'What's good for the region is good for Vancouver': Ken Sim on being mayor, 12 weeks in

Just over 12 weeks after being sworn in as Vancouver's mayor, Ken Sim says he's making slow but steady progress on his promise to hire 100 new police officers and 100 mental health nurses.

Speaking to CTV Morning Live on Wednesday, Sim doubled down on his ABC Party’s hiring pledge during the election campaign and spoke to developments on the horizon.

“We are actually making quite a bit of progress with more to come in the next few weeks, so we’re pretty excited about it,” Sim said. “It will take time and yes, taxpayers will be on the hook for it.”

Last November, council approved a plan to allocate up to $16 million in the 2023 budget to fulfil Sim’s promise.

His comments comes one day after B.C. officially decriminalized the possession of small amounts of illicit drugs for personal use, and after BC Coroners Service revealed a total of 2,272 British Columbians died due to illicit drugs in 2022.

Sim says the city can’t solve the toxic drug crisis alone, and his hiring pledge is one way to support provincial and federal partners who have more powers to address the issue.

“What the city can do is support 100 new police officers and 100 new mental health nurses,” Sim sad.

The 52-year-old mayor has also promised to collaborate with his counterparts across Metro Vancouver in order to address regional issues.

“What’s good for the region is good for Vancouver,” said Sim, pointing to shared challenges around the toxic drug supply, homelessness, employee shortages and transportation.

He says his government will be lobbying funding for the UBC SkyTrain extension, saying it will have benefits that extend beyond the city itself.

“If we have better transit, people throughout the region can access Vancouver a lot better and can help us with challenges as well.”

When it comes to the lack of affordable, attainable housing in Vancouver, Sim blamed what he calls the city’s “permitting issue.”

“It could take between six and 12 years to get a building permitted and that’s just too long, so what we’re spending a lot of time and effort on is speeding up the process so we can build housing of all shapes and sizes and types for different parts of the market to help people,” he said.

Sim was asked about one of his first speeches as mayor in which he envisioned a “super-exciting” Vancouver with “renewed swagger” in the near future.

While the municipal government has the power to break through barriers to facilitate fun, Sim says the desire has to come from residents of Vancouver themselves.

“The great thing is we have people all over the city that want to do neat and interesting things, be it the Granville Entertainment District, or Car Free Days in the summer or revitalizing Chinatown,” he explained. “So when the residents and the business owners come to us with their idea we can knock down those barriers and make things happen a lot faster.”

On Tuesday, city council unanimously approved a ramped-up Granville Street Planning Program with the goal of revitalizing the neighbourhood. It’s expected to take a total of 18 months and cost $300,000.