TEAM Releases Full Nine-Plank Platform, Unveils Accountable Government Action Plan

Platform includes commitments on neighbourhood planning, predictable property taxes, public safety and recovery, parks, local business, the environment and City Hall accountability

VANCOUVER, Oct. 8 –  TEAM for a Livable Vancouver today released its full 2026 election platform, organized around nine major planks that will be the party’s priorities if it is elected on October 17.

The platform is aimed at giving a voice back to residents and neighbourhoods and making Vancouver a more livable city.

“Each policy is designed around the goal of strengthening our neighbourhoods, listening to residents, and ultimately making our city more livable,” says TEAM mayoral candidate Colleen Hardwick. “A residents-first approach – that is what TEAM stands for.”

TEAM’s nine platform planks are:

1. Respect for Neighbourhoods

2. Services. Stability. Safety. Guarantee

3. A Stronger Voice for Neighbourhoods

4. Restoring Order to Our City: Public Safety and Recovery Plan

5. Better Parks and Recreation for Everyone

6. A Local Economy that Works for Residents

7. Local Environment Action Plan

8. DTES Audit

9. Accountable Government Action Plan

   
   

The platform includes these major commitments:  

• Predictable Property Tax Pledge: TEAM would ensure that annual property-tax increases do not exceed inflation, while prioritizing spending on core municipal services and undertaking a comprehensive line-by-line review of City spending.

• Restoring community-based planning: TEAM would repeal the current city-wide Official Development Plan and replace it with neighbourhood-based planning to give residents and local businesses a direct role in shaping how their communities grow and change. 

• Electoral Reform: Under A Stronger Voice for Neighbourhoods, TEAM would begin the process of replacing Vancouver’s current at-large system for councillors with a ward system. That would ensure that councillors are elected from and directly accountable to neighbourhood constituencies. TEAM’s goal is to have the new system in place for the 2030 civic election, while the mayor, park, and school board would continue to be elected citywide. 

• Protecting Vancouver’s parks: TEAM calls for permanent protection of currently unprotected parkland, restoration of an independent, elected Park Board, investment in neighbourhood parks and recreation facilities, and a strict policy against using existing public parkland for industrial or corporate infrastructure.

• TEAM’s Public Safety and Recovery Plan would shift the City toward treatment and recovery, including an immediate pathway connecting people struggling with addiction to detox, treatment and longer-term recovery services.

• The $4-million Neighbourhood Shopping Streets Revitalization Fund would  restore historic storefronts, support independent businesses, improve public spaces and strengthen local commercial districts. 

• Greater scrutiny of City spending: In addition to the line-by-line budget review, core municipal services and infrastructure would receive priority in the City budget.

The final plank released alongside the full platform is TEAM’s new Accountable Government Action Plan. The three-part package focuses on strengthening independent oversight, making lobbying at City Hall transparent, and giving residents clearer information about what municipal government is actually delivering. TEAM thinks City Hall should be judged not simply by what it announces, but by what it delivers. A key part of the plan is strengthening the independence of Vancouver’s Auditor General and Integrity Commissioner. 

City departments would be required to publicly respond to audit recommendations, provide timelines for implementation and maintain a public tracker showing whether recommendations have been acted on.

TEAM would strengthen protections for the Integrity Commissioner, provide for independent and impartial investigations of complaints involving elected officials, and use qualified outside investigators where appropriate. 

The plan includes establishing a public Lobbyist Registry to identify who is lobbying City Hall, who they represent, the issue they are seeking to influence and which elected officials or senior City decision-makers they contacted. 

TEAM would also create public Community Amenity Contribution and Development Cost Levy registers, restrict unnecessary in-camera meetings, make staff briefings to Council public wherever possible and release Council information early enough for residents to meaningfully review it. 

And TEAM would create a searchable Vancouver Housing and Development Dashboard distinguishing projects that are proposed, approved, under construction and completed, rather than treating approvals as completed housing. 

TEAM platform can be found at voteteam.ca/platform along with its full policy positions. 

“Policy is the best honesty,” says Colleen Hardwick, “and I am confident that TEAM has the best policies to make Vancouver a more livable city.”