From public safety to housing plans, here is what you can expect from Ken Sim as Vancouver mayor
Sim is the first person of colour to secure the city’s top job
Ken Sim has been elected mayor of Vancouver after campaigning on a platform that prioritized public safety and affordability.
The leader of the newly formed centre-right ABC Vancouver party won by a commanding margin over incumbent Kennedy Stewart. The party dominated Saturday's election, with all of its candidates appearing to have won their seats on council, park board and school board with decisive majorities.
Sim, who lost the Vancouver mayoral race by 957 votes to Kennedy Stewart in 2018, has now made history by becoming the city's first Chinese Canadian mayor.
Among other platform promises, all of which can be read here, ABC Vancouver and Sim have committed to reducing crime in the streets and wait times for building permits at city hall.
Cops and cameras
The ABC party has said it wants to hire 100 new police officers and 100 mental health nurses as part of a community approach to policing.
Sim's team also wanted to boost council representation on the police board, review fire services, launch an anti-racism task force and support a graffiti abatement program.
WATCH | Ken Sim celebrates decisive victory:
During the campaign, the party also pitched the idea of outfitting all city police on patrol with body cameras by 2025. Sim was endorsed by the Vancouver Police Union during the election campaign.
Sim has also addressed the need to support people struggling with mental health and addictions. ABC has said it will call for a mental health summit that includes Metro Vancouver mayors, provincial and federal ministers, First Nations, health authorities and service agencies with the goal of creating a new mental health treatment centre.
The party also said it wants to try to establish a free, 24-hour recovery centre for those struggling with drug addiction.
Faster permit process
When it comes to improving housing, Sim's pitch is to speed up the city's permitting process and pre-approve some housing designs.
Sim has proposed a "3x3x3x1" permit approval system that will approve renovation applications within three days, townhouses and single-family homes within three weeks, and multi-family and mid-rise buildings within three months.
Under this proposed system, high-rise and large-scale project applications will be assessed within one year.
"If we do not fix that process, all these statements about all the housing we're going to build won't happen, and housing will not be affordable," said Sim during the campaign.
ABC also promises to double the number of co-op units in the city over the next four years.
Read more about Sim and ABC Vancouver's plans for transit, improving accountability at city hall and tackling climate change.
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With files from Bethany Lindsay