Joint Statement for a Just Recovery
Vancouver Just Recovery Coalition
April 30, 2020
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, the world is thinking about the future, hungry to rebuild anew. This moment presents an opportunity to examine if the status quo was truly serving our people, our environment, and our opportunities to live, work, and prosper.
As we have watched the pandemic unfold, the devastating impacts on those without homes, without adequate income, without jobs easily conducted remotely, without access to information, social support or food have only made painfully clear the inequities that are part of Vancouver's social fabric.
The Vancouver Just Recovery Coalition is calling on the City of Vancouver to prioritize lessening existing inequalities, respecting Indigenous rights, and tackling the climate emergency. We believe socially just strategies to recover and rebuild post-COVID-19 will better support vulnerable communities, and make a safer, healthier city for all.
As many Vancouverites continue to struggle financially and emotionally with the pandemic, now is not the time to reduce social spending. Now is not the time to restrict spending in an effort to preserve the status quo.
As our federal, provincial and municipal governments begin to strategize on their post-COVID recovery and rebuilding strategies, we need to prioritize those most impacted, ensuring that our economic recovery lessens existing inequalities, respects Indigenous rights, and tackles the climate emergency. The pre-COVID status quo was failing too many people.
This is especially true in Vancouver, where the impacts of COVID-19 on the City’s operating budget, combined with anti-tax lobbying, could mean delays or defunding of critical cultural, social equity, and climate programs.
The City of Vancouver is very limited by its inability to run a deficit to cover the gap. The lack of fiscal tools for local governments threatens the City’s provision of essential public services, social programs and other public priorities. This includes essential programs and services that many of those hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic rely on: public libraries, public transportation, community centres, neighbourhood houses, homeless outreach services, food security programs, etc. There is also an urgent need for more affordable housing options, accessibility improvements, and capital upgrades to aging community centres and other infrastructure. The loss of these supports and programs will disproportionately affect women, those living with disabilities, those struggling with homelessness, renters, health workers, elders, youth, artists, cultural workers, small businesses, sex workers, Indigenous peoples, communities of colour, and those continuing to fight the opioid crisis. Alternatively, investing in services and programs, such as cultural services, public libraries, and climate action will enable Vancouverites to heal together and build a better city for the future
Vancouver’s Just Recovery Coalition calls on the Governments of BC and Canada to provide Vancouver and other local governments with emergency funding supports to address financial short-falls caused by the pandemic, and to develop, in coordination with the City of Vancouver and others, additional fiscal tools that allow municipalities to be more resilient in the face of future crises of this scale and scope.
Threats to the City of Vancouver’s essential services, programs, and public priorities, presents a significant risk to Vancouver’s vulnerable communities in an already unaffordable city. This danger could get even worse if there is pressure for Council to pass an austerity budget in 2021.
Any recovery strategy should offer every resident the same opportunities to rebuild their lives and thrive in a safe, inclusive, just, and caring society.
Now is the time to approve innovative, progressive recovery and rebuilding plans with a strong focus on social spending to invest in the rebuilding of our communities. Now is the time to invest in building a city of complete communities based on care and compassion...a kind of city that will be more liveable for everyone.
See who else has endorsed.
Abeer Yusuf
Adriana Laurent, UBC Climate Hub
Adriane Carr, Vancouver City Councillor
Alain Chow Bao Bei Chinese Restaurant, Kissa Tanto Restaurant
Alen Dominguez, General Manager, Tara Cheyenne Performance
Alix Krahn
Am Johal
Amanda Card
Amanda Burrows,
Amy Kiara Ruth
Andrea Thompson
Andrew Ledger, President, CUPE Local 1004
Andrew Stephens-Rennie, Director of Ministry Innovation, Christ Church Cathedral
Anjali Appadurai, Sierra Club BC
Anna Rempel
Anna Bulford
Anthony Hughes, Green Party of Vancouver
Arianna Murphy-Steed
Ashcer Goodman
