, the plan addresses the issue that has been most pressing so far in this election – the influence of anonymous advertising and secretive funds on our political process. Ken Sim and the NPA Team will commission an independent, third party review of the current election finance and advertising rules, and also create a Privacy and Information Taskforce, to ensure that personal privacy is protected throughout the municipal election process.