Vancouver passes motion to ask province to amend charter, remove elected Park Board

Vancouver’s municipal council has passed a motion aimed at removing the city’s elected Park Board.

At a meeting last night, council passed a motion by Mayor Ken Sim to ask the province to amend the Vancouver Charter in order to abolish the Park Board.

The vote passed along party lines, with Sim and all seven ABC Vancouver councillors voting in favour of the motion.

Sim said previously while announcing the motion that the removal of the Park Board — the only one of its kind among Canadian cities — was “long overdue” since the system was “broken.”

Three councillors — Green Party’s Adriane Carr and Pete Fry, as well as OneCity’s Christine Boyle — voted against the motion.

Boyle said in the post on social media platform X after the vote that the result was “disrespectful and undemocratic” and called the process a “ramming forward” of a move that ABC did not campaign on during last year’s municipal election.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 14, 2023.

The Canadian Press