say arms length independent or community-led I would probably use language around community-led I think that that's really important there is that if the city can sort of flag this again to the different levels of government then I think that that is a positive we did have the work I think that's probably the piece that's different because we did have in terms of of additional change from the 2024 direction because we did have a report back that's expected in spring next year um these things take longer than we would like to see them um take um but you know again continuing to advance that space is really important it was interesting because we actually had a discussion on child care this morning about prioritizing that more in spaces but when we do that then we can also do other things like arts and culture i think i made that point earlier that um you know we wanted do many things and be many to many people. But I do think a lot of the opportunity is through opportunities. And it was very interesting to hear that you had recently received a gift, whether that is space that can be utilized or if that is... leverage right in terms of assets that can go towards supporting future space that'll be interesting to learn more about but yeah we are it's a it's a pretty dire outlook without the arts got lots of folks that are artists that are continually looking for space to rehearse perform and do all types of creative things whether it's like recording demos and tapes or doing voiceovers for animation or being in film or singing, right? And it's quite impressive how multi-talented a lot of our local working artists are here. And I do appreciate the economic piece, too, because it's kind of like tourism. Arts and culture is very similar economically. It's a bit of an unsung hero. So that's a good message to keep there as well. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, speaker, I mean, not speaker, Councillor Dominato.

Okay, thanks. Okay, seeing no one else on the queue, so let's go to the vote. We are voting for the motion as amended. Okay, everyone, please register your vote.

Yeah, thanks, Mayor. All right, so the motion passed unanimously with Councillor Frey absent. Thank you. Okay, so we're going to take a dinner break. We'll be back here at 6 p.m. to continue with the business. Thank you. Yeah, 6 p.m. Thanks.

The meeting is in recess.

The meeting is in recess.

The meeting is in recess.

The meeting is in recess.

The meeting is in recess.

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Thanks, everyone. So let's keep on going.

to our city, both culturally from a quality of life perspective, mental health, wellness, economic vitality, all of the above. We previously in July had a lot of public input that led to the creation of an arts and culture sector working group to review challenges facing the sector. The working group proceeded with kind of tackling that. They completed the work. The findings were presented in a memo to council. And through that, a number of solutions were identified, some of which were already underway through staff work and others that the committee felt was important to highlight. So the motion, first of all, I just want to thank and appreciate everybody that was part of that and participated and contributed to it. I extend gratitude for myself and from Councillor Fry. Also, the motion asks that council receive for information the solutions that the working group had outlined. I think that came in the form of a memo to council. And then the other part of it in terms of the go forward is to directing staff to look at implications for priority areas that...

still would benefit from further direction, and those were things like cultural space affordability, cultural capital infrastructure, something we've already been talking about. The Arts and Events Culture License, which is something I think was one of my earlier motions this term. I invited Councilmeister to co-submit on me where, for example, we doubled the number of events that groups or entities could host every month through the Arts and Culture License, recognizing the importance of non-traditional spaces. So looking, you know, they identified that that could be an opportunity to look at that again. Regulatory reforms, something I was trying to improve, things like navigator support, and that makes sense to build on some of the success we've had. For example, the city's business and economy office, it supported BIA, so it could do something similar for arts and culture. And that is it, so I'll leave the rest. Thanks, Chair. Thank you. All right, so we will now hear from the registered speakers for this motion. Oh, it's seconded by Councillor Frye already. That's right. But it's because he, even, is that the correct, procedurally, is that correct, even though it's co-submitted? Yes. He needs to be present? Okay. Okay, then second by Councillor Dominardo. Okay, so we will now hear from the registered speaker for this motion. Public speakers should state whether they are in support or in opposition of the recommendations and may only speak once. I will also ask speakers if they are residents of Vancouver, if it is not noted on the speaker's list. Our first public speaker is Ashley Daniel Foote. Please join us. Okay. Speaker number one has withdrawn. Also, the public speaker, speaker number one, Ryan Hunt, has also withdrawn. Speaker second is Brent Constantine.

Hi there again. Yep. Thanks to the committee for giving me time to speak. Again, arts operator of Little Mountain Gallery in Gastown and member of the city's arts and culture advisory committee speaking in support of this motion and why it's important. I do want to thank city staff for their work on the arts and culture sector working group over the last several months and for councillors Kirby Young and Fry for bringing forward this motion. The motions, the results of work directed by council last year on a different motion from the arts community to create the arts and culture sector working group, which completed a full jurisdictional review of other cities, documented the sector's challenges and produced a prioritized set of solutions that was built collaboratively with that city staff. It represents real effort from a lot of people who are also trying to keep their organizations and their practice alive at the same time. And the motion asks council to acknowledge that work that was done and endorse those solutions. And the motion really gives staff direction on items that still lack that direction, that mostly come out of...

The culture shift and making space for arts and culture, arts plans that the city has. Things like that regulatory reform for small venues, events licenses, navigator support, which is really important, and cultural space affordability tools. I think that there's a lot of direction here for staff and a lot of great things that can come out of here. So Vancouver's cultural sector is, as always, asking for systems that will continue to work and for council to say clearly that arts and culture belongs in the city's future. So this motion is to step forward to that. Thanks, council, for supporting it. Thank you. Speaker number three is Paula Murlow.

I'm here, but I believe they're going to change me. For festival. Sorry, Paula. Chair, if I might, on a point of procedure, I neglected to ask at the beginning of the meeting. This speaker, in error, signed up for this item and meant to sign up for the festival's item. So we revise that you have the discretion to move her to that motion when it comes up shortly. Okay, so... So she was intending to speak on motion 11. I see. So that motion is number... 11. Number 11. Okay, so Paula, we're going to move you to the number 11. Okay, thank you. So you'll be the four speakers on the motion number 11. We're going to call your name. Thanks, Chair.

Okay. Feel free to sign off right now. Thanks, Paula. Okay, so next speakers, I brought them on your mayoral. Please go ahead.

Hey, Abelardo Mayoral, or Mayo for short, Mayo for short. I'm a Vancouver resident from the Kitsilano neighborhood and owner-operator of a live music production and promotion company based in Vancouver. I'm here to support the motion for the prioritized solutions from the arts and culture sector working group. I've been in the arts and entertainment scene for 20 years or more, if we count as a fan, which is what drove me into it. But, well, yeah, working as a business owner in there, like, yeah, I was not aware of, like, that... great work that seems to have been done by this working group and looking at the recommendations and the topics we cover gave me a lot of hope for the protection of this strong creative scene that we have in the city. Sustainability, affordability, facilitation of reduction of administrative barriers of permits for zoning, the investment tools. So I believe then this goes hand in hand with the motion number seven that looks at the long term terms sustainment uh so that like here's a lot of like things that we can do in the short term to continue to strengthen the arts and culture uh in vancouver so um we have a lot of assets to rely on uh we have a lot of creatives in the city a lot like they're world class and i can speak that um by experience that the uh

artists in Vancouver are, sometimes we have a ratio of more artists to fans than anything else in many of the events I see. And the quality of the arts that are produced by Vancouver's creatives is... of the hook is really world-class so then we have that asset ready to rely on so then i as a council to support then all these initiatives that help being a facilitator or enabler into what already exists here that has the potential to be to make vancouver a world-class cultural hub We also have the fans that crave this as well. So then it will be a scene that can sustain on its own. And if we can facilitate that and help it through all these recommendations from the working group. Yeah, it is a huge bang for the buck to invest in arts and culture, as we have seen. I know that at least 4BC generates about half a billion dollars a year.

The arts sector, so I'm sure Vancouver is a big part of that. So please go ahead and support the motion. Thank you. Thanks, Mario. All right, so I'm going to go back to number one, Ashley Daniel Fudge.

Speaker number one is not on the line. Okay. Speaker number two, Branch Constantine. He already spoke. Oh. Ryan Hunt has withdrawn. Oh, okay. No, no, no. The second speaker, Branch Constantine.

Oh, okay. Oh, sorry. I got something wrong. Okay. Long day for everyone. Okay. All right. So this is the end of the speaker's list. Thank you, everyone, for speaking to the Standing Committee. Committee members, is there any discussion?

Councillor Kerbia. Yeah, just want to appreciate and thank the group again for their work over the term. This was a key piece of work for both the advisory committee and the specific working group and task force. And I think we've heard common themes about the importance of things like affordability and space and then also helping to navigate on the city of Vancouver side with respects to permitting and that. So I think that it's going to be a good culmination of the work and it'll be... a good thing for some of the staff to delve into and see which pieces can be furthered and advanced. And I'm looking forward to seeing some of the outcomes of that. But I just wanted to thank everybody and thank council in advance for supporting, which my sense is everybody will. Thank you. Thank you, councillors. Okay, so seeing no one else on the queue, I'm going to call the vote. So clerk, please take us to the voting screen and council, please register your vote.

Thanks. No, thanks, Mayor. Thank you. Okay. Councillor Montague is absent. Councillor Bligh is absent.

Okay. So the motion carries unanimously with Councillor Bligh, Fry, and Montague absent. Thank you. That completes Motion 9 on the agenda. Okay, so Motion 10 is Rising Ties, Governance Reform and the Stewardship of Falls Creek. And it is moved and introduced by Councillor Wu. Before we begin this agenda item, if anyone believes they have a conflict of interest, now is the time to declare it. Does anyone have a conflict of interest to disclose? Okay, so Councillor Wu, you have two minutes to introduce your motion. Thank you. I'm happy to... Whoops.

Falls Creek is one of the most significant waterways in the city, and right now nobody oversees it. The problem, put plainly, governance of Falls Creek is fragmented across roughly 22 municipal, provincial, and federal bodies with overlapping and sometimes conflicting jurisdictions. Navigation, water quality, shoreline management, public safety, all of which are split across different authorities, with no single body responsible for the whole. That fragmentation has produced persistent gaps in long-term planning, ecological restoration, and climate adaptation. Nobody is fully accountable, which means nobody is fully responsible. The consequences of that gap are real. Toxic sediment disturbance from unmanaged anchoring, derelict and abandoned vessels, unmonitored discharge, pollution from urban runoff, and combined sewer overflows, habitat degradation, and accelerating risk from sea level rise. This is happening in the water right now, while responsibility for fixing it is scattered across two different agencies. I want to be clear that this motion does not try to solve that fragmentation unilaterally. False Greek lies within the unceded traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and TTsleil-Waututh nations, who have stewarded these waters since time immemorial. Any real government solution must be built in partnership with those nations not imposed around them. That's why it specifically calls for co-governance frameworks developed with the Musqueam, Squamish, and TTsleil-Waututh Nations, and why it also asks staff to explore indigenous youth engagement and marine guardianship models tied directly to False Creek's restoration. The motion asks staff to begin formal discussions with the province, the federal government, and the host nations on a coordinated stewardship model. potentially a Falls Creek Harbor Authority, and to report back by Q3 2027 on jurisdictional mapping, governance options, funding models, including the city's own marina revenues, and concrete marine management improvements for anchorage and derelict vessels. This is about giving Falls Creek what it has never had, a real and accountable steward. Thank you, Counselor. We need a seconder.

Seconded by Councillor Maloney. We will now hear from the registered speaker for this motion.

Public speakers should stay whether they are in support or in opposition of the recommendations and may only speak once. I will also ask speakers if they are residents of Vancouver, if it is not noted on the speaker's list. Our first registered speaker is Mandel Soki. Mandel Soki. Sorry about that. That's okay. Thank you, Honorable Mayor and Council, for the opportunity to speak to this very exciting motion, which I wholeheartedly support as the executive manager of the False Creek Friends Society. False Creek is today, and has been for over a century, cloaked inside of a somebody else's problem field. A field such as this, applied to any place which would otherwise be difficult to rationally accept, makes it second nature to ignore. This precious urban waterway at the literal and metaphorical heart of our city is in a perpetual state of quiet dysfunction with unsafe waters, unregulated vessels, and, crucially, an overall lack of holistic, proactive management. I want to dwell for a moment on just how beloved False Creek is for this city and how iconic, because if you do an image search for just Vancouver, count how many pictures prominently feature False Creek. In my experience, it's about two-thirds. It's no exaggeration to say that False Creek represents Vancouver as a whole, both outwardly to the world and in the minds of all Vancouverites. At this wide-angle scale of landscape photography, False Creek is stunningly beautiful. But if we zoom in, walk along the seawall, notice. Notice the hardened shoreline, largely devoid of intertidal life. Notice how few places there are for people to actually be in safe contact with the water, to develop a relationship with the Salish Sea that we are all so privileged to live beside. Notice a space that has fallen victim to a Gordian knot of overlapping, fragmented jurisdictions. let's consider the different governments and agencies who have interests in False Creek. Specifically, it's nature, water, and health, or it's lands and docks, or it's vessel traffic and safety. There's no shortage of regulators, but there is not one which stands for False Creek as a whole. This motion points the way for the city of Vancouver to take leadership in finally solving this issue and to do so in true partnership with the nations of Musqueam, Squamish, and TTsleil-Waututh, the province of British Columbia, and the federal government of Canada. Together, we can achieve a future for False Creek that has a clear point of coordination for all matters of regulation, stewardship, and planning. Not only would this mean more efficient, transparent, equitable, and effective management, It would pay dividends economically, culturally, and ecologically, supporting every dimension of Vancouver's public health. Please vote in support of this motion and in support of the False Creek that all Vancouver needs.

Thank you for your time. Thank you. Speaker number two is Kevin Ray.

Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I'm a resident of Vancouver. I'm an instructor at Langara College. I'm also one of the research leads doing collaborative research with the False Creek Friends Society, but today I'm speaking from my own perspective. When a scientist looks at a place to leverage their expertise, the funding that's available, and the support from the community to do research, they look for exciting opportunities. I think that's self-evident. When people look for those opportunities within False Creek, they are met with a rat's nest opportunity. of overlapping bureaucracies and no clear place to start. This is the case for myself and my co-investigator, Langer College, even though we knew the incredible potential for leveraging federal funding dollars to conducting ecological research next to one of a world-class city and our home. In order for Vancouver to seize the incredible opportunity of its local expertise, Vancouver is a world leader. We see especially as a world leader in ecological research and other forms of science. In order for us to leverage that opportunity, scientists need to, researchers, community groups, need to decide that it is worthwhile to take a hack at the so-called Gordian Knot. and to nod it with their teeth to try to figure out where did they even start? Who do they talk to? Without long-established relationships with False Creek Friends Society or other nonprofits and a considerable investment of time, these startup costs in terms of energy and bureaucracy and the wait times associated with that are often enough to dissuade them from doing research in Vancouver on False Creek. Councillor Orr's motion, which I'm speaking in support of, is the important first preliminary step to establishing a clear channel for local expertise and federal and provincial research dollars, as well as money from other non-profit foundations, to flow into this city and to take advantage of the incredible enthusiasm that Vancouverites have for False Creek. As we've been doing our preliminary research so far, we're in the first year of our project, one of the things that jumped out at me is this almost miraculous consensus that people have that False Creek is worth knowing more deeply. There's only been maybe one person out of dozens of people that isn't incredibly excited to learn more about what is right next to them. This preliminary study that Councillor Orr's motion supports is a really important first step to getting to that place and taking advantage of, again, world-class, homegrown expertise and taking advantage of funding from other places to invest in the heart of our city. Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you, Kevin. Okay, speaker number three is Grace Nobrado. Hello, Marin Council. My name is Grace Nombrado. I'm a Vancouver resident and the Executive Director of Free the Fern Stewardship Society, and I'm speaking in support of this motion. False Creek tells two stories. One is a story of industrialization, habitat loss, and environmental degradation. The other story is still being written, a story of restoration, stewardship, and collaboration. For thousands of years, the Musqueam, Squamish, and TTsleil-Wautuths hunted, fished, and gathered along the shores of False Creek. Then industrial development transformed the shoreline and polluted its waters. While much has changed over the past several decades, False Creek remains one of Vancouver's most visible reminders that restoring an ecosystem is far more difficult than degrading one. The issue is personal to me. For 10 years, I paddled on a dragon boat team that launched from the docks beside Science World. During that time, I experienced reoccurring skin rashes, eye infections, and the occasional gastrointestinal illness while spending countless hours on False Creek. In the summer, the smell could be overwhelming, and there would be even days when practices had to be canceled because of water quality concerns. Water quality struggles with high E. coli chemical contamination due to combined sewer outflows during heavy rainfall, illegal boat sewage dumping, and stormwater runoff. Despite these challenges, I've also seen what restoration can look like. The naturalized shoreline of Olympic Village, with its native trees, shrubs, wetland plants, and Habitat Island, demonstrates how thoughtful ecological design can create wildlife habitat and reconnect people with nature. I have fond memories of scrambling over the rocks and exploring Habitat Island with my son when he was a toddler. Those projects demonstrate what is possible when the city invests in ecological restoration, but the city cannot do this work alone. As the executive director of a stewardship organization, I know that lasting environmental restoration depends on partnerships. I've had the opportunity to meet with Mendel Skulski, who just spoke earlier, and David Greig of False Creek Friends, whose passion and knowledge of the ecosystem are inspiring. Their work demonstrates the invaluable role community stewardship groups can play. We must also strengthen collaboration with Musqueam, Squamish and TTsleil-Waututh Nations. The TTsleil-Waututh Nations Stewardship Department is leading extensive ecological restoration and monitoring throughout its territory. including efforts to restore Burrard Inlet and the Indian River watershed so that the traditional harvesting can one day return. As Council considers the future of False Creek, we have an opportunity to build genuine partnerships that combine Indigenous knowledge, community stewardship, and government action. Today's stewardship of False Creek is fragmented across more than 20 government agencies and jurisdictions. No single organization is responsible for the health of the entire inlet. if we are serious about restoring false creek we need a coordinated approach i encourage council to support this motion and establish an inter-jurisdictional working group to improve coordination strengthen stewardship partnerships and build a healthier more resilient false creek for future generations thank you thank you thanks chris okay speaker number four is ryan hunt speaker number four is not on the line

Speaker number five, Brenda Lotzkar.

