Elect Tim Louis to City Council

Vote COPE, For Responsible City Government

2011-11-17T02:06:52Z

This year, Vancouver heads to the polls to choose the type of Vancouver they want to see going forward into the future.

At the Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE), we've been listening to Vancouverites from across our city, so we know that in the next term of City Council, the citizens of Vancouver want to see aggressive action on affordable housing, support for neighbourhoods, and a respectful dialogue with City Hall where our voices are not only heard, but where those voices influence the decision-making at City Hall that will shape our City for generations to come.

On the one hand, the electorate are given the choice of voting for COPE, a Vancouver civic party founded in 1968 that has long stood for social justice, with a longheld commitment to championing the issues of public transit and investment in affordable housing. On the other hand there's the NPA, and their woeful record on shutting down public celebrations, and ignoring our responsibility to the environment.

In 2011, COPE offers an approach to city governance that will help to shape a city for all the citizens of Vancouver. This election, COPE has spoken out on ...

Putting neighbourhoods first through the creation of Neighbourhood Councils
Support for the creation of year-round farmers' markets
Affordable transportation, through the creation of a neighbourhood-based, discount-priced Community Pass, or C-Pass, as well as improved bus service and the freezing of fares, among a myriad of other issues that make up our platform.

For 40+ years, COPE has advocated for ordinary working people and families, those on fixed income, renters and home-owners, small and sustainable business, and the neighbourhoods and communities that make up the cultural diversity that is Vancouver. While Vancouver is one of the most beautiful cities on the planet, it is also Canada's ground-zero for homelessness and poverty. COPE has real solutions to the issues that impact you and people like you all over Vancouver everyday.

Without you, without your vote for the COPE team on Saturday, November 19th, we cannot achieve our goal of achieving a more sustainable, neighbourhood-oriented City committed to social justice, and the building of a Vancouver that reflects the values of working people across our city.

Today, we ask for your support on November 19th. COPE asks that you send a strong message to City Hall that you believe in building a Vancouver for Everyone.

Tim Louis: WERA All-Candidates Meeting

2011-11-14T20:40:28Z

November 13, 2011: COPE candidate for Vancouver City Council, Tim Louis, speaks at WERA's All-Candidate's meeting, held this past Sunday afternoon at the Empire Landmark Hotel, on Robson Street, in the West End.

Affordable and social housing and an improved transportation system, specifically bus transit service, have emerged as key issues in Vancouver's 2011 civic election.

The Coalition of Progressive Electors' (COPE) recently released platform document concentrates on the programmes Vancouver City Council must implement to provide much needed new, affordable and social housing stock, and a much-improved, more accessible transit system to serve the needs of Vancouver residents.

In attendance at the West End Resident Association's All-Candidates debate held on Sunday, November 13th, COPE candidate for Vancouver City Council, Tim Louis, offered prescriptive remedy for increased social and affordable housing supply, and given that Sunday's WERA debate concentrated on West End issues, laid out a plan that would provide free transit service in the downtown core, and the West End.

In addition to free transit in the downtown core, Tim Louis and the COPE candidates for Vancouver City Council have also argued for the adoption of a Community Pass, or C-Pass system, whereby any given neighbourhood across the city could decide as a group whether they wanted to invest in a discounted transit pass for their community, an initiative not unlike the successful U-Pass transit pass offered to students attending post-secondary institutions across the Lower Mainland.

On the housing front, Tim Louis and COPE call for the re-adoption of an affordable housing strategy that was long a feature of Vancouver's affordable housing policy ...

"We need to do more to set aside city land for co-ops and non-market housing. With every major development that comes before Council, it must be an absolute minimum requirement that 20% of the units are set aside social housing, as was long the practice of Vancouver city government."

COPE and the Tim Louis campaign ask that you have a look at the video atop today's post to our website, and on November 19th, cast your ballot for the COPE Vancouver City Council team of candidates: Ellen Woodsworth, RJ Aquino and Tim Louis.

