Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim outlines priorities as election year, FIFA World Cup, and major city issues converge
Whitecaps stadium talks and Canucks practice facility
Asked for an update on discussions around the Whitecaps’ stadium and entertainment district proposal for the Hastings Racecourse site, Sim said he is not able to share any updates beyond what was made public during the December 2025 memorandum of understanding (MOU) signing, noting that further conversations toward the creation of a development concept and long-term lease agreement are now occurring in confidence.
The MOU pegs Dec. 31, 2026 as the deadline for the City and Whitecaps to come together and establish a lease agreement. When asked whether the lease agreement could be finalized for City Council’s approval before the middle of summer — prior to City Council going on break and entering the election campaign mode — he could not comment directly, but emphasized the City’s role in advancing the process.
“What I can tell you, we’re pretty excited about making sure that we did our part, which is getting that MOU signed,” Sim said. “Whoever the future owners are, no future owner of the Whitecaps can make the economics work if they do not control their own stadium. And so we gave them a way to do that.”
Sim told Daily Hive Urbanized the next steps now rest with the Whitecaps and other levels of government, including discussions with the provincial government and any potential interim arrangements at BC Place Stadium. He added that significant work remains before a new stadium or entertainment district could move forward but described the MOU as a “very critical next step.”
When asked whether the City was engaged in any discussions with the Vancouver Canucks on achieving the team’s long-sought practice facility, such as a potential partnership to build a new public community facility, he declined to speak about any confidential discussions.
But the Mayor praised the Canucks, calling them “so important, not just to Vancouver, but to the province and the region,” and said the City would continue working with them “to make sure that anything we can do to make them more successful, we will.”
Recently, the municipal government restarted the long-delayed planning process for redeveloping the Britannia civic hub in the Grandview-Woodland neighbourhood, where the City intends to renew aging and outdated ice rink, aquatic centre, and community centre facilities. The large site is within close proximity to the Canucks’ home ice in downtown Vancouver — a key requirement for a practice facility location. This location was previously toured by the team as a possible suitable site for the facility.
FIFA World Cup readiness and hotel capacity, and saving the Celebration of Light and other events
With under five months to go before Vancouver hosts seven matches in the 2026 FIFA World Cup tournament and kicks off its five-week-long free FIFA Fan Festival at the PNE fairgrounds, Sim expressed confidence the city will be ready, including have enough overnight accommodations for the incredible surge in visitors expected.
Sim acknowledged the challenge with hotel capacity, but said accommodations will extend far beyond Vancouver’s borders, including nearby municipalities and even Vancouver Island and locations across the Canada-U.S. border.
“The answer is, we will be ready. It will get figured out,” he said, adding that the FIFA World Cup has helped push a broader conversation about the need for more hotel rooms in the city. Sim said his ABC-led City Council has been “pushing really hard” to create conditions that encourage hotel development, calling the issue critical to Vancouver’s long-term prosperity.
The City’s decision to act as the local organizing committee for the FIFA tournament’s needs in Vancouver, rather than creating a non-profit organization — such as the approach taken by the host cities of Seattle, Kansas City, and Boston, or the creation of a miniature VANOC, which organized the 2010 Winter Olympics — is also building internal expertise within the ranks of City staff on how to stage major events and festivals in-house.
Drawing on experience from past events such as the Olympics, the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, and the Web Summit conference, he said the City is accumulating institutional knowledge that positions it well for future events.
“We do have the talent in the city to host more world-class events,” Sim said, adding that City Council would push for more opportunities that boost regional prosperity.
“FIFA is going to be a lot bigger than most people can imagine.”
The City’s portion of the FIFA World Cup costs are almost entirely covered by the temporary added hotel tax paid by people staying in Vancouver hotels between 2023 and 2030.
Sim also addressed uncertainty around the future of the summertime tradition of the Honda Celebration of Light fireworks, describing the event as “near and dear to all of our hearts.”
Organizers of the non-profit organization behind the fireworks competition — an event that has anchored the region’s events calendar for more than three decades and stands as the largest public gathering in British Columbia — announced the cancellation of the Summer 2026 event in November 2025. The decision was attributed to a budget shortfall of nearly $1 million, driven by declining provincial and federal funding and a weakened corporate sponsorship market amid broader economic uncertainty. Although the event was cancelled last fall, a narrow window of opportunity remains for sponsors and donors to step in and rescue this year’s fireworks.
Sim said the City has maintained its commitments and that challenges have largely stemmed from senior governments and sponsors. Each year, the City provides the three-night summertime fireworks — each night drawing as many as 500,000 people to the beaches and parks in and around English Bay — with $1.6 million in in-kind municipal support, including policing services, security measures, traffic closures, engineering, logistics, and cleanup and sanitation.
“We’ve expressed our desire and willingness to see that event continue in the city of Vancouver in whatever shape or form,” said Sim, adding that further updates are expected for the future of this event.
Public safety and London Drugs’ closure at Woodward’s
Turning to public safety and economic vitality in Gastown, Sim said the recent announcement of the permanent closure of London Drugs at Woodward’s on Feb. 1, 2026 was “disappointing,” while praising the Louis family — the owners of the B.C.-based retail chain — for their efforts to keep the store open.
Despite the issues, London Drugs has remained an important anchor tenant for not only Woodward’s but the broader Gastown area, providing the area with much-needed business activity.
