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Global News
30-05-2025
- 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.
Global News
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Global News
Vancouver mayor ‘frustrated' with slow pace to abolish city's park board
Vancouver's mayor says he's frustrated the province has yet to make legal changes that would permit the abolition of the city's elected park board. Ken Sim asked the provincial government to amend the Vancouver Charter in December 2023, a critical step in his plan to dissolve the Vancouver Park Board. The following spring, Premier David Eby signalled the government was 'committed' to making the changes after the 2024 provincial election, should he be re-elected. 3:53 Vancouver Park Board transition could save $7M a year Those changes haven't happened fast enough, Sim said Wednesday. Story continues below advertisement 'We are frustrated right now, I just want to be very clear, we have done everything the province has asked of us,' he said. 'We have support from all three First Nations … when (the province) asked for a financial plan, we came back with it, the unions are on board.' 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 Eby, meanwhile, said he recognized the issue was a priority for the mayor and had been working with the city 'to ensure all the ducks are in a row.' However, he pinned the lack of action on the file on slow progress on the provincial legislative agenda. 2:05 Vancouver mayor announces next steps in abolishing Park Board 'There are a lot of new MLAs, they are finding their feet, they are asking questions they need to ask, but it has resulted in a reduced legislative schedule, and the park board, unfortunately, was a casualty of that,' Eby said. Story continues below advertisement Abolishing the park board has proven controversial. Sim campaigned on keeping and fixing the elected body in the 2022 municipal election, but months later, reversed course, saying it was too broken to repair. Sim argues that cutting the body would eliminate red tape and redundancies, while saving the city about $7 million a year. Critics — including four sitting park board commissioners, three who initially ran under Sim's ABC Slate — say it fulfils an important democratic role, and that Sim doesn't have the mandate to eliminate it. 1:49 Vancouver Park Board votes to modernize mandate and safeguard its future Community centre associations and the opposition BC Conservatives have also come out against scrapping the park board. As the process drags on, the prospect of the park board's future becoming a campaign issue in the 2026 municipal election grows. Story continues below advertisement That's something former park board chair Aaron Jasper says he'd prefer to see. 'If he feels that strongly about it, then he should make this a key part of his platform and run on it in the next election,' Jasper said. 'Focus on the important stuff. We have a mental health crisis, we have an opioid crisis, we have a housing crisis. There are so many more important things.'
