TEAM for a Livable Vancouver Statement on the UNITE HERE Local 40 Report

TEAM welcomes the publication of UNITE HERE Local 40's report, Vancouver's Hotel Room "Crisis": A Developer Giveaway, Not an Affordability Solution.

The report asks an important question that extends well beyond hotel development:

Has City Hall shown the public enough evidence to justify the policies it is asking Vancouver residents to accept?

Reasonable people will often disagree about the best solution to a problem. That is healthy in a democracy. What they should be able to agree on is how those decisions are made.

At TEAM, we believe good government rests on three simple principles:

Open Government: Government should be transparent. The evidence, assumptions, and analysis behind major decisions should be available for everyone to examine.

Meaningful Voice: Public engagement should help shape decisions—not simply explain decisions that have already been made. Citizens deserve a genuine opportunity to ask questions, consider alternatives, and influence the policies that affect their communities.

Proof Before Policy: The burden of proof belongs with those proposing change. Before asking Vancouver residents to accept major policy changes, reduce public oversight, grant special incentives, or spend public resources, City Hall should clearly demonstrate why those changes are necessary, what evidence supports them, and how success will be measured.

Public policy should be shaped by public evidence, serving the public interest.

These principles are not about being for or against hotel development. They are about ensuring that every major public decision is made fairly, openly, and with accountability to the people it serves.

The UNITE HERE report challenges the assumption that Vancouver faces an urgent hotel room shortage requiring extraordinary public intervention. It asks whether long-range forecasts, industry projections, and recent market evidence support the special planning incentives now being offered to hotel developments. Those are legitimate questions that deserve careful public consideration.

Whether one agrees with every conclusion in the report is not the point.

The point is that important public decisions should withstand independent scrutiny before they become public policy. This principle applies well beyond hotels.

Vancouver residents have increasingly been asked to accept major policy changes under claims of urgency—whether related to housing, rezonings, civic infrastructure, or the recent closure of the Vancouver Aquatic Centre. Urgency may sometimes be justified, but urgency alone should never replace careful analysis, open debate, and meaningful public engagement.

Government should be a process of open inquiry—not a process of justification.

The role of public consultation is not simply to explain decisions that have already been made. Its purpose is to test assumptions, hear competing perspectives, examine alternatives, and improve the final decision.

That is how public trust is earned.

TEAM believes Vancouver deserves a City Hall that is responsible to the evidence and responsive to the people.

That means asking difficult questions before reaching conclusions. It means making evidence public before asking the public for its support. It means welcoming independent analysis rather than fearing it. Most importantly, it means recognizing that the burden of proof belongs with government whenever it asks citizens to accept significant change.

Strong policies are not weakened by public scrutiny. They are strengthened by it.

We thank UNITE HERE Local 40 for contributing thoughtfully to this important civic conversation. Whether reports come from community organizations, professional associations, labour organizations, businesses, neighbourhood groups, or individual citizens, they strengthen democracy when they encourage evidence, transparency, and informed public debate.

At TEAM for a Livable Vancouver, we believe better government begins with better process.

Open Government.

Meaningful Voice.

Proof Before Policy.

These are not simply campaign principles. They are the foundation of public trust.