Latest news with #KenSim
Yahoo
a day ago
- General
- Yahoo
Highlights: FC Dallas 0-0 Philadelphia Union (MLS)
City of Vancouver pausing plans to dissolve elected park board: memo A memo posted to social media indicates that the provincial government did not pass the needed legislative changes to allow the City of Vancouver to dissolve its elected park board, a controversial initiative attempted by Mayor Ken Sim. Park Board Chair Laura Christensen says the elected body continues to work on improving the city's parks amid the uncertainty. 6:20 Now Playing Paused Ad Playing
CBC
a day ago
- General
- CBC
City of Vancouver pausing plans to dissolve elected park board: memo
A memo posted to social media indicates that the provincial government did not pass the needed legislative changes to allow the City of Vancouver to dissolve its elected park board, a controversial initiative attempted by Mayor Ken Sim. Park Board Chair Laura Christensen says the elected body continues to work on improving the city's parks amid the uncertainty.
CTV News
2 days ago
- Business
- CTV News
Process to dissolve the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation paused
A seagull takes flight off a statue of Captain George Vancouver outside Vancouver City Hall, on Saturday, January 9, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck The City of Vancouver has put a pause on its process transitioning governance of the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation, marking another delay to its much talked about plan to fully collapse the board. In December 2023, Mayor Ken Sim announced his plan to abolish the board and reallocate its responsibilities to city council in a bid to save money. In November last year, a report from the city's Parks and Recreation Transition Working Group said the disintegration of the board would save the city approximately $7 million a year. Removing the park board would require making an amendment to the Vancouver Charter, a provincial statute, and the city would need the legislature to vote on whether those changes could go ahead. In a message sent to City of Vancouver staff and shared by Vancouver Park Board commissioner Thomas Digby, the city noted that the province made changes to the Vancouver Charter earlier this month, but made no mention of the park board. 'The provincial government did not introduce Charter amendments for consideration by the legislature in the spring session, which ended yesterday, May 29,' the statement read. 'The provincial government has reaffirmed its commitment to, at a future date, enact these legislative changes.' In the meantime, any planning that was in place to prepare for a transition of governance has been paused. Any information regarding the timing of any legislative changes will be released once the city receives it, it said.
Global News
3 days ago
- Politics
- Global News
City ‘pausing' work to scrap Vancouver Park Board pending provincial changes
The City of Vancouver is 'pausing' work to abolish its elected park board. It comes after the provincial legislature ended its spring session without amending the Vancouver Charter, a key legal step necessary to move forward with Mayor Ken Sim's plan to scrap the Vancouver Park Board. According to an 'all staff' message circulated Friday by deputy city manager Sandra Singh, 'operational planning towards a governance transition will pause until we learn more.' 3:53 Vancouver Park Board transition could save $7M a year 'The provincial government has reaffirmed its commitment to at a future date enact these legislative changes and we will share any further indication of regarding potential timing when we receive that information,' the memo adds. Story continues below advertisement Vancouver green park commissioner Tom Digby, who opposes the transition, hailed the pause as a victory, posting on social media that '135 years of local democracy survives.' Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Sim announced his plan to eliminate the park board in December 2023, after initially campaigning in the municipal election to keep it and fix it. Sim has subsequently said scrapping the board would save the city $7 million per year and streamline a variety of city tasks from permitting to maintenance. 1:43 Vancouver Park Board chair defends staff 'gag order' Last spring, Premier David Eby signalled the government was 'committed' to making the changes after the 2024 provincial election, should he be re-elected. But a year later, he said action on amending the Vancouver Charter was a 'casualty' of a slow-moving legislature overwhelmed with rookie MLAs. Story continues below advertisement Abolishing the park board has proven controversial, with opposition from the BC Conservatives and from a majority of sitting parks commissioners, three of whom were elected under Sim's ABC slate but broke with the mayor over his parks plan.
Globe and Mail
3 days ago
- General
- Globe and Mail
B.C. Housing Minister expresses concern after Vancouver abandons controversial supportive-housing project
British Columbia's housing minister says he is concerned about the future of supportive-housing projects in Vancouver after the city quashed construction plans in a west-side neighbourhood amid a legal battle with residents over the rezoning changes. The rezoning for the 129-unit, 13-storey project in Kitsilano was rescinded April 30, after a consent order between a local residents' group and the city essentially overturned a 2022 approval. In an interview with The Globe and Mail, B.C. Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon said he was surprised by the city's decision to abandon fighting a lawsuit the Kitsilano Coalition for Children and Family Safety Society had brought claiming the city's public-hearing process for the rezoning was flawed. 'If you don't want concentrations of supportive housing, but then you don't want them in Kits, where do you put people?' he said. Vancouver abandons controversial supportive-housing project in Kitsilano Earlier this week, Mayor Ken Sim told The Globe that the city is trying to work with the province on finding alternative sites, where two 40- to 60-unit projects could be built that fit in better with the neighbourhoods. Supportive housing provides units to low-income people the way social housing does, but also helps with drug addiction, mental-health counselling, medical visits, lifeskills training and more. Mr. Kahlon said the province is willing to work with the city but hasn't seen any 'credible' alternatives so far. 'It is frustrating but we're going back to the drawing board to find alternative sites,' he said, though he added that the province isn't about to buy out any private-rental development currently on offer as city officials have suggested. It's also unfair for some neighbourhoods to declare they're only interested in housing for seniors or other groups they have decided are less problematic, Mr. Kahlon said. The city's move has generated significant reaction, with many supporters saying the site was problematic because it was across the street from a private Catholic elementary school, too close to a women's rehab centre and would have resulted in too many troubled people in one place. Supporters have also criticized the province for trying to force disruptive new housing that they claim would be dominated by drug users into every community. 'This housing, in this location, was not appropriate and the community spoke,' said David Fine, a filmmaker who is a frequent commenter on Kitsilano housing issues on X. 'No one is against some form of social or supportive housing there, just not what was being proposed. In this case, Sim made the right decision.' However, several housing advocates, non-profit housing providers and city councillors are appalled by the move. 'It's a very scary, telling direction that this council is going. We definitely recognize this is going in the wrong direction,' said Donna-Lynn Rosa, CEO of Atira Women's Resources Society, which runs multiple supportive-housing buildings in the city. 'Less housing, less options is not the solution. We're just concerned about these motions that seem reckless.' BC Housing applied to the city four years ago for a rezoning for the building, saying it would provide accessible supportive housing for the many homeless people living in Kitsilano's parks, on its beaches, or near storefronts. But thousands of residents expressed concerns that it would draw new drug users and crime to the area and allow for open drug use right across from the school. OneCity Vancouver Councillor Lucy Maloney said she is going to do whatever she can to support work at city hall to approve supportive housing, after hearing during her recent election campaign that improving the situation for homeless people was one of voters' top three priorities. 'I have to assess the best way to address the problem that Vancouverites said was their top concern,' she said. Ms. Maloney said she was surprised that she learned the news through the Kitsilano residents' newsletter instead of from the city itself. The decision to abandon the legal fight was made during an in-camera vote earlier this year before new councillors Ms. Maloney and COPE's Sean Orr were sworn in. Prominent drug-policy advocate Guy Felicella, a former drug user who champions better treatment and harm reduction, called the move 'NIMBYism at is finest,' noting that city residents are constantly calling on the province for more resources to get people off the streets but then reject providing housing for them.
