Dan Fumano: This week's rare loss for the ABC majority shows there's limits to what Mayor Ken Sim and his allies can push through when pursuing directions their party-mates never agreed upon for last election's "big-tent" platform.

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A much-watched Vancouver council vote on natural gas this week was the first time a major policy decision did not go the way of the ABC party majority.

On Wednesday night, council split 5-5 on bylaw amendments that would have allowed the use of natural gas for heating and hot water in new buildings. A tie means the amendments are not approved.

It meant the city will not reverse course after all on a policy adopted in 2020 by the previous council. That policy aims to gradually reduce the burning of natural gas, which city staff estimate makes up 57 per cent of carbon emissions in Vancouver.

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In July, the ABC-majority council — by a 6-5 margin — ordered city staff to prepare amendments to the building bylaw to reintroduce the option of using natural gas in new buildings.

The key vote Wednesday came from ABC Coun. Rebecca Bligh, who supported the decision in July but this week opposed the bylaw change, voting against most of her party colleagues, including the mayor.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Bligh said she believed council’s July decision was based, in part, on “information that was incomplete and some information that was wrong.”

“I believe we made the wrong decision,” she said.

Bligh referred to arguments by some fellow ABC council members who said allowing gas heating would improve affordability and help get more homes built.

Bligh said that since July, she had........

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