• To improve the tone and substance of political discourse; advocating for and modelling an approach for broad engagement on important issues in our community that is respectful and positive.

• To provide accurate information on decisions made about the future of West Vancouver. Increasing engagement in local decisions: by focusing on the facts and giving residents a complete picture to ensure West Vancouver evolves in a more progressive direction.

Our organization is independent, non-partisan, and member-driven. We are not affiliated with or doing the work of any politician, political party, or business.

Those involved in the core team of PV are active in civic issues. We build relationships with politicians - at every level - who share common purpose on an issue-by-issue basis and seek to create positive engagement between decision makers, community leaders, and residents.

One of the reasons Positive Voices started was to give West Vancouver residents who had a progressive and positive vision for West Vancouver a vehicle to participate in the decisions that affect all of us.

Unfortunately, in recent years, West Vancouver has become much more divisive and misinformation has undermined legitimate discussion. We want to refocus on the issues, reframe the conversation to engage West Vancouver residents, and allow them to be heard without recrimination.

Charities in Canada are constrained in their political advocacy work. Given that that is our main focus, we have decided to register as a non-profit society, and are not seeking charitable status. Therefore we cannot offer charitable tax receipts for donations.

In order to meet the needs of a region where there are an increasing number of households and where those households are becoming smaller on average, our housing stock does need to evolve. At the same time, property values have risen far faster than incomes, creating an affordability crisis.

There are aspects to the housing market that are complex, and potentially difficult to address. For example we’ve seen corporate property investment, money laundering and foreign ownership drive up prices, distort local markets and dramatically increase the number of empty homes. Taking these out of the equation would inevitably help reduce demand.

Equally, basic economics tells us that increased supply would go a long way to tempering home price inflation.

We believe that refusing to accept carefully considered proposals for diversification - duplexes, townhouses, coach houses, etc - will hasten the erosion of West Vancouver’s 20th century community character.

It will no longer be a community of middle class professionals; public sector workers, tradespeople, business people, and others, who interact with and support their community. It will instead become less diverse, exclusively for the super-rich, leading to empty homes and part-time residents who have no stake in their neighbourhoods.

We support housing projects that achieve one or more of the following:

• Increase affordability.

• Improve options for seniors looking to downsize or those who need supported living but remain in West Vancouver

• Increase the viability of improved public transit and active transportation.

• Increase our community’s environmental sustainability.

• Help us meet the Official Community Plan’s ‘missing middle’ targets.

West Vancouver is a high tax municipality in part due to the choices we have made as a community over the past 100 years. No industrial and few commercial zones places the burden of paying for services nearly exclusively on residents. In addition, the low density, extensive geography of the municipality, and high level of services available make West Vancouver a unique and desirable place to live.

The US advocacy group Strong Towns has shown that large lot, single family home neighbourhoods are the most expensive to serve and are generally subsidized by those living in higher-density neighbourhoods. Readers of this Strong Towns case study will see a lot of parallels to West Vancouver.

See also: You get what you pay for. What’s missing in West Van’s tax debate.

Growth in West Vancouver has been stagnant – increasing about 0.33% per year in the past 20 years (6.5% in total). The Metro Vancouver population has grown by 31%.

So what does this highly successful approach to resisting growth mean?

More traffic.

It’s counter-intuitive.

Traffic leaving the North Shore is often worse in the afternoons than in the morning because what was once a complete community is gradually losing people in service and trades jobs who used to be able to afford to live here. 

In search of affordability, more residents are moving up the Sea-to-Sky corridor or into the Fraser Valley, far from public transit options.

While moving people further and faster on public transit is part of the solution, another important part of the solution is shortening commutes and ensuring that we have sufficient affordable housing so those who work here, can also live here.

No. Positive Voices is not a political party. It is a registered non-profit society devoted to advocacy and focused on issues in West Vancouver.

Positive Voices remained independent, and did not endorse any candidates. However we registered as a ‘third-party organisation’ so that we could speak out on issues - such as housing and the environment - that were discussed during the campaign. For more see PV & the election.

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