- Source: Ken Sim
Kenneth Sim (Chinese: 沈觀健; Cantonese Yale: Sám Gūn-gihn; born October 18, 1970) is a Canadian politician and businessman who has served as the 41st mayor of Vancouver since 2022.
Biography
Born in Vancouver to Hong Kong immigrants Francis Sim (d. 1999) and Maria Theresa Kim (1932–2016), Sim attended Magee Secondary School, Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School, and the UBC Sauder School of Business, graduating with a BComm in finance in 1993. He also holds a FCPA and FCA accounting designation.
Sim co-founded Nurse Next Door Home Healthcare Services in 2001.
Sim first ran for mayor of Vancouver with the Non-Partisan Association in the 2018 Vancouver municipal election and finished the runner-up to Kennedy Stewart.
Sim was elected mayor of Vancouver, running under the ABC Vancouver party banner, on October 15, 2022. He is the first challenger to defeat a sitting mayor of Vancouver since 1980, when Mike Harcourt upset incumbent Jack Volrich. Sim is the first Chinese Canadian elected Mayor of Vancouver.
Mayoral term
In 2023, The Globe and Mail published allegations from an anonymous Canadian Security Intelligence Service source claiming that China interfered in the 2022 Vancouver municipal election. Sim has denounced the insinuations made in the article about himself and election interference, stating "If there's proof of foreign interference in our election, I want to know about it because I'm a Canadian … but right now there are a bunch of insinuations."
= Issues
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Homelessness and housing
In March 2023, during Sim's mayoral term, a homeless count was commenced by the Homelessness Services Association of BC, the first since the beginning of the pandemic. The results of the count were released in October 2023. A local non-profit serving the population expects the results to show increases given their increased demand for services.
Sim's plan to address the homeless crisis in Vancouver has centred on partnership with Provincial and Federal government programs. Within his first 45 days in office Ken Sim and the ABC-dominated Council expedited work camp-style housing in partnership with BC Housing that implemented 90 units on City property. On March 27, 2023, Sim and Provincial Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon announced a plan to open 330 additional units by June, 2023.
In addition, ABC Vancouver have repeatedly stated their intent to decrease permit processing times as additional means to stimulate the development of new, permanent housing.
In early April 2023, news outlets began reporting on the City of Vancouver's efforts to bring the East Hastings encampment to a close. Sim remarked that the conclusion of the encampment is part of a larger effort of "finding empathetic ways to get people off the streets and into housing that they need."
On April 5, 2023, Sim announced the encampment would be brought to a close. By the end of the April 5, city workers removed most of the encampment on Hastings, disposed of much of the debris left by the encampment, and offered residents temporary re-homing to shelters while the city awaits new more permanent housing to arrive in June. As part of the operation April 5 and 6, crews took down 94 “entrenched structures” and removed 50 propane tanks from the encampment zone. More than 70 totes for storage were also provided to individuals and stored off-site.
Mental health
During the 2022 campaign, Sim promised he would hire 100 nurses to join the previously established Car 87 program, alongside 100 new police officers. On February 14, 2023, Vancouver City Council voted to allocate $2.8 million to Vancouver Coastal Health, to hire 58 mental health workers to "to support people who are suffering from mental illness combined with lack of stable housing and substance abuse issues."
= Budget
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Mayor Ken Sim announced in April 2023 that he would create a task force with a mandate to review the city's operating and capital budgets and recommend ways tax dollars can be spent more efficiently and responsibly.
Sim's major campaign promises included increases to the budget of VPD and a commitment to pay for these budget increases without cutting services or increasing property taxes. Despite campaign promises, in a council meeting early in his term, he suggested that the Vancouver Public Library should look into "potential revenue opportunities" to fund operations.
Vancouver City Council increased property taxes by 10.7% during Sim's first year in office. The property tax increase resulted in the average condo owner paying an additional 33 cents per day and the average home owner paying an additional 83 cents per day in property taxes. Council also voted to eliminate the controversial 25 cent "cup fee" on single-use beverage cups.
Personal life
Sim resides in West Point Grey with his wife and their four sons. He has said that his children's inability to see "a future for themselves in Vancouver" was a primary reason for his involvement in politics.
Hong Kong politician Bernard Charnwut Chan is a first cousin. Sim's father was Chan's maternal uncle. Canadian intelligence analyst Scott McGregor and journalist Ina Mitchell noted in their book, The Mosaic Effect, that Bernard's father, Robin Chan, who is Sim's uncle, held the role of vice chairman of the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese (ACFROC), a top-ranking organization in the Chinese Communist Party's united front network.
Sim has taken training programs held by Landmark Worldwide, described by some as a large-group awareness training organization, crediting the training with teaching him how to have "authentic conversations" and giving him the confidence to run for mayor.
Electoral record
References
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