Candidates address housing at business school panel event
Nine candidates of different political stripes gathered in downtown Vancouver Wednesday night to discuss the most important issue of this year’s municipal election: housing.
The event, hosted by the UBC Sauder Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate, featured a panel with mayoral candidates Ken Sim of the Non-Partisan Association, David Chen of Pro-Vancouver, Hector Bremner of Yes Vancouver and independents Shauna Sylvester and Kennedy Stewart, as well as council candidates Christine Boyle of OneCity, Diego Cardona of Vision, Pete Fry of the Green party and Jean Swanson of COPE.
Vision’s former mayoral candidate Ian Campbell was originally in the lineup for Wednesday’s panel, but did not appear after withdrawing from the race earlier this week. Cardona filled in for him as Vision’s representative.
As attendees — including many real estate industry professionals — milled around before the beginning of the forum, more than one participant commented on the fancy setting for a discussion on housing and affordability.
Swanson emphasized her party ’s belief in housing as a “basic human right,” similar to health care. She highlighted her party’s proposals for a four-year rent freeze, and a so-called “mansion tax” (an extra tax on properties valued above $5 million).
Swanson also praised temporary modular housing, a program to house low-income and homeless residents that was brought in under the current Vision-majority council with funding from the province.
She also said: “We need to insist that social housing goes every- where, so we can be an inclusive city.”
Bremner, the only sitting councillor running for mayor this year, was elected last year as an NPA candidate in the council byelection. During a round of questions about speeding up the city’s permitting process, Bremner said he was surprised, during his first year holding elected office, to see the level of disarray inside Vancouver’s city hall. “It is really broken,” he said.
Later, Bremner responded to an answer on community amenity contributions, a sometimes controversial system by which developers provide cash and in-kind contributions for added density in real estate projects. The system has sometimes been criticized for a supposed lack of transparency.
Bremner said city staff have wanted to move to a more transparent and consistent system, but said the city has “become addicted to this money.”
Many candidates repeated talking points from their campaigns. Some of Stewart’s responses touched on his background coming from Nova Scotia to Vancouver in the 1980s.
Sim, an entrepreneur who founded two local companies, touted his business expertise as a “workflow expert.” Bremner often invoked the name of his new party, repeating “we have to say yes” to housing.
Among other things, Sylvester emphasized the importance of renewing co-op leases, repeating on her earlier campaign pledge of “making Vancouver the North American capital of co-ops and cohousing.”
During a “lightning round,” candidates were peppered with questions from the moderators, Nadia Stewart of Global News and Ian Bushfield of the civic affairs podcast Cambie Report.