Concerns about Vancouver’s park ranger service raised by a former member have become ammunition in the debate over the future of the city’s elected park board.
On Tuesday, Global News spoke with Amanda Gray, a film industry professional who took a six-month contract as a park ranger amid the Hollywood strike.
Gray said the vast majority of her duties on the job involved clearing homeless people’s tents from parks, while the job description advertised the position as being focused on ecology and public information.
“I felt threatened and I felt unsafe, and lots of times I just had to breathe,” she said. “It’s very much geared towards this fantasy idea of the job being, you know, very ecological. It needs to specify that you will deal with the homeless every day,” she said.
Global News has learned 13 park rangers have stepped down this year, leaving the service staffed with 39 people.
Park Board Chair Brennan Bastyovanszky told Global News he wasn’t sure Gray’s experience was representative of all rangers, but conceded B.C.’s drug and housing crises have made the job harder than ever. But he argued the city’s move to clear the Hastings Street homeless encampment before there was adequate housing for people sheltering there has only put more pressure on the city’s parks.
He said the city also refused the board’s request for more funding in the budget this year, some of which would have been earmarked to hire more rangers.
“There haven’t been any new encampments and the rangers do a lot of credit to that, and the city needs to do their part and put more money into the program, that’s their job,” he said. “If we have more rangers we can rotate them around and they can do different parks, but most of what our rangers are focused on right now is parks in the Downtown Eastside.”
Vancouver City Coun. Sarah Kirby-Yung, a proponent of Mayor Ken Sim’s plan to disband the elected park board, said the problems Grey highlighted show the “increasing complexity” or park management in the city.
“Once the transition is effective we will have the ability and the jurisdiction to look at the park rangers,” she said. “There is an opportunity to look at things like city bylaw officers and park rangers, and how that job might be potentially better aligned between the two — they’re both really important functions in terms of front-line services to residents, so that will continue, it’s just what is the best structure for that.”
Global News submitted multiple requests for an interview with park board management with regards to ranger operations and encampments, but no one was made available.
Instead, the board issued a statement, which said that rangers are required to enforce Vancouver’s Park Control Bylaw, which mandates that structures like tents be taken down from dawn to dusk.
“We recognize that this has changed the balance of their work. Across Vancouver, we’re seeing 90-95% compliance on the Park Control By-law,” the statement reads. “We also recognize that this work is difficult and appreciate our Rangers for the thoughtful and careful approach they take to keeping Vancouver’s parks safe and accessible for all users.”
Gray said that while she declined to renew her contract she would consider working as a ranger again if she had the chance to do assignments better suited to her skills.
She said new rangers also deserve better training, and wants to see mental health professionals accompany rangers when they’re entering encampments.