How we calculate this

We believe accountability should be checkable. Here's exactly where our numbers come from and how we compute them, so you can reproduce any figure yourself.

Data sources

Everything comes from the City of Vancouver's official open-data portal (OpenDataSoft API). We never use estimates or third-party figures. Datasets used:

  • Issued Building Permits (~52,000 records)
  • Council Voting Records (~80,000 records)
  • Awarded Contracts (~6,400 records)
  • Multi-Year Capital Budget (2021–2026)
  • Non-Market Housing projects

Refresh cadence

We re-pull the full datasets weekly. Prior-year data is frozen upstream, so historical figures don't change — which means every published card stays accurate over time. Current-year figures update as the city publishes new records.

Key definitions

  • Median (not mean) for permit waits, so a few slow high-rises don't skew the 'typical' number.
  • Dissent = a councillor voted In Opposition to a motion that was still carried.
  • Attendance = share of full Council meetings a member appears in (committees excluded).
  • Capital expenditure = the city's own budgeted figures, not actuals.

What we won't do

No opinion, no ratings beyond what the records support, and no AI-generated filler. If we can't verify a claim from public data, we say so rather than guess. This is an independent project, not affiliated with the City of Vancouver.