Climate Emergency Parking Plan

The proposed Climate Emergency Parking Plan is dead. At least for now.

In what may go down as the most emotionally charged debate of the year — with one Councillor shedding tears, another rebuking her colleagues, and deafening silence from Mayor Kennedy Stewart — Council failed to get a majority to support the parking permit plan in a 6-5 vote.

Voting no were Councillors Colleen Hardwick, Lisa Dominato, Rebecca Bligh, Melissa DeGenova, Sarah Kirby-Yung, and Mayor Kennedy Stewart; voting yes were Councillors Carr, Pete Fry, Michael Wiebe, Jean Swanson, and Christine Boyle.

Mayor Stewart, whose no vote tipped the scales, was an avid supporter of the City’s 2020 Climate Emergency Action Plan. Last year he and other Councillors directed staff to develop a plan that would both raise money to pay for other climate actions and get gas burning cars off the streets. Yet he was silent throughout the meeting, and did not give in to impassioned pleas from some Councillors to support the plan.

Cllr. Adrienne Carr wept openly about the bleak future awaiting her two young grandchildren. “It’s our planet, it’s our children’s world…” Carr said. “It’s code red for humanity. I implore you to reconsider your vote.”

Cllr. Christine Boyle told Council that while the plan isn’t perfect, to vote no is “a failure of courage and leadership.”

Cllr. Colleen Hardwick spoke about the 19,000 Talk Vancouver respondents who voted no to the plan (80% of participants voted against the proposed parking permit scheme and 72% opposed the pollution charge). “So,” asked Hardwick, “do we just disregard the 19,000? Cllr. Lisa Dominato also had concerns with the surveys (there were three in all, but the last two involved far fewer respondents than the Talk Vancouver survey), that the public doesn’t see the fees as being fair, that Vancouver needs a better transit plan, and that the parking program should be a regional plan, because “tons of traffic” comes into the city daily.

Council heard from more than 50 speakers over two days. Residents, doctors, and environmental experts told Mayor and Councillors not to let the details of the parking permit plan — a $45 ($5 for low income earners) annual permit fee to park your car on the street, and up to $1,000 per year to own a gas-burning luxury vehicle, for example — slow the City’s action on the Climate Emergency Action Plan (CEAP). “We’re in a code red situation. We need to act now and use all the tools available to us,” warned a retired doctor.

Others were troubled with the details of the plan, pointing out there are better ways to raise money for climate actions that don’t penalize low-income and racialized households.

Vancouver filmmaker David Fine said staff is taking a “piecemeal approach” to the plan and urged the City to work with the Province and ICBC to charge a fee on polluting cars.

One speaker, a South Vancouver resident, called the plan “anti-family, anti-senior, anti-middle class, and racist. It’s so anti-social justice I was amazed it’s even being discussed,” he said. As a father, he said he has to travel long distances to take his children to school and therefore has no option to owning a car.

Many speakers worried the $45 would increase over time, and called for better transit in the City.

Cllr. Swanson said there was a lot of misinformation “floating around.” Admitting the plan was not perfect, Swanson said “You can’t let perfect be the enemy of better.”