Tag Archives: park board

#SaveOurParkBoard | APG | Community Demands Park Board Preservation

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The Association Presidents Group (APG) representing 17 community centre associations across the City of Vancouver, released a statement yesterday evening strongly urging Premier David Eby to “reconsider his commitment to proceeding with the elimination of the Vancouver Park Board” following his decision this week.

The B.C. NDP government said it was committed to “advancing the dissolution of the Vancouver Park Board” in the next legislative session following the Vancouver Mayor’s plan to remove the Board last December, saying it was inefficient and costly. The plan has also gained the support of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations.

However, the APG says Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim’s decision is “undemocratic.”

“We do not believe 8 City Councillors can decide to abolish the Park Board elected by thousands of Vancouver citizens in October 2022,” it said, in the press release, which may be found below.

“We believe the Park Board can only be removed after a civic election in October 2026, and only if Vancouver citizens have made that choice. Neither the City nor the Province have a mandate to remove the Park Board.”

The Association Presidents Group (APG) says ABC Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim’s motion to eliminate the Vancouver Park Board was announced and passed in a week without any engagement with the APG organization and other key stakeholders.

“There was no transition plan to demonstrate the alleged benefits of such a decision. The reasons announced have been questioned by many stakeholders including dozens of former Park Board Commissioners and Community Centre Associations,” said representatives with the Association Presidents Group.

Vancouver’s independent and elected Board of Parks and Recreation has served Vancouver for over 135 years. Vancouver is the only city in Canada with an elected Park Board and is the only city in North America other than Minneapolis to place its focus on growing a vibrant parks and recreation system as a constituent element to the citizens served by the municipal governments in both cities — up until the untoward December 13, 2023 decision by Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim and his super majority team of ABC Vancouver City Councillors.

Preservation of the Vancouver Park Board to Become an Election Issue

Make no mistake, representatives from all across the city and from all 17 of the community centre associations — as well as those persons in our community in support of the 32 past Vancouver Park Board Commissioners who are opposed to the undemocratic elimination of the Vancouver Park Board — will be front and centre at each of the all candidate meetings, in each of the 12 Vancouver electoral districts, in the days and weeks following the dropping of the writ this upcoming mid-September, and the 35 intense days before the October 19th provincial election, to demand the candidates for election on the stage, whatever their political party, commit to the preservation of an independent, elected Vancouver Park Board.

Press Release Issued March 10, 2024 by the Association Presidents Group

The Association Presidents Group (APG), representing 17 Community Centre Associations across the City of Vancouver, is urging Premier David Eby to reconsider his commitment to proceeding with the elimination of the Vancouver Park Board in the next legislative session.

The APG believes Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim’s attempt to abolish the elected Vancouver Park Board is undemocratic.

We do not believe 8 City Councillors can decide to abolish the Park Board elected by thousands of Vancouver citizens in October 2022. We believe the Park Board can only be removed after a civic election in October 2026, and only if Vancouver citizens have made that choice.

Neither the City nor the Province have a mandate to remove the Park Board.

Mayor Sim’s motion was announced and then passed within one week without any engagement with the Community Centre Associations and other key stakeholders. There was no transition plan to demonstrate the alleged benefits of such a decision. The reasons announced have been questioned by many stakeholders, including dozens of former Park Board Commissioners and Community Centre Associations.

The elected Park Board has served Vancouver well for over 130 years.

Voters created an elected Park Board because they wanted parks and recreation to be a high-profile priority in Vancouver. Commissioners run for office because they are passionate about protecting and expanding our parks and recreation programmes. It is their priority concern and responsibility.

The Mayor’s proposal would have Commissioners replaced by City Councillors who have a multitude of responsibilities resulting in a less responsive and effective working relationship for community stakeholders. City parks and recreation will not be the first priority for City Councillors.

The APG rejects the Mayor’s claim that the Park Board is broken.

We believe it has been critically underfunded by City Council for several decades.

Many of the examples cited by the Mayor for the elimination of the Park Board are in fact already the City of Vancouver’s responsibility. They own and maintain the buildings and infrastructure in the Park Board system.

For example, Park Board frequently recommends renewal and expansion of Community Centres for additional space to accommodate children’s programmes but it is City Councillors who decide on the funding. Parents complain that programme spaces for their children are inadequate. Those concerns should be directed to City Hall.

The APG will continue to urge MLAs to not proceed with the Charter amendments to remove the elected Park Board.

A decision to eliminate the elected Park Board must be determined democratically in the next municipal election if it remains part of the ABC platform. Let the voters of Vancouver make such an important decision.

Sign the APG Petition asking the Premier not to eliminate Park Board.

