Union-Organized California Callers Flood Vancouver Housing Hearings: Mayor Demands Residency Ban as Major Rezonings Pile Up

Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim sent an urgent letter to Premier David Eby and Municipal Affairs Minister Christine Boyle on July 23, asking the province to amend the Vancouver Charter so that only Canadian residents can register to speak at City Council public hearings. The request follows an unusually grueling hearing on the City’s Villages Plan, which ran from 9:30 a.m. on July 22 until nearly 1 a.m. the next day to accommodate more than 340 registered speakers. During the session, councillors questioned Cristina Melendez, a caller who admitted she was in California and had never visited Vancouver, yet was weighing in on local densification policy. When asked to explain development cost levies referenced in her remarks, she fell silent for six seconds before coughing, prompting elected officials to scrutinize the credibility and origin of several testimonies.