Sim vows to abolish park board if elected
Vancouver mayoral candidate says decision to sell aquarium `straw that broke the camel's back'
Vancouver mayoral candidate Ken Sim unveiled what he called his “first policy commitment” for an election still a year-and-a-half away: abolish the park board.
Ending Vancouver's seven-member park board — the only elected body of its kind in a Canadian city — isn't actually within a mayor's power, but some observers described Sim's announcement as a shot at one of his rivals for next year's election.
In his announcement Friday, Sim cited the previous day's news about the park board approving the transfer of the Vancouver Aquarium licence agreement to Georgia-based entertainment company Herschend Enterprises.
Sim blasted “elected officials who either did not — or could not — succeed in securing the necessary funding from higher levels of government to protect a treasure at the heart of Vancouver's greatest park.”
“If I become the mayor of our city, my goal is to make sure that the next park board will be the last elected park board,” he said, adding the board should be “rolled under the umbrella of city council.”
Reached by phone, Sim said he has heard many Vancouverites' concerns involving the elected park board commissioners, including their handling of tent cities in Strathcona and Oppenheimer parks, and Thursday's aquarium announcement was “the straw that broke the camel's back.”
Such a move would be outside the power of a mayor and council, said Nathalie Baker, a municipal lawyer with Vancouver firm Eyford Partners. “The abolition of the board would require an amendment to the Vancouver Charter and would therefore be a decision for the (province).”
Sim said that, if elected, he would try to petition the B.C. government for the necessary changes to the charter.
Sim's announcement didn't mention any park commissioners by name, but former longtime Vancouver councillor Gordon Price, writing on his website Price Tags, observed: “It is no coincidence that Sim's first major policy statement (effectively responding to the criticism that he hasn't any) takes dead aim at the primary identity of John Coupar, longtime park commissioner, a board chair, proudest of his support for the Bloedel Conservatory in Queen Elizabeth Park, and even his opposition to bikeways in parks.”
Coupar, a third-term park board commissioner representing Sim's former party, the Non-Partisan Association, was announced earlier this month as the NPA's 2022 mayoral nominee.
Coupar said Sim's “kneejerk” pledge to end the park board “shows his complete lack of understanding of how the city works.”
“That's like saying if you're not happy with a council decision, you should abolish council,” Coupar said. “It's
That's like saying if you're not happy with a council decision, you should abolish council.
Park board member John Coupar
just crazy.
“I certainly will defend the park board, even though I've been opposed to some of the decisions they've made recently, and I'm on record and I've voted that way. But, at the same time, the institution itself is really important to the fabric of Vancouver.”
Coupar said he couldn't disclose how he voted on the board's in-camera decision on the aquarium transfer, but said: “The alternative would have been the closure of the aquarium, and that wouldn't have been a good thing.”