- 2022 Green Governance & Accountability Platform - PDF
The Challenge
Our city is facing some serious barriers to good governance including divisive public hearings, toxic public discord, and overly partisan interests that don't serve the public interest. We need to transition to more effective and equitable methods of citizen engagement, including online engagement, and more collaborative approach to addressing the challenges our city faces.
Good governance and accountability are core to effective City building and key to ensuring that we have a healthy democratic structure that works for the public good. Greens know that evidence-based and data-driven decisions are necessary to improve the overall wellbeing of Vancouver. To provide trust in the democratic system in Vancouver, we put effective governance, public interest and transparency first.
Top Priorities
- Zero-based budgeting requiring every City department to justify each line-item in their budget in terms of delivering on City priorities.
- A review of staff work at the beginning of each new term to identify top priorities of the new Council, and what work arising from previous Council priorities could be dropped.
- Making negotiations with developers for Community Amenity Contributions (CACs) more transparent to the public and ensure the public receives a fair share of the developer’s profits (that result from city upzoning) to pay for amenities like affordable housing, libraries, childcare facilities, parks, arts and culture, and recreation centres.
- Include costs per social housing unit in rezoning reports in order to determine if our money could be better spent to get more affordable housing.
- Reduce job gapping and job precarity by reviewing part-time, temporary and short-term contracts for city employees with the goal of shifting employment as much as possible to long-term, regular full-time jobs, especially in the Vancouver Public Library.
- Standardize Development Cost Expectations and Community Amenity Contributions instead of negotiating on a case-by-case basis, to predictably calculate the land lift arising from increasing density, give certainty to developers and banks, and ensure the public gets its fair share of the profits generated by upzoning.
Solutions
ACCOUNTABLE TO THE PUBLIC GOOD
A TRANSPARENT BUDGET
Greens will seek to reform the City’s budgeting process to be more accessible, transparent, and responsive by calling for:
- A review of staff work priorities at the beginning of each new term to identify top priorities of the new Council, and what work arising from previous Council priorities could be dropped.
- Zero-based budgeting requiring every City department to justify each line-item in their budget in terms of delivering on City priorities.
- A wellbeing framework applied to all budgets to ensure that decisions are based on how they will improve the overall wellbeing of all people in Vancouver.
- Open data to provide up- to- date budget projections and spends, by expanding the City of Vancouver’s information website and open data portal.
- Community budget workshops in plain language, throughout the city to better inform residents on the budget.
ACCOUNTABLE TO THE PUBLIC GOOD
Our decisions and policies must be defensible and clear in terms of value for Vancouver residents and businesses. Greens will call for:
- Clear funding and maintenance schedules for infrastructure and public assets including buildings and greenspaces. This is essential to catch up for decades of neglect pre- 2018 and ensure longevity of public assets
- A review of our housing agencies to ensure they are well-run and delivering good value. Ensure the Vancouver Affordable Housing Endowment Fund and Agency, which hold and manage city lands dedicated for affordable housing, has a mandate to deliver deep affordability, its operations are well-managed and transparent, and its performance is audited.
- Making negotiations with developers for Community Amenity Contributions (CACs) more transparent to the public including elements of developers’ Pro Formas, so people can be assured that the public receives a fair share of the developer’s profits (that result from city upzoning) to pay for amenities like affordable housing, libraries, childcare facilities, parks, arts and culture, and recreation centres.
- Include costs per social housing unit in rezoning reports in order to determine if our money could be better spent to get more affordable housing.
- Reviewing and modernizing our Request for Proposal (RFP) and procurement processes in terms of reconciliation, social equity, environmental priorities, and local community economic development.
EFFECTIVE AND EFFICIENT
Local governments and large corporations are facing new challenges as the nature of work changes. Responding to these pandemic, technological and societal induced shifts, Greens will:
- Make the office of the Integrity Commissioner permanent to ensure continual training and updating of code of conduct processes for Mayor and Council and increase public transparency of issues.
- Require exit interviews of senior staff who are leaving City employment.
- Support the retention and recruitment of staff, working with management to recognize the changing nature of work and prioritize employee satisfaction, work-life balance, remote and flexible working, career advancement and rewards.
- Reduce job gapping and job precarity by reviewing part-time, temporary and short-term contracts for city employees with the goal of shifting employment as much as possible to long-term, regular full-time jobs, especially in the Vancouver Public Library.
- Standardize Development Cost Expectations and Community Amenity Contributions instead of negotiating on a case-by-case basis, to predictably calculate the land lift arising from increasing density and give advance certainty to developers and banks. Ensure the public gets its fair share of the profits generated by upzoning.
GOOD GOVERNANCE
Good governance is key to effective City building and ensuring that we have a healthy democratic structure that works for the public good. Greens will:
- Support the independence, integrity and funding of the new Auditor General Office. Vancouver’s Auditor General Office will deliver on their first performance and financial audit later this year. Greens will support this work, and seek best value and efficiency for Vancouver tax payers
- Review and develop new best practices for public hearings and council meetings. Revamp the City’s Procedure Bylaw to facilitate more efficient meetings, improve meaningful and productive dialogue at the Council table, and develop more equitable opportunities to participate.
- Update City policies to incorporate the recommendations from the UNDRIP taskforce.
- Strengthen engagement and involvement of citizen advisory committees, requiring annual reports and work plans, and appropriately remunerate participants for their time and effort
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Communities include neighborhoods, cultural connections, and a variety of interest groups coming together. Greens believe community is the heart of local government, and will advocate for:
- Participatory budgeting: re-introduce the program to enable communities to democratically advocate for the kinds of growth-funded amenities they would like to see in their neighbourhoods.
- Urban Stewardship Plan developed in partnership with community groups and non-profit organizations to foster connectedness, inclusiveness, and economic development; for example, by hiring people with employment barriers as local workforce to provide basic litter removal services, or empowering grassroots neighborhood cleanups and steward programs.
- Neighborhood Integrated Services Teams to provide a coordinated approach to community issues, working across city departments
- Office of community involvement, based on the successful model used in Portland and elsewhere, to formalize community leadership and encourage more equitable and earlier public engagement on local issues.
- Council-community liaisons. Foster local level engagement and advocacy between council and communities with dedicated Councillor liaison(s) for each of Vancouver’s distinct neighbourhoods.
ADVOCACY
- Lead the creation of the Vancouver Agreement 2.0.
- Lobby Province for a fair % of Property Transfer Tax revenue created in Vancouver.
- Work with the Province for a Provincial support office for elected officials.
- Vancouver Charter changes that support more efficient governance processes.