Good evening. Yes, I'm Brenda Lotzkar, and thank you to Mayor and Council for hearing us tonight. I received your letter today letting me know that government is working on this issue. I have to tell you I'm actually coming at this from a resident here in Vancouver living on Falls Creek, and I can tell you living here just shy of 11 years, nothing has changed. um except prior to fifa thank you um as i stated in my letter vpd and rcmp boats manned and sat on the west side of canby bridge the entire time during fifa not allowing any boat that wasn't more in false creek to enter other than continuous vpd rcmp and coast guard traffic Not four days after the guards left, there was a jet ski towing these derelict boats back in. The City of Vancouver website states, boaters need to get a permit to anchor False Creek when they are anchoring for more than eight hours during the day from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. or anchoring any time between 11 p.m. and 9 a.m. the following day. The City of Vancouver website states it is illegal to dump untreated sewage in Vancouver's surrounding waters. They never leave. In the summer is the only time pump boats come through the creek and they come through in 10 minutes. No pumping of grey or black water is occurring in that amount of time. The permit will allow boat again the permit will allow voters to anchor a maximum of 14 full or part-time days of 30 days during high season april 1st to september 30th and 21 days of 40 days in low season october 1st to march 31st the only time these votes have moved in the almost 11 years is for fifa with vpd and our cmp guarding the waters They are shuffled around during Dragon Boat Festival in June. Other than that, they are permanent fixtures. Falls Creek is continuously used by stand-up paddleboarders, kayaks, tiki tour operators, barbecue boats, pirate tour boats. That means they are all navigating in sewage. The water exchange at low tide and high tide is not effective. There is nowhere for the water to go, as you can see closer to the mouth of English Fanthorpe Beach. False Creek is unique on how it ends. The derelict boats stay till they sink in bad weather. Then the remaining fluid, oil, and tanks leak into the creek, along with all the piled high debris floats that have to be cleaned up. Often booms have to be put around to contain the mess until such time someone,

comes and refloats and drags the mess out. This happens several times a year. We pay taxes. The VPD boats come and patrol and do a look around and leave. We then pay more taxes for the cleanup and the removal once they sink. Thanks, Brenda. That's your time. Thank you. Okay, speaker number six is a branch page. Thank you, and good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Brent Page. I'm speaking in favor of this motion. I live in Vancouver in Yaletown. And False Creek is my backyard. I live on the waterfront, walk the seawall daily, hold an annual aqua bus pass, and kayak year-round with Creekside Passing Centre. For 14 years, I have seen this waterway from every possible angle, every single day. Right now, the heart of our city's waterfront is trapped in regulatory deadlock. Let's be honest. Government's created this mess. By splitting responsibility across some 22 municipal, provincial, and federal bodies, our institutions built a bureaucratic maze. And when everyone is responsible, nobody is. But government also exists to solve big problems, and this is a massive, multilayered one. False Creek defines Vancouver, its waterfront identity, its public life, even how we showcase ourselves to the world. Overlapping jurisdictions cannot remain an excuse for inaction. It's time for the city to step up and get the ball rolling. As a year-round kayaker, I see the consequences up close. Derelict, unlivable, unseaworthy boats, most loaded with junk and trash, and usually with a half-submerged dinghy. Despite anchoring permits, the same vessels remain for years. Several have sunk right offshore from my condo. This is a direct threat to public safety and the environment. Unmanaged anchoring stirs toxic sediment. Unmonitored vessels pollute our waters. I have even been warned by paddling staff to steer clear of specific derelict boats because of unsafe, hostile behavior of their owners. This jurisdictional vacuum is not a quirk. It is actively harming our shared waters. This motion is Council's opportunity to lead. It is not a top-down solution. It starts the collaboration needed to fix this. It directs staff to work with senior governments and, crucially, the Musqueam, Squamish, and TTsleil-Waututh Nations. A co-government framework can create a unified False Creek Harbor Authority rooted in Indigenous stewardship and true reconciliation. The requested Q3-27 report will give Council a roadmap to consolidate seabed tenure

The government's created this bottleneck, but the city can kickstart the cure. Let's stop passing the buck and commit to taking responsibility for the waterway that defines us.

And in doing so, acknowledge commitment is not a word. It is an action. I strongly urge council to pass this motion unanimously, and I sincerely thank you for your time. Okay, thank you. Speaker seven is Stephen Pitcairn.

I was going to speak against the motion, but I found Councillor Orr and Mendel's speech quite compelling, so I've changed my tack, and I'm going to speak in favor of it.

I've been banging the drum for Falls Creek to have a harbormaster for years. My name is Stephen Paco. I have a company called Spookum Yacht Services. My brother and I repair boats in the Granville Island Boatyard. We've been doing it for 20 years. I'm a commercial diver. My dive crew and I have logged about 200 to 300 hours a year diving in Falls Creek for 20 years. There's no human alive who spent more time in that water than I have and if you can prove it I have good dive logs if you can prove it I'd eat my wetsuit We run the free mobile pump-out service for the city of Vancouver. We installed the navigation channel markers for the city. We maintain them. And in the last five years since the beginning of the pandemic, we've removed just a little over 100 derelict, abandoned, and sunken vessels on behalf of the city. You, we have a contract with you, but mostly for Transport Canada and the Coast Guard.

I really like working for the city of Vancouver. You're a great customer. Unlike most of our boating customers, we have hundreds of boating customers in Falls Creek. They all have about 17 or 18 cents for every dollar their boat needs. The people for whom we work at the city, the engineers and the cops and the parks people, they just want good things to happen. So it's quite refreshing. You know, I'm in a world of bloody knuckles capitalism every day. Somebody wants to eat my lunch every day. It's really refreshing to work for people who give a damn, frankly, and it's nice. But I got to tell you, they don't always know what they're doing. In fact, they rarely do because most of them are engaged in other city activities, land-based activities for departments that have no maritime expertise or culture or direction, right? And I will tell you things that it sounds like I'm being a little harsh, but I'm going to tell you things that... Your employees have told me, right? We're all just running Falls Creek off the side of our desks. I get that a lot, right? Because these are engineers who are in streets or in contaminated sites, and they've been tasked with overseeing matters about which they don't know very much. The cops will tell you the same thing. Someone at Parks told me many years ago that this is the only urban waterway in Canada that doesn't have a harbormaster. Somebody with a maritime background... who understands the sort of whole picture, knows the rules that they are to enforce, understands the people and the watercraft, everything from 100-foot mega yachts with staff to the derelict boats everyone's mentioned to all of the human-powered craft in Falls Creek.

Talking to all of these departments with whom we work and for whom we work, it's quite clear that the city's probably wasting a fair bit of time and money

tasking people to enforce rules they don't know. And they're often at cross purposes with one another. So I am speaking in favor of the motion because I think the whole place really needs coordinated management. I think that's my three minutes. Thank you, Stephen. All right. Speaker number eight is Chris Arnold.

Okay. Yeah. Let's just give him 10 seconds.

Please go ahead, Chris.

Hi, Mayor Sim, council members. My name's Chris Arnold. I think we just got introduced. I'm here speaking on behalf of... Greater Vancouver Floating Home Co-op, housed at Spruce Harbour Marina. We are the only member-owned residence floating housing in False Creek. And as people who live on the water every day, I think we have a pretty good experience of the immediate way that False Creek operates. Every vessel in our marina is connected to communal sewer system that discharges into the city's sewer network, ensuring that no human waste enters Falls Creek. We actively support environmental initiatives, including heron spawning projects, oyster restoration programs, to ensure that we have a net environmental positive impact. Our marina is also home to otters, annual birthing grounds for seal pups, countless starfish and crabs, and a residence for our local heron, Henry. Wildlife is returning, reminding us that False Creek is not just an urban waterway, but is also a living ecosystem. False Creek is one of the defining public spaces. It is our home to thousands of residents, a destination for visitors around the world, and a place where people kayak, paddleboard, row, sail, dragon boat, commute by ferry, walk the seawall, and simply enjoy being beside the water. Few cities are fortunate enough to have such a vibrant recreational waterfront so close to our city centre. Yet, despite its importance, False Creek has no single organisation responsible for coordinating the long-term management. As False Creek Friends has identified, two of the most significant challenges are the untreated urban runoff and the unmanaged, often derelict vessels. The issue is not the people living on the boats. Many of us do so responsibility. The issue is the vessels that lack oversight, are poorly maintained, and have no safe place to moor. Unlike many coastal communities of British Columbia, False Creek offers very limited transit moorage and also no legitimate alternatives to anchoring. Several years ago, volunteers from Blue Water Cruising Association, including members of our co-op, installed mooring boys.

Sorry. Mooring buoys to provide a safer alternative. Unfortunately, without legal backing, removing these irresponsible boats, the program failed. The consequences are visible. Routine oil slicks from anchor vessels and waste in the water. I have personally removed plastic barrels, bags of rubbish, and even an entire two-person tent filled with a ton of marine... incompatible material. We also see vessels dragging anchor during storms and high tides, damaging public infrastructure, marine facilities, and neighboring boats. These situations affect everyone, not just those of us who live on the water. They create hazards for all Falls Creek users. They diminish the experience of visitors walking the seawall and undermine the image of one of Vancouver's most iconic public spaces. When these incidents occur, we call the Coast Guard, the city, and Vancouver Police. Although each agency wants to help, it's passed off as it's not their legal responsibility. Too often, action cannot be taken until someone is either in danger or an environmental disaster has already occurred. Many leading waterfront cities, including Paris, Copenhagen, Berlin, New York, Portland, and our own Ottawa and Toronto, have demonstrated coordinated governance that can transform these urban waterways into cleaner, safer, more vibrant public spaces. Vancouver has the opportunity to do the same. We support False Creek Friends' proposal to establish an organization with long-term oversight over False Creek, bringing together residents, indigenous nations, marinas, environmental organizations, recreational users, businesses, government agencies around the table. Such an organization would not replace existing authorities. Instead, it would improve communication, coordinate action... identify emergency issues before they become crises, develop safe, regulated moorage, support environmental restoration, ensure that many groups who care deeply about Falls Creek are working together towards a common vision. As stakeholders ourselves, with adequate tools, we are ready to work with the city and assist in such programs. Our previous experience, community-led Mooring Boys, taught us an important lesson. Good ideas are not enough without lasting institutional support. This organization is to succeed. It must have full backing in the city and relevant agencies. Thank you very much for your time.

Hello?

Hi, sorry. Yeah, is this for speaker nine?

Hello, is this for speaker number nine to go ahead?

Thank you.

Your call cannot be completed as done.

Welcome to TELUS Conferencing. Steph, can you hear me? Hi, is this for Speaker Knight? Yes. Hi, good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Keith. Sorry, Kelly, just give us a second. I need to get everyone back to the Council Chamber. Oh, I apologize. Thank you. Yeah, just hold on.

One more.

Okay. Counselor online, can you turn on your video so we'll have call?

Counselor Bly, can you turn on your video? There we go. Perfect. All right, let's continue. Speaker number nine, sorry for the technical challenge. So now I think everything's fine. Speaker number nine is Caitlin Stockwell.

Hi, good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Caitlin Stockwell. I'm a Vancouver resident, an environmental advocate, and an open water swimmer who is heavily invested in efforts to clean up Vancouver's waterways. I'm speaking in support of this motion. Falls Creek is one of the most iconic parts of our city. In any picture of Vancouver, you'll likely see it featured. It was also once a key fishing area for musquam, Squamish, and slaver tooth, as well as for shellfish harvesting. However, despite this area's importance and the amount of civic life that is built around this space, from our Sea World, Science World, Granville Island, Habitat Island, to recent FIFA events, there is no coordinated plan in place for water quality management and environmental protection. The management of False Creek currently looks like that Spider-Man meme, with each level of government pointing fingers at each other, regarding who is responsible for different aspects of navigation, removal of derelict boats, enforcement of sewage tank emptying from boats, and environmental monitoring. This makes it much harder to address water quality, habitat restoration, derelict vessels, climate resilience, and public safety in a coordinated way. These waterways and Vancouverites deserve better. This motion is an opportunity for the city to take leadership on establishing a coordinated stewardship model for False Creek and to explore working with Squamish, Musqueam, and TTsleil-Waututh Nations, the province and federal agencies, to establish a single harbor authority with a clear mandate for proactively caring for the health of False Creek and responding to risks and hazards. While I appreciate the swimmability of Falls Creek as a longer-term goal, coordinating cleanup and management efforts and clearly establishing who will be responding to which issues and when, for example, through a single harbor authority, is an important start for improving water quality, improving ecological health, and supporting climate adaptation efforts. This, in turn, will have benefits for the health of current recreation users on Gulf Creek, such as paddleboarders, dragon boaters, other paddlers that currently come in close contact with the water, and support the health of marine life, such as the recently returned herring populations. In Canada, responsible water stewardship has returned swimability to Victoria's Gorge Waterway, 8 of 11 beaches in Toronto Harbour, the Rideau River and Dow's Lake in Ottawa, and the Halifax Harbour. There is precedent for cities taking the lead in ecological health and recreational access for urban waterways, and the City of Vancouver should join this charge. It would be great to see the level of coordination proposed by this motion in place in time to help implement recommendations coming back from the current study underway by the Metro Vancouver Regional District, the City, Falls Creek Friends Society and Raincoast that is looking at water quality conditions in Falls Creek and making recommendations on ways to improve water quality for fish, wildlife and people.

And I understand recommendations on that are coming back in 2027. I ask City Council to support this motion and take steps today that will increase future recreation accessibility of the Falls Creek Waterway, support collaboration with host nations to support the stewardship of these waters, and care for Falls Creek as a beloved urban waterway. Thank you.

Okay, speaker 10 is Matthew Hay. Hey, can you hear me okay? Yes, we can. Please go ahead. great thank you good afternoon mayor and council my name is Matthew I'm a Vancouver resident and I'm speaking today in support of Councillor Orr's motion to establish a unified stewardship model for Falls Creek I love Falls Creek it's one of my favorite parts of the city it somehow manages to be both vibrant and bustling and quiet and peaceful I live right here under the shadow of City Hall and in the summers I like to ride my bike down Yukon Street to the seawall See the boats in the marina and people watch from the benches. If you bike down Charleston and onto Laney Mills Road, you get a beautiful and quiet ride with a large tree canopy on one side and Charleston Park and the nice housing co-ops on the other. For those in this room that cycle, I really recommend you check it out. It's lovely. You see all sorts of folks walking along the seawall or visiting local businesses or picking up their kids from Falls Creek Elementary. This is community. I also know that the sewage issues around Science World mean that on a hot day, it is pretty unbearable to be around for long. During the World Cup, the Science World soccer ball has been a central part of the city's visible tourism strategy, and I wonder how many tourists have walked by and marveled at it, only to have that moment tainted by the smell of stagnant sewage. We're seeing across the globe multiple simultaneous never before seen heat waves. Climate change is accelerating rapidly. We're set to have the hottest summer on record and next year won't be any different. This problem is only going to get worse and habitat degradation will only increase. Sea level rise threatens our vital seawall infrastructure across our city and specifically within Falls Creek. We simply must address the fragmentation of Falls Creek governance that has led to these issues. Councillor Orr's motion also calls for exploring a co-governance framework developed in partnership with the Musqueam, Squamish, and TTsleil-Waututh nations. If we wish to claim that we are a city of reconciliation, as I hope we all do, we need to back that up with more than words. We need to lean on those nations who have stewarded and cared for these lands. Supporting this motion means supporting real reconciliation, it means strengthening climate resilience, and it means building up a truly vibrant tourism and cultural asset within Vancouver for all to enjoy for decades to come. Thanks for your time. Thank you.

Speaker 11 has withdrawn. Speaker 12 is Shannon Ochoa.

Hello, and thank you for the opportunity to speak to this motion. My name is Shannon Otruba, and I am a resident of Vancouver and a staff lawyer with West Coast Environmental Law. I'm speaking today in support of this motion. I'm standing to support this motion because Falls Creek is a center of the social, environmental, and economic health of Vancouver, and its fragmented management has led to significant environmental and public safety concerns falling through the cracks between governments. Fortunately, the city of Vancouver is well positioned to initiate a process to move towards better governance and stewardship of Falls Creek. As with many coastal water bodies in British Columbia, Falls Creek is a place of overlapping jurisdiction in which the city, the province, the federal government, and the governments of the Musqueam, Squamish, and TTsleil-Waututh Nations all have responsibilities to steward this important aspect of Vancouver's identity. For instance, in Falls Creek, the federal government regulates navigational safety, the province regulates water quality, the city regulates land use planning and zoning, and these authorities are subject to the rights and title of the Musqueam, Squamish, and TTsleil-Waututh nations. These shared responsibilities demonstrate that all governments need to play a role in the stewardship of Falls Creek. It is also important to note... that the province passed its first-ever coastal marine strategy, which identifies the need to collaborate with Indigenous, federal, and local governments to achieve the strategy's objectives, including shoreline restoration and addressing derelict vessels. If the stewardship of Falls Creek is to evolve to meet its potential, these governments must effectively collaborate, not pass the buck to each other. And the city of Vancouver, as a government located within and adjacent to Falls Creek, is well positioned to lead on this front. Of course, doing so will require closely collaborating with the Indigenous and other governments with jurisdiction in Falls Creek. But thankfully, there are examples of these sorts of collaborations happening elsewhere in British Columbia that demonstrate how effective it can be. for instance the city of victoria stepped up to improve the conditions of the gorge waterway in victoria on the quongen and mcsanich territory despite the complexities of bringing together multiple governments to establish new and enhanced governance structures the project put forward by this motion presents an opportunity for the city to provide benefit to all of us living in and around falls creek this is a way forward that could leave a thriving waterway for the generations to come a legacy that is legally achievable and socially and economically desirable. For these reasons, I support this motion. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you. Speaker 13 is David K. Grigg.

chair and councillors. My name is David Greig and I'm a resident of Kitsilano for some 30 odd years, I guess. Okay, so I don't intend to go through the problems. I think that's quite clear. Most people are aware of the problems. But this is a pivotal moment in time, particularly given the attention during the FIFA World Cup celebrations. Governance is the key. It's the key to managing the inlet for all users, whether they be in a luxury yacht or wish to swim. Governance could lead to the inlet reaching a status, a higher status than it is now, a status such as an urban marine park. It would be the first in North America. That's in the near term. In the longer term, it could provide the basis for an ecological nursery of future aquatic life in English Bay. It's not too difficult to imagine that that may become a United Nations or UNESCO biosphere. Now, this is reaching, but how sound is already a UNESCO biosphere? as is Mount Arrowsmith by Parksville on Vancouver Island is also a UNESCO biosphere. And we have our neighbors in Washington State, Olympic Park, is another UNESCO biosphere. So we can imagine where we might be going with this. And in fact, given the number of UNESCO biospheres that could be, the whole of the Salish Sea could become one of the world's largest UNESCO biospheres. And of course, the importance of that is given the extra traffic that comes through marine oil terminals and LNG and so on and so forth, it's important for us to start the process off here in Vancouver.

