Allam calls for restoring Vancouver Economic Commission and preserving industrial land

The Vancouver Economic Commission was the city's economic development body. The city dissolved it in 2023. Kareem Allam told Daily Hive Vancouver on October 13, 2026 that he would restore it, saying Vancouver is probably the largest city in North America without its own economic development corporation. His platform commits to doing this if he is elected mayor on October 17.

Kareem Allam told Daily Hive Vancouver on October 13, 2026 that his platform commits to preserving Vancouver's industrial land base at 6 per cent of the city's area. Industrial land is used for manufacturing, warehousing, and similar businesses. This is his campaign's commitment; this site has not independently verified whether the city's current industrial land share is exactly 6 per cent.

Kareem Allam told Daily Hive Vancouver on October 13, 2026 that his platform includes providing free public Wi-Fi in the Downtown Eastside and creating food hubs in vacant city-owned spaces where residents could buy affordable groceries. These are commitments in his campaign platform; this site has not independently verified what vacant city spaces are available or what the cost of these programs would be.

Kareem Allam told Daily Hive Vancouver on October 13, 2026 that he would merge 12 housing approval departments into one and replace Vancouver's building code with BC's provincial building code, which he says would reduce the cost and time to complete each housing project. These are his campaign's commitments; the city's current approvals process involves multiple departments and a separate city building code.

Kareem Allam told Daily Hive Vancouver on October 13, 2026 that his main reason for running is to bring young people back to Vancouver. He said young people are leaving because of high housing costs, a lack of jobs, weak frontline services, and public safety concerns. He said that by failing young people, the city is failing everyone across the board.

Kareem Allam is running for mayor with the Vancouver Liberals, a civic party. The Vancouver Liberals have no connection to the federal or provincial Liberal parties. Allam previously led campaigns for Kevin Falcon's BC Liberals and for Ken Sim's 2022 ABC Vancouver campaign, and he served briefly as Mayor Sim's Chief of Staff before leaving that role.

Kareem Allam told Daily Hive Vancouver on October 13, 2026 that extending SkyTrain to the University of British Columbia is, in his words, the single biggest opportunity to get cars off Vancouver's roads. He is calling on provincial parties to commit to the extension. This is a provincial funding decision, not one the mayor can make alone.

Voting day in Vancouver is October 17, 2026. Advance voting has already ended. You can read more about Kareem Allam's positions on his candidate page at voche.me. To compare all mayoral candidates on the key issues, the /polls page on this site lists recent polling results.