Ken Sim playing developer with taxpayer dollars, adding even more costly bureaucracy at city hall: Colleen Hardwick
Vancouver, BC (Feb. 10, 2025): TEAM for a Livable Vancouver by-election candidates Colleen Hardwick and Theodore Abbott say Ken Sim’s plan to push the city into the market rental housing development business should raise big red flags with every Vancouver taxpayer.
“Mayor Ken Sim wants to play developer with taxpayer dollars, which makes no sense, and should worry every taxpayer in our city,” said Hardwick, a former Vancouver city councillor. “At the same time, the expansion of the newly created Vancouver Housing Development Office to do all this means yet another layer of costly bureaucracy and additional staff. The plan is to direct city staff to create ‘new programs, policies, or mechanisms’ to deliver middle-income housing. That’s city hall speak for more costs to taxpayers, more bureaucrats, and setting up the city to compete in the development business, with public assets and taxpayers taking all the risks.”
Hardwick said when it comes to the City playing developer, city hall has a terrible track record.
“You only have to look at the cost to the city of the Olympic Village development, where the city had to write off the $100 million value of the land as a loss,” added Hardwick. “Like Ken Sim’s speculative interest in Bitcoin using city money, this foray into market rental development has taxpayer risk written all over it. If the mayor wants to play developer, he should do it with his own money on his own time, not with public assets, and taxpayers put at risk. At the same time, market rentals are not where the real need is. What’s missing in Vancouver is affordable below market units, which this costly program does not address.”
Abbott said he is always skeptical and nervous when governments rush into areas where the private sector has the natural expertise and is prepared to take the risk.
“Public assets and public tax dollars are too valuable to be put at serious risk like this,” said Abbott. “Right now, many new rental projects are not proceeding to development because of market conditions. Having city hall rush in with public land and Vancouver tax dollars makes absolutely no sense. The fact is city hall should focus on better management of our city’s core needs and services, rather than growing the bureaucracy and risking tax dollars and public land. Our city isn’t any safer, affordable, or better run than it was two years ago when ABC was elected. Now they want to risk our tax dollars and city land playing developer. Vancouverites deserve better.”