100 days in, Vancouver Mayor Stewart gives himself a B+

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – It’s been 100 days since Vancouverites got a new mayor.

And Kennedy Stewart, an associate professor on leave from Simon Fraser University, gives himself a B+ for his work so far in the role.

What progress has he made on some of the promises he ran on?

To mark the occasion, Stewart has released a six point list, touting work to clear the building permit backlog, efforts to establish a renters advocate office and the establishment of an emergency overdose task force.

He’s also pointing to a small business review, progress on proposed conflict of interest rules, and an attempt to set up a lobbyist registry.

And though Stewart gives himself more than a passing grade for what he’s done so far (while giving an A- to council), not everything has gone according to plan.

While staff are going to report back on how a renters advocate office would actually work, Stewart says if he had total control of council, that position would already be filled.

“But once I get the staff report back, we’ll have a good discussion,” says Stewart. “I’ll be making my pitch as well as we can, but whatever happens, we have to make sure that council invests in advocacy for renters.”

Stewart points out while an advocate isn’t yet in place, one person has already been hired to work in that office.

Biggest disappointment

While Stewart points to council’s work aimed at clearing the permit backlog as one part of ensuring the creation of more housing, he says his biggest disappointment during his first hundred days is the lack of immediate action from the feds.

“They could start delivering the money they promised,” Stewart says when asked about the specifics of what he’s looking for. “We had an announcement the other day, but most of that was a loan to a non-profit association. I have been talking with ministers, for example, it would be quite easy for them to deliver temporary modular housing as well.

“In my dealings with Ottawa you just have to be noisy and consistent. That’s why I traveled to Ottawa, that’s why I’ve been talking to ministers and that’s why I want them to focus on housing and then also, we have to pitch things they can fund right away.”

No rush on electoral reform

Stewart’s promise during the campaign was that he’d bring in proportional representation for Vancouver if local voters backed that switch during the provincial election.

But given the fact that vote happened so recently, Stewart doesn’t appear to be in a rush to tackle that issue locally in the near term.

“We’ve had some side conversations about it,” says Stewart. “One of the thoughts was that because we just had a referendum provincially, [we] wanted to let all that cool down a little bit before so people could take a fresh look at what we’re going to do here at the city.”

Stewart says he hasn’t had one piece of correspondence from the public asking about electoral reform, but we will hear more about it at some point this year.