Vancouver City Councillor
John Colebourn, The Province:
Longtime social activist and Strathcona resident Pete Fry is officially running for the Green Party in the upcoming provincial byelection in Vancouver-Mount Pleasant.
Premier Christy Clark has until early January to call the byelection, necessitated by the resignation of longtime NDP MLA Jenny Kwan.
Kwan ran successfully for the NDP in the recent federal election in Vancouver East, a riding held by the NDP’s Libby Davies since 1997.
“We haven’t had an MLA since July, and that’s certainly one of the things that’s resonating with people on the doorstep,” Fry told the Straight in a recent phone interview. Last August, Gail Yvonne Sparrow ruminated about taking another stab at Vancouver-Mount Pleasant. In 2001, the former Musqueam Nation chief ran for the B.C. Liberals …
Continue reading “With Jenny Kwan off to Ottawa, Vancouver-Mount Pleasant waits for new MLA”
The provincial government recently announced $35 million in funding — for what are termed as routine capital grant upgrades: things like window and boiler upgrades, roof replacement and energy efficiencies.
Vancouverites, were of course disappointed that of the 109 projects, not one was in our local school district.
What piqued my interest though, is that of the relatively modest wishlist submitted as part of the VSB’s Routine Capital Plan Submission — most of the requests are for my local elementary school, Lord Strathcona.
Rent control is another obvious solution, but in a free enterprise housing market—where renovictions are a thing, and the provincial Residential Tenancy Act is in desperate need of overhaul—there is potential for pushback from industry. Arguably rent control could be seen as a disincentive for new rental builds, although cities like New York have managed to make renter protection a condition of rezonings.
But there is a tool that hasn’t been subject to much discussion in our province, one that might bring some relief to beleaguered British Columbians: a renter’s tax credit.
Vancouver City Council approved an amended staff report to remove the viaducts in principal, with the inclusion of a serious commitment to immediate downgrading of Prior Street and a new east-west arterial, as well as meaningfully honouring of Hogan’s Alley and the black community displaced from there. — Still there is more work to be done, in particular regarding development and affordable housing, delivery of Creekside Park and the management of traffic in NE False Creek.
Earlier, I wrote the following op-ed: