Kareem Allam’s Vancouver Liberals unveiled a 148-point platform ahead of the Oct. 17, 2026 civic election.
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Kareem Allam’s Vancouver Liberals have released a 148-point platform detailing what the municipal party would do if elected in the Oct. 17, 2026 civic election.
The platform is presented by Allam, the mayoral candidate, and is described as covering the mayor’s office, Vancouver City Council, the Vancouver Park Board and the Vancouver School Board. The party says municipal government cannot address all challenges on its own and is seeking commitments from B.C.’s provincial parties ahead of the separate provincial general election on Oct. 24.
In a statement included with the platform release, Allam said the commitments are intended to be “deliberately detailed,” adding that voters should be able to assess them four years later.
On governance, the platform includes proposals for a public lobbyist registry, reversing freedom of information (FOI) fee increases, restoring the Equity Office, and strengthening the Integrity Commissioner. It also calls for quarterly meetings with the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations and a task force to advance commitments under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The Liberals’ mental health, addictions and homelessness plan would move from the existing four-pillar approach—prevention, treatment, harm reduction and enforcement—to a new six-pillar strategy that adds housing and early intervention for youth mental health. The platform also says a strategy addressing methamphetamine would be developed within the first year.
The platform states that people living in encampments would be offered housing and appropriate support before camps are closed, and it calls on the municipal, provincial and federal governments to create a new “Vancouver Accord” that assigns responsibilities, provides sustained funding and sets measurable goals for housing, treatment, mental health, public safety and Downtown Eastside recovery.
On public safety, the platform opposes the civic election’s public safety plebiscite questions described as supporting greater enforcement against public hard drug use and creating a secure medical treatment facility for involuntary and voluntary care, characterizing such a facility as a “prison.” It also proposes funding 15 additional Vancouver Police Department financial-crime investigators to trace drug-trade profits and pursue organized-crime leaders, along with more stable funding for community policing centres.
The platform includes proposals aimed at housing approvals and development. It says the Liberals would simplify approvals while expanding support for renters, co-ops and other affordable homes, and it proposes adopting the B.C. Building Code while keeping the City of Vancouver’s zero-carbon and energy standards and heritage protections.
To streamline municipal housing processes, the platform says it would combine Vancouver’s current 12 housing-approval departments into a single process with one contact for applicants, review construction-related bylaws in the first year, allow churches, co-ops and non-profit organizations to develop affordable and non-market housing on their land without rezoning, and revise development charges with phased rates and exemptions for priority housing.
The platform also calls for reversing the City’s pause on net new supportive housing and for seeking provincial government support to build and operate supportive housing with sufficient staffing and health services. It says supportive housing and shelter operators would face agreements identifying responsibilities, staffing commitments and service standards for the City to enforce.
Major transportation proposals include demolishing the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts with provincial assistance and advancing the City’s 2016-approved Northeast False Creek Plan after demolition. The platform also lists extending SkyTrain’s Millennium Line from Arbutus to the University of British Columbia as its top public transit priority, as well as additional rapid transit serving areas including Stanley Park, Hastings Park/PNE and South Vancouver.
For cycling infrastructure, the platform proposes adding 400 km of protected bike lanes, including installing new protection on existing painted bike lanes. It also advocates for full-time bus lanes along Hastings Street between Downtown Vancouver and Boundary Road, supported by traffic signals that give buses priority.
The Liberals’ capital spending plan includes replacing or upgrading aging pools, ice rinks, community centres and public spaces. It specifically calls for redeveloping the Vancouver Aquatic Centre with a 50-metre pool, rather than the current approved plan for a 25-metre pool for the facility’s main tank, and states that demolition of the existing facility gets underway this month.
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