As a retired engineer and urban planner, I know that every significant placemaking plan starts with a dream. Approval of this motion will give a kickstart to potential restoration of the inlet and beyond into the Salish Sea. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. Speaker 14, Elizabeth Van Der Zak.

Hello.

Thank you for this opportunity to talk about this topic. I'm a resident in one of the condominiums that are on Falls Creek, so I'm just speaking as a resident, a person that lives in the creek, sees what's going on there every day. As a resident, we're often frustrated because we can't figure out what to do when we see a boat start to sink. They don't often sink quickly. Sometimes they just start to go. And then later on, we see them retrieving the boat when it's already sunk. We call the Coast Guard. We've called the RCMP. We call the Vancouver Police. We keep getting shoved over from one jurisdiction to another. As a resident, it would be wonderful to have a central agency that we can communicate with when we have also loud disturbances on the creek or when we see these kind of environmental disasters happening when the oil starts to spill and the colors happen on the surface of the water. In my frustration, when I found out about the Falls Creek Friends Society, I was suddenly relieved to know that there was something we could do. And I think that's part of what we're doing here right now. And I feel really happy that we have a chance to speak to you about this and that we can address this situation. I would like to extend my appreciation for Zeta Schneider and Mendel Stusky for all the work they've done, and it's really a wonderful vision that people have for the Greek, and I'm 100% behind it. I want my grandson to be able to put his hands in False Creek someday. And for that, I would ask that you find a way to make a central authority over top of this creek so that we can have an actual human being that knows about marine law and about the laws for the creek and enforced. Because currently, Falls Creek is about the most lawless place in Vancouver, I would say, except maybe the Home Depot parking lot. So how do we pay for this? I would say we should do moorage fees. We have to pay for parking at Spanish banks. What's wrong with merge fees? We could do some income from the marinas could be diverted to having some preservation and protection for the creek. The marinas make millions of dollars, and I don't think that much money goes back into just for the staff, but otherwise there's not much done for Falls Creek from that income. That's city income that could be diverted to this. And, of course, the federal government and the provincial government should contribute as well. Then we also have the cost benefits of not having to have sunken boats that we have to retrieve all the time, even though Stephen does a terrific job of it. And then there's the kind of cost benefit of not having the environmental... spillage and the disaster of all that stuff that goes into the water. I mean, right now, the benthic environment, which is the ocean floor, is the responsibility of the province. But it crusts over. It's just a garbage dump, essentially, Falls Creek is. But it's crusted over. And so the anchors dragging is what's causing it to break up. So I would like to see... proper stewardship of Falls Creek, and I would love to see it be a place where we could have our children put their hands in the water and look at sea life. That would be fantastic. Thank you so much. Thank you. Okay, Speaker 15 has withdrawn.

I'm going to go back to the Speaker 4, Ryan Hunt.

Speaker 4 is not on the line. Okay, thank you. So that's the end of our speakers list. Thanks everyone for speaking to the standing committee. Committee members, is there any discussion? I saw Councillor Klassen. Yeah, thank you, Chair. I have a small, what I consider to be a friendly amendment that I have submitted. So maybe we can just go straight to the amendment queue and I'll... Please add yourself there. Yeah, for sure. And we need a seconder for the amendment. Seconded by Councillor Dominado. Councillor Klassen, please add yourself to the queue.

Okay, please go ahead. Yeah, you bet. So, first of all, I want to thank all the speakers, and great to see my old friend, Elizabeth Van Der Zeg, and getting the nice zinger there about the Home Depot parking lot was giving me a chuckle. Thanks a lot. Good to see you, Elizabeth. First of all... What is so clear, and I want to, again, thank all the speakers, what we are experiencing right now is underlying governance issues and false grief that have really plagued a couple generations' worth of people governing here. And I think that the city is an important partner, but at the end of the day, we are... You know, we don't have the tools that certainly the federal government has or even the province. So they have really the legislative and jurisdictional levers need to resolve these issues permanently. But yet, as I mentioned, the city is an important partner. And if we look at what just happened, in fact, I spotted a story, a news story today talking about how the fact that the Falls Creek, the crafts that were out there moored in Falls Creek were gone. During the FIFA period, but have slowly been sort of coming back because we're no longer hosting local games. And so it really made us think about, you know, we've done something to get the False Creek cleared up. of these crafts, why not keep it going? So just with that in mind, I think we have a tool potentially from that work that we've done, again, intergovernmental work. And so the motion essentially describes in a very simple way to call on the province of British Columbia to initiate those discussions with both the federal government and local nations And then finally adds an E clause asking that the mayor writes to the province and the government of Canada requesting that any legislative, regulatory, administrative, or intergovernmental measures established in connection with the World Cup, FIFA World Cup 2026, that enhance prevention, enforcement, management. removal of derelict, abandoned, or illegally moored vessels in Vault Creek be retained beyond the conclusion of the tournament as an interim measure until permanent legislative, regulatory, and jurisdictional arrangements are established to provide effective long-term governance and enforcement. within Falls Creek. So thank you, Councillor Orr, for bringing this forward.

I hope this is seen as a way to slightly enhance what we've done there and allow us to use the tools that we have available and have already established to achieve the goals that clearly the people we heard from in the Chamber tonight are really eager for us to make happen. Thank you. Thanks. Councillor Orr. Yeah, thanks. Thanks for the amendment there and the explainer. I do think it's worth mentioning, you know, we had a similar sort of situation with the Olympics that happened, and there was a lot of conversation around this topic around then, and that the feds did defer management of vessels to the city in a 2009 MOU. And that's sort of the situation that we're in today. So, I mean, I also have a concern around that East Basin there is the safest place to keep boats. It's the most sort of sheltered.

So... I have a few concerns around that, but, you know, seeing this is, you know, very much a friendly amendment, I think I'll go along with it, you know, in order to sort of keep the rest of the motion kind of going. Thank you. Okay, thanks. All right, seeing no one else on the queue for the amendment, so I'm going to call the vote. Council, please register your vote. And we are voting for the Council of Classes amendment.

Yeah, thanks, Mayor.

Okay, the amendment passed unanimously with Councillor Montague absent. Okay, back to the main queue. Councillor Clausen?

Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Fry. Yeah, just to speak in favor of the motion, the original motion and the motion as amended. You know, I had to write down a list. Over the last eight years, my two terms on council, we have variously dealt with... or heard of, derelict vessels in Falls Creek, water contamination preventing access to the creek, fuel leaks, horrific smells from sewage overflow, sewage pumping services, should we pay for them or not, party boats and the noise, floating chop shops, illegal Airbnbs, sunken boats, and so many legitimate complaints from boaters, visitors, creakers, and Vancouverites alike. And consistently, when we would bring these complaints to staff, we would be told, well, it's It's multi-jurisdictional. It's not our jurisdiction. And we seem to be stalled in this kind of inertia. And so I think that we've been in that inertia for a while. So it's high time that we make this move. I mean, I'm not going to say it's all been bad news. Of course, there's been wonderful engagement with the Falls Creek and going out with Zeta and the friends of Falls Creek and looking at some of the ecosystem restoration and some of the opportunities there and nature healing itself. And I think that... You know, when we look at the creek from afar, it is a fantastic asset for our city. It defines the city of Vancouver. I think, you know, photographically, more than any body of water, Falls Creek is the postcard of Vancouver. And it is important. And I think this is the step in the right direction. It's long overdue. And I realize that it's still not going to be easy, and it is still multi-jurisdictional, and there are complications with seabed. indigenous land claims, and all the different pieces that will make this complicated, but it should not be an excuse for not moving forward on it. So I'm glad to see this get the support from everybody, it would appear, and let's all row together. Sorry, I couldn't resist. Okay, thanks. Councillor Kobiel. Yeah, thank you. I'll try to be brief. I've also dealt with a share of Falls Creek issues and motions over my time, and color me either realistic or skeptical, but I do think we've got to drive to the heart of who has the primary responsibility, and I think the one speaker... who serves as a contractor for the city, spoke very well that our staff don't necessarily, they're not maritime experts, and giving the city of Vancouver kind of jurisdiction over boats but without any teeth to do anything about it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. And so really, I think it is a vociferous push for the province and the feds to get together. and recognize that Falls Creek is a jewel of Vancouver. We are a waterfront city. People love to be out and about near the waterfront. The city was very consciously built and developed so that people would have access to waterfront. We're not like other cities, Montreal and others, that had to reclaim their waterfront because a lot of it, I mean, this was an industrial area, but generally speaking, there was more public access to it.

And we have sort of uninterrupted... access, you continue to go around. We do that now, even connecting with the bridges so that people can walk all the way through, you know, Stanley Park, False Creek, downtown over Granville and carry along. So I think it is sort of high time that we move forward. And on this piece, I was on the Vancouver Park Board when we started the Pump Don't Dump. I still remember the graphics and the press conference with doing that. And that was an effort to... Yeah, there were some really good, fun graphics at the time. And the wind was whipping around at the time. And scientists looked at it and tried to determine, is it fecal matter? What is it? There's a number of complex factors. The environmental issues are really well identified. It's the jurisdictional quagmire that is really... honestly, the crux of the problem. But we did pay for the dump outs. I moved a motion that we advance sewer separation, which we're doing at a faster rate now. We have a lot of aging infrastructure in the city to do that. These are all pieces that contribute overall. But really, when it comes down to it, what you need is sort of somebody that actually has bigger authority to kind of take it on seriously. And it is a jewel in the city of Vancouver. People love to be out and about on it. And it would be nice to get away from having those advisories. Has our harbor line changed? We used to have sort of a normal washout with developing that and reclaiming some of that land. Yes, absolutely. But we also have a lot of technology today to look at how we can sort of improve that. So I am happy to support it. I do think, and I remember having this chat with the mayor around, it's a real shame that, and I think he's expressed this sentiment very clearly as well, that we only get these special abilities during specific events and specific times. And that is an issue. I will disagree with Councillor on the one piece around mooring the boats there. Those boats shouldn't be there because they actually provide a lot of issues with respects to illegal discharge. They are sometimes impediments for recreational boaters. They are impediments for sort of safe passage of False Creek ferries. What you want is an open sort of waterfront that can be available to multiple different users. And so I think that that is important to note as well. And so I really would like to see those continue not to be there. The marinas that do operate there, specifically the civic marinas, offer very affordable moorage, similar to our golf courses, and some of those funds do support programs like the pump-out service and others. But there are other affordable options, but we should not have unsound watercraft in the middle of a beautiful waterway like that. That just doesn't make sense to me. But I am happy to support it. Thanks. Thank you. Councillor Maloney?

Thank you. I'll be voting in support of this. I thank you very much to all our public speakers for taking the time to talk to us.

It's been very entertaining and educational for me and I can't wait to come out for a proper tour at some stage soon. It's really nice. One of the things about these member motions is it's very nice to see people who all passionately care about an issue come in and sort of meet up and talk to each other and get together. So I hope that that's been a benefit as well. And thank you very much, especially people that do so much volunteer work to keep our beautiful False Creek looking as good as it can be because we all enjoy it so much. So thank you.

All right, thank you. So I'm going to call the vote. Clerk, please take us to the voting screen. And committee members, please register your vote. We are voting for the main motion as amended.

Chair, can I please get a vote of system favor? Yeah, thanks, Mayor. Noted. Thank you. Okay, so the amended motion passed unanimously with Councillor Montague absent. Thank you.

Okay, so... Thanks. That completes motion 10 on the agenda. We have four motions to go. Motion 11, Sustaining Summer 2026 Festival. And it is co-submitted by Councillor Kerbion and Councillor Domenalo. And it is moved and introduced by Councillor Kerbion. Before we begin this agenda item, if anyone believes they have a conflict of interest, now is the time to declare it. Does anyone have a conflict of interest to disclose? Okay, you have two minutes to introduce your motion. Please add yourself there so I can advance you. Yeah. There we go.

Sorry, I'm having dueling computer screens. Yeah, thank you. I'm very pleased to bring this motion forward together with Councillor Dominato to sustain Vancouver's summer festivals. It will not be news to this council that we have had a number of requests this year due to the extraordinary circumstances that many festivals find themselves in, declining federal and provincial senior government support, declining sponsorship and funding. generally rising costs in the festival environment. We have viewed this as an extraordinary year in terms of advancing some funding to close the gap, and then also remind Council that direction has been given to sort of look at how we sort of sustain moving forward on an ongoing basis. But at this moment in time, we have tried to ensure that the festivals can continue and carry on. This motion contemplates additional support for Latin Coover, for the Vancouver Chinatown Foundation to light up Chinatown, for the Gaston Business Improvement Society for programming for the Water Street Sunday pedestrian zone in keeping with those activations and priorities. to the hellenic congress for the recent greet day on broadway the lumiere festival of vancouver for lumiere 2026 indian summer arts society for the deliver the indian summer festival and i will also be bringing an amendment so i'm just losing multiple pages here for council's consideration for a punjabi mila event as well as for where is my amendment queue um

the Coastal Jazz and Blues Society, who have also found themselves in a bind this year. So I'll do that through an amendment later after we hear speakers, but just letting council know that ahead of time. Thank you. Thank you. Seconded by Councillor Dominardo. We will now hear from the registered speaker for this motion. Public speakers should stay whether they are in support or in opposition of the recommendations and may only speak once. I will also ask speakers if they are residents of Vancouver if it is not noted on the speakers list. Our first registered speaker is Ablado Mayoral. Mayoral.

Thanks, Sonny. Council, Abelardo Mayoral, Mayo, Vancouver resident from the Kitsilano neighborhood, owner of the Invisible Orange, a live music production company. I'm here to discuss the motion for sustaining summer 2026 festivals. More discussion that I'm bringing in principle is something that will just simply support, right? When I see sustaining summer 2026 festivals is something that I personally as well, I attend and enjoy. in Vancouver. But as I kept reading the motion, I had some questions that I wanted to bring in. I think I have some assumptions around them. Because the first one is how was the list of festivals selected? Here is they're reaching out because they're in a crunch. So, yeah, whether a mechanism exists, there must be an opportunity to formalize something like that and to find those that are staples of Vancouver to help them out then. Because many of them might not know this exists, like, I don't know, like two days ago. Then I kept reading and then also just had some questions around, like... around the amounts being determined, because from the numbers in the motion, I saw something from $0.30 per attendee to $2.50 per attendee. So I just wonder if it was based on their capacity to fundraise or their operational efficiencies. uh i don't know and um and also just calling summer festivals and there's some in the list that are in the fall which i like i know the majority are in the summer so then i mean just i would just uh think something that supports festivals in Vancouver in general for arts and culture, then it's something that will excite me. But I was just curious about around the naming of the summer festivals. But yeah, it feels silly to discuss the disappointment of just $200 and so $1,000 for festivals. I would like to see that happen. I would like to see the summer festivals being supported. I just wanted to... say that, yeah, in principle, I support it. I just wonder if there is more to do to formalize and to bring more transparency as well and make sure we support those jewels that we have in the festivals in Vancouver as well.

So thank you. Thanks, Maya. All right. So speaker number two is Bharat Gupta.

Speaker number two is not on the line. Speaker number three is Alice Yukoski.

Hi there. Good evening, Mayor and Councillors. My name is Elise Yukoski, and I'm calling in on behalf of the Gaston Business Improvement Society in support of this motion. First, I'd like to thank Councillor Dominato and Chris Young for bringing this motion forward. As Council is aware, over the past several years...

businesses, and community partners to find the right balance for pedestrianization in Gastown. Together, we've learned that success isn't simply about closing a street. It's about creating a reason for people to come. Thoughtful programming and infrastructure, business billow, neighborhood character, local musicians, markets, performances, family activities, and festivals are all what make people want to stay. Many of those lessons have helped shape pedestrian zones elsewhere in the city and were incredible. incredibly proud that Gaston has played that role. After a successful 2025 season, averaging more than 10,000 visitors each Sunday, we were discouraged to learn that programming funding for Water Street had decreased, while additional responsibilities were being shifted to the GBIS. As a result, we've had to reduce our car-free Sundays from 12 to 10 days and cut community programming by about 80%. That means fewer opportunities for local artists, makers, businesses, and community partners, the very elements that made the previous pilot successful and continue to make Gastown Sunday Set successful today. This risks jeopardizing the work that we have done to date. We're also seeing the condition of our temporary infrastructure decline at a time when Gastown is welcoming thousands of visitors each week. But we know this infrastructure was never intended to be permanent.

as we work toward the long-term vision for Gastown. While we appreciate the city's continued investment in the Gastown Public Spaces Plan and are very proud to be a partner in that work, our concern now is really about certainty. As funding is reduced and operational responsibilities increase, it becomes harder to plan ahead, secure sponsors, book performers, and coordinate programming. It also means our team is spending more time managing operational responsibilities and less time directly focused on our core mandates. SUPPORTING OUR BUSINESSES. FOR ORGANIZATIONS LIKE OURS, LONG-TERM SUCCESS DEPENDS ON CONSISTENT INVESTMENT AS WELL AS CONFIDENCE THAT WE'RE BUILDING SOMETHING SUSTAINABLE TOGETHER. AS THE CITY CONTINUES INVESTING IN PUBLIC SPACES ACROSS VANCOUVER, WE HOPE IT ALSO CONTINUES INVESTING IN THE NEIGHBORHOODS THAT HELP SHAPE THE MODEL. THE GBIS REMAINS COMMITTED TO WORKING WITH THE CITY. WE BELIEVE IN WHAT WE'VE BUILT TOGETHER, AND WE LOOK FORWARD TO CONTINUING BUILDING ON THAT SUCCESS. finishing what we started together. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Okay, speaker number four is Paula Murillo.

