The chair of the Vancouver Park Board is defending a “gag order” that instructs park staff not to cooperate with a transition team formed to abolish the elected board.
Internal city documents obtained by Global News earlier this week outline the progress of work to hand over parks management to the City Council, noting planning difficulties stemming from the administration’s instruction to parks staff not to cooperate in the process.
On Thursday, Parks Committee Chairman Brennan Bastyovanszky said the order was justified because the city still does not have the legal authority to abolish the committee.
“The reason they are not wasting time and money on the transition plan is because there has been no change in the law, there hasn’t been, and they should wait, and the city should wait, until this plan is considered,” he said.
“Instead, they would have to conduct a public consultation. They haven’t done one. There are no citizen groups or park user groups that have spoken in favor of it.”
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Premier David Eby said the province is “committed” to working with the city on changes to Vancouver’s charter to allow the dissolution of the parks board, but only after the provincial election.
British Columbia’s Conservatives have spoken out against the dissolution.
However, Bastyovanszky argued that the province’s commitment to the plan depends on the city submitting a transition plan, which it has not done so far.
He said Mayor Ken Sim has not yet provided evidence of cost savings from dissolving the board, adding that city and parks staff have long been integrated.
“They work together on everything,” he said.
The city’s progress report highlighted areas where there was overlap between parks and city staff, such as green space and tree maintenance, street planning and maintenance, and seawall maintenance.
It pointed to a possible long-term integration of plaza management, enforcement of bylaws and operation of bike sharing and e-scooter programs.
ABC State Councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung told Global News earlier this week that avoiding duplication in these areas would save money that could be reinvested in parks.
“At the moment you need two different legal agreements and two different statutes to regulate this,” she said. “It has to go to two different places, which costs unnecessary time and money.”
The city’s parks transition team is expected to release a more comprehensive report on its plans in November, including recommendations on how the public could be involved in park-related issues if they were placed under the jurisdiction of the city council.
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