For more information please contact either of the following APG members:

(copy and paste either or both of the following e-mail addresses into your e-mail programme)

Jerry Fast <jerryfast@shaw.ca>

Kathleen Bigsby <kmbigsby@gmail.com>

#VanPoli | The Parlous State of Politics in Our Little Burgh by the Sea

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Sam Sullivan, one-term Mayor of Vancouver, 2005 – 2008

On Friday, June 29, 2006, without prior notice, Non-Partisan Association Mayor of Vancouver Sam Sullivan fired all the members of the Board of Variance.

The announcement firing all five members of the Board was made late on the Friday afternoon, in a press release emanating from the Mayor’s office.

The decision to fire the five members of the Board of Variance was contrary to the advice of former Non-Partisan Association Councillor George Puil, who the Mayor and NPA Councillor Peter Ladner had called in to “investigate” the Board, with Mr. Puil reporting back following his exhaustive six month investigation of the Board.

In his report to the Mayor and Councillor Ladner, Mr. Puil told Mayor Sam Sullivan and Councillor Peter Ladner that he had found no wrong-doing on the part of the Board of Variance members and, in fact, in his discussion with dozens of citizens of the community who had appeared before the Board with their appeal of a decision of the City of Vancouver’s Development Services and Planning Departments — citizens ranging from homeowners and members of the community, to developers — they had found the Board to be a fair and thoughftul body, adjudicating the appeals that were brought before the Board with a seriousness of purpose and intent.

Mr. Puil strongly advised Mayor Sullivan and Mr. Ladner against firing the Board.

“Let them finish out their term,” Mr. Puil advised. “The terms of Board members Terry Martin and Jan Pierce will end later this year or early next, with Raymond Tomlin’s term to be completed not too long after, with Quincey Kirschner and Tony Tang’s tenure on the Board to be completed before the next election.

Allow the current members of the Board of Variance to finish out their terms,” Mr. Puil intoned, “and replace them with stalwart members of the NPA to three-year terms on the Board, and should Vision Vancouver gain victory at the polls in 2008, our people will be in place on the Board, which means, we win.“


Peter Ladner, Non-Partisan Association Vancouver City Councillor, 2008, NPA Mayoralty candidate

NPA Councillor Peter Ladner maintained the members of the Board were fired because they had “refused to bring legal and administrative spending under control,” to which accusation fired Board Chairperson Terry Martin responded …

“Legal and administrative fees were never discussed with city officials. In fact, the Board had cut its administrative costs by $8,500,” said Mr. Martin, in an interview with CBC Vancouver.

At 6pm on the Friday evening, each of four of the members of the Board of Variance — Terry Martin, Jan Pierce, Raymond Tomlin and Tony Tang — received a hand-delivered letter from the City advising them of the termination of their work on the City’s Board of Variance. Board member Quincey Kirschner (pictured above), 27, had moved recently, and did not receive the letter of termination. Ms. Kirschner was otherwise unavailable on the Friday night. Raymond Tomlin was assigned the task of calling Ms. Kirschner on Saturday morning to advise her of the termination of her work on the Board of Variance.

When contacted on the Saturday morning at 9 a.m., still in bed and groggy, after a night out on the town, Ms. Kirschner was informed by Mr. Tomlin of her “sacking” (as it was referred to in the press).

Ms. Kirschner cried for an extended period of time, and was inconsolable.

Ms. Kirschner had poured her life blood, her passion, her integrity and immense dedication into her work on Vancouver’s Board of Variance, following her appointment as a Board member in late 2005, spending hours each week pouring over the six-inch thick binders Board members received each Thursday or Friday afternoon, and informing herself of the intricacies of development, planning, zoning and community consultation on planning and development and decisions.

Background and history. In the 1950s, by an order of the U.S. and Canadian Supreme Courts, Boards of Variance were created in all communities across the North American continent, communites with 10,000 or more citizens, as independent, lay bodies, protective of and advocates for the community interest, these lay bodies responsible for overseeing all development in the city that did not conform with City zoning bylaws, or in the case of new construction were overheight, lacked the property frontage, where shadowing impinged on a neighbour’s property, or were not otherwise outright approvals of the City’s Planning and Development Services departments — ranging from simple home renovations, to the construction of high-rise towers in their communities, the Board of Variance responsible for hearing appeals from the public on all such related matters.

The arrogance displayed by Mayor Sam Sullivan in his unprecented firing of the members of the Board of Variance, and other matters of misjudgment eventually led to internal dissension in the majority Non-Partisan Association caucus on Vancouver City Council, which in 2008 resulted in Mr. Sullivan being denied the opportunity  to run for re-election that year. Councillor Peter Ladner was chosen as the Non-Partisan Association Mayoral candidate, instead, in 2008.