But since opening shortly after the completion of the Woodward’s redevelopment a decade and a half ago, this store has never posted an annual profit. In recent years since the pandemic, however, escalating theft, rising security costs, and growing staff safety concerns ultimately drove the decision to close the location, after repeat pleas by the company for governments to take quick meaningful action.
In keeping this location open as long as they did, says Sim, “They stepped up… not for themselves, but for the benefit of the residents,” noting the company was thankful for the City’s support — including last summer’s opening of the Gastown-Hastings Crossing Community Policing Centre within the former TD Bank unit at Woodward’s.
Sim placed much of the responsibility for addressing root causes — particularly mental health and addictions — on the provincial government, pointing to unfulfilled commitments for mandatory care beds. “They committed to 400. They have provided zero beds in the city of Vancouver,” he told Daily Hive Urbanized.
He highlighted Task Force Barrage, a $5 million City-funded initiative targeting organized crime networks preying on vulnerable individuals, as an example of municipal action within the City’s jurisdiction.
Housing, property taxes, and affordability
On housing, Sim said the benefits of early policy changes are beginning to emerge.
He cited reductions in regulatory red tape — changes to strict height restrictions previously imposed by outdated protected mountain view cone and building shadowing policies, and City-initiated rezoning efforts — as factors contributing to the surge in proposals and approvals, which he hopes will eventually translate into construction starts. This is further aided by the municipal government’s recent rescue packages temporarily reducing the City’s building development fees, providing more flexible fee payment schedules, and other policy relaxations.
“On day one, you don’t start to see the benefit for a while. And so we’re just starting to see the benefits of the seeds that we planted earlier in our administration. We have been incredibly focused on making sure that we create an environment where builders can build more homes of all different types faster, which improves the affordability of homes,” said Sim.
“You’re starting to see rents go down as well,” he said, attributing at least part of that trend to City policies and strategies aimed at accelerating construction.
A significant number of new secured purpose-built rental housing projects began reaching completion and occupancy in 2025, with this wave of an infusion of new supply expected to continue through 2026. This can be attributed to the project approvals and policies of both the previous and current makeups of City Council.
Addressing property tax concerns, Sim argued that property tax increases ultimately affect everyone, from small businesses to renters. He said the City believes efficiencies can be found within its multi-billion-dollar budget without cutting services.
“That local restaurant or a coffee shop, they have to pay those property taxes and they have to charge that back in the form of higher prices for sandwiches or coffees or teas or cookies. That affects people directly, including renters. You are going to have to pay those property taxes in the form of higher rents. And so we’ve been very focused on that,” he told Daily Hive Urbanized.
“We believe that we can find these efficiencies and make life more affordable while maintaining service levels,” he continued. Late last year, after several consecutive years of significant increases, City Council approved a zero per cent property tax increase for 2026, with some groups expressing concern this could lead to major cuts in services. But Sim asserts the City will be able to maintain service levels, while focusing on the core responsibilities of the municipal government.
The election ahead and the future of the Park Board
When asked, Sim downplayed election campaign talk and whether there has been a pivot in approach ever since ABC’s poor April 2025 City Council by-election results, saying his focus currently remains on running the municipal government.
“We have 270 days of awesomeness ahead of us,” he said, before emphasizing priorities such as public safety, affordability, and what he called the “non-sexy stuff” like potholes, garbage collection, parks, and community centres.
“I don’t think there’s necessarily a pivot. What I can tell you is we’ve done this ever since we’ve been in office — we identify challenges, opportunities that we want to address, and we’ll work on them. And then from each one of those experiences, regardless if they go well or not, we learn from them and we pivot on a real-time basis. We’re in this journey of continuous improvement.”
When specifically asked about his current position on abolishing the Vancouver Park Board’s separately elected body of commissioners — with City departments then assuming day-to-day operating responsibilities, and the Mayor and City Council assuming governance responsibilities over the parks and recreation system — he said it will not be a focus over the coming months and into the campaign, with public safety, affordability, and the FIFA World Cup being the priorities for the next while.
Sim’s plan to abolish the Park Board stalled in October 2025 after the provincial government introduced — then withdrew — legislation to amend the Vancouver Charter. As proposed by the provincial government, the bill would have required a public referendum to eliminate the Park Board, but the Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs exempted future parkland transfers to First Nations from public referendums for the final decision on such matters. Sim opposed the major exemption for parkland transfers — insisting that such decisions should require a public vote to protect park assets — and the legislation was pulled after First Nations requested consultation.
“The provincial government has given a future City Council the opportunity if they sit fit to keep the Park Board or hold a referendum. And so, we’ll leave that for another day,” said the Mayor.
“Our focus on the parks has always remained consistent. We want to see incredible and vibrant parks and recreational facilities. That has never changed and we’ll continue to do that.”
- You might also like:
- A Whitecaps soccer stadium with an entertainment district — and maybe SkyTrain? What’s next for Vancouver's Hastings Park and the PNE
- London Drugs at Woodward's to permanently close due to 'persistent safety incidents'
- Over 5,800 new hotel rooms across 29 projects now in Vancouver's development pipeline
- Over 3,000 new homes approved by Vancouver City Council, including 15 residential towers
- In the name of FIFA: City of Vancouver loosens some rules and tightens others for World Cup
- 1,400 staff with the City of Vancouver asked to return to the office five days a week