BURST
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim says he’s “incredibly frustrated” with the B.C. government dragging its feet on abolishing his city’s elected park board.
“Look, we’ve done everything the province has asked,” Sim said in an interview this week. “The transition plan, we have support from all three Host Nations, the list goes on and on. Every single time the province has asked us to do something, we have done it.”
“We’re at a loss. We just want this done. You know, it actually isn’t that complicated. Just have a vote. Get ‘er done,” Sim said.
“We’re incredibly frustrated. We want to see it happen.”
Back in December 2023, Sim’s ABC-majority council asked the province to amend the Vancouver charter to eliminate the need for the city to have an elected park board, the only elected body of its kind among B.C. cities and one of the few in North America. Sim and fellow ABC members have argued that abolishing the board, and bringing parks and recreation under council’s jurisdiction, would save money and improve operations.
When Sim announced his decision to seek the board’s elimination, he initially expected it to be completed by spring of 2024. By March 2024 , Premier David Eby said it would not happen before the provincial election in October of that year, but he was committed to advancing the board’s dissolution in the next legislative session after the election if his party formed government again.
But as that provincial election approached — and the B.C. NDP’s lead over the B.C. Conservatives shrank — Eby’s priorities appeared to shift, and he said in October that the park board was “very unlikely” to be a provincial priority before the next general municipal election in 2026.
Last week, the B.C. government released the “ miscellaneous statutes amendment act ,” which included changes to several different pieces of provincial legislation, including the Vancouver charter, the piece of legislation that governs the province’s most populous city.
These kinds of miscellaneous amendments are often (though not always) relatively minor “housekeeping” amendments or clarifying points, and they often fly under the radar without much media attention, as was the case with last week’s amendments.
In this particular suite of amendments, one thing was conspicuous by its absence: Among dozens of changes to the Vancouver charter, there was no mention of the park board.
Asked this week about that omission, Sim said he was frustrated about “elected officials in other jurisdictions telling us how we should run our parks.” Sim cited a city analysis that estimated that bringing parks and recreation under council control could save $7 million a year through efficiencies, without cuts to services.
In an emailed statement Tuesday, B.C. Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs Ravi Kahlon said: “While we understand the city’s interest in this, we are currently moving forward on a wide suite of legislation to secure our economy in the face of Trump’s unjustified tariff threats.”
“We remain committed to continuing to work with the city on ways to advance their priority in this,” Kahlon said.
Vancouver park board chair Laura Christensen, one of three commissioners elected with ABC in 2022 who parted ways with the party the following December over Sim’s plan to eliminate the board, said she appreciated the province “taking the time to carefully consider this matter before acting on the mayor’s request, particularly given the lack of democratic mandate.”
“Given the numerous other important priorities the province is managing, their measured approach to this issue is understandable,” Christensen said in an emailed statement.
While Sim is frustrated the B.C. NDP is not moving on this, the mayor says he has other supporters in Victoria, with the B.C. Conservatives now backing him.
B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad was sharply critical of Sim’s proposal to dissolve the board when it was first revealed in 2023, arguing the province should hold a referendum on the matter.
“Sim should get his own house in order before trying to fire other elected officials,” Rustad said in his 2023 statement . “People voted for these park board commissioners. They deserve to have a voice — and a vote — in what happens here. We have a democracy.”
While some Conservative candidates in last year’s provincial election opposed Sim’s proposal to abolish the board, the party does not appear to have publicly taken a clear position on the issue one way or the other since Rustad’s 2023 statement.
But Sim now says the Conservatives will support the board’s dissolution if it comes to the B.C. legislature for a vote.
Asked this week about the Vancouver park board, Rustad replied in an emailed statement: “We had a very positive meeting with the mayor and we are awaiting legislation.”
If that legislation does not come before Vancouver’s municipal election next year, the park board’s future could become a campaign issue.