Vancouver Green Party councillor Adriane Carr has let it be known that she is very seriously considering resigning from Vancouver City Council.
If Councillor Carr does decide to resign, then the upcoming byelection to fill the seat held by departing OneCity Councillor Christine Boyle will become a byelection to fill not one but two vacancies.
One of the main reasons Councillor Carr has identified for her potential resignation is frustration with Mayor Ken Sim and his ABC council majority. In the 13 years she has sat on Vancouver City Council, she says she has never dealt with such a difficult individual in the mayor’s chair.
This is yet another sign of Mayor Sim’s declining popularity. A September poll from the Maru Group found that only 25 per cent of Vancouverites think Sim should be re-elected, while 51 per cent say it’s time for a change. I am becoming more convinced with each passing day that he will not run for re-election.
I will happily end this week’s blog with some great news. On Wednesday, November 27th, the motion by City Councillor Brian Montague to reverse a policy banning the use of natural gas to heat new Vancouver buildings was defeated.
The negative vote was a welcome surprise as on July 23rd, Council had voted in favour of reversing the ban by a slim 6-5 majority. That motion had been tabled without notice by Councillor Montague as a late-day amendment to a staff report on the city’s climate plan. It has been reported that FortisBC had been lobbying intensely for a reversal of the ban, and both Councillor Montague’s motion and a subsequent media release from the mayor’s office mirrored FortisBC talking points.
A second vote was then scheduled for November after Council directed staff to report back with proposed building by-law changes. That staff report led Councillor Rebecca Bligh to change her vote, meaning that three of ABC’s seven city councillors – Rebecca Bligh, Lisa Dominato, and Peter Meiszner – were now voting against Councillor Montague’s early Christmas gift to Fortis. With both Green city councillors – Pete Fry and Adriane Carr — also voting against the motion, the result was a 5-5 tie, and the motion failed.
ABC Vancouver is falling apart. Three ABC Park Board commissioners deserted the party last December when Mayor Sim announced with no warning that he was moving to abolish the Park Board. Now serious cracks are developing within the ABC majority on City Council.
The next few months at 12th & Cambie are going to be very interesting.
Daily atmospheric CO2 [Courtesy of CO2.Earth]
Latest daily total (December 3, 2024): 424.94ppm
One year ago (November 28, 2023): 420.59ppm
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