It’s one party with just one councillor at the moment, but OneCity hopes for a lot more than incumbent Christine Boyle at city hall after Vancouver’s municipal election on Oct. 15.
And a lot more housing.
“We’d like to see gradual increase in density across the city. Not only on the amount of housing, the types of housing,” said Ian Cromwell.
He’s one of four candidates for council for OneCity, along with Boyle, Iona Bonamis and Matthew Norris. Their school board candidates are Jennifer Reddy, Kyla Epstein, Krista Sigurdson, Gavin Somers and Rory Brown, and their park board candidates are Tiyaltelut Kristen Rivers, Serena Jackson and Caitlin Stockwell.
Of the 10 political parties, OneCity is the only one with a publicly contested election for all of their nominations — something Cromwell says is a big reason they’re different from the other parties on the centre-left of the political spectrum with similar policies on housing, climate and social issues.
OneCity council candidate Ian Cromwell says the fact that housing prices are continuing to go up in Vancouver is a reflection of the city not pursuing a pro-supply policy aggressively enough. (Joel Law/CBC News)
“Our approach is the way that democracy should work in Vancouver, period,” he said.
“When we truly work in a democratic way, in an open and transparent way, we get the best of what the city has to offer.”
‘Six floors and corner stores’
But what does that mean in terms of concrete policy?
So far, OneCity has only released its housing platform (which you can find here). It’s a 16-point plan, focused on building more supply of housing, protecting renters and better connecting services to communities.
It’s the subject OneCity arguably talks about most, and Cromwell says their philosophy is centred around the concept “six floors and corner stores.”
In short, it’s a proposal for more density and services across the city, allowing rental buildings of up to six storeys on all streets — including in neighbourhoods dominated by single family homes, like Shaughnessy.
“We have a couple of overlapping problems with the housing supply in Vancouver. The first is that there’s not enough of it, and the second is that it’s all in the wrong place,” said Cromwell.
“We are putting a lot of density in areas that are already dense and displacing existing renters while not putting necessary housing into the areas of the city that can most afford to absorb new neighbours.”
OneCity’s proposal is to allow six-storey rental buildings across the entire city, including neighbourhoods that are currently almost exclusively filled with single-family homes, such as Shaughnessy. A rendering by a party supporter of what could happen as a result is pictured here. (Submitted by Bryn Davidson)
Is the policy working?
Some of the proposals are straightforward, like simplifying the process for co-op and non-profit housing to be built, rezoning land so grocery stores and small-scale retail shops can exist in all neighbourhoods, supporting more local festivities and block parties, or developing certain school board properties into non-profit housing.
Others are outside city control, like demanding vacancy control, or calling on the province to work more closely with the city to ensure schools are built in areas where the number of young families is quickly growing.
But overall, it’s a platform focused on accelerating current city priorities — and Cromwell argues the fact that home prices haven’t gone down under those priorities isn’t a reason to change course.
“Though there has been a focus on an increase in supply, there has not necessarily been the votes on council,” he said.
“So we can underperform and then complain … but that doesn’t mean that the solution is wrong. It means that we aren’t implementing it properly.”
And Cromwell says that if they win enough seats to hold the balance of power on council, they won’t back down from their promises.
“We see a lot of other parties who are very much in favour of everything that is popular until it comes time to vote for it … and then all of a sudden they find a problem with it,” he said.
“What OneCity is proposing is bringing a set of values and tangibly and clearly spelling out what the benefit is going to be to residents in these neighborhoods, and a commitment to actually have our voting record back up what we promised.”
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the NDP is caving to political pressure from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre when it comes to their stance on the consumer carbon price.
Trudeau says he believes Jagmeet Singh and the NDP care about the environment, but it’s “increasingly obvious” that they have “no idea” what to do about climate change.
On Thursday, Singh said the NDP is working on a plan that wouldn’t put the burden of fighting climate change on the backs of workers, but wouldn’t say if that plan would include a consumer carbon price.
Singh’s noncommittal position comes as the NDP tries to frame itself as a credible alternative to the Conservatives in the next federal election.
Poilievre responded to that by releasing a video, pointing out that the NDP has voted time and again in favour of the Liberals’ carbon price.
British Columbia Premier David Eby also changed his tune on Thursday, promising that a re-elected NDP government would scrap the long-standing carbon tax and shift the burden to “big polluters,” if the federal government dropped its requirements.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Simon Jolin-Barrette, minister responsible for consumer protection, has tabled a bill to force merchants to calculate tips based on the price before tax.
That means on a restaurant bill of $100, suggested tips would be calculated based on $100, not on $114.98 after provincial and federal sales taxes are added.
The bill would also increase the rebate offered to consumers when the price of an item at the cash register is higher than the shelf price, to $15 from $10.
And it would force grocery stores offering a discounted price for several items to clearly list the unit price as well.
Businesses would also have to indicate whether taxes will be added to the price of food products.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.
He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.
Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.
He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.
Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.
He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
