After months of extensive community input from women, gender-diverse residents, and front-line organizations that serve diverse communities, the outcomes of the 2022 Hot Pink Paper Campaign have been a tremendous success. With the election over, we want to share and celebrate some of the campaign’s successes and provide a brief glimpse into how we will organize around our eight campaign commitments for the next four years.
Hot Pink Paper Campaign Highlights
Policy Asks & Candidate Survey
From January to May, we spoke with our community. Based on their priorities and the issues that came up most in this engagement process, we developed eight policy asks for Mayor and Council candidates to commit to if elected in October. These policy asks are as follows:
An Equity Lens on Councillor Motions
IWG2S+ People’s Healing Lodge
Reducing Barriers for Affordable Housing
Protecting Tenants from Heat Waves
Alternative Models to Community Safety
Washrooms for All
Fully Fund Climate Emergency Responses
Affordable and Accessible Transit
For more information about each policy ask, please see here.
These policy asks were then formatted into a survey and distributed to all candidates from major parties, asking them which of these asks they will commit to taking action on if elected. We displayed their responses in our Hot Pink Paper Report Card, which was launched on September 13, 2022. Following the launch, we gathered at City Hall on September 21, 2022, to discuss the eight policy asks, celebrate the community engagement that led us here, and display the responses from each party.
We were impressed to see the impact our campaign had on candidate platforms. At least five major parties highlighted our policies in their campaigns, using language taken directly from our asks. Commitments to our policy asks were included in party platforms a total of 11 times including strong support in favor of developing an equity checklist and amending the standards of maintenance bylaw to include a maximum temperature.
Centering Equity: Vancouver Candidates Forum
On September 26, 2022, Women Transforming Cities hosted a candidate equity panel with the support of YWCA City Shift, SFU Public Square, and SFU’s Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies. 17 Council candidates from the 10 largest municipal political parties attended to answer questions about the issues that matter most to equity-deserving communities in Vancouver. Over 500 people tuned in to learn more about where candidates stood on issues relating to equity, both in-person and online. These questions were based on what we heard from community members during our HPPC engagement process. The topics discussed included: affordable housing, community safety, disability justice, climate action, and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Calls to Action.
Next Steps: Post-Election
Although the election is over, we will continue working to ensure that the voices and experiences of those made most marginalized are heard and considered in municipal decision-making processes.
We look forward to working with the incumbents, new council members, and the new mayor to ensure that their commitments to equity become a reality. We intend to meet with them to review their equity-based commitments and determine an actionable plan for how the commitments can be achieved. This includes looking into the city’s operational budget and the specific areas where funding will be allocated.
As an added layer of accountability, the Watch Council Group at Women Transforming Cities will be meeting on the Wednesday before council meetings to track progress on councillor’s commitments. Watch Council is a group of WTC volunteers who follow the agendas, discussions, and decisions of Vancouver City Council to ensure an intersectional feminist lens is being applied, and the city is considering the impact of their decision-making on all members of the Vancouver community - especially equity-deserving genders.
If you have any questions or are interested in joining Watch Council, please contact us.
We look forward to the future of the Hot Pink Paper Campaign over the next four years and hope to continue building a city that is more livable for all.
This blog was written by WTC volunteer, Alexa Traboulay.