City Hall Insider: May 26, 2026

Good morning, 

Nate with you today. We’re back with another installment of our City Hall Insider! Creating this newsletter over the past few months has been such a great learning experience and has really allowed me to embrace my interest in the details of public policy. 

That gravitation toward the proverbial weeds can get me in a bit of trouble in the writing process, but, luckily, Geoff is good at helping me direct my attention toward the most important elements of a story, while preserving my penchant for specificity. 

Today, we’ve got not one, but two stories breaking down new city policies on timely and important topics. Let’s get to it!

— Nate Lewis, Vancity Lookout

As always, you can send your tips, leads, and story ideas to Nate at [email protected].

PS - If you find this newsletter valuable, please consider forwarding it to your friends. New to the Lookout? Sign-up for free.

The FIFA World Cup is mere weeks away from kicking off in Vancouver, with hundreds of thousands of visitors expected to come to town between mid June and early July. 

What the event means for locals varies: for many, it will be a party, an exciting time to celebrate and enjoy one of the world’s biggest sporting events. For others, it’s an opportunity to cash in, whether for local businesses that may benefit from extra foot traffic or homeowners who can rent out their spaces for top dollar. For some, it’s an inconvenience, a time to avoid going anywhere near downtown or the PNE, and stay home until the whole hullabaloo blows over. 

But what does FIFA mean for vulnerable people in Vancouver, many of whom live in the Downtown Eastside, just a few blocks away from the epicentre of the action around BC Place? Up until this week we didn’t know. 

Editor’s note: Unlike our usual agenda section, these stories are all sourced through Vancity Lookout’s review of reports, memos, meeting minutes, video recordings, and official communications, unless otherwise noted.

📈 Council doubled the city’s infrastructure levy from 1 to 2 per cent in response to a “sobering” report that about 60 per cent of the city’s nearly 700 buildings around Vancouver are in poor or very poor condition, which leads to bad outcomes across many sectors of city services. The increased levy means the city can shave approximately 20 years off the timeline to fully fund required infrastructure investments — but even with the levy increase that will take until about 2045.