Finally. I don't know how you guys do. Anyway. So, yeah, it was very important for me to be here. I am a Vancouver resident. My name is Paola Murillo, founder and director of Latin Queer and Carnival del Sol. And I wanted to be here because I wanted to express my sincere gratitude to bring forward this motion. because on behalf of Latin Cuber and many other cultural organizations that serve our city, thank you for recognizing how important is the festival to Vancouver. This motion couldn't come at a more important time. For us, we just finished Carnival del Sol this past weekend. Once again, we witnessed the incredible impact that cultural festivals have in our city. For the past 18 years, Carnival del Sol has brought communities together. While generating economic and social value, this year alone, we estimate that it was an impact of $2.5 million. in economic impact for the city of Vancouver, including suppliers, vendors, sponsors, artists, contractors, security, the Vancouver Police Department, and many others. Producing a festival like this now costs over $1.2 million, and each year it becomes increasingly difficult to make it financially sustainable. This year, it was quite unique having FIFA credit, even that it was here. And we know that it was a very exciting and historic moment for Vancouver. And we were very proud to welcome visitors from around this world. However, it did create also pressure for our cultural festivals. We compete for media attention, experiencing increased supplier's costs, lost sponsors, vendors, and saw low attendance compared to previous years. At the same time, operational costs continue to rise, particularly for policing and city services. Those services are so important, and after all we understand what happened on April 26th, And for us, it was very shocking what happened in Toronto with Salsa Sinclair Festival, which was very shocking for us. And a lot of the people that was coming to the festival was more and more asking for how much police and support we had and security. So we understand more than ever that safety is a priority. We are grateful for the guidance and support of the city and Vancouver Police Department in helping us to create safe and welcoming space for everyone. And this is why this motion is so important right now. Support the festival is not simply funding an event. It's investing in community belonging, public safety, local business, tourists, and Vancouver's cultural identity. Finally, I would like to express my interest in participating in any festival advisory commitment or working group, because I believe this is very needed, working together to find a long-term solution that ensures festivals remain sustainable while adapting to new realities.

and increasing costs, the higher safety requirements, and changing economic conditions. Festivals are where strangers become neighbors, culture connects, and community feel they belong. I hope we can continue working together to make this happen. Once again, thank you so much. This is very important. Gracias. Obrigada. Thank you, Paula. Yes. Okay, so I'm going to go back to speaker to Bharat Gupta.

Speaker 2 is not on the line. Okay, thank you. So this is the end of our speakers list. Thank you everyone for speaking to the standing committee. Committee members, is there any discussion? I saw Councillor Kerby on. Please go ahead. Chair, would you like to move us to an amendment queue? Okay. Add yourself there.

Thank you. Thank you very much. As referenced earlier in my remarks, I was signaling to council I did intend to move an amendment to ensure we have been responsive to the request we received. And so I have sent that into council, and it's to add an amendment for additional funding to the Vancouver Punjabi Mela Society. for the Vancouver Punjabi Mela 2026 event in Walter Moberly Park. And then further for the Coastal Jazz and Blues Society for the Vancouver International Jazz Festival. And I think the clerks, oh yeah, the clerks have that up. So I will put that forward for council's consideration. Thank you. Thank you. Second by Councillor Fry. Okay, Councillor Maloney. Thanks, dear. Just a question through the chair to the mover of the motion. If that's all right. Yep. I just wanted to know how you envisage, I noticed that they're neither on the amendment nor the original motion. Are there details of breakdowns of how the money will be spent? And I was just wondering how you envision reporting back or transparency and accountability on the grants?

There we go. Thanks, Councillor Maloney, for the question. It will go to staff, and it would be the similar process that we do with regular grants, that they would extend a... Sorry, I'm starting to lose my words this long. A granting letter, for lack of a better word, that has the various requirements. And then the organizations have the same, just like whenever we do regular awards to festivals, they have similar requirements to advise and report back on what they're spending it on, et cetera. So it all gets turned over to staff. Each of the events, when they provided and asked, was asked to provide context and financials. So we have all that information to share with staff. And then the administration, the letters in terms of the expectations, would follow the regular process. It goes entirely over. That way. Thank you. Council apply.

Oh, yes. Thank you very much. I just was I recognize we had some.

We had a. A letter from Nina from the Jazz Fest and having not seen this amendment, I was just verifying. The amounts and I just my point of information through you. to the mover of the amendment is what engagement has happened with the Jazz Fest. Yeah, through you, Chair, and in response to Council Bly, to your question, similar to what I described earlier, we've had a call and conversation. They also provided some backup information as to where their shortfall came from. It sounds like all of Council received the same letter that provided context on where each festival had a shortfall. So for them, for Jazz Fest, it was sponsorship, et cetera. I think Nina had detailed that in her letter. And then we spoke with her and had a conversation as well.

And to your other point, the amount does match the request. Okay. Okay. That's helpful. I saw the request was 60,000. That's the letter. So it's not clear to me where the 39, right at the top of the letter, you said, I think you have it. It's amount requested 60,000. My understanding is that their sales were down 20,000 or sorry, 20% right across the board, largely because of FIFA, but other reasons.

So yeah, it's not consistent with what I understand. has been the shortfall. So I just want to make sure we're correct.

Give me a moment, Councillor Bligh. Sorry, I was trying to bring it up. I don't want to take your time. Yeah, do you want to go ahead and put yourself on, Councillor Dominato? Okay, go ahead.

Oh, I don't have much else, so I'm happy to wait if that's okay, or go after it, whatever makes sense.

No, and following up on that, the letter says we would love to be, quote, unquote, we would love to be considered for a one-time payment to cover losses and earn revenue of $39,000 that are a direct impact from our overlap with FIFA dates, unquote. Okay, I think we have different emails. I will leave that there for the minute. Thank you. Thanks. Okay, Councillor Domenato.

Okay. Oh, it's been seconded. Sorry, my apologies. Okay, thank you. All right, so seeing no one else on the queue, let's go to the vote for the amendment. Council, again, please register your vote for the Councillor Kerbion's amendment.

Yeah, thanks, Mayor. And Councillor Frye? Councillor Bligh?

And Chair, it's Councillor Monaghan if I get a vote assist in favour, please. Okay, thank you.

Okay, so the amendment passed unanimously. Thank you. Going back to the main queue, Councillor Kirby. I'll just say that I'm happy to bring this forward. I appreciate Council's support, and I'll recognize it's been an extraordinary year. We recognize that we need to have a clear, I think when the Speaker said it earlier, a clear process for everybody, but this was a bit of an extraordinary year with FIFA and a confluence of a number of factors that I identified, and so Council has directed doing that work moving forward to regularize what the city's support looks like. And next year will be a different year. But I'm glad that all the festivals are continuing on. And I think they've done just a fantastic job. I think a lot of councillors have a chance to be out at a number of the different events that are referenced in this email. And they really do contribute to making summer what it is in Vancouver. And they bring... People together, they give us a chance to celebrate the different cultures, to experience a culture that's different than your own, to support the local businesses, to be out in the sun and animate our neighborhoods. And I think that that's a huge part of our summer life in Vancouver. So we're happy to support it, and hopefully we'll find a more sustainable way forward. Thank you. Thank you. Councillor Meiszner. Yeah, similar thoughts. I want to thank Councillor Skirby-Young and Councillor Dominato for bringing this forward. But most of all, to all the amazing volunteers and organizers. who helped make these incredible festivals happen because they add so much to the cultural vibrancy and fabric of our city. And they make Vancouver a great place to live. So thank you for that. And we fully recognize that, you know, costs have gone up substantially in recent years for security, for suppliers, for labor, for everything. And that was why, as Councillor Kirby mentioned, Kirby Young mentioned, we have given direction to staff to work on a framework to ensure that festivals are sustainable in the future. But yeah, I just want to say in full support of this and thanks for all the work that everyone does to hold these festivals because we love attending them. So thank you. Thank you.

Thanks. Councillor Maloney. Thanks. Yeah, all of these organisations contribute enormously to our city and are very deserving recipients. I'm slightly worried about the fact that we've continued to do this in such an ad hoc way because I'm worried that there might be other deserving organisations that might not have personal connections with councillors or know that this is a possibility for... funding and it certainly isn't anymore because we've run out of standing committee meetings before the election as it turns out but yeah so I'll definitely be voting in favour of this but it's certainly not perfect to be dribbling out funding you know when individuals from these organisations have to approach councillors cap in hand instead of you know being properly supported through an arm's length transparent accountable process and whether we intended or not this process has certainly politicised the grants approval process. It's an arbitrary way of deciding grants and they haven't gone through the normal process of evaluation. So as I said, all of the organisations that councils issued grants to throughout the course of this year have been very deserving and hopefully there won't be any need to continue this in the future. Thanks. Thanks. Councillor Bligh. Yeah, thanks very much. Happy to support and appreciate the speakers for coming and speaking. I know many of them were coming into chambers this morning and so have been there all day. Just wanting to acknowledge that it's been a long day for many. I'm very happy to support this, and I understand the extenuating circumstances this year that I think were maybe not anticipated fully, and so therefore were planned for. But I have to agree with much of what Casa Maloney has said, that this sort of started off with one-time support for various festivals at the beginning of this year. And then, of course, as I would too, groups come forward and make their case. And a city is sort of... Established as Vancouver, I expect that from like a small town with new festivals. But these are these are legacy festivals and groups and arts and culture events that have been around a long time and would expect the city to have a much clearer program and plan that meets the moment in terms of incremental cost increases over many, many, many years. We're in the last meeting. standing committee meeting of this term. And there isn't really anything that I think that we can really hold up and say this is what we got done in terms of solving problems as it relates to funding and programming for the arts and culture sector.

And that needs to be recognized. You know, I think the Jazz Fest, of course, is the last grant that was just amended in. It's a perfect example of how far city funds can go when they're also matched with organization funds, sponsorships, as well as philanthropic support, as well as provincial support that all go into a festival like many, but just as an example, and how much further our city contribution goes when we are helping organizations that are producing these events. I've had some conversations with many festival producers and including the Jazz Fest. And I think we all remember how beloved the Jazz Fest was when it was at David Lamb Park. It was for the weekend. Blankets were out. It was all free. Food vendors, artisan, a much bigger festival vibe. uh an offering and it's been um it's been a real struggle for the jazz fest to be able to keep that up and of course we saw david lamb's uh did the david lamb location and the festival move to the north side the north side of the earth gallery and have to sort of shrink their offering in a way in terms of a footprint while also producing an excellent event. So kudos to Nina and the whole team for doing that. But it's only $150,000 that would allow them to offer a full weekend of jazz in the park events once again. And so, you know, when we think about the things that we've spent money on in the last three and four months, including... One Night of Fireworks, and even just the most recent decision around extending the Granville Street pedestrianization. This was really what was in the back of my mind is, you know, that's $4.75 million and $150,000, you know, multiplied over eight or nine festivals that are happening in the downtown that could be so much bigger and so much more for so much longer across let's say May to October, like that's the real vision I think the city and its residents are expecting from city council and expecting from our financial contributions to these festivals so that people can enjoy right across the city and benefit including the local small businesses for many, many weeks and months and months across the entire summer. And so that's really where I think we need to set our North Star to and sort of point all direction in something much more robust, much more consistent with what people are asking for across the entire city and make sure that we've got a growing, not shrinking festival offering across every genre. Those that have been around for a long time and those that are new and emerging. I'll leave it there.

Happy to support this, but I really think we've got to be honest about where we're landing at the end of four years here. Okay, Councillor Fry.

Yeah, I want to thank Councillors Kirby Young and Dominato for bringing this forward. I also want to take a moment to thank Paola for a really fantastic event this weekend. Latin Coover was fantastic, and I love my shirt. that I purchased myself, by the way. It was not a gift shirt. I actually went and bought a shirt because I thought it was just fantastic. I just want to reflect that, yes, we have seen consistently the challenges for our festival... circuit, and we know the financial dynamics have changed significantly with security and sponsorship costs and all the various factors. And also, bears acknowledging that this ad hoc approach that we've been taking is not sustainable. We can't just keep having emergency grants go out. So I also support this in the context that this council also unanimously supported a motion I brought like a month and a half or two months ago, to look at an actual plan, a plan for future festival funding so that we're not doing this last minute. We're not having people like Paola stressed out because they've already had the event and they're not sure if they're going to get the funding to backstop some of their expenditures. So I think kudos to us for responding to the very critical need that is happening right now, but also for having the foresight to actually think about how we might address this in a more purposeful, transparent, and predictable way. Thanks, Councillor. Councillor Corbillon. Yeah, thanks, Chair. I'll just close on the motion, and I think I just need to give a special shout-out to Paola because she has been here for such a long time and sailed Carnival del Sol Estuvo Muy Divertido on the weekend, so the Carnival was very fun. Thank you. And I love them because it gives me a chance to practice my... different languages of which I have lots of little bits of lots. So that was great. I just want to end on a positive note and just appreciate the arts and culture sector and the folks that put on the festivals. People in the arts are doing it because they love it, not because it is easy and all the volunteers and everybody that puts it together. I think what has been noteworthy, and I did feel compelled to say this in response to some of the comments, is that the council has come together across the board to support and rise up to the challenges here. So I was a bit surprised to hear comments earlier about politicization of this, but I don't think that that has been the case at all. I think the first motion came from Council Maloney herself, who started this sort of one-time granting with car-free day motion request in March, which was sort of let the horse out of the barn, so to speak, and we have risen to that. So I don't think it's been politicized. That was fully supported by Council, and just like these ones are. And I think to... Councillor Frey's point, we recognize that this is a particular moment in time, and we also want to do sort of a long-standing one.

So I just wanted to sort of recognize that, and I think that we are stronger when we stick together as a council, when we send our joint unparalleled and clear support to the rest of the festival. And I'm very happy to close on the motion as a mover, and let's call the question, Chair. Thanks. Okay, so question has been called. Do we need a seconder for the calling question?

Well, clerk said yes. We're doing the seconder. Okay. Second. I was on the queue to speak and the question's been called. I think it's outrageous that Councillor Kirby-Young knew that I was going to correct something that she said that was wrong and is denying me that opportunity as usual. So, Councillor Maloney, this question's been called. That's the procedure we have to follow. So, I'm going to ask clerk to double-check the procedure, but I think that's my understanding. Yeah, right. We can.

Yeah. Okay. Okay. We need to vote on this. All right. So let's vote first for the calling the question. Okay. Council, please register a vote for calling the questions.

Yeah. Thanks, Mayor.

Vote of system favor, please, Chair. It's for calling the question.

Okay, so clerk, you said two-thirds, right?

Two-thirds, okay. So calling questions motion has failed with Councillor Bligh, Fry, Orr, and Maloney in opposition.

So going back to the main queue, Councillor Maloney. Thank you. I just wanted to correct an inaccuracy. Councillor Orr and I moved our motion to provide emergency funding of $30,000 to the Car Free Day Festival after the floodgates were opened by the Mayor... and the majority on council voting to grant $2 million for half an hour of fireworks for one night. So we actually modelled our motion on the wording of that motion to really make a point about... the opening of the floodgates from unbudgeted funds. So I'm very grateful that this council voted to grant a meagre $30,000 to the Car Free Festival, which I'm sure will provide fun and entertainment to a lot of Vancouverites this summer.

But I just needed to correct... Councillor Kirby-Young's assertion that it was the first one. I have to give credit to the Mayor and the majority on Council. Thank you. Thanks, Councillor. Okay, so seeing no one else on the queue, let's go to the vote for the main motion as amended. Council, please register your vote.

Okay, thanks. Noted.

We are voting on the main motion as amended.

Thanks, Councillor Montague.

Okay. Councillor Frye, Councillor Bligh, Councillor Maloney.

Councillor Maloney.

Okay, so the motion as amended passed unanimously. Thanks, everyone. That completes motion 11. Motion 12 is energy sovereignty and grid resilience. It is moved and introduced by Councillor Fry. Again, before the beginning of this agenda item, if anyone believes they have a conflict of interest, now is the time to declare it. Does anyone have a conflict of interest to disclose? Okay, so, Councillor Fry, you have two minutes to introduce your motion. Please go ahead. Thank you, Chair. And apologies for missing most of today. I've been doing UBCM work and went through 240-something resolutions today. More than us, hey? Yeah, yeah. Not as in-depth. Anyway, so I know this council has previously expressed concerns about our grid resilience and our realistic capacity to electrify and decarbonize. And I'm happy to say, Council, we are on the verge of a solar revolution. Right now, the licensing authority under Reuters Laboratories are preparing to certify direct-to-consumer plug-in solar. And what that means is that an outlet inverter could enable you to have balcony or backyard solar that you can literally plug back into the grid and offset your energy use in a meaningful and low-barrier sort of way that would save you money and allow for energy resilience. This technology already exists. Big box retailers in Europe are already selling direct to consumer. And here in North America, UL are expected to certify this tech as early as next year, the beginning of 2027. Right now, if you wanted to put up solar and connect it to the grid to sell or offset your energy consumption. which is known as net metering, it's complicated and expensive. You need a series of permits and with BC Hydro. And of course, if you're a renter or even in a strata, this is not guaranteed or practical. So this direct-to-consumer plug-in solar changes that. And as Canadian consumers are looking to save money... this is an opportunity to save folks money on their electrical bills and provide them more independence. Imagine a scenario where an apartment renter can install solar panels and then they can take them with them when they move. But not only that, they can plug it into the wall or a battery and on hot and sunny days, they can power an air conditioner to cool their apartment. Friends, this is a game changer, and I think it's a really exciting opportunity for us to get ahead of it, start to look at what it looks like for installation, what it looks like for permitting, so that we're not duct taping them to balconies, but we're fastening them appropriately. Let's start to imagine that future, and there's an opportunity to work with BC Hydro on a pilot program right now, which they're doing to do urban studies, and it would be great to have us working on it. Thank you, Councillor. We have a seconder for this, Adam? Seconded by Councillor Maloney. We will now hear from the registered speaker for this motion.

Again, public speakers should stay, whether they're in support or in opposition of the motion, and may only speak once. I will also ask speakers if they are residents of Vancouver, if it is not noted on the speaker's list. Our first registered speaker is Karina Talvila.

