Six months in, ABC coalition showing cracks
Some surprising moves by big-tent party risk alienating politically diverse backers
Vancouver's new civic party swept to power last year by drawing support from diverse backgrounds and political affiliations.
ABC Vancouver appealed to past supporters of the Non-Partisan Association, which had long been the city's centre-right, pro-business powerhouse. It ran some former NPA candidates, including Ken Sim for mayor. But ABC also found support from beyond the NPA's traditional base. That's why the upstart party's logo incorporated three colours, its campaign manager said after the election: Liberal red, NDP orange and Conservative blue.
Now, a little more than six months after Vancouver's ABC majority was sworn in, at least some observers say the party is at risk of alienating the more progressive side of the big-tent, centrist coalition it built.
Early in its mandate, the ABC-majority council quickly pursued some of its major campaign promises. It unlocked funds to hire more police officers and mental-health workers, and took action to support revitalizing Chinatown. It made decisions and public statements supporting getting more housing built faster, including social housing.
But ABC has made decisions that were not in its campaign platform, decisions that surprised some city hall watchers: shutting down the city's renter's office, abandoning the commitment to paying a living wage to low-income city workers, and sending millions of dollars of already collected tax revenue earmarked for social housing back to big real estate developers.
It's less surprising ABC is drawing flak from its opponents to the left, such as the defeated former mayor Kennedy Stewart.
But ABC's decisions, particularly recent ones related to housing and affordability, have put off some supporters. Kerry Jang, who served three terms on Vancouver council with the centre-left Vision Vancouver, endorsed Stewart when he ran against Sim and the NPA in 2018.
But Jang liked what he saw from ABC and Sim during last year's campaign and supported them in the election.
Speaking recently, Jang said: “I'm a little surprised at how right-wing they are. … I think they're more ideologically rightwing than they ever let themselves on to be.”
“They totally had me bamboozled, as well as my neighbours and relatives who asked me,” Jang said. That group includes former Vision Vancouver supporters, federal Liberals and more centrist NDP supporters, Jang said, adding: “We all feel kind of hoodwinked.”
Jang and many others were also perplexed by ABC's recent changes to the empty homes tax, a tax created when Vision was in power.
City staff recently recommended council exempt unsold newly built condo units from the tax. Instead, ABC's councillors applied the exemption retroactively, meaning that millions of dollars of revenue that had already been collected for social housing would instead be sent back to developers.
Jang said he could understand the exemption was needed to avoid discouraging housing development.
“But to make it retroactive?” Jang said. “Wow, that was a shocker.”
Former NPA councillor Peter Ladner called the retroactive exemption “financial mismanagement.”
As a cyclist, Ladner added he's also been disappointed at ABC's lack of support for bike infrastructure.
ABC councillors said the $3.8 million in taxes the city would return to developers represented a relatively small amount.
But that money could have gone a long way considering the desperate need for social housing, said Jill Atkey, CEO of B.C. Non-Profit Housing.
Consider that council decision and a couple of others from the perspective of the renters facing evictions through no fault of their own or those struggling to find affordable homes, Atkey said. “If you're stacking it up, you're going to be looking at: whose interests is this council out to protect?”
Community groups criticized ABC for its decision to discontinue the city's renter's office, established under the previous council to ensure the city's tenant-protection policies were followed. Earlier this month, ABC rejected Green Coun. Pete Fry's motion asking city staff to report to council with regular updates to track the pace of “demovictions” in the Broadway corridor.
Fry said while he also supports building new housing, these decisions suggest ABC priorities align with developers without much consideration for tenants.
ABC Coun. Mike Klassen responded that renters make up more than half of Vancouver households, and said the city has “the strongest rental protection policies in North America.”
“Addressing the lack of adequate housing supply across the city is the single most important thing we can do as a council to improve affordability. To have a fighting chance of accomplishing this we need to make it easier to build housing in the city of Vancouver,” Klassen said. “Our priority as a council is to get more housing built, faster — we will support initiatives that get us closer to that goal and we will oppose initiatives that don't.”
But some Vancouver renters and their advocates worry about what will happen if those “strongest rental-protection policies in North America” are deemed to be barriers to development. If developers start telling council that those tenants and their rights are making redevelopment projects unprofitable, will those protections be weakened?
Appealing to the interests of private-jet-riding executives might be great for political fundraising. But any ABC politicians seeking re-election can't afford to lose the support of too many workers and tenants who backed them last time.