TEAM FOR A LIVABLE VANCOUVER SAYS PARK BOARD REFERENDUM SHOULD BE HELD DURING THE 2026 CIVIC ELECTION
- salrobinson6
- Oct 9
- 2 min read
VANCOUVER (Oct. 9) — TEAM for a Livable Vancouver says a referendum on the future of the Park Board should be held during the 2026 civic election – not as a costly standalone plebiscite.
This comes after Housing and Municipal Affairs Minister Christine Boyle announced Thursday that Vancouver must hold a vote on whether the Park Board should be abolished. Boyle says City Council will decide the timing of the vote.
TEAM believes as many residents as possible should be asked to weigh in on an issue as important as this. The best way to ensure that is to hold the referendum during the 2026 civic election.
“If it were a standalone vote, the cost would be ridiculously expensive and the turnout minuscule,” says former TEAM City Councillor Colleen Hardwick. “The 2025 by-election cost $1.6 million. How does something similar square with a zero percent tax increase next year?”
Even a mail referendum would have a significant cost. With 450,000 registered voters, TEAM estimates it would cost at least half a million dollars to mail out ballots. Counting and verifying them could bring the total bill to over $1 million.
TEAM has long stood in favour of our elected Park Board and against the current Council’s attempt to eliminate it. Having City Council manage our parks puts some 90 “undesignated” parks at risk of being sold to developers. Our parks belong to the residents of Vancouver, not lobbyists bent on redeveloping them. And the City’s Real Estate, Environment and Facilities Management (REFM) department has a dismal record of managing recreational facilities, according to a recent report by Independent Auditor General Mike Macdonell.
The Board was formed 136 years ago to protect Stanley Park from developers. There is no logical reason to rush to dissolve it so that our public parks become “assets” of the City’s REFM department with no oversight from the elected body whose commitment over decades resulted in their existence -- often after a battle with the City Council of the day.
With all the recent moves by this lobbyist-friendly Council to sidestep democratic participation, including approval of mass rezoning of 4,293 properties across Vancouver, can we trust that any attempt to bypass citizens with a pre-election ballot has any other goal than to forward the interests of developers in our parks?
Media contact: Steve McClure
672-514-7819