Good evening, Council and Mayor. My name is Karina Talvila. I'm a resident of Vancouver, and I'm here to speak in favor of this motion. which advocates for approval of plug-in solar panels in Vancouver. For me, personally, the issue is primarily about hastening our shift to renewable energy sources to reduce the climate-changing effects of burning fossil fuels. But it's not just about shifting to hydro-generated electricity over fossil fuels, because here in BC, we're feeling the effects of climate-change-induced droughts that are lowering the level of water in the rivers, and hence, reducing our ability to generate hydroelectric power. So it's not just about electricity, it's about solar-generated electricity. The plug-in solar panels are reasonably inexpensive, easy to install, and would help to reduce energy bills. The first U.S. state to allow use of the panels was Utah, not exactly a leader in the charge against climate change, but for that very Republican state, the panels were about an opportunity to save money. An excellent argument that we just as applicable here. The panels would also be very empowering for people. Urbanites have never been able to generate our own power before, but these panels would give average people that power and some control. Power to do something easy about the climate and control over their electricity bills. For these reasons, climate change adaptation and mitigation, reducing electricity bills and energy empowerment. I'm in support of Councillor Frye's motion. Thank you. Thank you. Speaker 2 is Penny Crawford.

Good evening. Thank you, Mayor and Council, for this opportunity to speak, and I'll be brief because you've had a long day. I've been a resident of Vancouver since 1983, and I am very excited to speak in favor of Motion 12. Thank you, Councillor Frye, for bringing this forward. Climate crisis is here now, and fossil fuels are the main cause of the climate crisis, hands down. And yet, our elected officials at all levels of government continue to keep citizens hooked on fossil fuels. And this council is no exception. Recently, they overturned a ban on gas for new bills. So with this motion, we have good news on clean energy, just as Councillor Fry outlined in presenting the motion. Earlier this year, I read articles raving about the IKEA plug-and-play solar panels. And as a renter, I look forward to taking those steps to have a solar panel on my balcony and taking control of my energy sources that reduce my emissions and match my values.

This is truly a very positive initiative. Absolutely. I want to see the city get on board, look for ways to leverage this technology, form partnerships, engage with BC Hydro, get on board with this pilot project that Pete outlined, provide the staff the support they need to prepare the regulatory framework. I encourage all of you to vote in favor of this motion. It is so exciting. If you could see me, I was yelling yay after everything Pete said in his opening. So thank you very much. I look forward to the results of this motion. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker is speaker number three, Suki Sohota. Thank you, Chair. I am pleased to support Motion 12 because it looks ahead to how Vancouver can generate and use energy more affordably, sustainably, and reliably. Electricity demand is growing. Electric vehicles, building electrification, air conditioning during heat waves, and digital infrastructure are all placing greater pressure on the grid, while we are asking residents to move away from fossil fuels. Well, we should be. That transition requires not only more clean energy, but a more resilient and decentralized energy system. This motion recognizes that emerging plug-in solar technology could be part of that solution. Instead of relying entirely on centralized power generation, residents could produce a portion of their own electricity through small-scale balcony, patio, or backyard systems. The benefits are clear. In a cost-of-living crisis, households could reduce energy costs. Distributed generation could ease peak demand and strengthen grid resilience. When paired with batteries, it could even help residents to maintain essential cooling during heat waves or power outages. Importantly, plug-in solar could expand access beyond traditional homeowners. As mentioned in the motion, renters and people in apartments such as myself or strata buildings have largely been excluded from rooftop solar. This technology may offer a more practical and affordable way for them and me to participate in the clean energy transition. We can also look to international experience. In Australia, widespread rooftop solar adoption has reduced electricity bills and contributed back to the grid, while also requiring governments to update standards and grid management. It shows both the opportunity and the importance of planning ahead. What I appreciate about this motion is that it does not rush ahead without safeguards. Certification and testing are still underway, and the motion asks the city to work with BC Hydro and other authorities to ensure these systems can be introduced safely.

also calls for consideration of standards, permits, inspections, and equitable access. That is the right approach. Prepare early, follow the evidence, and remove barriers once safety is established. Climate action is not only about reducing emissions. It is also about affordability, resilience, and giving residents greater control over their energy future. This motion positions Vancouver to be ready rather than reactive. Thank you. Thank you. Speaker 4 is Christopher Cashin.

Speaker 4 is not on the line. Speaker 5 is Annette Raleigh. Hello? Can you hear me? Yes, we can, please. Okay, perfect. Hi, Mayor and Council. This is Annette Riley. I'm a resident of Vancouver, and I'm here to speak in support of Motion 12. This motion, to me, is about the future. Don't know about you. I'm a giant nerd. I love science fiction. My biggest fandom is Star Trek. Shout out to all my fellow Trekkies here, but I digress. One of the things, though, that I love about sci-fi is that it imagines these technologies that make everyday life so much better. And, you know, most of those times those technologies stay fiction, but sometimes they become a reality like this. This motion is the start of a plan to give the residents of our city access to technologies that benefit all of us. And that has some serious Star Trek vibes. In a world where we've had these extreme heat events, wildfire smoke, atmospheric rivers, and all these growing concerns about whether our electrical grid can actually keep up with this increasing demand, this is exactly the kind of forward thinking that we should all be doing. In a political climate where so much of our decision-making has had to be reactionary, this motion looks ahead. It says, let's understand this technology. Let's work with BC Hydro. Let's identify the barriers now so that when the technology is ready, we are too. And that, to me, is smart planning. There's nothing I like better than a good, actionable plan. I would sign up for a solar panel on my patio in a heartbeat. Let me be a test subject here. I mean, actually, we use them when we're out camping with my friends and family. We use portable solar technology to recharge our lights, our phones, even speakers so that we can have some music. And then we don't have to worry about disposable batteries or any noisy generators. So this technology right now, it's not in the distant future. It's not fantasy anymore. It's already here. And this motion is simply asking Vancouver to be ready for the next generation of it. Get it? It's about exploring ways for homeowners, renters, people in apartments, and those living in multifamily buildings to participate.

This is not the final frontier, but it might be the next one. So let's be proactive instead of reactive. Let's embrace innovation. Let's prepare for what's coming. And let's help build a city that's more resilient and more sustainable and a little bit closer to the future we all imagined. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Okay, I'm going to go back to Speaker 4, Christopher Cashin.

Speaker 4 is not on the line. Okay, thank you. All right, so this is the end of our speakers list. And thanks, everyone, to speaking to standing committee. And committee members, is there any discussion? Well, make sure we have quorum.

Okay, wait, thanks. Yeah, we do. Okay, yeah, yeah. Okay. Committee members, is there any discussion?

Okay, Councillor Kerbiel. I have a question through you, Chair, if I might, to staff. And I'm just looking to verify, is this certified equipment currently in Canada?

Sandra Singh, deputy city manager. Councillor, I don't have the answer to that. I will have to. Okay. Does staff want, would it be helpful for staff to have a recess? Because I'm looking at the input that came in, and it says plug-in solar publicly isn't certainly possible in Vancouver. The equipment isn't certified in Canada. BC Hydro has not made upgrades to their tariffs. Would it be helpful to have a minute to review that certainly we could the staff feedback was that? Was was on advocating for changes at the senior levels Those changes are made the systems are designed to plug into a standard outlet that we're applying our electrical work Or structural work, which does not require city oversight. So yes, certainly we could take a moment But that was okay. Can we take a moment for staff to just confirm that let's take five minutes

So we're going to come back at 8.06.

See you all.

Thank you, Chair.

So we can confirm that these are not certified yet at the federal level, but BC Hydro has opened up a pilot to test it here. We're anticipating that there are going to be very limited local or very limited barriers at the local government level because they are designed to... to be plugged in, and they're not readily available yet, but we are anticipating that they will be. Thank you.

Thanks. I'd like to propose an amendment that I've sent in to the clerks. If you want to move us to amendment Q. I'll move you there, so please add yourself. Okay. Yeah, we need a seconder for the amendment.

Okay, we need a seconder for that, Amanda.

Yeah, so. Could we have 30 seconds to read it, and then I'm sure there'll be a seconder. Okay, so let's take 30 seconds to resize.

Second by Councillor Meiszner.

Okay, I hope that gave you enough time for people to review. Councillor Kirby-Arm, please go ahead. Yeah, thanks. I think it's always exciting when you have new technologies coming in, and particularly ones that can provide the benefits that Councillor Fry has articulated. There is, I think, a distinction between moving ahead with preparing a regulatory framework and it not being yet certified. But as Councillor Fry noted, there is an opportunity to participate in a pilot. So I'm just going to walk through the amendments that I proposed. First is an amendment, some changes to A, so that it would read that Council affirm its support in principle for the future and safe adoption of direct-to-consumer plug-ins, solar technologies, and potential opportunity to improve... distributed energy resilience, adding in affordability and energy sovereignty, recognizing that such technologies are not presently authorized for residential use in Canada, and that any future implementation will be contingent upon the establishment of appropriate Canadian safety certification standards, electrical code provisions, and technical BC safety requirements. That clause B remains, which allows staff to engage with BC Hydro on their plug-in solar piece so that we can keep that dialogue going and sharing of information. Also recognizing the staff said if it's going to be plug-in, it's probably going to require very little in terms of adaptation on the city side. And then replacing essentially the existing remaining clauses C, D, E, and F with a new C that says that following the completion of the regulatory certification and utility approvals described above, Staff provide counsel with information outlining any steps the city may need to undertake to facilitate the safe and lawful implementation of certified direct-to-consumer plug-in technologies, including any anticipated amendments to city bylaws, permitting processes, inspections, or coordination with Hydro, Technical BC, or other relevant authorities.

And so it's let's keep the open to the new technology. Let's ensure it's certified and it's safe. Let's participate with BC Hydro and get the flow. But it sort of really acknowledges the staff feedback there in terms of what the city's role in. And happily, if it's as flexible a technology as is anticipated to be plug-in, there should be a minimal amount of work on the city side to support that. Thanks. Thank you. Councillor Damanato.

Councillor, we're just checking with staff.

We're going to come back. Thank you. Thanks. Councillor Orr.

Thank you. Yeah, just looking at the amendment and the original motion, I think the amendment kind of strikes out some of the very interesting parts of this well thought out motion. And I think in particular is the right to charge. I think that's a very important sort of component of this, as well as explore approaches to ensure equitable access, including for renters, strata residents and low income households. And that's just, You know, a lot of this new technology comes on the market and we see this kind of thing where it's kind of only adopted by those who can afford it. And it's a very sort of niche thing. And it eventually kind of trickles down years later. But I think this is really important, these clauses. And I wish that these clauses stayed in. Perhaps there's an opportunity to amend that. I do also like how it assesses how they could complement existing city initiatives under the Climate Emergency Action Plan. So, yeah, I'll have to do some thinking on this, but a little worried about that. Thank you. Thank you. Councillor Fry? Yeah, thanks, Chair. It's unfortunate that Christopher Cashin was unable to speak. He's actually the expert who's actually doing a lot of this work in the field, and he's incredibly passionate about it, very knowledgeable about this stuff, and a little on the nerdy side when it comes to explaining in detail how this would work. But suffice to say, it's very fast-moving. In fact, so fast-moving this... that when I first submitted this motion, and as council will know, we had to submit our motions for review extraordinarily early this session during that FIFA break. And since the time that I submitted the motion and the staff comments, new technology and this new pilot with BC Hydro was introduced, and things are moving very quickly. This will be certified by early 2027, and it is a tremendous opportunity. I am a little afraid that... I'm not afraid, but I think this amendment does kind of slow walk this really excellent opportunity that we could get really on board with and actually have sort of in place for sooner than later and ideally in a way that could support these kind of air conditioner applications before next summer and hopefully any kind of catastrophic heat dome. So I won't support these amendments, but if it does come to pass, I'll certainly support it as amended. But like Councillor Orr, I am disappointed that we're losing some of the the tenor of the work that Councillor Kerbion has amended out, some of the more salient pieces around the right to charge. I think there is a piece there that is important to consider how we make these solar panel access more equitable to all users so that, in fact, it can be something that renters can readily adapt.

And, of course, we do want to get ahead of... some of the logistics of how does somebody attach a solar panel to a balcony on the eighth floor. Those are real-world considerations that it would be nice to be thinking about and get ahead of so that we are adapting appropriately so we can hit the ground running. So I won't support the amendments. I'm pretty happy with the way it's written now. Thank you.

Okay, thanks, Councillor Frye. Just give me one second.

Okay. All right. So seeing no one else on the queue, let's go to the vote for the amendment. Just make sure that people online turn on your video. Okay. Thank you.

Oh, yeah, right. Okay, sorry, Councillor Zamanato, you've got a question, sorry. Yeah, please go ahead. Thank you. Yes, so, Councillor, to confirm, we have not been in conversations with BC Hydro. We are aware of the pilot, and there is opportunity to participate, but we have not explored. Okay, thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you, Chair. Thanks. All right, Councillor Maloney? Sorry, I'll just quickly say... Reading the amendment, it is useful to have a standard in place before it's recognised by code and after that it's basically plugging in an appliance with no need for approval. So I think there are certain advantages to the amendment, so I'll be voting in favour of it.

Thanks. Okay. All right, so seeing no one's on the queue, so let's go to the vote.

We are voting on Councillor Kirby's amendment.

Councillor Bligh? Yes, can I get a vote? Is this abstaining, please? Abstaining, okay. No touch. And who else? Okay, that's it.

Okay, so the amendment passed with Councillor Frye and Councillor Warren in opposition and Councillor Bligh upstanding. Okay, back to the main queue. Councillor Kirby.

That's all. Thanks, Chair. Councillor Dominardo. Are we just on the main motion now, the amended motion? Yes.

Thank you. Councillor Fry. Yeah, I will support, despite voting against the amendment, I will support the amended motion because I do want to see this move forward, I was hoping, a little quicker. Just to put a little bit more colour around, underwriter laboratories, it is the UL that you see on every electrical appliance that you have. The process of certification for this particular technology began in December and rolled out as a formal testing approach. And the big consideration that we know the technology works, Amply demonstrated in Europe where they sell them in Ikea and you can buy these off the shelf. Where the interesting piece really comes to play is the resiliency of the grid. So when you're putting electricity back into the grid, it has the potential to create problems. And that's why BC Hydro is now really assertively pursuing this pilot because they need to demonstrate the integrity of the grid with this technology. It has been proven, but they have to show the work. And so... That's also why it's a great opportunity for the city to get involved in this pilot opportunity to real life test it in an urban environment where we have a lot of competing capacity issues for the grid. And we have a lot of draw and pull and modern electrical infrastructure. So I'm glad that that's remained intact in this motion. I really do, you know, in a completely nonpartisan and just nerdy way, this is so exciting. And I think that the biggest piece to this that I really hope is the opportunity is, that we provide some energy resiliency. And as we know, electrical prices spike when use is high. So when we do have a heat dome and people are using air conditioners, it's going to be more expensive to run your air conditioner. That's just the way it works. But if you have a plug-in solar with a battery charger and it's on your deck and it's catching all that sun and then it's powering your air conditioner, what a miraculous thing that would be. And then you can... pick it up and move when you get to a nicer apartment or whatever the case is. So really exciting. Uh, and I'm glad that y'all see that. I wish we moved a little faster, but happy to go mango. Okay. Thanks counselor. All right. Seeing no one else on the queue again, let's go to the vote. We are voting for the, uh, the main motion as amended. Also, please register your vote.

Okay.

Okay. Counselor, please register your vote.

Counselor Clausen, Counselor Domenato.

Okay. Yeah, perfect. Thank you. The motion as amended has passed unanimously. Thanks. Okay. That completes Motion 12 on the agenda. Motion 13, Passenger Licensing for Electric Macro Vehicles. And it is moved and introduced by Councillor Fry. Before we begin this agenda item, if anyone believes they have a conflict of interest, now is the time to declare it.

Does anyone have a conflict of interest to disclose? Okay, seeing none, Councillor Fry, you have two minutes to introduce your motion. Yeah, there we go. Okay. Thanks, Chair. So you may have seen these bright blue buggies driving around town. Some of you may have ridden in them as they were running the shuttles at the Oak Ridge opening or in North Van where the Lower Lonsdale BIA runs shuttles for shoppers that go up and down the hill in North Vancouver. These are neighborhood zero emission vehicles. And they look like golf carts, but they are fully certified for street legal use under the Motor Vehicle Act. They have seatbelts. They have turn signals. They have laminated glass. They have backup cameras. They have headlights. They are fully street legal. And indeed, they are street legal in our city. What they are not, however, is licensed for passenger transportation. So if I – we can find these – actually, they park them. They have a fleet of about three dozen that they park at Bentall for the Heia, who will be speaking later. And they rent them outside of Canada Place. And they're very popular with tourists who want to go bomb around town, take little quick trips. Fun way to get around and experience nature. And as it turns out, they would be a fantastic way to experience our city for visitors. But right now, they are not licensed for passenger transportation. So this motion is really ceasing this opportunity. It is a process that is in the works with the province and the motor vehicle department, but it's not happening fast enough. And we had a real missed opportunity during FIFA where they were pretty much lined up to make it happen with a huge tourist push and Canada's jobs grant to actually hire young people to conduct tours in little microelectric vehicles, but the province has not moved to... And again, these are totally street legal. It's just a matter of making them available for me to pay money to somebody to drive me around and take me on a tour of Stanley Park or the Cherry Blossoms or down to Granville Island or what have you. So... The ask here fundamentally is just for the mayor to write a letter and for us to enthusiastically support this kind of idea. It's obviously a low carbon way to get around. When I was out test driving on one of them the other day next to these giant diesel gargling buses that were standing there idling, waiting for passengers and thought what a stark difference it is and how on brand it is for our city to provide a really fun electric way that doesn't burn fossil fuel and you can experience our city. And really, the fresh air part is the best. Oh, sorry. Lenny, you just let me keep going. You're so kind, Lenny. I'm so kind to you, Councillor Fry. Okay. All good. All right, so do we have a seconder for this motion? Seconded by Councillor Maloney. We will now hear from the registered speaker for this motion. Public speakers should stay whether they are in support or in opposition of the motion.

And they may only speak once. I will also ask speakers if they are residents of Vancouver, if it is not noted on the speaker's list. Speaker number one has withdrawn. Speaker number two is Tasha Maynard.

In person.

