Mayoral Candidate Kareem Allam’s Commitment to the Centre (A Letter to Filipino BC)
OCTOBER 8, 2026
On October 7, 2026, we wrote to every mayoral and council candidate with three concrete asks for municipal support for the Filipino Community & Cultural Centre.
Mayoral candidate Kareem Allam and the Vancouver Liberals have responded. Here’s what they’ve committed to:
Dear Filipino BC,
Thank you for your letter, and for the years of work behind your project.
Filipino BC has done what a serious community institution does: listen first, build programs that people actually use, and only then ask for a permanent home.
Vancouver’s Filipino Community has helped build the city, but has no purpose-built civic hub.
If I am elected Mayor, the Vancouver Liberals will fully support all three commitments Filipino BC has asked for. We are unequivocally committed to the proposed Filipino BC Cultural Centre.
We commit:
1. Expedite the rezoning and municipal approvals.
We will support and advance a motion to expedite the rezoning and approvals needed to permit residential and affordable housing on the proposed site at 396 SW Marine Drive, so the project can move toward a groundbreaking as early as next year. South Vancouver should not wait years for a file that already has a site, a development partner, and a community mandate.
2. Join as a municipal funding partner.
We will work with the federal and provincial governments as a committed municipal partner in the Centre. That includes a Community Amenity Contribution directed to the Centre, or another meaningful City contribution, so Vancouver is at the table alongside the senior governments that have already identified this as a priority. A project of this scale should not have to advance without the City.
3. Fund the work before the building opens.
We will provide ongoing municipal funding to Filipino BC for program development and organizational operations throughout planning and construction, not only after the doors open. A centre is not a building. The programs, partnerships, staffing, and governance that will make it useful have to be in place before completion. Filipino BC has already spent three years building that capacity, largely without the sustained public funding a project of this significance should have. We will not ask the community to open an empty room and start from scratch.
Filipino BC is now Canada’s largest Filipino community and cultural charity, with the governance and partnerships to own and operate a civic asset. The partnership with Hungerford Properties, and the agreement with South Vancouver Neighbourhood House, give the project a practical path through a difficult economy. Our job at City Hall is to match that readiness with approvals and funding, and then get out of the way of the people who will run it.
Thank you,
Kareem Allam, Mayoral Candidate Vancouver Liberals
We’re grateful to Mayoral candidate Kareem Allam and the Vancouver Liberals for making this commitment toward the Filipino Cultural Centre and for recognizing the significant contributions and impact of the Filipino community, as well as the importance of having a permanent home for our community. This project has been more than three years in the making, shaped by the voices, work, advocacy, and support of so many people across our community.
As we hear from the other mayoral and council candidates in response to our October 7 letter, we’ll keep you updated on their commitments and what they are proposing for the Centre. Thank you to everyone who has continued to believe in this vision, speak up for it, and help move it forward — we’re building this together.
