Vancouver is one step closer to losing its elected board of parks and recreation, with Mayor Ken Sim revealing members of a new dedicated working group to guide the process on Thursday.
Last month, council approved a controversial motion asking the B.C. government to amend legislation allowing the park board’s abolition and the bestowment of its powers to city council. That motion also included the creation of a new working group to facilitate a “smooth transition” of authority.
“We continue to forge ahead into a new era for Vancouver’s parks and recreation,” Sim said at a press conference. “This step was very long overdue. The current system is broken and no amount of tweaking will fix it.”
Members of the new transition group include Catherine Evans, former Vision Vancouver park board commissioner; Jordan Nijjar, soccer coach and South Asian community leader; and Shauna Wilton, the interim park board general manager. Jennifer Wood, director of BC Diving, and Gregor Young, executive director of the Vancouver United Football Club, are on the committee as well.
Over the next six months, the group will provide recommendations and feedback to council on how it can engage with the public on its proposed governance over parks and recreation services, as well as review the current governance structure and community relations practices of the elected board.
“This has nothing to do with people or the love and care that they show the park board,” Sim emphasized. “This change is bigger than any one person or political party, it’s about prioritizing the needs of all Vancouverites.”
According to Sim, authority over parks, beaches and other recreational services rests with mayor and council in every other city in Canada. He believes the changes will streamline park decisions, make better use of staff time and save millions of dollars.
The ABC Vancouver mayor promised to try and scrap the board in 2021, before promising instead to keep it in 2022. A recent auditor general report, however, found the board “did not operate an effective framework for achieving revenue-related objectives for its revenue-generating assets and services.”
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Sim’s majority on council passed the motion to scrap it last month, with councillors Christine Boyle, Pete Fry and Adrienne Carr in opposition.
“I highly doubt that much will get accomplished in that six months, given the obligation on all levels of government to work with the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh about these lands,” Fry said Thursday, referencing the timeframe given to the transition working group.
“We’re in very unprecedented territory. We’ve never seen a local mayor dissolve an elected body like this before.”
City parks fall on unceded First Nations land but a number are owned by the federal government and leased to the municipality.
In order to crack open the Vancouver Charter to facilitate the dissolution of the park board and the transfer of power, the B.C. government must consult with those First Nations under the terms of its Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act. The province has previously indicated it’s open to amending the legislation in line with the city’s wishes, with certain caveats.
“There are a number of items that need to be addressed, including land ownership and the future of the workers at the park board, and we need to make sure First Nations are consulted,” Municipal Affairs Minister Anne Kang said in a December 2023 news release.
The municipal working group has also been instructed to engage with First Nations throughout its work.
City manager Paul Mochrie said Thursday he doesn’t foresee ownership of any of the parks changing through the transfer and consultation process.
The xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Indian Band has indicated its support for the dissolution of the park board, with Chief Wayne Sparrow stating last month that “it will benefit everyone.”
“As a local nation with many levels of formal and informal interaction with the City, the proposed streamlined structure will provide clarity and a single point of contact for engaging with the City on the issues that matter most to our people,” Sparrow said in a City of Vancouver news release.
In a Thursday statement, səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh Nation) said it “does not have anything to say on this matter since discussions are still ongoing between leadership and the City of Vancouver.”
No one from the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish First Nation) was available for comment Thursday.
In an interview, park board commissioner Laura Christensen called the entire dissolution process “undemocratic.” The mayor didn’t campaign on scrapping the park board, and if he had, she said she would not have run for the job under his ABC banner.
“I think there are people who are looking at legal challenges towards this,” she told Global News.
Christensen said she hopes the change will not proceed without the support of all three impacted First Nations.