Many citizens and community groups, including 19 of our neighbourhood Community Centre Associations, are opposed to the decision taken by eight of the eleven City Councillors on December 13 last year to abolish the ELECTED PARK BOARD. Eight City Councillors do not have a mandate to eliminate the Park Board elected by thousands of Vancouver voters in October 2022. Fundamental democratic principles must be respected.

The Park Board has a mandate to protect, preserve and develop the parks and recreation facilities loved by the citizens of Vancouver. That is their ONLY mandate. Park Board Commissioners are elected to carry out that mandate and are accountable to Vancouver citizens at election time. City Councillors have a very broad mandate managing all aspects of City operations and development beyond parks and recreation. We are deeply concerned that parks and recreation will not receive the same priority attention that it has now with the elected Board.

The elected Park Board was created in the 1880s because the citizens at that time wanted to be sure that the pressures for real estate development did not compromise their determination to have a robust parks and recreation system. We have the same concern today. We all know how influential the development industry is on City Council. There is an inherent conflict of interest when the same elected officials must deal with both development proposals needing land assembly and parks preservation and expansion. The elected Park Board is a powerful bulwark against the loss of our park land. Examples of some treasures created by our visionary elected Park Board include: English Bay Beach, VanDusen Botanical Garden, The Stanley Park Seawall, Fraserview Golf Course, Sunset Nursery.

Citizen groups and organizations work closely with the elected Commissioners. Commissioners have the time and inclination to meet with the public and representatives of organizations to address matters of concern and to consider innovative proposals. The public have open access to bi-weekly meetings of the Board. City Councillors are very busy with the wide range of responsibilities they have managing City affairs. They will have far less time to work with community groups. This will be a source of frustration for those working to improve services and programs in their communities. We fear that they will be sidelined to dealing with City staff and cut off from effective communication with elected Councillors. The governance structure becomes less informed of community needs and concerns. It is a step backward eliminating this layer of elected governance, not a step forward as the Mayor would like us to believe.

The Mayor has yet to produce any evidence of the benefits of City Hall control over Parks and Recreation. What we do know is that he is trying to tell Vancouver citizens that the governance system is broken, by pointing to the disrepair of facilities such as the Aquatic Centre and Kits Pool. The facts are that City Council took control in 2010 of the specialized facility maintenance staff from the Board in the name of efficiency. Ever since, the Real Estate and Facility Management department in the City has failed to properly maintain these facilities and respond to work orders in a timely manner. 

Legally, City Council cannot make this change in governance by itself. It passed a resolution at Council by a vote of 8-3, but it must ask the Provincial Government to amend the Vancouver Charter (legislation that lays out the powers of the City of Vancouver). It contains a provision for an elected seven member Board of Parks and Recreation. This is why we are asking you to sign our petition demanding that the Premier and all of the MLAs take no steps to dissolve the elected Vancouver Park Board unless requested to do so by the voters of Vancouver. If the Mayor wants to abolish the Park Board, he must go before the voters in the next municipal election in October 2026 stating clearly his intention to do so, and have the voters of Vancouver decide on its future.

Thank you for your support!