On November 15, 2008, the Non-Partisan Association was all but wiped out at the polls, losing the Mayor’s chair and four seats on Council, losing to novice Vision Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson by nearly 20,000 votes, Vision Vancouver securing seven Council seats, giving the party a “super majority” on Vancouver City Council, allowing them to pass budgets and conduct the affairs of government without input from the three-member (two COPE, David Cadman, and Ellen Woodsworth; one NPA, Suzanne Anton) opposition on Vancouver City Council.

There is a correlation between one-term Non-Partisan Association Mayor Sam Sullivan, and current and certain-to-be one -term ABC Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim, a topic VanRamblings will explore in depth this upcoming Monday, February 12th.

#SaveOurParkBoard | The Saga of the Abolition of Vancouver’s Elected Park Board Continues

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Despair reigns across our land, as the inexorable move towards the dissolution of an independent, elected Park Board proceeds relentlessly, calamitously forward.

In today’s VanRamblings post, we’ll attempt to reason why Mayor Ken Sim and his super majority ABC Vancouver team of City Councillors arrived at the decision to eliminate the 133-year-old Vancouver Park Board, the role the administration of the David Eby government will play, why the provincial government supports the seemingly arbitrary initiative of the Mayor, and why we believe that it is inevitable that in months, Vancouver’s beloved, elected Park Board will fade into history.

On an episode of the Air Quotes Media podcast, Hotel Pacifico, that aired just before Christmas, former Vancouver City Councillor / Chief of Staff to Premier John Horgan , Geoff Meggs, posited that the move to abolish the Vancouver Park Board was part of a dastardly plot by B.C. United Party leader Kevin Falcon.

Apparently, Mr. Falcon had convinced the Mayor and his ABC Vancouver Councillors — all of whom are members and supporters of B.C. United — that a move to eliminate the elected Park Board would create discord within David Eby’s New Democratic Party caucus, heading into this year’s October 19th provincial election.



Vancouver’s 9 duly-elected New Democrat Party Members of the Legislature in Victoria

Given the likelihood many in the NDP caucus would be opposed to the Mayor’s initiative to have the provincial government amend the Vancouver Charter to allow the dissolution of an elected Park Board — a move that could jeopardize the re-election chances of many of the New Democratic Party government’s Vancouver-based members of the legislature — working hand in hand, Kevin Falcon and Ken Sim devised a plan to turn the tables on the re-election chances of Vancouver’s NDP MLA’s, which very much includes Premier David Eby himself, who is in his 11th year as the elected representative in the riding of Vancouver Point Grey.


Geoff Meggs, Vancouver City Councillor 2008 – 2017 | Chief of Staff to Premier John Horgan, 2017 – 2022

Alas. As much as VanRamblings enjoys a good conspiracy theory, in point of fact, privately, Mr. Meggs was telling his intimates that he had proposed the Kevin Falcon “theory” arising from his concern that, given the polling that has the NDP riding high in the polls and seemingly undefeatable, he is concerned that NDP supporters very well may not volunteer at their MLA’s campaign offices once the writ is dropped this upcoming September, and further that New Democratic Party voters will stay home, and not vote at the advance polls or cast a ballot on election day.

Every vote counts. New Democratic Party supporters will have to work as hard as ever in the lead up to, and during the course of British Columbia’s 43rd provincial election, if we wish to ensure the re-election of the David Eby NDP government.


Mayor Ken Sim announces Park Board transition working group

The story of the decision of the Ken Sim-led majority ABC Vancouver administration to eliminate Vancouver’s independent, elected Park Board goes back to March of last year, when Premier David Eby made a proposal to Vancouver’s Mayor to move B.C. Place from its current home adjacent to Rogers Arena to Hastings Park.

While it is true that David Eby has stated that it is probable his government will spend between $300 and $400 million dollars on a renovation of B.C. Place to meet the requirements of the bodies bringing the Invictus Games to British Columbia in 2025, and the FIFA World Cup to Vancouver in 2026, in fact reliable sources have told VanRamblings that the long term plans for B.C. Place involves moving the aging stadium to Hastings Park, over which the City of Vancouver has jurisdiction.

As you might well expect, development and growth — and an expansion of our transit system — is at the heart of the decision by the Premier.

In addition, in eliminating the independent, elected Park Board, ABC Vancouver’s financial backers’ fondest wishes will be realized, as whole tracts of previous park / open green space will be available for development, to build, build, build …

And, of course, the mega-developer Aquilini family is very much involved, as well.

Here’s the plan: a David Eby government would work closely with the members of Vancouver City Council, and the Aquilini development corporation, to redevelop the B.C. Place site where, conceivably, the 7 hectare / 17-acre site would become home to three or more 70-to-95 storey towers in a newly designated “downtown village”, providing more than 3,000 residential condominium units in what will soon become, as planned, the heart of the downtown core of Vancouver.