Oh, that's Tasha.

Over there.

Let's go ahead. Thank you. Mayor and Council, thank you for having me here today. My name is Tasha Maynard, and I am the co-founder of Hayek Arts. Before we start, I want to highlight we are speaking about NZEVs. These are already Transportation Canada approved. You can drive and park on the road just like a regular car, and you need a driver's license to drive them. We're not talking about the green mobility scooters we see on the Greenway. Those are simply illegal. So when the city of Vancouver needed shuttles for people with mobility challenges during FIFA planning, they rented our carts. This matters because it shows these vehicles are not theoretical. They're already being used by the city for exactly the kinds of short, practical, accessibility-supportive trips we're talking about. The difference is that when the city operates a shuttle service, it can do so under its own authority. To date, HAYA carts have been privately and safely used for shuttle service by the Vancouver Pride Society, Ironman Canada, the Vancouver Marathon, City of Vancouver, Oak Ridge Park, Vancouver BIAs, Destination Vancouver, and even recently the Institute of Transportation Engineers Conference that was just held in Victoria. However, if HAYA wanted to provide the same kind of shuttle service to the public with commercially licensed drivers and vehicles inspected every six months through the commercial vehicle inspection program, we currently cannot. We are not asking for a loophole. We are not asking to avoid regulation. We are asking for a clear pathway under the existing passenger transportation license framework. So normally the approval process for a general passenger transportation license is roughly six to eight weeks. We applied last year and our application has now been sitting for months with no meaningful response. To be fair, as far as we know, nobody in BC has applied before to operate neighborhood zero emission vehicles for passenger service with commercial drivers. We understand that this may be new for the Ministry of Transportation and Transit. We understand that staff may not know exactly where or how these vehicles fit. But right now, they're not asking us questions or giving us a pathway. The only answers we get is keep waiting. Meanwhile, these vehicles are already street legal, they're registered, they're Transportation Canada approved, they're ICBC insured, and operating safely as self-drive rentals. They're fully electric, quiet, low speed, and right-sized for short trips in busy visitor areas. Driver-guided NZEV tours and shuttles would help visitors, seniors, families, cruise passengers, and people with mobility limitations experience more of Vancouver without needing a full-sized car, taxi, van, or bus.

They could support Stanley Park, Canada Place, Coal Harbour, Gastown, and our local events. Approval of this motion would send an important signal that Vancouver supports safe, insured, inspected, and properly regulated NZEV passenger services. Thank you. Thank you, Tasha. Okay, speaker number three is Joanna Jaeger.

Speaker three is not on the line. Okay, speaker four is Julie.

Hello? Yes, we can hear you. Please go ahead. Thank you. Julie Struleski here, and I am in support of this motion. If you have seen the news, there are 800 active wildfires burning in Canada alone that are causing a lot of devastation right now. As we can see around the world, we are in a climate emergency. Hopefully this government will start taking this seriously as scientists have recommended. I think we have an ethical responsibility to take as much action as we can. NSAIDs have been around since the late 1990s. They're a proven solution, and it's long past time that all governments approve them for passenger services. If you are aware of the social and environmental impacts of EV battery life cycles, good news. The world's largest EV battery repurposing megafactory has opened in Surrey. and turns retired EV batteries into storage systems for hospitals, factories, and more. So I hope you will support this motion. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, I'm going to circle back to Speaker 3, Joanna Jaeger.

Speaker 3 is not on the line. Okay, thank you. All right, so that's the end of the speakers list. Thanks, everyone, for speaking to the Standing Committee. Committee members, is there any discussion?

Okay, Councillor Maloney first. Thanks. Yeah, it's really nice to see an enthusiastic small business person trying to do something new and I think this is a very worthwhile thing to explore. I appreciate Councillor Fry bringing it and responding to, you know, a small business person who's hit a roadblock, not literally. So I'll support this.

Thank you. Councillor Domenato.

Thank you. Okay, seeing no one else on the queue, let's go to the vote for this motion. Also, please register your vote.

Okay, Councillor Bligh.

I think she's gone, right? Okay. Yeah. Okay, so the motion passed unanimously with Councillor Bligh, Mayor Sim, and Councillor Montague absent. Thank you. That completes Motion 13. Motion 14 is a policy framework for overdose prevention and harm reduction facilities. It is to be moved and introduced by Councillor Frye. Before we begin this agenda item, if anyone believes they have a conflict of interest, now is the time to declare it. Does anyone have a conflict of interest with this clause? Okay, Counselor Frey, you have two minutes to introduce your motion. Yeah, thanks. Of course, so as you will know, this was inspired by the relatively recent decision by this council to use any means necessary to bar the overdose prevention site at Hornby and Helmken. As I've illustrated in this motion, that was attempted by then Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2011 when he tried to shut down supervised consumption sites at Hornby. and it was ruled unconstitutional. It was a violation of charter rights. And as I argued at the time that this ban was being suggested, we were treading on dangerous territory, not the least of which for the legal reasons, but also because these are real human lives at risk. Now, that being said, I do recognize that... How these are run, and I was on council when we had approved the OPS at Seymour and Helmken, and it was problematic because it was too small and there was a lot of management issues. It occurred to me then, and the conversations we had were that there were no bylaw tools. We amply have conditions on bylaws licensing for all manner of business. Bars and restaurants have to follow certain rules and conditions that we apply to their licensing. Cannabis dispensaries can't, as a condition of their city licensing, cannot be opened next to a community center or an elementary school. And they have to have frosted glass and they have to have certain controls. These are all basic functions of doing good business. And we apply... thousands of conditions to our business licenses on the books. I'm going to quickly reflect on a real-world scenario that Councillor Zhou will be familiar with, where a small family-run business in Chinatown was very desperately trying to figure out a way to stop an oat clinic from opening up next door, and they were concerned about the impacts. Indeed, those impacts have been profound, and I can tell you that the owner of that small family business now spends $70,000 a year on security to run his own business because the The neighboring business, the oat clinic, is not managing their facility in a way that is conducive to good neighborliness.

And that's what the intention of this motion is. It is not to, well, I'm out of time, but I want to be clear what the intention is here. Thanks, Counselor. Do we have a seconder for this motion? Second by Councillor Meiszner. All right, so we will now hear from the registered speaker for this motion. So again, our speakers should state whether they are in support or in opposition of the recommendations and may only speak once. I will also ask speakers if they are residents of Vancouver, if it is not noted on the speaker's list. Our first registered speaker is Vincent Kong.

Hi, hello. Yeah, we can hear you, Vincent. Please go ahead. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor and Council. My name is Vincent Kwan. I'm the Executive Director of the Strathcona Business Improvement Association. I support the direction of this motion because overdose prevention and harm reduction services are an important part of the broader response to the toxic drug crisis. That is also precisely why we need to get the implementation right. The motion begins to establish clear expectation around cleanliness, public order, operating plans, monitoring, and enforcement. If overdose prevention and harm reduction services are essential healthcare services, they should be managed with the same discipline, resources, and duty of care that we'd expect from every other essential public service.

Success is not simply opening a service. Success is delivering quality care while maintaining confidence among clients, neighboring residents, businesses, and the surrounding community. For this framework to work, there must be a clear chain of accountability across the entire system, from the operator to the city, Vancouver Coastal Health, and the province. The community should not be left trying to determine which institution is responsible when problems arise.

It should be clear when the operator must respond, when the city must monitor or enforce and when VCH or the province must become involved because additional authority funding or changes to the service model are required. That is where the good neighbor agreement becomes important. Although the agreement is between the operator and the city, it should also provide the surrounding community with a clear way to raise concerns and understand what happens next. And properly, the good neighbor agreement becomes a community-facing connection to the broader accountability framework. It should help ensure that concerns are assessed, recurring problems are recognized, unresolved issues are escalated, and outcomes are reported back. The community has an important role in providing honest and timely information as well about what is happening around the operation. While the responsibility for assessment, corrective action, and enforcement remains with the appropriate public institutions. The effective business improvement areas can

also help connect those two sides.

As place-based organizations working closely with both its members and the city, BIAs can help ensure that agreement reflects actual conditions on the ground, recognizes recurring patterns, and gives community a practical way to reach the institutions responsible for acting. For that reason, we ask Council to ensure that the affected BIAs are formally consulted and invited to help shape the good neighbor agreement before it is finalized. That consultation should happen early, not after the agreement has already been written, so that the BIs can help shape how concerns are raised, the processes involved, recurring problems, how recurring problems are recognized, and resolve issues brought to the right authority. Ultimately, the measure of a good neighbor agreement is not written... Thank you. Yeah, thank you. All right. Speaker number two is Joshua Davidson.

Good evening, Chair. Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Joshua Davidson. I'm the Director of Operations at Downtown Vancouver BIA, also known as Downtown Van. I'm also a resident of Vancouver. Overall, Downtown Van is prepared to support this motion. However, we have outlined four recommendations for consideration that we believe would strengthen the framework. For many years, Downtown Ban has been advocating for greater accountability, consistency and transparency around the plans and operations of overdose prevention and harm reduction facilities. This motion moves us in the right direction. We recognise that the toxic drug crisis remains one of the most significant public health challenges facing our city. Harm reduction services save lives and are an important part of our health system. At the same time, we hear almost every day from businesses, employees, residents and visitors about the impacts that occur when facilities like these are not supported by clear operational standards and effective management of the surrounding public realm. What we appreciate about this motion is that it begins to establish expectations around licensing, operating plans, cleanliness, reporting, good neighbour agreements and community accountability. Therefore, should staff develop this framework, we encourage council to ensure that it includes the addition of the four following elements. First, meaningful consultation before facilities are approved. Engagement needs to happen early and it should include business improvement associations, local businesses, residents and other affected stakeholders. Second, measurable operating standards with clear consequences when operators do not meet them. Expectations should be transparent and consistently enforced. Third, good neighbor agreements should be developed with the support of business improvement associations and the surrounding businesses, and they should include clear response times, complaint resolution processes, and ongoing communication. And finally, ensure that any locational criteria give appropriate consideration to neighborhood context, cumulative impacts, and the unique role of key commercial districts, which includes the Granville Entertainment District. Downtown Vance's position has always been that these conversations are not about choosing between compassion or accountability, they require both.

When these services are properly located, appropriately resourced and well managed, they can improve health outcomes while reducing impacts on surrounding neighbourhoods. A clear regulatory framework provides greater certainty for operators, businesses, residents and the community, while helping restore confidence in how these services are planned and managed. We thank Councillor Fry for bringing this motion forward, and if Council adopts these four recommendations that I've outlined today, Downtown Band is pleased to support the motion. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, speaker number three is Stephanie Smith. Hi, good evening. I'm also calling to support this motion. It's not surprising that many Vancouverites have become opposed to any safer consumption sites or OAT services in their communities. We've had a bad run of operators opening sites that aren't structurally adequate for client needs and which aren't adequately resourced. Then when trouble happens in the community around the site, operators shrug their shoulders and say that what happens outside isn't their problem. This is a dynamic that we see taking place over and over again in Vancouver. Critical services for at-risk people are inadequately managed. There are neighborhood impacts, and everyone is left to fight with one another while the people responsible, the funders and operators of the sites, including government, either steer clear or exploit the fallout. Eliminating these services will cause people to die. Let's not avoid that. And I am worried that there's an alarming cohort mainly but not entirely of online bots and trolls that say that they want drug users to die. There are people stoking that hatred at all levels of government. But I don't think that community members who don't want to deal with crime and nuisance around safe consumption sites want people to die. I think that mainly people want folks to get help. We need better service delivery models. People need to be able to get off the street. They also need immediate access to support services, including recovery oriented services. But we also need to do our best to make sure that people don't die. This is a route forward because at its heart, it's an accountability framework for everyone involved. There's accountability for the city, which is currently on a collision course with the federal government that we can afford. There's accountability for the province, for the health authority, for the operators, and for folks using the sites too. I think it's past time for everyone to come to the table to ensure that folks don't die and to ensure that service delivery models respect community needs. I don't think it's impossible, and I think it's incumbent on all of us to try. Thanks. Thank you. All right. So this is the end of the speaker's list. Thanks, everyone, for speaking to council or standing committee.

Committee members, is there any discussion? I saw Councillor Fry. Yeah, thanks. I just wanted to add a couple of comments I didn't have time to do. And number one is, as council will know, I've sat on the UBCM's Health and Social Development Committee for... number of years. And when the province came with decriminalization and we had the conversations at UBCM about what they were planning to rule out with decrim, they failed to adequately engage with local governments and with our understanding of how these kind of services and these kind of opportunities could work. And in our local governments and within the context of local communities. And what they failed to consider was things like supervised consumption sites and treatment facilities and overdose prevention sites and the things that complement and how we could make it work. And I think that's where we see this sort of policy gap. I also want to reflect that many years ago I had a conversation with Mark Townsend. Mark Townsend and his partner Liz Evans were the founders of the Portland Hotel Society and they opened the first supervised consumption site Insight on Hastings Street. And Mark, when they opened it up, they had, was very, quite stunning, very nice architecture, clean, modern, good branding, all this kind of stuff. And Mark told me, you know, he's like, if we want these facilities to be a success, they need to look good. They need to be a positive contribution to the community. They need to be clean and well-run. They need to be not a burden on community so that other people won't point to it and say, I don't want that in my community because we need these in communities. We need to meet people where they're at. We need to save lives. We need to get people. the help that they need, the treatment that they need, the safe consumption that they need, and work on solutions. And this, you know, I'm hoping is a way forward to strike that balance and meet the needs of folks who have substance use disorder and who are incredibly vulnerable, but also meet the needs of the community and surrounding, and we can have it all. And I see Councillor Meiszner on the queue, so I'll let him jump on. Okay, thank you. Councillor Meiszner.

Thank you. Thanks, Councillor Frye. Thanks, Chair. Thanks to all the speakers in particular, our two BIA representatives who called in tonight on obviously this very important issue. And I know you've been very engaged on it and we've had many conversations with you over the past few years to try to work through some of the issues that have come up around these sites. First, I just want to state that Councillor Frye and I agree that bylaw tools are needed. to help regulate these ops sites in our city but where we differ is that i don't believe that the language and the motion is robust enough and i think it needs strengthening to address the issues that we're seeing and have seen surrounding the locations of these sites I strongly believe there's a need for operating standards developed by the city, not just relying on the standards from the province. Accountability, real consultation, and mechanisms to address issues. And we heard that from our speakers this evening from the BIAs. So I have submitted an amendment.

Chair, if you could please take us to amendment Q. Okay, thanks. Seconded by Councillor Kerbion. Please add yourself there, Councillor Meiszner. Okay, please go ahead. Thank you. So as councillors are aware, and as I just mentioned, challenges surrounding the operation of previous overdose prevention sites in downtown Vancouver are well documented. Council, city staff, community organizations, residents, and businesses have spent many years and many hours working to address the impacts that have all too often accompanied these sites. These include street disorder, encampments on surrounding sidewalks, public drug use, significant increases in police, fire, and ambulance calls, and ongoing concerns around public safety and neighborhood livability. The provincial operating standards introduced in June of 2025 and referenced in the original motion were intended to improve accountability, but they have not gone far enough. Despite these standards, residents, small businesses, and other neighbors in communities across B.C., continue to raise legitimate concerns about the impacts surrounding these sites. Just as importantly, the provincial framework is not designed for a dense urban environment like Vancouver. It's a one-size-fits-all policy. So where provincial standards fall short, I strongly believe the city has a responsibility to establish our own expectations within our jurisdiction. We need meaningful accountability for operators while also recognizing that substance use and addiction is fundamentally a healthcare issue. and that people struggling with addiction deserve access to compassionate care. I will continue advocating to the province to significantly expand treatment and recovery options, including mandatory care where appropriate. And at the same time, this motion should better address the realities experienced by surrounding communities in our city. Our goals should be to ensure that overdose prevention sites can continue to provide essential health services while minimizing negative impacts on the neighborhoods in which they operate. And that means establishing clear considerations for things like proximity to schools, community centers, parks, hotels, residential areas, and other sensitive locations. This also means genuine consultation with residents, businesses, BIAs, and other stakeholders before decisions are made. Communities should not be learning about a new site only after a lease has been signed or in some cases after the site is already moving forward and that's what we saw recently at Helmcken and Hornby and that's why I supported intervention by the city on that proposed location. There must be real accountability, robust operating and neighbourhood management plans, adequate funding to maintain the public realm as mentioned by one of our speakers and I wholeheartedly agree. timely responses when issues arise, and transparent reporting so council and the public can evaluate outcomes. These amendments are intended to strengthen the motion by ensuring that overdose prevention sites can deliver the critical health services while also protecting neighborhood safety, maintaining public confidence, and ensuring operators are accountable to the communities they serve. So that's what these amendments are intended to accomplish to strengthen this motion, and I hope council will support them.