COPE Works To Preserve Vancouver's Heritage

2011-10-29T18:21:25Z

The Vancouver Heritage Register is acknowledged as the cornerstone of the Vancouver's Heritage programme. Adopted in 1986 by Vancouver City Council, the Heritage Register constitutes an important policy document, a registry of heritage sites that currently includes 2,150 buildings, and 131 landscapes, monuments and archaeological sites.

A key policy and planning tool designed to guide decision-making by Vancouver City's Planning and Development Services departments, the Heritage Register offers city planners an invaluable registry of those sites which possess both heritage value and character. As such, the Heritage Register emerges as a significant planning tool which provides our City's planners with an invaluable record of Vancouver's heritage.

Unfortunately, the Heritage Register is 25 years out of date. As as a consequence, Vancouver streets and buildings that have architectural and historical significance do not appear on the Heritage Register.

"Twenty-five years is a long time. Our understanding of history and heritage has no doubt changed during that time. As residents committed to our City's history, we need to ensure that heritage buildings are preserved in neighbourhoods across Vancouver," declared COPE candidate for Vancouver City Council, RJ Aquino at COPE's press conference on revitalizing the Heritage Register. "Recognizing our city's heritage is vital in the creation of strong and vibrant communities."

Added Tim Louis, COPE candidate for Vancouver City Council in the 2011 municipal election, "Vancouver is developing at a pace rarely experienced in our City's history. The time is now to ensure that proposed new development doesn't erase our past. When the heritage buildings that constitute a record of our City's history are lost to new development, a part of our history is lost forever."

The Heritage Vancouver Society has called for an update to the Heritage Register for more than 10 years, thus far without success. Every year, the Society creates a Top 10 list of Vancouver's most endangered heritage sites; a significant number of the sites that have appeared on Heritage Vancouver Society's historical preservation list do not appear on the Vancouver Heritage Register.

Coalition of Progressive Electors candidate for Vancouver City Council, Ellen Woodsworth, told the Saturday press conference, "COPE is committed to working with the City, as well as with concerned citizens in community groups across Vancouver, to ensure that updating the Heritage Register becomes a priority item in the next term of Vancouver City Council. COPE members of Council will initially focus on the key heritage sites that require our immediate attention, as COPE Council members move towards the adoption of a Council policy that will preserve significant architectural and historical sites for future generations."

In closing the press conference, COPE candidate Tim Louis declared, "Recognizing our City's rich cultural and architectural heritage is a vital component in creating sustainable and stronger communities for all of us who reside in neighbourhoods across and throughout Vancouver."

Transportation: Bike and Pedestrian Safety

2011-10-20T23:30:47Z

As a transportation alternative to travel by bus or car, for urban commuters cycling or walking has emerged as the transportation mode of choice for many of us who travel to work, or simply wish to get around the City in a healthy, inexpensive, socially responsible and environmentally sound manner.

A central tenet of COPE's platform for change includes pedestrian and bike safety.

At present, the City of Vancouver is working on a 10-year cycling master plan to be incorporated into the City's Transportation Plan 2040. As a COPE candidate for Vancouver City Council, Tim Louis offers his full support for COPE's transportation platform, a key element of which involves pedestrian and bike safety.

At a press conference held the morning of Thursday, October 20th, COPE Council candidate Tim Louis told the media ...

"COPE will ensure that bike safety education, increased cycling infrastructure and better by-law enforcement, are included in the master plan, so that we can create a Vancouver that is accessible to everyone."

"Pedestrians need to feel safe on the sidewalks, while cyclists need to feel safe on the road. Stopping drivers from speeding down bike ways, and stopping cyclists from biking on sidewalks should be a priority," said Louis. "This problem can be addressed through meaningful by-law enforcement."

COPE Park Board Candidate, Brent Granby added to Louis' statement, saying ...

"If cyclists don't feel safe on the roads, they end up using the sidewalk. This in turn puts pedestrian safety at risk. COPE is committed to improving overall bicycle safety through education, enforcement and infrastructure."

The Coalition of Progressive Electors is also calling on the City of Vancouver to work with the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia to include training for new drivers on how to respectfully share the road with cyclists.

