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Vancouver civic parties agree more often than not: Think City

Vancouver's three civic parties agree more often than they disagree on solutions to affordable housing, transportation and citizen engagement, according to a Think City survey that compared the three parties policy positions to those of 2,513 citizens.

“The three parties agreed on eight Dream Vancouver policy solutions, such as initiating a below-market housing program, providing citizens with direct ways to set city council priorities, and creating a citizen-led advisory committee to advocate for better transportation options,” Think City researcher Erica McCollum said in a release.

"There was disagreement by the three parties on maintaining rental units by banning condo conversions and enforcing standards of maintenance, providing more funding to citizen-directed activities in neighbourhoods, and starting a free bus route in the downtown core," McCollum added.

Think City surveyed 2,513 citizens and the three major civic parties between July 20 and October 31.

The Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) was in agreement with the majority of citizens surveyed on all 15 policy options (100 per cent), Vision Vancouver only differed with the majority on one of the options (93 per cent), and the Non-Partisan Association (NPA) agreed with survey respondents on nine policy options (60 per cent).

Among the results of Think City's survey:

Affordable Housing #1: The city should change its laws to allow for development of affordable housing (e.g., eliminate parking stall minimums, allow more than one secondary suite, etc.)

Public Response: 51.5% Strongly Agree, 33.1% Agree, 6.4% Disagree, 3.6% Strongly Disagree, 5.4 % Don’t Know

Civic Party Response: Strongly Agree - COPE, NPA, Vision

Affordable Housing #2: The city should create affordable housing in new housing developments by providing developers with both incentives and requirements to build these units (e.g., an incentive would be allowing developers to build a greater number of market units in exchange for building below-market units within a single development).

Public Response: 48.0% Strongly Agree, 37.7% Agree, 7.3% Disagree, 3.1% Strongly Disagree, 4.0% Don’t Know

Civic Party Response: Strongly Agree - COPE, Vision; Agree - NPA

Affordable Housing #3: The city should create a city housing authority (similar to the model in Whistler) that is responsible for developing affordable housing (this includes rental units, co-ops or units for home ownership).

Public Response: 52.1% Strongly Agree, 33.5% Agree, 4.8% Disagree, 2.1% Strongly Disagree, 7.4% Don’t Know

Civic Party Response: Strongly Agree - COPE; Agree - Vision; Disagree - NPA

Affordable Housing #4: The city should maintain rental units by banning condo conversions and enforcing standards of maintenance to prevent deteriorating housing conditions.

Public Response: 46.1% Strongly Agree, 30.8% Agree, 9.9% Disagree, 3.6% Strongly Disagree, 9.7% Don’t Know

Civic Party Response: Strongly Agree - COPE; Agree - NPA; Disagree - Vision

Affordable Housing #5: The city should initiate a “below-market” housing program where homebuyers (both low- and moderate-income) would have the ability to purchase a home at a price below market value, provided they agree to sell at a price below market value (i.e., if you purchase at 20 per cent below market, you must sell at 20 per cent below market).

Public Response: 34.6% Strongly Agree, 33.1% Agree, 12.5% Disagree, 5.5% Strongly Disagree, 14.4 % Don’t Know

Civic Party Response: Strongly Agree - COPE, NPA, Vision

Citizen Engagement #1: The city should replace the at-large system with another electoral system (e.g., wards, proportional representation).

Public Response: 41.2% Strongly Agree, 28.5% Agree, 7.0% Disagree, 3.9% Strongly Disagree, 19.4% Don’t Know

Civic Party Response: Strongly Agree - COPE, Vision; Disagree - NPA

Citizen Engagement #2: The city should create a public engagement strategy to ensure that multicultural communities participate in public processes more than they do now.

Public Response: 31.6% Strongly Agree, 46.6% Agree, 9.0% Disagree, 3.4% Strongly Disagree, 9.3% Don’t Know

Civic Party Response: Strongly Agree - COPE, Vision; Agree - NPA

Citizen Engagement #3: The city should provide more funding and other resources to foster citizen-directed activities in neighbourhoods (e.g., neighbourhood councils, childcare/seniors care, community gardens, traffic calming, etc.).

Public Response: 47.6% Strongly Agree, 39.6% Agree, 6.0% Disagree, 1.8% Strongly Disagree, 5.0% Don’t Know

Civic Party Response: Strongly Agree - COPE, Vision; Strongly Disagree - NPA

Citizen Engagement #4: The city should establish an independent office of public consultation to ensure all city consultation processes are transparent, credible and effective.

Public Response: 42.9% Strongly Agree, 34.9% Agree, 9.3% Disagree, 1.8% Strongly Disagree, 11.0% Don’t Know

Civic Party Response: Strongly Agree - COPE, Vision; Strongly Disagree - NPA

Citizen Engagement #5: The city should provide citizens with direct ways to set city council priorities between elections (e.g., ongoing democratic reform through a citizens’ assembly or annual/capital budget development through participatory budgeting).

Public Response: 31.6% Strongly Agree, 40.2% Agree, 11.9% Disagree, 2.8% Strongly Disagree, 13.5% Don’t Know

Civic Party Response: Strongly Agree - Vision; Agree - COPE, NPA

Transportation #1: The city should reallocate road space currently dedicated to private automobiles to other methods of transportation (e.g., bikes, pedestrians, public transit, taxis).

Public Response: 50.6% Strongly Agree, 30.6% Agree, 9.5% Disagree, 4.2% Strongly Disagree, 5.0% Don’t Know

Civic Party Response: Strongly Agree - COPE, Vision; Agree - NPA

Transportation #2: The city should create a free, public transit system separate from TransLink to service the downtown area, including Chinatown, Gastown, the Downtown Eastside, Yaletown, Coal Harbour and the West End.

Public Response: 40.3% Strongly Agree, 25.6% Agree, 16.9% Disagree, 7.2% Strongly Disagree, 10.1% Don’t Know

Civic Party Response: Strongly Agree - COPE, Vision; Strongly Disagree - NPA

Transportation #3: The city should improve cycling infrastructure (e.g., creating more bike routes, bike lanes that are separated from automobile lanes, parking, storage, more bike racks on busses or cyclist access to SkyTrain during rush hours).

Public Response: 60.0% Strongly Agree, 33.5% Agree, 3.1% Disagree, 1.7% Strongly Disagree, 1.7% Don’t Know

Civic Party Response: Strongly Agree – COPE, NPA, Vision

Transportation #4: The city should explore alternatives for pedestrians and cyclists on the Burrard Street Bridge. These alternative solutions could include a separate pedestrian/cycle bridge over False Creek and/or converting lanes on the existing bridge to cycle lanes.

Public Response: 43.5% Strongly Agree, 34.9% Agree, 8.9% Disagree, 4.8% Strongly Disagree, 7.9% Don’t Know

Civic Party Response: Strongly Agree - COPE, Vision; Disagree - NPA

Transportation #5: The city should create a citizen-led Transportation Advisory Committee to advocate for better transportation options in Vancouver and the region.

Public Response: 46.5% Strongly Agree, 35.1% Agree, 8.4% Disagree, 2.4% Strongly Disagree, 7.5% Don’t Know

Civic Party Response: Strongly Agree - COPE, Vision; Agree - NPA

The survey is the product of a year-long, deliberative public consultation process by the Think City Society involving 3,000 citizens. Since 2002, the Think City Society has worked to bring citizens together to discuss the challenges facing our city and to develop practical solutions.


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