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City council’s decisions

Name: Vancouver city council decisions, 2016–2026
Creator: City of Vancouver
License: https://www.etalab.gouv.fr/licence-ouverte-open-licence

7,383

items council voted on from 2016 to 2026

2,086 decided on a split vote · 1,725 placed on a parcel

By year

449 in 2016 · 1,116 in 2019 (the highest) · 207 in 2026

Items voted on each year; the record ends on May 8, 2026.

Items by subject, 2016–2026

Subjects come from keywords in the City’s agenda text. An item can have several subjects or none, so the bars do not add up.

Rezoning & development23% of items1,706

Housing9% of items681

Liquor & business licences4% of items300

Land, lanes & leases4% of items268

Heritage2% of items151

The tables, to download

The decisions table7,383 rows, one per item, compressed CSV0.4 MB The places table3,853 rows, one per item and parcel, compressed CSV A previewThe first 200 rows, to open in a browser or a spreadsheet What each column holdsJSON The counts on this pageJSON

How items are placed

1,725 items (23%) name an address that was found, on 3,853 item and parcel rows. By the rule that placed each row:

Address rangea registered address inside the range the text names ("607-621 West 28th Avenue")2,441

Exact addressthe civic number the text names exists in the City's address register780

Same hundred blockthe nearest registered number on the same street and hundred block, when the lots named were consolidated632

Only addresses the agenda text names are placed. An item about a policy, a program or the whole city has no address and stays unplaced; so does an address whose street cannot be matched word for word.

Understand

What is one row?

One row of the decisions table is one item council voted on (the voting record's item key). Councillors' individual votes are not in these files: tallies only.

How were the items decided?

The outcome the voting record gives each item, with the tally kept in the table.

Carried unanimously5,271

Carried on a split vote1,569

Lost516

Carried27

At which meetings?

Council and its standing committees, as the voting record names them.

Council2,084

Policy & Strategic Priorities1,521

City Finance & Services1,302

Regular Council1,284

Public Hearing902

Special Council235

Auditor General Committee35

Courts of Revision20

What do the 20 columns of the decisions table hold?

In the order of the file. Every column in full ↗

item_keystable key of the item in the City's voting record

vote_datedate council voted

vote_yearyear council voted

meeting_typethe meeting, as the City names it (Regular Council, Public Hearing, …)

meeting_idthe City's meeting identifier

titlethe agenda text with its agenda numbering removed

textthe agenda text as the City published it (UTF-8 misreadings repaired)

decisionthe decision as the City recorded it

outcome_linethe decision with its tally: "Carried unanimously", "Carried 6–5", "Lost 3–8"

n_in_favourcouncillors recorded in favour

n_oppositioncouncillors recorded in opposition

n_conflictscouncillors who declared a conflict

n_absentcouncillors recorded absent

is_contestedtrue when at least one councillor voted each way

s_heritagesubject keyword rule: agenda text matches heritage

n_placesparcels the agenda text names that were found in the property-address register

And the 7 columns of the places table?

One row per item and parcel; the item key joins it to the decisions table.

item_keythe item (joins the decisions table)

civic_numberthe register's civic number the item was placed on

std_streetthe register's street name

rulehow it was placed: exact (the number exists), range (inside a range the text names), hundred_block (same street, same hundred block)

lonparcel centroid longitude (WGS84)

latparcel centroid latitude (WGS84)

block_idxthe city block containing the parcel (row of the block outlines, stable within a build)

How should the tables be counted?

Subjects are keyword rules over the City's own agenda text. An item can match several subjects or none, so subject counts do not add up to the rows.

An item is placed when its agenda text names an address found in the City's property-address register — the exact number, a range, or the same street's hundred block. Nothing fuzzy: an item that cannot be placed stays unplaced.

The places table has one row per item and parcel: an item naming a range of addresses has several rows.

Where does the record come from?

The City of Vancouver publishes its council voting record on its open-data portal, one row per councillor per vote (Open Government Licence - Vancouver). Data as of May 8, 2026. Addresses are matched against the City’s property-address register. The dataset on the portal ↗

Next sectionBudgetExpenses and revenue, year by year

Source: City of Vancouver open data, Council voting records, and the property-address register. Data as of May 8, 2026.

Items by subject, 2016–2026

The tables, to download

How items are placed

Understand

See also