"COPE strongly believes that the bicycle is an excellent form of sustainable transportation and wants to do everything possible to make it an essential component of long-term transportation planning," added COPE school board candidate Al Blakey, in attendance with COPE Park Board candidate Brent Granby, and COPE candidate Tim Louis, who offered his full support of COPE's transportation policy.

"You can count on COPE to keep Vancouver moving safely."

Transportation: Buses Are The Backbone

2011-10-20T00:28:54Z

Photo courtesy, Yolanda Cole, The Georgia Straight

A key tenet of COPE's 2011 campaign for Vancouver City Council calls for easily achievable and innovative changes to the way TransLink delivers bus service.

"Too often transit riders are waiting for transit service, as buses pass them by. Transit riders can count on COPE to work towards a much improved bus system, as the first priority for a newly elected Vancouver City Council," COPE candidate for Council Tim Louis stated at a press conference on Monday, October 17th, held at one of the city's busiest commuter hubs, at Broadway and Commercial.

COPE recognizes that there is a strong need for an improved and responsive transit system to meet the needs of Vancouver commuters.

"COPE will urge TransLink to undertake a comprehensive study of the feasibility of double articulated buses along Broadway," Louis committed to Vancouver voters.

COPE's plans for a much improved transit service would include working closely with Translink to equip buses with a traffic light control: on approach to an intersection the light would be frozen green until the bus has cleared the intersection.

In addition to the traffic light control initiative, COPE candidate Louis argues for the purchase and implementation of double-articulated buses into the transit system.

"In advocating for a feasability study into the use of double articulated buses along Broadway, capacity would increase by 50%," Louis told members of the media at the Monday press conference. The double-articulated buses, with an added third section, are already successfully in use in Gothenburg, Sweden and Zurich, Switzerland. The extended buses, at 18 metres in length, are four metres longer than the current Translink articulated buses, and could transport up to 200 passengers.

"The ideas that COPE articulates in our platform on transit improvements are cost-effective, require little in the way of additional capital expenditure, and would result in enormous improvements for you and I when we ride the bus in Vancouver."

COPE's transportation platform commitments focus on creating a public transit system that encourages drivers to get out of their cars by addressing the speed, cost, and capacity of Vancouver buses. COPE candidate Tim Louis notes that increasing transit efficiency is essential to addressing air quality concerns and the continuing threat of climate change.

In addition to the proposed changes above, at the press conference on Monday, Louis also committed to working with Translink to create a prepaid system for bus riders that would allow all transit users to board through the back door. Mr. Louis also states that COPE is committed to a freeze on transit fares.

"We recognize that Vancouver City Council does not have jurisdiction over fares, but COPE city councillors will advocate in partnership with community groups to put pressure on TransLink to freeze fares," he said.

Although it is not part of COPE's current platform, Tim Louis noted another potential transit solution: making the B-line a free service during off-peak hours.

"Buses are the back bone of our public transit system," Louis stated emphatically. "We need more buses moving more smoothly to meet Vancouver's commuter needs."

"Elected COPE representatives to Vancouver City Council will do everything possible to democratize TransLink, to see that the TransLink board is accountable to the taxpayer," stated Louis, a former two-term Vancouver City Councillor, Finance Committee Chair, and current COPE candidate. As a central tenet of its transportation platform, COPE has proposed a democratically-elected Translink Board that would work always in the best interests of passengers, taxpayers and workers."

"We must create a transit system for everyone."

Avalon Lands: Preservation of A Heritage Site

2011-10-08T18:05:21Z

The oldest continuously operating dairy in BC, Avalon Dairies, in an announcement issued last spring by the dairy's owners, informed the public of their intention to list for sale the two parcels of land at which the dairy has long operated — the lands situated at 2595 East 43rd Avenue and 5805 Wales Street. Colliers International was instructed to market the historic lands as a prime real estate development property.

At a press conference held on the morning of October 8th, COPE City Council candidate, RJ Aquino, School Board candidate, Alan Wong, and Park Board candidate, Donalda Greenwell-Baker, committed to: "... doing everything possible to make sure that this historic agricultural land retains its integrity and not succumb to the high-density condominium development that characterizes so many newly developed Vancouver areas." COPE calls for a heritage designation for the historic Avalon lands.

