Opinion: Abolishing Vancouver park board midterm would defy democracy

Opinion: Not surprisingly, a legal opinion reveals that Vancouver voters have a strong case under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to block a midterm dissolution

Published Sep 12, 2024  •  Last updated 0 minutes ago  •  3 minute read

Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim announced a proposal to dissolve the elected Vancouver park board, at a press conference at city hall on Wednesday, December 6, 2023. Photo by Jason Payne /PNG

The Vancouver park board commissioners were elected in October 2022 on the democratic mandate of over 170,000 voters. The seven elected commissioners were duly inaugurated to their four-year term in the footsteps of a storied 134-year tradition.

Then a surprising thing happened.

Without notice and apparently without a plan, Mayor Ken Sim announced in December 2023 that he would abolish the elected park board.

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As this step requires the province to amend the Vancouver Charter, the shock wave carried over to Premier David Eby, who confirmed at an unrelated press conference the next day that he would do as the mayor requested, stating “There are many steps yet to go. We’ll be looking to (Mayor Sim) for that transition plan.”

Within days both the B.C. Greens under Sonia Furstenau and the B.C. Conservatives under John Rustad declared they would oppose this move.

This case of politics making strange bedfellows apparently flows from the Greens’ and Conservatives’ shared belief in local democracy. It may be the only thing they share. But it’s a bedrock belief among several parties in the left-green-right political spectrum: Our local parks deserve close attention by elected officials.

So where do Eby and the B.C. NDP really stand on this issue? In such a close election, will Eby take the risk with 11 Vancouver ridings at stake to be the one party that takes a hard anti-democratic position on abolishing the elected park board?

One might recall that the last time a major proposed change to Vancouver democracy was considered was back in 2004. In that case, then mayor Larry Campbell appointed Justice Tom Berger to consult broadly across the city on the implementation of a ward system. Berger wrote a detailed report in favour of a ward system, and concluded to put it to plebiscite. The proposal lost 54 per cent to 46 per cent. But at least it was an informed and fair vote.

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Thirty former park board commissioners, from across the political spectrum, joined in an emphatic no to the abolition of the elected park board. And 160 speakers registered at city council to oppose the mayor’s anti-democratic move, many focused on the absence of any mandate to make such a decision. Seventeen community centre associations weighed in to state “we don’t accept that (Sim) has a mandate to do what he’s doing.”

Sim has no mandate to remove the elected park board. Despite his 2021 flip-flop on the issue, it was not listed in his 94-point election platform and his party ran six commissioners on the ballot. These commissioners were not aware of his plan until hours before the public press conference.

Voters are properly upset when they realize no elected body in Canada has ever been abolished midterm. A legal opinion from an independent lawyer retained by the park board and released on Monday reveals that 170,000 Vancouver voters have a strong case under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to block midterm abolition of the elected park board.

And it’s not clear why the mayor is so aggrieved by the elected park board in the first place. He’s had some political wins there (Moberly Park field; Stanley Park bike lane), as well as some losses (Beach Ave expansion). He got the Kits pool fixed after belatedly realizing it was entirely his responsibility (not the park board’s).

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It’s also striking that Sim is not publicly defending his request to Victoria. He did not deliver a transition plan within six months, as promised. He has yet to provide any evidence there will be “millions in savings,” nine months after proclaiming it.

And despite Sim’s public assurances that these changes will not lead to a loss of public green space, many members of the public are still wary.

As of now, the mayor has failed to build any political case to justify abolishing local democracy at the Vancouver park board.

Tell your local MLA candidate that local democracy matters to you.

Tom Digby, Laura Christensen, Brennan Bastyovanszky and Scott Jensen are commissioners of the Vancouver park board elected for the 2022-2026 term.

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