Future of Vancouver Park Board in question as mayor to push for revamp: sources

Vancouver’s mayor will call on the province to amend the city’s charter to fundamentally change the Vancouver Park Board, Global News has learned.

Ken Sim has called a press conference for 10 a.m. on Wednesday on a “proposed motion to change the Vancouver Charter.”

Whether the motion will seek to abolish the board, or to significantly scale down its power and scope, remains unclear.

2:03 Vancouver mayor to pitch fundamental changes to city’s park board: sources

But sources told Global News the motion was, at its core, about accountability resting in the hands of city council rather than elected park board commissioners.

Fundamental changes to the board would require both municipal and provincial approval, since the Vancouver Charter is provincial legislation.

Global News has learned there have been conversations between the city and the province to that effect, and that, should Vancouver city council approve the mayor’s motion, provincial changes could potentially be included in the spring sitting of the legislature.

Abolishing the park board was the first official plank in Sim’s election platform, one he abandoned a year later saying instead that his ABC Vancouver party would elect a majority slate and fix it instead.

Speaking with 980 CKNW’s The Jas Johal Show on July 28, 2022, Sim said he had reversed course on the proposal because fixing the city’s parks was too urgent and the NDP was, at the time, in a leadership race.

“We need to act now, we need to fix our parks now. Vancouverites deserve urgent action on this file,” he said at the time.

Pressed to confirm he had stepped back from the ultimate goal of eliminating the board, Sim said “Yeah.”

“Given our current situation, we are going to keep the park board and we are going to run incredibly strong candidates. When you are presented with a different situation, leaders pivot, and that is what we are doing here,” he told 980 CKNW.

2:15 Auditor general report criticizes Vancouver Park Board fees and spending

Last month, an independent performance audit made numerous recommendations on how the board could better manage its revenue generation.

That same audit noted that while the board is independent from city council, it also can’t spend money without council’s approval — and it called for better engagement between the two bodies.

A separate report last year found most of the city’s community centres, which are managed by the board, were in “poor” or “very poor” condition.