"This land plays an integral role in the South Vancouver community and has such a rich history. You can count on COPE to do everything in its power to keep it that way," Greenwell-Baker told the assembled media present at the press conference.

Nestled in South Vancouver's Fraserview / Killarney neighbourhood, the historic dairy site sits right in between the Vancouver School Board's nursery and the Park Board's Avalon Neighbourhood Greenway.

"With the VSB nursery on one side, and the greenway on the other, there is an opportunity to use these in conjunction with the dairy to develop a learning farm and community garden, that could potentially contribute to local farmers' markets, all the while preserving the land's history," declared COPE school board candidate Alan Wong.

"The School Board, Park Board and City Council are all committed to issues of food security and environmental sustainability. Working across boards, we have an exceptional and rare opportunity to develop a comprehensive educational tool and community amenity that could contribute to the local economy while addressing issues of history, agriculture, food security and environmental sustainability."

In support of the very important issue of designating the Avalon lands as an historic heritage site, thereby preserving the site for generations to come, COPE Vancouver City Council candidate Tim Louis declared, "I'm not opposed to development. The question, though, is this: development for whom? For the developer, or for the citizens of Vancouver who live in the neighbourhoods that are the heart of our city? We must preserve the Avalon lands, and place the decision-making in the hands of citizens."

Tim Louis Seeks a Seat on City Council

2011-10-07T18:27:05Z

I am seeking a seat on Vancouver City Council this November 19th, in order that true democratic representation for all the citizens of Vancouver will be returned to Vancouver City Hall. The citizens of Vancouver require an effective voice on Council, a voice that will speak boldly, directly and to the point, raise issues of community concern, and put forward practical solutions which reflect the needs of citizens.

My track record, both on City Council and as a lawyer, reflects an activism that has consistently proven successful in advancing the interests of those whose needs are not always considered and traditionally have not had access to the corridors of power.

For more than 40 years, the Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) has remained committed to an open and accessible Vancouver City Council that has understood, always, that we work for all the citizens of Vancouver - not just the developers, or corporate interests. In 2011, City Hall must once again become a place where citizen input can make a difference in the setting of policy at City Hall.

The views and needs of citizens must be taken into account, must be listened to, acted upon and the ideas that are put forward by citizens implemented.

The order of business at hand. Elect three COPE City Council candidates to Vancouver City Council — Ellen Woodsworth, RJ Aquino and myself. Together, we will make a dynamic team committed to serving the interests of all Vancouver citizens.

As an elected Vancouver City Councilor, I will work toward ...

Better public transit
Neighbourhood control over neighbourhood development
No further gambling expansion
Accountability to Vancouver citizens
Freedom of expression in public places

Today, I am calling on YOU to come forward to support my election to Vancouver City Council, in order that together we might work to build a City we can all be proud of, a City that is committed to a equity and fairness for all the citizens of Vancouver.

What A Difference - COPE/Vision or the NPA!

2011-09-21T19:50:21Z

Over the course of successive NPA majorities on Vancouver City Council, we have watched a dysfunctional Council mismanage some of the most important items this city has to deal with.

The needless civic strike that stopped garbage pickup, and closed community centres and libraries during the summer months when they are most needed. The approval of a so-called EcoDensity Policy — a policy which was nothing but a developers' bill of rights. The elimination of the Child and Youth Advocate, muffling the voices of Vancouver's children and youth. The elimination of social housing requirements at South East False Creek. A complete indifference to the real social impacts of the 2010 Olympics on our City.

I've seen first-hand what a progressive, citizen-focused City Council can accomplish. From 2002-2005, I was part of a COPE majority on Council and in just 3 short years, we were successful in implementing a far-reaching and comprehensive agenda.

The COPE City Council expanded library services, set ambitious green house gas reduction objectives for the city, approved an ethical purchasing policy, established a food policy council, created a peace and justice committee which hosted the World Peace Forum, said NO to Wal-Mart.

In 2011, I am seeking a seat on Vancouver City Council, as part of a COPE-Vision alliance, so that the doors of City will remain open to all Vancouver citizens!