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Sim says Vancouver has pitched 5 supportive housing sites to province, but won't say where they are
Sim says Vancouver has pitched 5 supportive housing sites to province, but won't say where they are

CTV News

time04-07-2025

  • General
  • CTV News

Sim says Vancouver has pitched 5 supportive housing sites to province, but won't say where they are

With a club located under a supportive housing complex and heavy drug use on the street, desire to hit the Granville Strip is waning, say club owners. Vancouver's mayor says his office has provided the province with a list of five city-owned sites that could be used for supportive housing, but he won't share any of the locations publicly. In a statement released Thursday, Ken Sim said the five unnamed sites could be used to replace the three 'inadequate' supportive housing facilities currently located in the city's Granville Entertainment District. Those facilities – the St. Helen's Hotel at 1161 Granville St., Luugat at 1176 Granville St. and Granville Villa at 1025 Granville St. – have a total of 283 units between them, but account for a disproportionately high number of calls for police and fire service, according to the city. In 2024, there were a total of 1,364 calls for police service at those three Granville Street addresses. 'This meant that those three buildings were responsible for one in every 125 police calls in the city, despite only housing one out of every 2,500 residents of Vancouver,' Sim said in his statement. The mayor added that there were 74 fires and 2,203 calls for Vancouver Fire Rescue Services at Luugat and St. Helen's between January 2020 and May 2025. 'The sites submitted to the province by the City of Vancouver are for five smaller-scale facilities, each with 55 to 65 units,' Sim said. 'This model is consistent with best practices, allowing for more focused care and better outcomes, in contrast with the warehousing approach that we have seen with the existing three sites.' The mayor's statement does not specify any of the five locations submitted to the province for consideration. When CTV News asked the mayor's office for the list, a spokesperson declined to provide it. 'The locations are confidential at this point in time,' the spokesperson said in an email, adding that the purpose of the mayor's statement was 'to put it on the public record that responsibility for the next steps of transitioning supportive housing out of the Granville Entertainment District now sits with the provincial government.' Last month, Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon committed to moving supportive housing away from the Granville strip, but no timeline for doing so has been made public. 'The City of Vancouver has done its part to provide viable sites for future facilities and the responsibility to transition these units out of the GED now sits with the province,' Sim said in his statement. 'We look forward to hearing from them on a plan for carrying this work out quickly.'

Business groups push back ahead of Vancouver ‘carbon tax' on commercial buildings
Business groups push back ahead of Vancouver ‘carbon tax' on commercial buildings

CTV News

time21-06-2025

  • Business
  • CTV News

Business groups push back ahead of Vancouver ‘carbon tax' on commercial buildings

Vancouver City Hall is seen in Vancouver, on Saturday, Jan. 9, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck Carbon taxes are falling out of style, with the federal and provincial governments recently pulling back. But in Vancouver, stricter emissions rules are coming for commercial buildings starting next year. It's part of the city's efforts to cut carbon pollution in half by 2030. 'What the City of Vancouver is planning to implement here essentially amounts to a second carbon tax being implemented at the municipal level,' Ryan Mitton with the Canadian Federation of Independent Business told CTV News in an interview on Friday. 'And what this is going to be a charge of $350 per tonne of CO2 that each building emits over a certain level set by the City of Vancouver.' The new rules take effect in January and include a $500 permit fee. Business groups fear buildings in violation could be hit with fines in the range of $14,000. 'The landlord will then take that invariably and pass that on to the tenants,' Ian Tostenson with the BC Restaurant and Foodservices Association told CTV News. While restaurant emissions are exempt according to the city, if a large building is penalized for emitting too much, Tostenson fears landlords will pass that cost on to all tenants in the building, including restaurants. Given the federal and provincial governments recently eliminated carbon taxes, businesses are calling for Vancouver to follow suit and back away from this plan. 'I just really hope that Mayor Ken Sim and council look at this proposal and decide to walk it back,' Mitton said. The city believes 84 per cent of buildings will be in compliance, based on 2024 figures, and says financial penalties only kick in by 2027 – which it says will allow enough time for building owners to prepare for the new regulations. This is a phased program that was initially voted for in 2022, and given how much has changed economically, some of these business groups believe city council would be willing to press pause on this, but there is no formal indication at this point that will happen. The city stresses this plan is about reducing emissions, not about generating revenue, and says based on reporting to date, most large buildings will be in compliance when the rules kick in.

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