On Thursday morning, the City of Vancouver will provide a key update on its planning process to abolish the elected body of commissioners for the Vancouver Park Board.
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim will hold a press conference outlining the next steps, joined by Deputy City Manager Sandra Singh, Chief Engineer Lon LaClaire, Chief Strategy Officer Ben Pollard, Musqueam Nation Chief Wayne Sparrow, and Squamish Nation Council Chairperson Khelsilem.
Thursday’s press conference will be the first planning progress update in 10 months on the push by the City to transfer the oversight and governance responsibilities of Vancouver’s parks and recreation system to the Mayor and Vancouver City Council, and integrate parks and recreation operations into City operations.
Albeit controversial, there appears to be growing momentum for the move that was first proposed by the Mayor in early December 2023.
In March 2024, all three local First Nations — Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh — jointly publicly announced their support for Sim’s plan, provided that the Vancouver Charter be also amended to align with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the requirements of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act.
Four days after the First Nations issued their open letter of support, Premier David Eby announced the provincial government would follow the City’s request and move to amend legislation relating to the Vancouver Charter to abolish the Park Board’s elected body after the provincial election, which saw the BC NDP re-elected with a majority government.
Under the newly formed provincial cabinet, the Premier now holds the duties, powers, and functions previously held by the BC minister of municipal affairs when it comes to strategic relations and consultations with local governments, local government organizations, and others. Legislation to abolish the Park Board is expected to be introduced in the upcoming legislative session.
Ahead of Thursday’s press conference, City staff released a progress report outlining in detail their planning progress and developed strategy to date for proceeding with the transfer. They noted that no further planning toward finalizing implementation can be completed, as Park Board staff have been banned from engaging with City staff about the transition.
To date, Sim has expended significant political capital toward his plan to disband the Park Board’s elected commissioners, including losing ABC’s majority hold of the body after three commissioners, originally elected under ABC, became independents nearly one year ago. The new majority makeup of non-ABC commissioners opposed to the abolition subsequently approved a motion directing Park Board staff to not participate in the transition.
According to City staff’s report, the abolition, transition, and initial integration could produce combined total cost savings of roughly $7 million per year. This figure is equivalent to 4% of the Park Board’s 2024 operating budget of about $169 million.
Initial operational integration could result in savings of $1.8 million to $3.3 million per year, including $1.5 million to $3 million in staffing savings and $280,000 in costs related to the elected board. There could also be infrastructure planning and construction cost savings of about $15 million for every four-year capital plan cycle, with savings coming from the duplication of planning and approval processes.
With the changes, there would be consistent policies on similar issues, instead of the current approach of the City and Park Board challenged with incompatible or conflicting policies, which results in “suboptimal policy outcomes” and confusion, both for internal operations and for stakeholders and the general public. It would also reduce the duplication of staff and teams working on the same policy topics, and create economies of scale in some functions. Furthermore, the integration into a single governance model would enable the municipal government to “think more holistically about approaches.”
Some steps City Council would have to take relating to the initial transition include repealing or amending up to 18 existing by-laws that reference the Park Board. As well, City staff would recommend City Council to approve its own by-laws for overseeing and governing the parks and recreation system.
For example, the public meeting agendas of Park Board commissioners often include items such as considering commercial operation permits on parklands, including special events. Earlier this month, Park Board commissioners debated and approved the application to host the World Triathlon-sanctioned T100 Vancouver Multisport Festival — a triathlon event in June 2025 at Jericho Beach, Locarno Beach, and other nearby areas, with up to 12,000 participants. In contrast, unless there were a City funding request, a similar application for an event on municipal jurisdiction (non-parklands) would currently be typically processed by City staff, not considered by City Council.
“Generally, the Park Board is more involved in operational approvals than Council is with similar matters within the City (e.g., individual permit approvals),” reads the report.
“Aligning the authorities delegated to the General Manager of parks and recreation services with the level of authority delegated to other General Managers would enable the parks and recreation department to work more nimbly and with greater public responsiveness and lower staff workload, within a policy framework set by Council.”
City staff have repeatedly noted that the City already holds the position of being the insurer for the Park Board, the employer of all Park Board workers (including the contracts with unions), and the owner of all Park Board assets.
Furthermore, City Council also already holds the fiduciary responsibility of reviewing and providing the final approval needed for the Park Board’s requested annual operational budget, capital budget, and procurement contracts worth over $2 million.
Nearly all municipal governments, especially those of large cities, in Canada and the United States have the Mayor and City Councillors overseeing parks and recreation governance responsibilities. Other than Vancouver, the only other major exception is Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Daily Hive Urbanized will provide coverage of Thursday’s press conference.