Vancouver council passes motion asking province to dissolve elected park board

Vancouver city council has passed a motion that formally asks the province to dissolve the city's elected park board and shift its responsibilities to council.

In a marathon meeting Wednesday, Mayor Ken Sim's motion was passed in a 7–3 vote. 

Dozens of speakers turned up in opposition to the move, which was first revealed last week.

Vancouver is the largest city in Canada that has an independently elected board to look after parks and recreation. It has existed since 1888. 

A majority of its commissioners voted Monday to continue the board's work in defiance of the mayor's plans, though Sim's motion asks for a six-month transition committee to be convened to start the process of dissolving the board.

"The arguments for keeping an elected park board were based on tradition and the past," Sim said before the motion passed on Wednesday night. "And while we should celebrate tradition and the past, that is not a reason for keeping the elected park board."

Sim said the current governance structure of Vancouver's parks is "set up to fail," and compared trying to fix the park board to repairing a fax machine in the age of AI.

Proponents of the park board have argued that having a body dedicated to green spaces means there is more attention to ensuring they are well maintained.

Green Coun. Adriane Carr said the decision on the fate of the park board was made "behind closed doors."

"The process to me is shocking," she said. "I have to say I have never heard of a case where a duly elected body was eliminated by another elected body, midterm, with a stroke of a pen." 

Carr was one of three councillors who opposed Sim's motion. Sim and six councillors with his ABC party voted in favour.

Carr and fellow Green councillor Pete Fry failed with amendments to ask for a binding referendum on the issue and for transition committee appointments to be made during council meetings.

The mayor's motion asks the province to amend the Vancouver Charter, the legislation that regulates the city's functions and created the park board in the first place.

While council is in charge of setting the parks budget and approving a capital plan, oversight of the city's 240-plus parks and dozens of recreation facilities falls to seven elected park commissioners and separate park board management.