Mayor Ken Sim didn’t look his laid-back, affable self at Council chambers Wednesday night. It was little wonder: more than 150 speakers of all political stripes lined up to lambaste his motion to do away with the independent Park Board. Sim claims the Park Board is “broken” and “duplicates services the City already provides.” Doing away with it would save the City millions of dollars, says Sim, who hasn’t provided a single piece of evidence to support his claims.

The vast majority of speakers attending the Council meeting berated the Mayor for his proposal to eliminate a 136-year-old Vancouver institution by asking the Province to alter the Vancouver Charter. They were flabbergasted that the Mayor would torpedo the Park Board, which had been elected as he had, and whose board consisted of members of his own party. Some voiced the opinion that the reasons Mayor Sim had floated were canards covering his true motives.

The word on virtually everyone’s lips was “undemocratic.” Speakers had only three minutes to make their points rather than the five minutes granted at public hearings, and  Councillors were not allowed to ask question of speakers — a change that seems part and parcel of the ABC party’s ongoing campaign to remove and minimize citizen input from civic decision-making. The online publication CityHallWatch chronicles the undermining of democracy under the current Council in this Dec. 16 post.

Earlier in the week, current Park Board Commissioners had been informed of their fate in a rushed meeting with Sim that was shorter than the time handed out to Canucks guilty of high sticking. Despite the outcry, ABC Councillors supported the plan in an 8-3 vote.

Green Party Councillors Pete Fry and Adriane Carr voted against the motion, as did One City Cllr. Christine Boyle. Boyle was doing some early campaigning at the meeting, sending out a blanket response to those who wrote to her criticizing Sim’s motion. It read, in part:

Over the past year Mayor Sim has unfortunately done little to improve coordination between Council and the Park Board, or to actually solve the issues facing it. Not enough to justify the current proposal to abolish it. And there’s been almost no consultation with current or past Park Commissioners, Community Centre Associations, park users and sports leagues, students whose schools are near parks, or the many other community groups who rely on these spaces, on the sudden and significant change his motion proposes.

The attack on the Park Board and its elected leadership was so counter to democracy that some veteran politicians who thought they had seen the most flagrant fouls in Victoria and Ottawa were taken aback, and angered enough to return to City Hall for the Council meeting. Former MP and ex-COPE Party Councillor Libby Davies, said she was shocked by Sim’s motion. “You are betraying the public trust,” Davies told the Mayor. Davies said that during her 31-year political career she had “seen a lot of things, but this [Sim’s motion] takes the cake.” She then accused the Mayor of abusing his power, asking why communities weren’t consulted on the plan, then charged the Mayor with running the city in “backdoor” meetings with his “developer buddies.”

Other comments heard during the meeting:

“I had repeatedly raised the question to the previous Council about the democratic deficit that exists in our City Council, but I never expected the new Council to eliminate the democratically elected Park Board. That’s simply unbelievable,” said long-time political critic and former candidate for TEAM Vancouver, Bill Tieleman. He added that Council’s “only saving grace” would be to request a binding public referendum on the matter.

Former Park Board Commissioner Laura McDiarmid called the Vancouver Park Board “world class,” and told Council, “If you fund the Park Board and work together, I guarantee you will make inroads.”

Ex-Park Board Commissioner John Coupar tweeted this on X:
“This is a disgraceful attack on democracy@KenSimCity and Council ABC colleagues have abandoned democracy. The complete lack of consultation and rush to eliminate@ParkBoard without a plan is a stain on our great City and you will be judged by history as failing democracy.”

Former Green City Councillor Michael Wiebe told Council that he had a “pounding heart” while speaking to Council from the podium. “We all want beautiful parks,” said Wiebe…but this is not the way.”

Another former City Councillor, Colleen Hardwick, said, “the suggestion that a centralized bureaucracy will more efficiently manage the Parks department “smacks of empire building and centralized power and control. Abolishing the Park Board would make it easier for the City to dispose of Park Board property, and believe me, land is at the meat of this matter,” she said. The Park Board, she continued, “should be left intact, along with its ability to protect its land from the circling predators who threaten our precious parkland.” Hardwick added that the Council is looking for more ways of cutting costs, and that the Park Board drama is a distraction from the fact that the City’s current budget is going to need major surgery to recover, even with steep property tax hikes.

Park Board Commissioner Tom Digby called Sim’s motion “a giant real estate coup d’état.” Bill McCreery, former Park Board Commissioner (1972-74) asked Council, “Where’s the proof ?[that millions of dollars would be saved under City Council leadership of the parks]. McCreery wondered if the motion was more about a “cheap land-grab.” Another past Park Board Commissioner, Allan DeGenova, echoed McCreery, calling Sim’s motion “a shameless power grab.”

During Council debate Cllr. Pete Fry complained about the current Council’s decision-making processes, which he predicted would continue to be set in “backroom closed meetings where no one will hear our [non-ABC Councillors’]soulful laments for democracy and good processes, like  a Dante circle of hell.” The Green Councillor called Sim’s move “a real turkey of a motion” with no substance…just “fluff,” adding that Sim had promised at the beginning of his term to use evidence-based decision making. “This is not-evidence based. It is pure politics.”

Fry slammed Sim for turning his back on his own ABC Park Board commissioners, and added that denying the public any further opportunity to engage in the motion had a “bad look.” I’m certainly and unequivocally voting a big fat no on this.”

The last word:

In Vancouver this week, Premier David Eby said that he is now waiting for the City to put together a transition plan that includes consultations with First Nation groups and spells out the future of current staff and park facilities.

Cllr. Boyle’s amendment to include the MST nations (Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations) in the plan was defeated by ABC, with one member calling it “frivolous” and “out of order.” However, Premier Eby has said, “There are significant First Nations engagement requirements any time you’re talking about governance transitions like this in our province.”

Photo above: Stanley Park Seawall, 1930. City of Vancouver.