TEAM for a Livable Vancouver candidate Colleen Hardwick unveiled a four-part public safety platform while criticizing ABC’s upcoming non-binding plebiscite on hard drugs and treatment capacity.
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Colleen Hardwick, the mayoral candidate for TEAM for a Livable Vancouver, released her party’s public safety plan ahead of the municipal election, targeting ABC Vancouver’s proposed public safety plebiscite approved earlier this year on Vancouver City Council.
Hardwick’s announcement frames the plebiscite as unnecessary in a city where residents already want immediate action on public safety, arguing that voters do not require another ballot question to express support for “safe streets.” She said the focus should be on a City Hall prepared to implement a comprehensive strategy.
The controversy centers on a plebiscite that will ask Vancouver voters to weigh in on public hard drug use and establishing a major mental health and addictions treatment facility at the old St. Paul’s Hospital site. The measure was approved in August by the ABC Vancouver majority on council.
TEAM’s plan is structured into four components: a residents’ safety action plan, a community-first approach to policing, a violence-against-women prevention strategy, and a “new” approach to addiction.
Under TEAM’s residents’ safety action plan, the party says it would target repeat offenders and would not tolerate open drug use in shared public spaces. It also proposes increasing enforcement for street disorder, drug trafficking, and recurring property crime, alongside improving neighbourhood-level crime reporting.
TEAM says its approach to policing would be community-first, including strengthening district policing and improving coordination with neighbourhoods and businesses. It also calls for creating a victims’ response standard aimed at improving how information is communicated after a crime is reported.
For violence against women, TEAM proposes establishing a task force on intimate violence and strengthening victim services and risk assessment. The party also says it would increase prevention education and appoint a City Women’s Safety Lead.
On addiction, TEAM’s plan emphasizes recovery and reintegration. It says it would expand access to treatment and recovery-oriented housing and create an “immediate treatment and recovery pathway” with Vancouver Coastal Health, while working with the Province to expand detox, treatment, recovery, and secure-care capacity.
TEAM also said it would audit the Downtown Eastside to improve accountability for public spending, positioning the audit as part of its broader effort to address safety and service delivery in the neighbourhood.
The announcement lands as the election campaign moves into a final stretch. Rebecca Bligh, running for mayor under Vote Vancouver, has shared the main pillars of her platform but those pillars did not include public safety when released last week. Kareem Allam, the Vancouver Liberals’ mayoral candidate, released a public safety plan on Sept. 17 that says it would target high-level organized crime and street-level crime. ABC Vancouver and incumbent mayor Ken Sim are scheduled to reveal their election platform on Monday, Sept. 21, while Green Party mayoral candidate Pete Fry has not yet released a public safety plan. Voting day is Oct. 17.
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