The monies derived from the sale of the 3,000 luxury condominium units — in which the government would co-develop the B.C. Place site with the Aqualini family, where the completed condominium units would sell for up to $125 million on the top floors, many of the condominium units sold offshore, with the provincial government realizing billions of dollars in profit — would not only pay for the construction of a new stadium on the race track grounds at Hastings Park — a covenant prevents the construction of housing at Hastings Park, but not a sports facility — but for a new light rail system, as well, from Vancouver’s city core, along Hastings, down Renfrew to McGill / Hastings Park,  and over to the North Shore.

ABC Vancouver Mayoral candidate Ken Sim pledged support for a North Shore rapid transit line less than two weeks before the 2022 Vancouver civic election.

Late last year, on October 4, 2023, Vancouver City Council endorsed making a formal request to TransLink’s Mayors’ Council to perform a rapid transit study of Hastings Street between downtown Vancouver and Hastings Park /PNE. Following up on his pre-election pledge to support rapid transit to the North Shore, newly-elected Mayor Ken Sim met with North Shore Mayors last February to re-state and reinforce the pledge he had made during his 2022 campaign to support a long-sought-after rapid transit line to the North Shore.


Park Board transition working group: Catherine Evans, Gregor Young, Jordan Nijjar, Shauna Wilton, Jennifer Wood

The person on the left in the photo above is Catherine Evans, former Library Board Chair, Vision Vancouver Park Board Commissioner, most recently the senior constituency assistant in federal MP Joyce Murray’s Vancouver Quadra office, and although Ms. Evans is a card carrying member of the federal Liberal Party,  provincially she is a staunch supporter of David Eby, and his NDP administration in Victoria.

In the past, Catherine Evans has worked on David’s Eby’s campaigns for office and, in fact, on E-Day, while working in Mr. Eby’s campaign office, has been VanRamblings’ no nonsense Get Out The Vote “boss”.

A story — a digression and and an aside — to help explain why Catherine Evans has joined Mayor Ken Sim’s Park Board Transition Working Group.


George Puil, 14 years as a Park Board Commissioner, then for 26 years, a Vancouver City Councillor

In 2001, B.C. Liberal leader Gordon Campbell won an overwhelming victory at the polls, securing 77 of 79 seats in the Legislature, leaving the NDP with two seats: Joy McPhail in Vancouver Hastings, and Jenny Kwan in Vancouver Mount Pleasant.

As is always the case with a change of government, there are 5,000 or more positions to be filled by the winning party’s supporters, with positions on college and university boards, regulatory authorities, as well as Crown agencies and commissions, and much more. Having retired from his job as an educator at Kitsilano Secondary School, and after 40 years in elected office, Mr. Puil — a man of experience, and a mentor to Gordon Campbell — following his ignominious defeat at the polls in the 2002 Vancouver municipal election, found himself at loose ends.

Within six months of taking office, Premier Gordon Campbell appointed his good friend George Puil to three regulatory bodies in his government, not requiring too much from Mr. Puil in respect of time, certainly much less time than had long been the case when Mr. Puil  sat as a Vancouver City Councillor. Annual compensation for these “out of the public eye” regulatory bodies came in at $250,000, a pretty penny that came in addition to Mr. Puil’s healthy teachers’ pension.

Catherine Evans, one of the loveliest persons of VanRamblings’ acquaintance

As Ms. Evans lives in VanRamblings neighbourhood, we run across one another frequently, and chat volubly and at length about the state of the world, and more often than not federal politics (as it happens, VanRamblings is a Justin Trudeau fan).

If you know David Eby, you know that he likes to have “his people” in place — thus, Ms. Evans’ placement on Mayor Sim’s Park Board transition working group. David Eby wants a close eye kept on the machinations of that contentious Park Board working group.

In our various conversations, Ms. Evans has made it clear — arising from a tragic personal circumstance — that she wants out of politics, has no interest in seeking political office, and would find solace and peace travelling with her husband to various locales across the globe, far away from the political maelstrom.

Why has Catherine Evans joined Mayor Ken Sim’s Park Board transition working group? Quite simply, because her good friend David Eby asked her to.

To know Catherine Evans — who is exceptionally bright, one of the strongest, most principled and hardest working women we know — is to know that her role as a low key change maker for the better is how she brings herself to the world.

Enter David Eby, who should he be re-elected to government in October, will set as a priority the appointment of his confidante Catherine Evans to the provincial bodies of her choice, where she can make a difference, out of the public eye, compensated fairly for her contribution, and for her many many gifts.

The word VanRamblings is hearing out of Victoria is that David Eby will not move forward this spring on the request of ABC Vancouver to amend the Vancouver Charter, to eliminate an independent, elected Vancouver Park Board.

Which means that those of us who love the Vancouver Park Board, live Park Board deep in our soul, and cherish Park Board, although we have our work cut out for us this next year, we may have an outside chance of moving the David Eby government away from making the fatal decision to dissolve the Vancouver Park Board.