Vancouver council confirms details of 2-seat byelection on April 5

Vancouver's city council hopes a staff election plan to replace the Greens' Adrian Carr and OneCity's Christine Boyle will attract meaningful civic engagement from eligible voters, despite a turnout in Vancouver's last byelection of just 11 per cent.

Boyle was elected to the provincial legislature, and Carr resigned from council in January, saying she had "lost confidence and trust in the mayor."

Council approved the $2 million plan Tuesday at its first meeting of 2025, which will include $240,000 on communications, two days of advance voting and the opportunity for any eligible voter to request a mail-in ballot.

"We have a very diverse population here in the City of Vancouver. Byelections have been traditionally challenging to get higher turnout," said Coun. Mike Klassen. "But I appreciate the efforts and the plan that has been put forward here."

The plan calls for:

• A nomination period between Feb. 18 and 28.
• Mail ballot packages available March 18.
• Advance voting (city hall only) on March 26 and April 1.
• General voting day April 5.

Official results from the byelection will be confirmed April 9, with elected candidates to be sworn in at city hall during a council meeting in late April or early May.

The plan was approved by all councillors except Sarah Kirby-Yung, who abstained from voting on the matter.

She questioned staff over the timing and plan to promote the byelection considering some of the key dates fall during March break when families could miss mailings or the opportunity to request a mail-in ballot package due to being away.

"I am concerned about the spring break overlap," she said.

During the 2022 general election, 10,200 vote-by-mail packages were returned, representing two per cent of the vote, said city staff.

Other councillors, such as Lenny Zhou, also had questions about making sure voting materials were provided in multiple languages and why there will only be 25 voting locations for the byelection.

There were 50 voting locations for the 2017 byelection and 82 for the 2022 general election, said Vancouver city clerk Katrina Leckovic.

"We feel like we've located the voting places around, distributed them around the city," she said, adding that she didn't envision the number of voting locations affecting voter turnout.

The entire cost of the byelection will be paid out of a reserve fund for elections. A total of $1.5 million is added to the fund each year, and it currently has $4.3 million in it, according to the city report.

WATCH | Carr mulls resigning in December: 

Longtime Vancouver councillor Adriane Carr mulls stepping down

2 months ago

Duration 12:32

Adriane Carr, a longtime Green Party councillor who has served since 2011, said that she is 80 per cent sure she'll resign at the end of the year. Carr, who has been politically active for over 40 years, put partial blame on Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim, who she said has created an acrimonious and "toxic workplace."

'Transparency and accountability'

Representatives from the Vancouver Green Party, TEAM for a Livable Vancouver, and COPE (the Coalition of Progressive Electors) called a news conference Tuesday, telling reporters that Elections B.C. should discipline ABC Vancouver for alleged financial irregularities during the 2022 campaign.

In April, Elections B.C. announced it was investigating 12 civic parties across the province for possibly breaking campaign financing laws during the 2022 civic elections.

Mayor Ken Sim's ABC party is one of the 12. The party said in April, when the investigation was announced, that it was fully co-operating with Elections B.C. to resolve the matter quickly.

The investigations are looking into one of three possible contraventions: accepting prohibited contributions, failing to deal with prohibited contributions as laws require and sponsoring election ads without an authorization statement.

"We really feel that it's incumbent that we all play by the same rules," Green Coun. Pete Fry told reporters.

"Fair and democratic elections ... rely on transparency and accountability. And it's been two years and over six disclosure statements that ABC has filed, yet there's yet to be any disciplinary action or even a conclusion of the investigation by Elections B.C."

In an email to CBC News, Elections B.C. provided a link to a page on the status of the 12 investigations. The one involving A Better City Vancouver (ABC Vancouver) remains active.

"We are working to conclude these investigations as soon as possible," said a spokesperson, without offering further detail.

CBC News contacted ABC Vancouver but did not immediately receive a response.

TEAM to run 2 candidates

TEAM's Colleen Hardwick, who placed third in the 2022 Vancouver mayoral election with around 10 per cent of the vote behind Sim and Kennedy Stewart, who failed to hang onto the mayoral seat, said in a statement her party intends to run two candidates in the upcoming Vancouver byelection.

Hardwick said she wants to see the financial irregularities matter resolved before the April 5 byelection.

"Elections B.C. has had two years to get to the bottom of the ABC irregularities, and Vancouver voters deserve answers before going to the byelection polls."

At the news conference, Fry announced the Greens would be running one candidate, and COPE co-chair Tanya Webking said her party would also only be running one candidate as part of an agreement between COPE, the Greens and OneCity.

The next general civic election will be held in Vancouver on Oct. 17, 2026.