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Vancouver, BC – In a decision that sidesteps community concerns, a majority of Vancouver City Council approved a controversial 250-room floating hotel in Coal Harbour.

The vote came despite opposition from residents and hospitality workers, including members of UNITE HERE Local 40, who rallied at City Hall ahead of the public hearing.

“Yet again, Council has chosen a developer over working people,” said Zailda Chan, President of UNITE HERE Local 40. “This is another giveaway to a hotel developer that doesn’t need it, while hospitality workers struggle to afford to live in the city they serve.”

The project, a six-storey floating hotel roughly the length of two NHL hockey rinks, will be moored in Coal Harbour through at least 2060. It will partially block public waterfront views of the harbour and north shore along the seawall, and at the Burrard Street end panoramic view, the Vancouver Convention Center and Canada Place.  Neither the publicly available applicant materials submitted to the city, nor the city’s public notice, provide a clear illustration of how popular viewing areas will be blocked.

Council approved the project despite concerns about minimal public benefits. The developer refused to provide a $3.6 million contribution to offset municipal costs, similar to standard payments other developers are expected to contribute. Although some councilors acknowledged they would prefer to see the developer make a financial contribution to offset impacts, they let the developer off the hook with their vote in support.  Instead, the developer offered limited public access to a dock primarily serving its own spa and café.

Questions were also raised pertaining to city oversight of safety inspections. Unlike other developments, the floatel will not have to obtain City building and occupancy permits, relying instead on third-party inspections. Questions also remain about sewage management and the impact on the marine environment.

The project is backed by Finnish operator Sunborn Group and the Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre.  Sunborn recently experienced financial difficulties with another floatel, Sunborn Gibraltar. Their Gibraltar operation defaulted on a €60 million bond payment in 2024 and remedied the payment last year.

Highlighting how disconnected the proposal is from everyday Vancouverites, Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre chair Graham Clarke responded to the public’s concerns by suggesting the site could instead become a private mega-yacht marina with no public access. Clarke stated he could “sell memberships to billionaires,” underscoring the project’s focus on private luxury over public benefit.

The decision comes as City Hall pushes to rapidly expand hotel capacity, with thousands of new hotel rooms already approved or underway, while hospitality workers are being squeezed by the affordability crisis.

“This is a bad deal for Vancouver. Rather than address the affordability crisis facing working people in Vancouver, Council is easing the way for luxury hotel developments that fail to contribute their fair share to our city,” said Chan.

Contact: Michelle Travis, [email protected], 778-960-9785.

Board orders hotel to reinstate all unlawfully laid off bellmen and valet, with backpay

Vancouver, B.C. – For the second time in recent months, the BC Labour Relations Board has found that Executive Hotel & Resorts violated labour laws during a union organizing drive and has ordered the remedy of automatic union certification – this time at Executive Hotel Le Soleil.  This follows a similar ruling at The EXchange Hotel earlier this year.

In a decision released March 20, 2026, the Board certified UNITE HERE Local 40 at the Executive Hotel Le Soleil in downtown Vancouver, concluding that the employer’s conduct made it impossible to determine employees’ true wishes through a vote. The ruling builds on a ruling in August in which the Board found Le Soleil management breached the Labour Code by unlawfully interfering in a union organizing drive by steering workers to CLAC, the bosses’ preferred union.

This is the second remedial certification involving and Executive Hotels & Resorts property. In January, the Board issued a similar ruling against management at The EXchange Hotel, finding management illegally interfered with workers’ organizing drive through pressure, intimidation, and inducements.

In its latest decision, the Board found management engaged in a sustained campaign of interference, intimidation, and retaliation during the workers’ organizing drive. Despite the August ruling, the employer continued to support CLAC, even after the Board voided the company’s voluntary recognition agreement with them, declaring the agreement unlawful. Management continued deducting and remitting dues to CLAC and asserted that the rival union remained in place. Vice Chair Bruce Wilkins found this conduct undermined employee free choice and constituted unlawful financial support.

The Board also found that managers pressured workers about their union support, attempted to identify union supporters, and encouraged workers to revoke their membership in UNITE HERE Local 40. In one instance, a manager asked an employee to stop discussing Local 40 with co-workers, while in another, management provided materials to facilitate employees withdrawing their support.

One of the most serious violations occurred when management laid off an entire department during the organizing campaign. Nine Bell and Valet employees, all of whom had signed union cards, were terminated two days before the end of a Board imposed “cooling off period” intended to restore employees’ ability to freely choose their bargaining agent.  In his decision, Vice Chair Wilkins wrote:

“I find the fact that Bell and Valet employees were laid off two days prior to the end of the cooling period to be highly significant. I find that the timing of their layoff provides proof that the layoff was motivated, in part, by anti-union animus, and was done to discourage and frustrate any impending certification application of Local 40 at a critical time in their organizing drive. I find the elimination of the Bell and Valet employees sent an intimidating message to employees who wished to support Local 40 that their jobs may be in jeopardy as well.”

The Board concluded the employer’s conduct had irreparably tainted the organizing process at Le Soleil.

As in the earlier EXchange ruling, the Board determined that lesser remedies would be insufficient and only remedial certification – granting union status without a vote – could restore employees’ rights. This remedy is reserved for the most serious violations of the Labour Relations Code.

The Board also ordered the employer to reinstate all Bell and Valet employees with compensation to the date of layoff, and to return to each employee all dues remitted to CLAC since August, among other remedies.

“This is now the second time the Labour Board has ordered union certification at an Executive Hotel because of management’s egregious efforts to break the law to stop workers from organizing,” said Zailda Chan, President of UNITE HERE Local 40. “The Board has made it clear that when employers interfere with workers’ rights in this way, there will be real consequences.”

Le Soleil workers are the fifth group of hotel workers to unionize with UNITE HERE Local 40 in Metro Vancouver in the past nine months.

Media Contact: Michelle Travis, [email protected], 778-960-9785

 

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