Atiya Jaffar, 350.org
Ayendri Riddell, Campaigner, BC Health Coalition, Board Member, BC Civil Liberties Association
Barb Parrott
Barbara Wood
Bonnie Klein
Brandon Intharangsy
Brenda Leadlay
Brian McBay, 221A Gallery
Brittany Morris
Bryn Davidson
Cait Murphy
Caitlin Chan
Cameron Pearson
Camille Dumond, Refugee Livelihood Lab
Carl Bessai, Filmmaker
Carmen Lansdowne, Executive Director, First United Church Community Ministry Society
Chiyi Tam, BC's Solidarity Economy
Chris McGregor, Artistic Director, Axis Theatre
Chris Haddock, Filmmaker
Christie Watson, Chair, C-Space, Managing Director, Rumble Theatre
Christine Quintana, Artistic Director, Delinquent Theatre
Christine Wu
Colin Thomas, Journalist/Critic
Dani Fecko, Fascinator Management
Danielle Mee
David Ng, VALU CO-OP
David Chudnovsky
Dawson Franks
Dean Paul Gibson, Theatre Director
Denise Williams, CEO, Urban Native Youth Association
Devan Mcclelland, Shift Delivery Co-op
Diane Wilmann, Kiwassa Neighbourhood House
Donna Dykeman
Duncan Smith, Force of Nature
Eleanor Boyle
Elisabeth Tanner
Erica Huntley
Erin Conners
Eugene McCann
Farron Rickerby
Franco Boni, PuSh Festival
Gabby Doebeli, UBC Social Justice Centre, COVID-19 Coming Together
Gabrielle Rose, Actor
Gala Munoz-Carrier
Galen Elfert
Ginger Gosnell-Myers
Grace Dupasquier, Alliance of BC Students
Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, President, Union of BC Indian Chiefs
Gyda Chud
Heather Redfern, Executive Director, The Cultch
Heidi Taylor, Theatre Artist
Hilde Colenbrander
Ian Robertson
Ian Bushfield, BC Humanist Association
Isabelle Busby
Ishmam Bhuiyan
UBC Social Justice Centre, COVID-19 Coming Together
Jackie Hoffart, Producer, New Moon Comedy
Jade Ho, Teaching Support Staff Union
Jane Heyman, Theatre Director
Janet Fraser, Vancouver School Board Trustee
Janey Lew
Jayne Simpson
Jean Swanson
Jenna McNeil
Jenna Hildebrand
Jennifer Reddy, Vancouver School Board Trustee
Jennifer Hollinshead, Peak Resilience Counselling
Jessica Parker
Joanne MacKinnon
John Brennand, Retired USW-TWU & former VDLC Executive Board member
John Chapman
Johnny Perry
Josh Martin, Company 605 Dance Society
Judith Snider
Justin Choi
Kari Scott-Whyte, President, CUPE Local 391
Karri Green-Schuermans, Chambar Restaurant
Kate Hodgson, UBCc350 and COVID-19 Coming Together
Kate Potapova
Kate Davis
Kathryn Shaw, Theatre Director
Keltie Forsyth, Arts Manager
Kevin Loring, Artistic Director, Savage Society
Kimberley Wong, Co-Chair, Chinatown Legacy Stewardship Group
Kyla Epstein
Lara Therrien Boulos, Unearthing Wisdom Consulting
Larry Kuehn
Laura Track
Laura Lightbown, Film & TV Producer
Laura Cuthbert, Founder, Populous Map
Lee Bensted
Leonard Schein
Leslie Remund, Executive Director, 411 Seniors Centre
Lizzy Karp, STORYHIVE
Lois Chan-Pedley
Lydia Tang
Marcia Toms
Marcus Youssef, Neworld Theatre
Marcy Cohen, BC Health Coalition and CCPA-BC
Margo Kane, Artistic Managing Director, Full Circle: First Nations Performance
Marion Pollack, Board Chair, 411 Seniors Centre
Mary Wu
Matilda Kumih
Matthew Norris, Vice-President, Urban Native Youth Association
Maya Korbynn
Megan Holec
Megan Lau, The Future is You and Me
Melissa Holloway Bacon
Melissa Woodward
Meryn Corkery
Michael Wiebe, Vancouver City Councillor
Michael Hughes
Michelle Dumond, Fuzzy Records
Michelle Cuomo
Mindy Parfitt, The Search Party
Mitra Mansour, Creative Room
Nadja Komnenic
Nicolas Demers
Niki Sharma
Noni Nabors, Our Time Vancouver and COVID-19 Coming Together
Norman Armour, Co-Founder, PuSh Festival
Olive Dempsey
Pat Kelly, Kelly&Kelly
Pedro Chamale, Artistic Director, Rice & Beans Theatre
Pete Fry, Vancouver City Councillor
Petros Kusmu, World Economic Forum Global Shapers Vancouver Hub and the Hogan’s Alley Society
Pimvan Geffen
Rachel Cheang
Rena Cohen, Realwheels Theatre
Richard Wolfe, Artistic Director, Pi Theatre
Robert Fisher
Ruth Herman
Sam Reeve, Car Free Vancouver Society
Samantha Lin, Organizer Sustainabiliteens
Sarah Common, Hives for Humanity
Sera Bao, Common Energy UBC
Shannon Daub, Executive Director, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives - BC Office
Shay Dior
Stephen Von Sychowski, Presdient, Vancouver and District Labour Council
Stephanie Goodwin, Executive Director, Out on Screen
Steve Anderson
Stuart Mackinnon
Taiya Robert
Tara Cheyenne Freidenberg, Dance Artist
Terra Poirier
Thien Phan
Tim Lam
Tonye Aganaba, Ocean Surf Sounds
Trilby Smith
Van Dang, Ricecake Vancouver
Vanessa Kwan, Visual Artist
Wade Lifton
Zahur Ashrafuzzman
Zsuszi Gartner, Writer
Zsuzsi Fodor, Food Systems Planner and Consultant
Coalition of Child Care Advocates of BC
Electric Company Theatre
Chinatown Today
Theatre Replacement
grunt gallery
Progress Lab 1422
Vancouver Creative Space Society
Carousel Theatre for Young People