City Council voted today to launch a new civic designation for Vancouver’s largest and best-known annual parades and celebrations, providing substantial new funding support to the Vancouver Pride Parade, Vaisakhi celebrations, and the Chinatown Spring Festival Parade. The new designation establishes clear criteria for City support and involvement in large parades, and seeks to leverage significantly higher economic impact from these world-class annual events.

“Events such as Vancouver Pride, Vaisakhi, and the Chinatown Spring Festival Parade have become internationally celebrated Vancouver staples that contribute immensely to our economy and our City’s vibrant cultural character,” said Mayor Gregor Robertson. “These events attract hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world, and the new civic designation for large parades ensures that the City of Vancouver is investing even more strongly in their continued growth and world-class success.”

The new designation also establishes a stronger framework to broadly improve the financial stability of these large parade events, with streamlined and professional event planning, and consistent funding criteria. Criteria for support includes evaluation of the event’s economic impact, its reflection of Vancouver’s diversity, its recent average attendance, and whether or not it is a component of a larger city-wide event or celebration.

Annual funding support will be increased by an estimated 345% for Vancouver Pride, 272% for Vaisakhi celebrations, and 155% for the Chinatown Spring Festival Parade, with Pride funding taking effect in time for this year’s event. Funding for the 2014 Grey Cup Parade will also be grandfathered into the new designation.

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Mayor Gregor Robertson was joined today by members of his Engaged City Task Force to launch a comprehensive set of steps to improve public consultation and enable stronger civic engagement in Vancouver.

“The City of Vancouver is a leader in a number of ways, but when it comes to civic engagement, we can do better,” said Mayor Gregor Robertson. “City Hall needs to adapt in a time of higher public expectations for access to City policy decisions, an increasingly diverse population and fast-moving technological change – the way people engage and want to communicate with each other and their civic government has changed dramatically in the past decade.

“Families and people of all ages work, live, play, go to school, and retire here – and we should be a global leader in how we work together and use innovative methods to seek out opinions, share information, and foster greater connection, trust and understanding between residents, and between residents and City Hall. The work and recommendations of this task force will help honour our commitment to bring City Hall into the 21st century and make it more accessible to everyone.”

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Building on recommendations from the Urban Aboriginal Peoples Advisory Committee and City programs such as the Dialogues Project, Vancouver City Council voted today to proclaim June 21st 2013 to June 20th 2014 as the Year of Reconciliation in Vancouver and expressed its support for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The motion from Councillor Andrea Reimer recognized that “Reconciling past injustice, and strengthening shared understanding and awareness of history, is vital to both aboriginal and non-aboriginal communities in building a successful future for Vancouver.”

Council also directed staff to work with Reconciliation Canada and the Urban Aboriginal Peoples Advisory Committee to increase opportunities for dialogue and increased understanding between aboriginals and non-aboriginals regarding the experience and rights of indigenous people in Canada, especially in advance of the federally-initiated Truth and Reconciliation event for BC taking place in Vancouver in September.

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Flavours from the Ukraine, El Salvador, Thailand & India will be among the new offerings when 12 new street food vendors join the Vancouver’s popular food cart program this summer, Mayor Gregor Robertson announced today. Here are some of the details as reported in the press and on social media:

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Op-Ed as published in The Globe and Mail online

By Gregor Robertson and Naheed Nenshi

If you’re one of the 80 percent of Canadians who lives in one of our country’s cities, chances are you’re fiercely proud of it. Our cities can match anywhere in the world for vibrancy, quality of life, entrepreneurial spirit and creative and civic culture.

But there’s no guarantee that will last. Canada’s cities face big challenges in the next few decades: managing growth, improving liveability, becoming more sustainable, and making city living far more affordable.

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Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson announced the members of the Mayor’s Task Force on Housing Affordability today, having assembled a diverse team of industry and community leaders with expertise ranging from non-market housing and sustainable urban planning to finance and real-estate development.

“The members of the Housing Affordability Task Force bring a broad and diverse array of experience, leadership, and vision to our work on the pressing challenge of affordability,” says Mayor Robertson. “Vancouver must be a city where our children can afford to live and raise their families. This is not a simple challenge but it is one that we have to address – and I believe this Task Force has the ideas and expertise to provide new affordability solutions for Vancouver.”

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