Thank you. Thank you, Councillor. Councillor Waugh.

yeah thanks just reading over these amendments um i think um it changes um the original spirit makes it a lot a lot more stringent, which I understand is the spirit from the movers of the amendment's words just now. So, I mean, I had issues with the motion already, and I think this kind of really... kind of legitimizes my fears around really weaponizing a lot of this rhetoric around health. this is a health issue and that, you know, this would be duplication. A lot of what Vancouver Coastal Health does is involved already in a lot of these things in terms of, you know, keeping... a lot of these places are safe and whatnot. So I really worry that this will make it a lot more difficult to have new overdose prevention sites and that Yeah, I don't know. I'm sorry. I'm struggling to find the words. But yeah, I definitely think this makes it more difficult to have. I support, you know, I support consultation. I support operational standards. I support neighborhood accountability. But as I understand it, that's what Vancouver Coastal Health does already. I know some might disagree with that. I know there could be better communication. And yeah, so I don't think I can support the amendment. Thanks. Thanks. Councillor Fry. Yeah. You know, I didn't mention this in the intro, but I did work fairly extensively with experts on the series of recommendations. And as I read this, and I appreciate Councillor Meiszner's... participation and agreeing that this is a health care issue. I do worry that this is too prescriptive and too restrictive. Certainly when we start talking about the areas that, you know, proximity to things like hotels and residential uses becomes increasingly complicated. What does that even look like? And when we start talking about aspects of... unlawful activity uh and adjacency and adjacent streets and surrounding neighborhoods that becomes a very very very broad net and and and basically indistinguishable from the actual operations there's no way to quantify what neighborhood impacts are resulting um indeed i was at the location of the

what was then proposed overdose prevention site. And there's plenty of activity in the immediate vicinity, and that overdose prevention site's not there. So therefore, it is impossible to quantify what those impacts of a neighborhood are by virtue of an overdose when there's already impacts. So I think that this amendment, as well-intentioned it is, does not make this practical. Now, I will also frame that, though, on a broader sense, this is all a report back for staff, and I think that staff, when doing this work, will probably report back that it's nigh on impossible to quantify the performance indicators demonstrating adverse effects in surrounding neighborhoods. That's not a thing that would possibly be indicated by... An OPS, I don't think staff would report back in support of and with anything that could support that. We do have to recognize that in crafting the original motion, a lot of these bylaw considerations were using the actual framework that we have existing for our licensing bylaw, the actual ability for us to do things. These are things that we don't have the ability to do. And I do think we'll put a chill on the opportunity to save lives. So I don't support the amendment. Okay, thanks. Councillor Maloney? Yeah, I am concerned about how broad this direction would be should the amendment be passed. I think that it will create barriers. that are unable to be overcome in offering harm reduction services and that this could set off a chain reaction in other municipalities even more than at the moment. I'm really worried that this would make it more challenging for independent organisations to run OPSs and even Vancouver Coastal Health would struggle to meet these standards in an OPS, they operated directly. It's just very broad language. So I'm very concerned about the decisions that have been made about overdose prevention sites. They affect me personally. I live close to the site of the OPS that didn't go ahead and I can tell you that it hasn't eliminated poverty and it hasn't eliminated homelessness and it hasn't eliminated street disorder. There's no OPS there and all those things still exist except that there is open drug taking on the street whereas people could have been accommodated and Harm could have been avoided and people could have had access to rapid healthcare that they need instead of my teenage children wandering around town being confronted by the sight of people in need of medical attention having to wait around for it where it would be on hand if that facility was available.

There are two sides to the story. I think that we need to not interfere with the ability of Vancouver Coastal Health and other health authorities and health providers in setting up overdose prevention sites so that visitors and residents of Vancouver And people who are vulnerable and homeless and drug users have as much help as they can get to deal with this terrible problem that our city faces. So I'll be voting against this amendment.

Thanks. Councillor Clarkson.

Thanks, Chair. I want just to thank Councillor Beisner for the amendment that I intended to support. Cities and towns in British Columbia and across Canada are all struggling with the challenges of the mental health and addictions challenges. But at the same time, local governments are often left with the responsibility of having to address them in many different ways and including through public safety requirements, engineering requirements, obviously fire and rescue services, and we are not seeing a commensurate response from the provincial government nor the health authority to really respond seriously to the scale of challenges that communities are facing. you know, have seen the reaction to the 900 Helmken situation from community members, from local businesses, all of who are desperate to try and make sure that senior levels of government are put in a framework and plans to make sure to respond with immediacy. and comprehensively with the impacts of open drug use and street disorder. And so I think it really behooves us at this time for our city to step forward and essentially say that we need to raise the bar

and set the standard. And if it's Vancouver that does that, then I'm fine with that. I think that the work that I do working with other mayors at the BC Urban Mayors Caucus, where there is a challenge faced by many urban centers across British Columbia, whether it's Kamloops, Victoria, Nanaimo, Kelowna, Prince George, I can go on. All communities are facing the similar challenges and are left without real tools to deal with it. So the addition of the amendment in this motion, I think, takes it to a level that I think brings me comfort. uh and requires us to to to sit down and get serious with our partners uh to ensure that we can actually address um again the scale of the challenge that we're facing right now and so uh with that i plan to support the motion thank you amendment thank you counselor meisner Yeah, thank you. I'm disappointed to hear my colleagues are not willing to support what is really a robust framework for the city around overdose prevention sites. That is disappointing given all the feedback and response we've heard from the community around the challenges we've had with previous sites. We've had three previous sites that have been shut down due to various issues around street disorder and open drug use. So I think that this is the right approach to ensure that these services are planned and located and managed in a way that is... that is transparent, that's evidence-based, and that is accountable to the surrounding neighbourhoods, and that when issues arise, we can address them. So I obviously am supporting the amendment that I brought forward, and I hope that my councillor colleagues will support it as well. This is about doing right by people who are struggling and also doing right by the communities in which our Vancouverites live. Thanks. Thanks. Councillor Corbett. Yeah, it's getting late, so I might be quite direct in this. And I'll just say that, yes, it's a health issue. We need to look out for the individual health of people that are struggling. We also need to look out for health of our neighborhoods. And quite frankly, the health authorities and Coastal Health have that has not been a priority for them at all. And I sat through that public hearing. Back for Seymour, it was clear that the space was undersized and insufficient. And when asked by, you know, asking both Coastal Health and then operator Rain City if they would take some measurements, or take some measures, I should say, to be mindful of the impact kind of immediately outside in the public realm, which wasn't an onerous ask, I didn't think, at all at the time. The answer is clearly, definitively no, and it was one of the most egregious things I've ever seen happen at a city meeting because it required a two-thirds vote.

And I remember this crystal clear that the hearing went on. And then overnight, we had, I think, unprecedented chair of BC Housing and other folks coming down. And then the hearing went on overnight. And when we came in the next day, lo and behold, somehow the threshold had changed. And instead of asking for below market lease, because it was in a city space. They said, oh, yeah, we'll just pay market. And then that changed the voting threshold to a simple majority of council. And at the time, because they could tell they didn't have the votes and then they didn't have to have any accountability for impact. And that was like just calling it out very clearly, like regardless of your perspective on this issue, that those are the facts of what happened. And that showed a complete disregard. for pushing things through without consideration for the neighborhood. And then we fast forward. Here we are at another term, and we have assurances that we're going to, in terms of hopefully learning from that experience and needing to keep social license so that we can provide the necessary medical support and care to people and that we would engage with people. And then we have a hotel that is opening up immediately across from that doesn't know about anything about it until the day before. And ongoing many residents and local businesses that said, oh, yeah, we're going to have consultation that haven't had any. And so, you know, again, color me skeptical. I don't have faith, but I don't. And so I think that we need to put some expectations in place to say we will welcome these things if they are well run. Council Frye, I think it was, used the analogy earlier about marijuana stores. Shouldn't be different in terms of, you know, something that arguably puts folks in harm's way as well. And seniors and other folks or, you know, parents and kids shouldn't be different than how we try to look at other substances. You know, we have things on liquor stores. We really try to put a balance in... place with our frameworks that provide the ability for different things to operate, but that respect that we have to have a social fabric in the city that works together. If you get complete, I think we're beyond compassion fatigue into... absolute frustration something is not right it just isn't and the pendulum has really swung and so people want to know that it's not going to go up next to their kids school or a senior center or that you know there's going to be genuine efforts to try to be good neighbors together and that's really what this is so if it seems very explicit in the instruction. I think it's born out of experience, to be honest, and a sense of responsibility that we can support these things in the city if there is also a willingness to work with us so that they can be successful for everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Councillor Frye? Yeah, just to add, I mean, this is a fairly comprehensive, extensive amendment that we're only just seeing for the first time.

I'm only just seeing for the first time. So I think the challenge with this is the original motion was really to establish some very clear criteria to the operating of a specific business, as we would do for any business. This... expands the scope so expansively that it will be virtually impossible. When we talk about adjacent neighborhoods and neighborhood impacts and try to pin that on the application of one business or one facility is nigh on impossible. And when we talk about, I mean, the irony that one of the, in H, it talks about proximity to new supportive housing when this very same council has moved to ban new supportive housing. I'm just not sure if this is designed to just stop the availability of health services altogether, because I want to be clear that the entire intention of this original motion was to recognize that we have a responsibility, indeed, a charter guaranteed right to health and safety. that says that we can't deny health facilities. We cannot use these extensive tools to deny health facilities, but we can certainly ensure to some degree that the facility itself is run well. And the facility itself can't be responsible for the larger neighborhood. That's not how these things work. We can certainly ensure that it is run well, and that was the work that was put into this. what is being created with this amendment is an impossibility. And that's the challenge. I appreciate that we are all looking for a good solution, a solution that works with communities and that respects how we can all live together and like businesses can thrive and people will be safe and lives will be saved. But I'm just afraid that this will really prevent us from making it work and we'll just end up in a lawsuit. And that was the entire intention of trying to get us ahead of a Supreme Court challenge on charter rights because we're blocking access to health services. I feel that this amendment effectively does block access to health services, and that's why I can't support it. Thank you. Counselor Orr. Yes. Thanks. Yeah, I love that we were talking about marijuana and alcohol in the same breath. These two drugs are legal and are not poisoned. We can't be talking about these two things at the same time when we have drugs with a cocktail of benzos, horse tranquilizers, xylosine, fentanyl, carfentanil, any other analogs. This is not the same thing. And that's the whole point, is that if these drugs were regulated and safe, we wouldn't probably need these. People could use in their homes, like people drink and smoke marijuana in their homes, or in bars, bars that line Granville Street, safe consumption sites that line Granville Street, which still sees tons of street disorder, as we have seen in the past few weeks at FIFA.

with tons of arrests. There's a video that's circulating online, a 15-minute brawl. Like, the idea that one site can create this kind of disorder while these bars on Granville Street and all over the city create that exact same disorder that we're talking about. This is so frustrating. I just don't see how you can't see that logic here. And people overdosing every day on Granville Street. You may not think it's an overdose, but people vomiting, people being over-served alcohol is an overdose. People are overdosing every day on Granville Street and across the city. But it's okay because it's a regulated drug. because of a different drug, because it's opiates or cocaine or whatever, stimulants or whatever other drug that is shunned by society, that this will result now in people increasing stigma, increasing overdoses. We've seen overdoses are down lately. They're down because these things work. And I'm so frustrated that this motion was brought forward in the first place because this is exactly what we feared. And I can't support this. And I'm sorry. Thanks, Counselor. Counselor Meisner. I just want to be clear and I understand that this is a sensitive and obviously sensitive issue. This is really about ensuring that when we have these sites located in our city, that they can coexist in the neighborhood, that there are mechanisms to address issues, that there is robust community consultation before the sites are cited, that they have the adequate resources that they need, that... that they can be managed effectively and that people can get the help that they need. This is not about preventing these sites. This is about putting in a framework municipally to help ensure good outcomes for both the people that use the sites and the neighbourhoods. I'm not opposed to these sites. I want them to be run in a way that helps people and also does not cause issues in the surrounding community. And I think that's possible, and I think that's possible through a framework like this, and that's why I moved this amendment. So I just want to be clear on that. Thanks. Thank you. All right, so seeing no one else on the queue, so I'm going to take everyone to the voting panel. So we're going to vote for Councillor Meiszner's amendment. Councillor, please register your vote.

Okay. And Councillor Orr?

Okay, so the amendment passed with Councillor Fry, Councillor Orr, Councillor Maloney in opposition.

Can we project the voting results?

Okay. Okay, so going back to the main queue. Councillor Meiszner? Yeah, I just want to add quickly one more thing. One of my colleagues mentioned concerns around some of these things maybe not being, I guess, within our jurisdiction or legally possible. That's what we will determine in the report back. That's really what the amendment is directing. It's a report back to council with options around these proposed concerns. these proposed jurisdictional regulations that the city is proposing. So we will get that information. Thanks. Thanks. Councillor Maloney. No, I'm done. Thanks. Thank you. Okay. Seeing no one else on the queue. So again, let's take everyone to the voting panel. We are voting for the motion as amended. Council, please register your vote.

Chair, Councillor Costner, just for the clerk's purposes, the voting results were not displayed on the screen. Thank you. Oh, it's not? Okay, so, yeah, we're going to make sure we display the voting results this time.

Okay, Councillor Kirby, okay. All right, so the motion as amended passed with Councillor Frye, Councillor Ward, Councillor Maloney in opposition. Okay.

let's display the voting results the vote is ended it's just not streaming correctly

Okay. Can we fix that easily?

Make sure that we can fix that or not. If we can, I'm going to do a verbal.

Yeah. Clerk, can you confirm?

I'm just checking right now with technological services.

Maybe, Chair, in the meantime, you could just read the results out for the public record.

Okay. So, yeah, I will just read that now. So while the clerk are fixing the technical issue here. Voting in favor, Councillor Zhou, Councillor Kerbion, Councillor Domenato, Councillor Klaas, and Councillor Meister voting in favor. And Councillor Frye, Councillor Orr, Councillor Maloney voting in opposition. Councillor Bligh, Councillor Montague mayors in absent. Thank you.

Yeah, let me check with staff if we can fix that. Okay, so let's take... Can we fix that, Kirk?

We can just take five minutes. Five minutes recess? Okay, let's take five minutes recess.

Thank you.

This one was so good.

All right, so, yeah, we have quorum. Yeah, okay, everyone, so let's keep on going in this meeting. So there is no quick fix to display the voting results, but we can display the email that clerk circulate, which is in this format.

I hope that satisfies everyone's requirement.

Sorry, Chair, point of order. It's really difficult for me to read that.

Amplify, bigger.

It's not as straightforward as the voting results, but that gives us how people voted.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thanks. That completes motion 14 on the agenda. Going to the next motion, the final motion, which is motion 15, renew rental office for Vancouver residents and is to be moved and introduced by Councillor Fry. Before we begin this agenda item, if anyone believes they have a conflict of interest, now is the time to declare it. Does anyone have a conflict of interest to disclose? Councillor Fry, you have two minutes to introduce your motion. Yeah, thank you, Chair. As you will, of course, recall... Sorry, Councillor Frye, we need to restart your time mark. Clerk, can we do that? Please go ahead. Yeah, thank you, Chair. Yeah, as folks will recall, we... In 2018, one of my first motions as a Councillor was to introduce a renter's office. In 2023, it was... delimited and phased out. We have an obligation to residents of our city to properly represent them. We continue to see issues that affect renters in the city of Vancouver. We represent more than half the population of the city of Vancouver. and issues that fall squarely within the jurisdiction of the City of Vancouver, not just issues that are necessarily under the Resident Tenancy Act or RTB tribunal appeals, but really issues around decisions that we make with regard to zoning, with regard to land use, with regard to our TRPP. We adequately consult with all manner of... experts and lobbyists in the course of our doing business. Developers have direct access to the planning department and to counselors and to influence decisions, not inappropriately in any way, but to influence decisions by having access to the policymakers. And we don't extend that to renters in our city in a really cogent way. And I think as we have even issues coming before us on our docket in coming days that reflect a really challenging space for a lot of renters in our city, since eliminating the renter's office, which was recommended to continue by staff at the time, things have not improved for renters in the city, despite the fact that vacancy rates have improved. And we continue to have, and I spend a great deal of my personal time as a city Councillor responding to renter issues. illegal SDRs, wrongful change of use and rent evictions.

And I see I'm out of time, but I'll have to come back on a regular speaking crew. Thanks, Counselor. Okay, we need a seconder for this motion. seconded by Councillor Maloney. We will now hear from the rightist speaker for this motion. Again, so please state whether you are in support or in opposition of the motion. And you may only speak once. And also, I will ask if you are a resident of Vancouver, if not on the list. The first rightist speaker is Nicholas Popel.

All right. Everyone can hear me? Yeah. Great. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Nick Popel, and I'm speaking today as the co-chair of the Renter Advisory Committee, and we are speaking in strong support of this motion. Renters represent more than half of the households in this city. The renter office was originally created because renters facing eviction, displacement, or unsafe housing were being sent between city departments, provincial agencies, and nonprofit organizations, often while the clock was running out on the time on their homes.

The office gave renters a front door. It provided information, referrals, and coordination. Over the three years that it was running, it cost approximately $1.8 million, an average of about $600,000 per year. When it was reviewed in 2023, staff recommended that it continue. Instead, council eliminated it, setting concerns about efficiency, duplication, and which level of government should take the lead. The problem is when everyone is partly responsible, nobody is truly accountable. Council recently approved nearly $5 million to extend the Granville Street pedestrian pilot for seven weeks, including $1.25 million for programming that we're still figuring out what it's about. To be clear, I'm not arguing against pedestrian streets or public events. I'm a theater grad, and I love this stuff. It's a question of priorities. That seven weeks expenditure is roughly equal to eight years of the renter office at its previous average cost. And I'm going to be honest here. I'm not just speaking theoretically. Personally, I have fought through three arbitrations. I won them, but it was hell. But it was nothing like the nightmare I saw my apartment neighbors go through just before that.

We had a new owner come in, and they issued fictitious notices claiming everyone in the building had to leave. They told us they had secured permits from this city. Their generous offer to vacate was well below what tenants were legally entitled to receive.

I personally fought hard.

I learned a lot about renters' rights and the RTA.

Almost every single one of my neighbors was scared out of their home. Seniors, single parents, immigrants, people who had been built their lives in that building. Only three of us fought back and remained. That building had 24 homes, almost 50 people. One call to a properly resourced renter's office might have protected not just me, but dozens of other people. Across Vancouver, that one call could protect hundreds. The motion today is not to bring the renter's office back. It's to have a study come back from staff that will likely go to the next council. The cost of studying is negligible. The cost of doing nothing is measured in people's homes. Sorry, that's your time. Strongly support this motion, please. Thank you. Okay, speaker number one is Timothy Ryan Bush. Speaker one is not on the line. Speaker number two is Tsuki Sohoda. Thank you, Chair. I support this motion because renters make up the majority of households in Vancouver. I'm also a renter, and they deserve accessible, coordinated support from their municipal government. Housing discussions often focus on building new homes, but we must also ensure that people already renting in our city can easily navigate the systems designed to protect them. Today, renters often have to deal with multiple agencies and organizations when facing maintenance concerns, displacement, relocation questions, or uncertainty about their rights. That can be confusing and difficult to navigate, as mentioned in the first speaker's experience. This motion proposes a practical solution, reestablishing a centralized renter's office to improve coordination, provide clearer information, support enforcement efforts, and help renters access the services they need. Importantly, this office would not duplicate the work of the residential tenancy branch or community organizations. Instead, It will strengthen coordination, improve data collection, identify service gaps, and provide council with better information to guide future policy decisions. Good government should be easy to access. We already dedicate significant resources to working with developers, builders, and property owners. It is equally reasonable to ensure renters, the majority of Vancouver households, such as myself, have a dedicated point of contact within City Hall.

