Former COPE councillor Tim Louis knew exactly what he was doing the day he had a public relations agency send a press release to reporters on the afternoon of June 19.

The headline: “COPE and Vancouver Green Party look to join forces.”

Anyone reading the release would conclude the two parties were working on a deal to run a combined slate to “replace Vision Vancouver’s developer-friendly, possessive stranglehold on city hall with a progressive, people-oriented city hall.”

Except, there was no talk of a deal.

It was simply Louis being Louis, looking for a political edge to sharpen interest among Green members who were to vote later that day on whether to seek an alliance with another party.

The following press release was issued by Mark Handley on October 30, 2014. We are sharing it with you here as it is an issue that we at the Green Party of Vancouver feel strongly about.

Donation policy prohibits donations over $5000 and donations from developers

The Green Party of Vancouver is proud to be the first civic party to disclose information regarding donors and donations of $100 or more, including in-kind donations, as well as a total sum of all donations under $100.

Green Party donations along with donations to the campaigns of School Board candidate Mischa Oak and City Councillor Adriane Carr were made available to the public early Friday at  http://vote.vangreens.ca/campaign_contributions.

All donations to individual candidate campaigns will be posted as soon as they are provided.

The timeline for party donations goes back to the beginning of this year.

The Green Party of Vancouver is the only party currently on City Council that does not accept donations from developers. Donations over $5000, from fossil fuel companies and from outside of Canada are also not accepted.

Full details on the party’s donation policy are available at: http://www.vangreens.ca/donation_policy.

Costs estimated by Vision Councillor Reimer “nonsensical”

Vision Vancouver delaying Green Vancouver City Councillor Adriane Carr’s push for a grass field for the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup games is a “slap in the face to 29 million female soccer players around the world” according to former soccer star Carrie Serwetnyk.

Founder of Equal Play and the first female inductee into the Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame, Serwetnyk has been working closely with Carr to ensure Vancouver offers a proper playing pitch with grass, not artificial turf, for the World Cup event, projected to be the world’s largest women’s sporting event ever.

Changes for Stamp’s and other housing are embedded in the 2013 DTES Local Area Plan

Residents of Stamp’s Place — comprising 368 residences housing about 1,500 people in Strathcona — have understandably been caught off guard with BC Housing’s announcement they are looking for new parties to take over the social housing complex.

But for the City of Vancouver to express “surprise” is disingenuous in light of the Downtown Eastside Local Area Plan, says Green Party of Vancouver Council candidate Pete Fry.

$3-billion cost could fund a fairer, smarter system aimed at a five-minute walk to transit for everyone 

Vision Vancouver is misleading people about the true costs to the City and impacts on neighbourhoods of a $3-billion subway line to UBC. 

“Citizens must be informed about how much the City will have to pay for Vision’s plan to tunnel rapid transit to UBC, and whether they want the money to be spent on a one-route subway or on expanding the transit system to more effectively serve the entire city,” says Adriane Carr, Vancouver Green City Councilor. 

On Wednesday, Vancouver Fire Fighters IAFF Local #18 issued the following open letter to the citizens of Vancouver, asking Vancouverites to help ensure that our elected politicians, and those seeking to be elected, make public safety a greater priority. A major fire on October 3rd which called upon several fire stations and left huge swaths of Vancouver very vulnerable for hours, and which we had previous written about here, has brought the issue of overstretched fire departments back to the surface of our consciousness, but this problem has been ongoing for a long time without being properly addressed by Council - in spite of reports clearly urging remedial action. 

For the Green Party of Vancouver, safety is an absolute necessity for a truly livable city. That is why we are happy to share the fire fighters' letter with you, and invite you to join them and us in calling for safety to be made a priority again.

Both sides need to reboot with new ideas for agreements 

After dozens of meetings and thousands of hours invested, and still no agreement in sight, everyone needs to cool off and take a time-out in negotiations between the City of Vancouver’s Board of Parks and Recreation and local Community Centre Associations for new Joint Operating Agreements (JOAs), say Green Party of Vancouver Park Board candidates. 

“It’s time to pause and reboot,” says Green Park Board candidate Stuart Mackinnon, a Park Commissioner in 2010, when the process began after the Park Board started revisiting JOAs that are more than 40 years old.

Real grass reduces risk of injury; could be reused 

Men’s premier sporting teams refuse to play on artificial turf because it is an inferior surface that poses greater risk of player injury and increased concussions. So Councillor Adriane Carr is urging the City of Vancouver to create a “level playing field for women” and provide real grass for the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup games to be played in Vancouver. 

On October 20, Carr submitted a Motion on Notice for the October 28 Vancouver City Council meeting for the City of Vancouver to provide a grass field for the six games and final match of the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup games — projected to be the world’s largest women’s sporting event ever. [See full details below.] 

Report to include risk analysis and reasons for the decision not to call out off-duty firefighters 

As a result of Green Party of Vancouver City Councillor Adriane Carr’s enquiry at today’s regular City Council meeting, the City Manager will be asking Fire Chief John McKearney to report back to Council on the massive four-alarm fire Friday, October 3 at an almost-completed Seniors Housing complex at 49th and Granville.