TEAM FOR A LIVABLE VANCOUVER CALLS FOR AN END TO GOVERNING BY STEALTH

Huge Reports Like the Latest Plan to Mass Rezone 4,300 Parcels Go to Council Regularly With Little Advance Notice

VANCOUVER (July 24, 2025) –  It’s time to stop ramming massive new plans through Council without giving residents notice or time to respond, says TEAM for a Livable Vancouver.

The latest example is a 447-page plan to rezone 4,300 parcels in the Broadway Plan and Cambie Corridor. It was made public only on July 16 – despite being dated June 30. The plan is so big and saw so little consultation that even the development industry protested.

"Rushing through massive reports with profound impacts on the City’s future disrespects the residents of Vancouver,” says former TEAM City Councillor Colleen Hardwick. "You have to read the lines before you can read between them, and if you don’t, you're in no position to make complex decisions.”

That didn’t stop Council from rubber-stamping the referral report on Tuesday. And this isn’t the first time City Hall bureaucrats have tried to pull a fast one on the public:

• In the first week of December 2024 they released a 353-page report turbocharging the Broadway Plan ahead of a Dec. 11 Council vote.

• The “final draft” of the original Broadway Plan was released just eight days before it was due to come before Council in May 2022.

• An especially egregious example was a 2,669-page report on supposedly making information easier to find dated May 24, 2022 – released three work days ahead of a June 7 Council meeting.

Such massive data dumps and short deadlines seem designed to cut residents and their elected representatives out of the discussion.

"It's the oldest trick in the book,” says Hardwick. “Push reports and decisions through when no one's watching, particularly in July, just before Council's August summer break."

In its 2022 campaign, TEAM for a Livable Vancouver promised to publish all such materials at least one month before any discussion by Council. That would give residents, businesses, and stakeholder groups time to analyze them and come up with a response. 

TEAM urges Council to establish timelines that allow residents time to understand and respond to the changes being proposed for their city.