---
title: "Colleen Hardwick says Vancouver's infrastructure fell behind housing and vows to change course"
description: "The TEAM for a Livable Vancouver mayoral candidate told Daily Hive on Oct. 7 that the city prioritized developer fees over basic services starting in 2008 and outlined her plan to reverse that."
canonical_url: "https://voche.me/news/colleen-hardwick-livability-platform-october-8"
last_updated: "2026-10-10T04:01:09.728Z"
---

[Colleen Hardwick](/candidates/colleen-hardwick), the TEAM for a Livable Vancouver candidate for mayor, told Daily Hive on Oct. 7 that Vancouver has been building housing since 2008 without keeping the roads, sewers, schools, and community centres to support it, and that she would reverse that approach if elected on Oct. 17.

Hardwick uses the word "livability" to name this balance between housing and infrastructure. She told Daily Hive that the city shifted its approach in 2008 and began funding public services through developer contributions: fees charged on new developments. Her argument is that this gave the city an incentive to promote rezoning, because more rezoning produced more fees.

"It set a business model," she told Daily Hive, "where they started seeking developer contributions by promoting rezoning."

Hardwick says the result was higher land values and more speculation, not lower housing costs. She told Daily Hive that adding supply through rezoning inflated land prices rather than bringing them down.

## Neighbourhood planning and a ward system

Hardwick's platform, as described to Daily Hive, calls for returning planning decisions to the neighbourhood level. She described the city's current approach under its Official Development Plan as "centralized, top-down, autocratic control."

She also said she would introduce a ward system, which would divide Vancouver into geographic areas and give each one its own council seat. Vancouver currently elects all councillors at large. Hardwick told Daily Hive she wants each neighbourhood to have direct representation at City Hall.

## How she would build affordable housing

Hardwick said the city should use land it already owns to build affordable housing, cut the time and cost of the permitting process, and work with the federal and provincial governments to secure funding. She also said protecting existing affordable rental housing must be a priority.

She told Daily Hive that the city should "start with the evidence" when defining affordable housing rather than repeating slogans. She said Vancouver's economy depends too much on real estate and property development, and that this narrows what the city can offer to people who want to move here.

## Her record and the other candidates

This is Hardwick's second run for the mayor's seat. She served as a city councillor from 2018 to 2022, then ran for mayor in 2022 and placed third behind Ken Sim, who won the race, and incumbent Kennedy Stewart.

She is running against Ken Sim of ABC Vancouver, Pete Fry of the Green Party of Vancouver, Rebecca Bligh of Vote Vancouver, and Kareem Allam of the Vancouver Liberals.

Advance voting continues on Oct. 10 and Oct. 13, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Visit [/where-to-vote](/where-to-vote) for a list of locations. Election day is Oct. 17.

## Sitemap

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