Funding the office through empty homes tax revenues is also appropriate, given those revenues are intended to support housing-related priorities. Ultimately, this motion is about improving service delivery, strengthening accountability, and ensuring renters have a stronger voice within municipal government. For those reasons, I encourage council to support the motion. Thank you. Thank you. Speaker 3 is Bridget Burns.

Speaker 3 is not on the line. Speaker 4 is Angela Liu. Speaker 4 is not on the line. Speaker 5 is Vincent Singh.

Okay, please go ahead. Hello, community members. My name is Vincent Shi. I'm a staff lawyer at First United Legal Advocacy Clinic. I'm also a resident of Vancouver's West End, and I'm speaking in support of the motion. For over 50 years, our legal advocacy clinic has provided support for tenancy issues for low-income renters in the downtown Eastside, including for unlawful evictions. Our advocates assist over 1,000 clients per year, including hundreds of renters. seeking urgent support to avoid homelessness. Nonprofit service providers like us take on enormous caseloads. Every day we work with people facing multiple barriers such as disability, language barriers, low income, or just simply not knowing what their legal rights are. These community members need resources to avoid displacement and homelessness, and so we continue to be troubled by the decision to close the renter's office given its critical role for the community. The renter's office had filled an important gap in resources. It provided advocacy and direct education to renters at risk of displacement and eviction. Importantly, the renter's office was not duplicative of the services that nonprofits like us provide. The office provided support where we couldn't and vice versa. For example, the office is the only place that can give direct information and assistance on the city's own tenant protection policies. No other organization is in the position to do so. Municipal policy is also outside the scope of what the RTB can help with. This becomes even more critical given the Broadway plan and downtown Eastside rezoning make TRPPs a fundamental part of the redevelopment scheme. And also, the terms of these policies are complicated and can be confusing even for a lawyer like me. While First United welcomes the expansion of TRPP coverage, it is just as important that city give information and assistance on these policies through a renter's office to make its protections accessible and meaningful.

For us, the loss of the renter's office has eliminated a critical service and important partner for homelessness prevention. It's raised barriers to help that has been devastating to both our organization and the clients we serve. So we urge council to reestablish the office to ensure that renters are protected. Thank you so much. Thank you. Speaker number six, Annette Riley. Hello, can you hear me? Yes, we can. Beautiful. Hi. Hello again. I'm Annette Riley. I'm a resident of Vancouver, and I am here to speak in support of this motion. I will keep it short. It's been a long day for all of you. I would like to actually say thank you so much for all your hard work today. You're almost there. I just have one number for you. It's 165,455. That's the number of households in Vancouver that rent. That's not the people that live in those houses. That's just the households. Voting to bring back this renewed renter's office means that you are showing each person in each of those 165,000 households that they matter to you. City Hall has an open door for almost everyone involved in housing, builders, developers, engineers, property owners. renters deserve access to city hall i i mean i can sit here and i can i can extol the virtues of this new renters office in city hall but honestly i shouldn't need to because the previous version of this office was a success the evidence is there we saw it working we know what it can do and this is just a new and improved version of that please show the majority of Vancouver residents that you care about their needs. I would appreciate that as a renter being shown through a vote that you care about us. I urge you to support this motion. Thank you. Thank you. Speaker 7 is Matthew Thiessen. Thiessen.

Matthew. Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Matthew Thiessen, and I'm the Managing Partner at Somerville Community Relations. Every day, my team is on the ground, working directly with residents to navigate TRPP and tenant plans. Our focus is simple, lead with empathy, prevent the loss of housing, and ensure renters are supported. Because we do this work every day, I'm here to speak in support of the intent behind Councillor Fry's motion. this motion correctly identifies a critical systemic flaw and problem, there is an unhealthy tension when the exact same department is responsible for writing policy.

regulating it, and serving as the primary public-facing support for renters. Right now, that system is broken, and tenants are paying the price. Recently, I wrote to the general manager of planning, requesting urgent action on two frontline issues, greater clarity around tenant compensation, and more consistent communication on how the TRPP interacts with the Residential Tenancy Act. The response, we were told these critical issues were deferred to future review with no concrete timeline. That means 40 plus tenants were left in limbo. Instead of addressing this policy gap, the GM and the housing division chose to build a wall. They created a new unlisted city email account to communicate with our team. And quite frankly, it's completely invisible to the public. The messages sent from it are entirely anonymous. Yet these anonymous emails... contain official city instructions that developments must follow for approvals. Following this, we began receiving official housing division memos, documents confirming that applicants have met requirements to issue tenant notices, circulated with no signatures. Mayor and council, anonymous emails and unsigned memos do not protect tenants. They do not resolve policy gaps. What they do do is shield public servants from accountability, create confusion, and slow down the delivery of housing and tenant supports. When the department responsible for tenant protections goes anonymous, it is a clear signal that the current system is failing. Whether the solution is a reestablished renter's office or a deep structural overhaul of the existing housing division, one thing is clear. The foundation of our housing administration must be built on transparency, accountability, and professional service. We cannot protect Vancouver renters with anonymous emails and deferred decisions. I urge Council to support the spirit of the motion, acknowledge the deep operational issues within the housing division, and demand a return to accountability, transparent public service for renters and housing providers alike. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Thank you, Matthew. Speaker number eight is Daphne Smith.

Hi again. Yeah, please go ahead. Thank you very much. So in January, this council heard from tenants and tenant advocates about routine violations of the law in rental housing across the city. We heard tenants describe persistent threats to life and safety. We heard that there are landlords who avoid legal consequence by outlasting an overtaxed, uncoordinated system, leaving individual tenants responsible for systemic failures. And at that time, Council broadly supported doing more. This would be a really good way to do more.

The reason we knew about many of the issues that Council discussed in January was because of tireless organizing and reporting by tenants and allies at the Vancouver Tenants Union. Deep respect to the BTU for their work. But I would also say that the city shouldn't have to rely on crowdsourcing to get information about noncompliance with city bylaws. In my experience representing tenants, the lack of an adequate monitoring compliance and enforcement system coordinated with provincial partners and legal services has facilitated some of the routine abuses we see from exploitative landlords. I have a lot of respect for the work of city staff, but I have also represented tenants whose landlord was unlawfully emptying out a building in contravention of city bylaws under staff's notes. Staff in January thought that they were on top of serious fire safety issues in a building where tenants clearly reported the issues unresolved. Staff regularly report to council that tenant relocation and protection policies are operating as designed. when tenants and advocates clearly know otherwise. We hear stories constantly of tenants who are struggling to get systems that nominally exist to support them and protect their rights to function the way that they should. We are still dealing with landlords I first dealt with many years ago who are still breaking the law in exactly the same ways over and over again. This is not a problem as individualized lack of diligence. These problems have persisted across many years of my work and practice in the field. These problems are systemic. We still owe it to Vancouver's renters not to leave them to individually fight off landlords who are well resourced and determined to break the law. We need to make better systems to give effect to the laws and policies that council already supports. The renter's office was the only entity I've ever encountered that was positioned to do that work. Please reinstate it. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, so I'm going to circle back to speaker number one.

Speaker number one is not on the line. Is speaker number three, Richard Burns?

Speaker number three is not on the line. How about speaker number four, Angela Liu?

Speaker number four is not on the line. Okay, thank you. So that's the end of our speakers list. Thanks everyone for speaking to the committee. So, you know, before going to discussion, I'm just looking at time, 9.41. So need a motion to extend.

Motion?

Okay, so otherwise we're going to stop at 10 p.m.

Okay, it's the last motion.

Okay, so, all right.

Committee members, is there any discussion?

Councillor Maloney?

Thank you, yeah. Very much appreciate Councillor Fry moving this motion. I love how comprehensive it is in setting out the possible benefits that can be gained by a renter office. As our first speaker pointed out, this is a recommendation to staff to do a body of work that's not very onerous. And... doesn't have to be done quickly, can be reported back to a new council. I think that the issues concerning renters that have come up, what we hear from the public shows that we really do need to do more to look after tenants and make sure that we've got good coordination across the city so that renters' interests... are properly represented and renters are properly looked after because that is a very important thing that we can do to prevent more people from tipping into homelessness. There is one particular group that I think this would benefit very much and that is seniors. I am the council liaison for the Older Persons and Elders Advisory Committee and... Housing affordability, tenant protections and homelessness is top of mind for that committee. They regularly communicate that that is a problem that we do need to address. So I think as a responsible council, we owe it to our constituents to recognise the challenge faced by our senior, increasing population of seniors. and take action to protect them. I know that one thing that the Chinatown City of Vancouver office almost exclusively does is provide Chinese language advice and support to Chinese seniors that are facing homelessness. And that is just the tip of the iceberg. I know that spending a lot of time in the West End, that there are a lot of seniors precariously housed on fixed incomes with... market housing getting more expensive. Luckily, it's softened a bit lately, but it's still impossible for people that have been living in a particular apartment for a long time and do have a very affordable rental rate if they are evicted.

And even as we heard, the threat of eviction can be enough to... scare people off if they don't have the information and support that they need. So, again, thank you, Councillor Fry, for moving this excellent motion. I really hope that it gets unanimous support by Council. Thanks. Councillor Fry. Yeah, thanks, Chair, and thank you for those words, Councillor Maloney. I also hope that this gets unanimous support. I think it is salient that the market has changed significantly since we first introduced a renter's office and it was eliminated. You know, we see kind of a race to the bottom when it comes to housing targets and gradually, of course, the elimination of elements of inclusionary zoning and developer cost levies and ACC, what was formerly known as CACs, and how we are dedicating funds to... to affordable housing and to uh below market rental housing um these are have real world impacts on on the residents of our city um and and we know like i i don't know maybe it's just me and i'm the hard luck guy but i get so many calls and and you know it's unfortunate that we see so much so many bad actors that are abusing uh tenants in our city right now um on just an individual landlord level. And there's tools that we can implement. You know, I did bring forward, and it was unanimously approved, new tools to address mold and air quality in apartments. And I brought that forward because it's a real impressing problem. We have negligent landlords that are risking human health. And we have the tools through the standards of maintenance bylaw. And this is something that a renter's office could have been more effective in stick handling and pushing forward so that we're not relying on me trying to come up with you know a counselor amendment and trying to you know come up with a member motion to address some very real problems that we know are actively and indeed tenants reach out to me repeatedly on this kind of matter increasingly we see issues with short-term rentals And again, this is something that a renter's office could successfully address. And I want to just highlight that, you know, the original renter's office, and I know that this council is very fiscally responsible and concerned with a zero means zero budget and repeating a zero means zero budget. And the idea that this renter's office, and indeed it's articulated in this report, is funded through the empty homes tax. So it's at no cost to the city of Vancouver. This is... I don't want to say free money, but this is an opportunity to not burden taxpayers, but rather use the existing tool we have that is dedicated towards this very kind of implementation so we can take the empty homes tax, we can take that speculation tax and invest it into protecting the interests of folks who are

making up the majority of the population in the city of Vancouver. I think it's money well spent, and I think it actually will improve the outcomes and insulate this council from a lot of the pressures that we're inheriting from new provincial legislation that is eliminating things like inclusionary zoning, that is putting more pressure on the delivery of affordable rental housing that meets the needs of median income earners in the city of Vancouver. I think this is fiscally responsible, it's prudent, and more importantly, it really addresses the primary needs of folks in the city of Vancouver. So I do hope to see unanimous support from this council. Thank you. Hey, Councillor Orr.

Councillor Orr? Yeah. Sorry, yeah. One second.

Sorry, just having technical difficulties here.

Yeah, I'll definitely be voting in favor of this motion. I don't think this office should have ever been cut in the first place. It's one of those things, it's like the opposite of if you build it, they will come. In terms of, you know, if you don't build it, they won't come. And if you shut it down and they didn't know it ever existed, then they definitely are not going to come. The renter's office was eliminated in January 2023 against staff-owned recommendations to keep it. But what has happened since? Renters are worse off, rents have climbed significantly, and affordability has deteriorated, even as vacancy improved. When you cut the one office coordinating support for most of your residents and their situation gets worse, this council needs to take responsibility for that decision and reverse it. And like we're seeing, you know, a huge amount of new projects going forward with the Broadway plan, and this was cut sort of a lot before a lot of those... were approved. Renters make up more than 55% of households in the city, the majority of Vancouver, and they navigate a fragmented system, but they often are bounced between the city, the province, non-profits, with no single door to walk through. And what I appreciate about this motion is that it's not symbolic. It creates a single point, a single door of contact for rent eviction and dem eviction complaints, formal coordination with TRAC, the Residential Tenancy Branch, and the Vancouver Tenants Union. and a mandate to track displacement and illegal conversions across departments that right now don't talk to each other.

And we heard that from Matthew Somerville, or sorry, Matthew Thiessen from Somerville. as well as there's uh you know there's there's walls being put up and we need doors uh not walls uh renters in smaller buildings and strata titled off uh units often fall outside our existing tenant relocation and protection policy entirely um you know we're we're seeing that we saw that with uh a couple projects and we're seeing that with some in the docket as well as counselor fry mentioned I think this office is how we close that gap. The reproposed office also allows for multilingual outreach, support reaching seniors, newcomers, students, and marginalized renters who are the least likely to know their rights and the most likely to be exploited.

Tying funding to the empty homes tax is fitting. It's a tax designed to address housing pressure, funding an office designed to protect the people bearing the brunt of it. So this is an easy yes for me.

And that's all my comments. Thanks.

All right. Thanks. Councillor Bligh? Thanks very much, Chair. Yeah, I... I appreciate this conversation. I appreciate Councillor Fry bringing this forward. I also reviewed the minutes from the renters advisory committee that was available to us leading up to this meeting and read their comments as well in support. This has been a conversation that we've talked about for some time, and I have had mixed feelings about it in the past due to the functionality. But I think that conditions have changed now, primarily around a more robust and somewhat complicated TRPP associated with the Broadway plan. And I've even heard from developers, actually, looking to have the city set up a better system to help with making sure that those services can be, or that the navigation of the TRPP can not necessarily be off the side of someone's desk in our planning department, but that there can be a really clear conduit of communication, solving problems, navigating reoccurring issues, and making sure that there's just really cohesive communication. So Notwithstanding, over 70% of net new residents in Vancouver are renters and over 50% are renters. There's obviously a necessity and that number is growing. Two thirds of the units in the Broadway plan are rental market and below market.

And so while that may have changed with some of the various amendments in the last few years, at the end of the day, it's an enormous amount of change that we know is happening in a very small area of our city and we need to make sure that we've got all of our bases covered. But with that, I actually have a moment to move because I do think it's important that we get report backs. And I hope that this is considered very helpful. While it's a pretty comprehensive motion, it actually is not included that I could see and that is just making sure that we're able to just track the success essentially of this office and um and uh its ability to achieve the goals that it's setting out to achieve so i wonder chair if you could move us to an amendment queue okay yeah so can you add yourself there counselor black oh sure

Okay, I'll advance you.

Okay, great. Thank you. So, yeah, I'm happy to hear just if this feels like something that Councillor Fry had considered and maybe chose not to or making sure I'm not sort of bringing something forward that doesn't fit. But I suspect just an annual update would be quite helpful, particularly to share the successes and making sure that we are – we are really achieving what we set out to achieve really with the motion. So, yeah, happy to table that and hope that that's considered a friendly amendment as we've had a few of those tonight. Okay, we need a seconder for this amendment.

Okay, seconded by Councillor Maloney on the amendment. Okay, Councillor Frye.

Oh, okay, we need a seconder. Sorry, I didn't hear that. Seconded by Councillor Kirby. Again, we need to vote on calling the question. Councillor, please go to the voting panel. We are voting on calling the questions. Point of information here. Sorry, what's happening? Yeah, actually, there's no audio coming through the feed, so it's not possible for those not in chamber to hear. What just happened there? I've moved an amendment. Yeah, so I'll let everyone know. So, Councillor Dominardo has called the question, and it's been seconded by Councillor Kerbion. Is that calling the question on the amendment? On the amendment. Oh, okay. Yeah, we are now going to vote on calling the questions. Okay. Councillor, please register your vote on the voting panel.

Is that debatable? No, the question has been called. We just need to vote. We're voting on calling the question? Yes, we're voting on calling the question. Okay, I was hoping that we would get some discussion. I'm going to vote in opposition. Yeah, okay, but the voting panel is not working, Clark. Yeah, it's not working for me either. No, it's not. Seems like there's maybe some technical issues. It's showing up on my screen. It's not showing on our screen.

I'm able to vote on the crest on. I'm not. I'm not sure about the others.

No, it's not working for me either. I'm showing everyone other than Councillor Bligh having voted.

I can just take a vote assist in opposition, please. Okay.

I'll take a vote assist in favor. Councillor Domenato, did you vote?

No, no, no, we are voting for the, calling the question.

Okay.

Say, my mic's, or my, my, my timer's running, by the way. Oh. So, I guess calling the question failed with Councillor Bligh, Councillor Fry, Councillor Ward, Councillor Maloney. Okay. So we're back to the amendment, Chair? Back to the amendment, but now it's Councillor Fry's speaking time. Yeah. Thank you. Could you maybe reset my clock, though, because it seemed to be running. But in any event, I wasn't speaking. yet, but I am happy to support this as I do appreciate it as a friendly amendment. I have submitted an amendment to the amendment, actually, because this idea of a... Chair, just a point of procedure. I just want to let you know that it's 10 o'clock and the meeting has probably... I have exactly 10 o'clock and 15 seconds. Oh, so do I. Oh, yeah, it's 10 o'clock. The meeting is now recessed to which day?

Post adjourned. Unfinished business, which council meeting? That's tomorrow, right? July 28th. Next council meeting. Okay. I see. Okay. Yeah. So the meeting has ended and we move everything to unfinished business to the next council meeting, which is July 28th.

Hold on that queue then.

Isn't the next council meeting tomorrow? My clock will be really long. No, it's the next council meeting, which is July 28th.

Okay.

So the meeting is recessed. We're all done? Yeah, we're done. Good night, everyone. Okay. Bye-bye.

Thank you.