'Deliberate pattern’: Vancouver mayor looks to remove opposition councillors from acting, deputy mayor roles

Two Vancouver city councillors are questioning why they’ve been ousted from city appointed roles.

A report from Mayor Ken Sim, titled “Appointments of Council Representatives,” shows opposition councillors removed from holding acting, deputy and duty mayoral roles.

Green party Coun. Pete Fry, along with Green Coun. Adriane Carr will no longer serve in these roles. OneCity Coun. Christine Boyle's name was also removed from the roster before she was elected as an MLA last weekend.

Only councillors who are part of Sim's ABC Party, which has a majority on council, will fill these roles.

Fry described the move as concerning – but unsurprising.

“It's further entrenching this highly partisan kind of toxic political environment that's coming out of the mayor's office that is totally inappropriate for local governing,” Fry said.

CTV News asked for an interview with the mayor, but was granted an interview with his chief of staff, Trevor Ford, instead.

Trevor Ford, the mayor’s chief of staff, told CTV News it was a standard decision given where Sim is in his tenure.

“We're at the halfway mark,” he said. “People wanted a bit of a change-up. That was really the point of it, to basically move things around,” he said.

A coincidence?

Fry and Carr aren’t sure it can be chalked up to routine. Both councillors have previously and vocally criticized Sim and his ABC-majority council, including for their efforts to things abolish the elected park board and attempts to limit the scope of the city’s Integrity Commissioner.

“It seems like an awfully big coincidence,” Fry said. “I would like some answers from the mayor about what inspired his decision, because I've yet to hear any kind of cogent explanation. And it seems to be a rather deliberate pattern.”

Fry said the decision also has financial consequences, noting that the roles are paid and typically held by all councillors on a rotating basis.

This will mean a $10,000 to $12,000 hit on my paycheck. Even more for Coun. Carr. It's certainly not about the money to me, but I would hate to think that it's being utilized as a punitive measure.”

Ford said one of the reasons for only having ABC councillors fill-in for the acting, deputy and duty mayoral roles was because of people’s expectations.

“It's a natural inclination for people who are inviting Ken to whatever event, you know, if he can't make it, to have someone who's aligned with him showing up,” he said. “We've heard multiple times people express surprise that, you have an opposition councillor show up.”

Fry said he’s never heard that.

“I think most people aren't even really aware of who's who in the in the zoo,” he said. “I think this is just really just a pretense to for the mayor's office to eliminate non-ABC councillors from any kind of public engagement for whatever political reasons.”

Shifts to Metro Vancouver Board

Carr has also been removed from her role on the board of the Metro Vancouver regional district and replaced with ABC's Peter Meiszner.

Ford insists the changes were “to make room for other people.”

“There were two councillors who both wanted to be more involved in Metro Vancouver,” he said. “We spent the first two years having Coun. Carr as part of that. We felt it was time to do a little switch to have someone who wanted more time there.”

Carr challenges that, saying she did spend a lot of time there.

“I mean, if somebody else wants to, so be it,” she said. “But, you know, I certainly do.”

Carr said she was disappointed learning she’d been removed from her previous positions.

“When I was first elected in 2011, a long time ago, taking on that role of being deputy mayor, representing the city, it was such an incredibly exciting thing to do and such a great opportunity to get to know the city,” she said. “So, yeah. It's disappointing.”

Both Carr and Fry say a similar situation occurred under Vision Vancouver where only one person was appointed to the play the role of deputy mayor, and duty mayor.

The report will be discussed Wednesday.