The contract, posted on the government procurement site Merx, would run for an initial three years, with options to extend for two additional years, taking the project into 2030. City hall insists the work is needed to track whether residents are sufficiently alarmed by climate change and how their messaging is landing.

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But while the city is budgeting for years of climate “push polling,” Vancouver’s real emergencies are going unanswered.

Homelessness Crisis

• In Metro Vancouver, the most recent regional homeless count (March 2025) recorded 5,232 people without stable housing, a nearly 9% increase since the last count.

• In the City of Vancouver itself, the homeless population hovers above 2,400, with many living in deteriorating single-room occupancy hotels lacking basic plumbing or heat.

• The Downtown Eastside (DTES) remains ground zero, where open drug use, poverty, and mental illness collide. Indigenous residents are heavily overrepresented among the homeless and street-level sex trade.

• Homelessness is not only more visible, it’s more dangerous. A past survey found 88% of homeless people reported being victimized, yet only 11% felt safe enough to report it to police. Mortality rates for homeless women are 31 times higher than the Canadian average.

Crime and Gangs

• Vancouver’s gang landscape is dominated by outfits like the Brothers Keepers, who traffic fentanyl, meth, and cocaine, run arms deals, launder money, and are linked to targeted killings.

• Police have tied the gang to drug labs capable of pumping out 60,000 pills per hour, armed with presses, precursor chemicals, and firearms.

• Rival groups like the Red Scorpions, the Kang/“BIBO” network, and the United Nations gang fuel turf wars that spill into public violence.

• Vancouver Police data shows violent crime remains stubbornly high, leaving residents and businesses desperate for safety while city hall focuses on climate messaging.

Fentanyl and Superlabs

• Vancouver is not just a hub for fentanyl use, it’s now a production centre.

• In late 2024, RCMP dismantled the largest superlab in Canadian history, spanning Surrey and Falkland. The haul included:

  • 54 kg of fentanyl (enough for millions of lethal doses)

  • 390 kg of methamphetamine

  • Firearms, silencers, body armour, explosives, and cash.

• The bust underscored how Vancouver gangs are not just dealers but manufacturers, with ties to international cartels.

• Since 2016, there have been 53,821 apparent opioid toxicity deaths in Canada, and Vancouver continues to be the epicentre.

Priorities Out of Touch

Vancouver’s plan to fund years of climate polling is not neutral research but taxpayer-funded propaganda, designed to justify pre-ordained green policies. Meanwhile, visible crises -homeless encampments, fentanyl overdoses, violent gang warfare- spiral out of control.

City hall insists on tracking public sentiment on the climate scare until 2030. But for the average Vancouverite, the real emergency is stepping outside their door and finding the city itself unrecognizable.