VANCOUVER, Sept. 23, 2024 – TEAM for a Livable Vancouver unequivocally supports a motion aimed at revitalizing and preserving Vancouver’s Park Board as an elected body, and hopes for a strong turnout of speakers in favour of its survival.
The Board meets tonight at 6:30 pm to hear speakers, and to debate and vote on Park Board Chair Brennan Bastyovanszky’s motion opposing ABC Mayor Ken Sim’s move to eliminate the elected Park Board and bring all of its duties, functions and responsibilities under Vancouver City Council’s control.
Sim’s move is hypocritical and undemocratic, and threatens the survival of public green space. During his 2022 mayoral campaign, Sim promised to improve and keep the Park Board – not abolish it. His sudden announcement last December that he’d eliminate it surprised even the six ABC commissioners. Three of them left the party and now sit as independents.
TEAM’s primary concern is that Sim’s pro-development council will hand over many of the city’s green spaces for development. The elected Park Board was created in 1890 to ensure that parkland would be preserved and expanded for the enjoyment of residents in a growing city. Abolishing it now would put much of that land at risk. Many Vancouverites are unaware of the “undesignated” (i.e. not “permanent”) status of some popular parks such as Vanier, David Lam and Charleson, and other park sites that don’t even have names.
It is also completely undemocratic for one elected body to arbitrarily eliminate another elected body mid-term, with no mandate or input from the voters. This action disenfranchises all those citizens who cast ballots for Park Board representatives in good faith in the 2022 election.
TEAM supports Bastyovanszky’s motion that the Park Board should remain “a democratically elected board, directly accountable to the people of Vancouver,” and that it should work toward revitalization for the future. This would include a new funding formula with the city; an improved facilities maintenance and operations management structure; reclassification of “temporary” parks to “permanent” ones, and financial and operational Park Board independence.
TEAM urges all members of the public concerned about the future of Vancouver’s parks and recreation facilities to attend tonight’s meeting to show their support for the elected Park Board.
Undesignated parks and green spaces. Source: CityHallWatch
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