In advance of the Vancouver election, parties outlined differing approaches to public safety and property-tax policy.
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Seven parties—along with five mayoral candidates—are running in the Vancouver election, and city columnist Dan Fumano compiled brief summaries of how those parties say they would handle key issues facing the city.
On public safety and crime, ABC Vancouver’s Ken Sim (and the party’s mayoral campaign) says violent crime is down 18 per cent across the city, that the Vancouver Police Department is fully funded for the first time in over a decade, and that the party has removed dangerous encampments, expanded mental-health supports, and launched new measures to crack down on crime.
The Green Party of Vancouver’s mayoral candidate, Pete Fry, said “public safety is a system, not a slogan,” proposing an Office of Community Safety to coordinate police, fire, community services, licensing, and land use; expanding daytime shelters and washrooms; and creating a 24/7 non-police team for non-emergency calls, along with an independent audit of the VPD before touching the police budget.
TEAM for a Livable Vancouver’s mayoral candidate, Colleen Hardwick, argued that violent crime is on the rise again and said ABC has not done enough to improve life for people dealing with addiction, offering a four-part plan that includes residents’ safety actions, community-first policing, a violence against women prevention strategy, and a new approach to addiction.
Vancouver Liberals mayoral candidate Kareem Allam said intimate partner violence and hate crimes are crises and proposed a survivor-led plan for intimate partner violence, immediate action for faith and cultural communities targeted by hate attacks, new financial-crimes officers to go after drug-related activity, and a youth violence reduction unit.
Vote Vancouver’s mayoral candidate, Rebecca Bligh, said violent crime has dropped over the past 20 years but residents do not feel safer, and proposed lifting the ban on supportive housing, building recovery community centres, and urging the province for more psychiatric care and long-term beds.
COPE said it wants to address root causes and differentiate between “crimes of desperation and survival” versus “exploitative or predatory” crimes, and argued that the VPD “does not need to be doing mental health calls,” while also calling for the city to consider a full spectrum of safety risks including intimate partner violence, pedestrian fatalities, climate events, and suicide.
OneCity, which is running without a mayoral candidate, said too many Vancouverites “feel less safe after four years of ABC,” and proposed setting the VPD budget based on an independent review; easing pressure on police by sending crisis response teams where officers aren’t needed; and improving public spaces through lighting, cleanliness, and connected paths for walking, biking and rolling, alongside adjustments to speed limits in busy pedestrian areas.
On taxes, ABC said it championed a zero per cent property tax increase in 2026 and said it is committed to another zero per cent increase in 2027, while also citing funding for police and fire, maintaining community grants, and continuing infrastructure investments.
The Green Party said it would restore what it called financial transparency through line-item budgets and accountability, and said before changing the empty homes tax it would audit compliance and evasion rates to determine how best to target empty properties.
TEAM said it would cap property-tax increases so they never rise above the rate of inflation, and criticized what it described as “election-year stunts.”
The Vancouver Liberals said they would cap property-tax increases at inflation and tie increases to what the city needs, and said they would bring some outside consulting in-house, cut management layers, and have departments justify spending, along with exemptions and changes that include a Greater Vancouver Food Bank exemption.
Vote Vancouver’s position on taxes in the provided material said that a 2026 property tax freeze made a “good headline” but saved most households an “insignificant amount of money,” warning that additional freezes could reduce services and put city finances at risk.
The provided material did not include complete tax platform details for COPE, and it ended mid-sentence in that section.
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