Vancouver, British Columbia Citizens' Initiative
Your Voice Matters

Tell City Hall What You Actually Think About Drug Policy

Most Vancouverites are frustrated. Few have a way to say so. This takes two minutes.

Non-partisan◆Free◆Takes 2 minutes

The voices you hear loudest in this debate — addiction advocacy groups, organizations that receive public funding for treatment sites and social housing, Downtown Eastside spokespeople — are organized, resourced, and persistent. They show up at City Hall. They write letters. They hold press conferences.

The majority of Vancouverites who are tired of public disorder, who've watched their neighbourhoods deteriorate, who worry about their children and businesses — those voices are scattered, busy, and unrepresented in the room where decisions are made.

This page exists to change that asymmetry slightly. Pick a concern that resonates, personalize a message, and send it directly to the officials who make these decisions. It takes two minutes. A hundred people doing this matters.

1
Select your Vancouver riding (optional)

Drug policy is set at the provincial level. Selecting your riding adds your MLA to the email automatically.

2
Choose the argument that resonates most

Select one — it drops into your email below. You can edit everything freely.

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Public spaces have become unsafe and unusable
Parks, transit hubs, and sidewalks where families and children should feel safe are routinely marked by open drug use, discarded needles, and aggressive behaviour. The majority of residents deserve public spaces that are genuinely public.
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Current policy is not working by any measurable standard
Despite years of safe injection sites, supervised consumption, and decriminalization experiments, overdose deaths remain at crisis levels and homelessness has increased. Continuing the same approach while expecting different results is not compassion — it is failure rationalized.
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Small businesses and local economies are being destroyed
Retail, restaurants, and small businesses near affected areas report dramatic drops in foot traffic, rising insurance costs, and staff who refuse to work certain shifts. These are real jobs and real livelihoods eroded by policy choices that prioritize one group's needs above all others.
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Resources are not going to treatment and recovery
Billions of public dollars flow to harm reduction infrastructure with minimal accountability for outcomes. Funds that could build actual treatment capacity, support recovery housing, or fund mental health services are instead sustaining a status quo that traps people in addiction.
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There is a difference between compassion and enabling
Genuine compassion means helping people get out of addiction, not providing infrastructure that makes it easier to stay in it indefinitely. Policy that treats addiction as a permanent lifestyle to be managed rather than a crisis to be resolved does not serve the people it claims to help.
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I'll write my own message
Skip the pre-written arguments — I prefer to say it in my own words.
3
Review and personalize your message

Edit anything below. A personal detail — your neighbourhood, your experience — makes this significantly more effective.

Your Message 11 recipients
To: Mayor Ken Sim & all 10 City Councillors
Subject:
💡 Adding your name, neighbourhood, or a specific personal experience makes your message significantly more effective than a generic one.
4
Send your message

Choose whichever method works best for you.

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Send via Gmail Recommended
Opens Gmail compose in a new tab with all recipients and subject pre-filled. Your message is copied to clipboard — just paste it into the body and hit Send.
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Copy message & open Mail app
Copies your message to clipboard and opens your default mail app (iPhone Mail, Outlook, etc.) with recipients and subject pre-filled. Paste the message body and send. Works best once this page is hosted outside Claude.
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Copy addresses & message separately
For any other email client — copy the recipient list, then copy your message, and paste both manually.