Mike Macdonell

The Healthy City Strategy is the City of Vancouver's strategic framework for social sustainability, aiming to integrate health across all city operations. Guided by lenses of Indigenous Rights and Reconciliation, Equity and Intersectionality, and Accessibility and Inclusion, the plan identifies 12 key goals: Good Health Throughout Life, Affordable, Safe, Secure Housing, Food Systems, Care and Support Networks, Income and Economy, Community Safety, Belonging and Connection, Active Living, Arts, Culture, and Learning, Sustainable Transportation, Complete Neighbourhoods, and Climate Change and Disaster Resilience. The overarching vision is to collectively create and continually improve conditions that foster health, well-being, and equity for all residents, particularly those facing barriers.

The Healthy City Strategy Four Year Action Plan for the City of Vancouver outlines tangible steps to improve conditions for the highest level of health and well-being for all residents. It is structured around three core focus areas: Healthy People (ensuring a good start, home for everyone, healthy food, human services, and economic well-being), Healthy Communities (cultivating safety, inclusion, connections, active living, lifelong learning, and cultural expression), and Healthy Environments (promoting livable surroundings, efficient transportation, and a thriving ecology). The plan emphasizes collaborative leadership to achieve its goals and targets.

The Working Group allocated roles and determined attendees for upcoming in-person meetings while refining stakeholder lists and engagement strategies. Additionally, the group reviewed a proposed agenda structure for future in-person sessions and agreed on action items involving the circulation of a draft survey and the scheduling of forthcoming meetings.

The Culture|Shift Vancouver Culture Plan 2020-2029 aims to transform how arts and culture are integrated into the city's decisions, reflecting its diversity and the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. The plan is built upon five strategic directions: Arts & Culture at the Centre of City Building, Reconciliation & Decolonization, Cultural Equity & Accessibility, Making Space for Arts & Culture, and Collaboration & Capacity. It seeks to position Vancouver as a global leader in cultural planning by embedding arts and culture into city-building, fostering shared belonging, and addressing pressing issues like affordability and systemic inequities.

This document, titled "Making Space for Arts & Culture," outlines the strategic directions for cultural space in Vancouver for the period 2014-2018. The plan focuses on five principal areas: fostering cultural leadership, increasing participation and engagement, providing adaptable sustainable support programs, optimizing investment in cultural assets, and investing in the creative economy. Key objectives include enhancing community involvement in planning, encouraging private sector participation, fostering collaboration, ensuring access to cultural spaces, facilitating skill development, and stabilizing and protecting existing key cultural assets through continued infrastructure grants, regulatory assistance, and leveraging partnerships.