Drinking in Vancouver parks: Board considering another pilot project

Glasses of wine in a park. (Shutterstock)

The Vancouver Park Board is considering another pilot project allowing alcohol consumption in city parks, more than three years after it began attempting to tackle the issue.

A motion before the park board at its meeting Monday night calls for directing parks staff to "design and implement a second Alcohol in Parks Pilot for 2022 onwards, with considerations given to the lessons learned from the 2021 experience."

It also asks staff to report back to the board with recommendations for the next steps after a second pilot project.

Drinking in Vancouver parks is technically illegal, though many people do it anyway. The park board has been considering ways to legalize drinking in parks since December 2018.

Spurred by the desire for outdoor socialization options during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the board voted in favour of a first pilot project back in July 2020. 

That pilot didn't take flight until a year later, however, after the provincial government passed legislation to give the park board the authority to choose where booze could be consumed legally in Vancouver. 

A total of 22 parks were included in the project, and designated drinking areas were set up in each of them from July 12 to Oct. 11, 2021.

In December, staff presented results from the pilot project to the park board, saying that feedback from park users had been generally positive and that the vast majority of people drinking in parks had been "respectful." 

The findings noted, however, that "designated drinking areas were not well-defined and the signage available was not very effective in communicating the boundaries."

"Park users didn’t generally abide by designated drinking areas when drinking alcohol on site," the staff presentation reads.

Reflecting this, one of the suggestions staff made was that future pilot projects could apply to entire parks, rather than specific drinking areas.

The presentation also made suggestions for better signage, additional monitoring of pilot sites and improved recycling and waste management.

The park board is scheduled to consider the motion for a new pilot project at its meeting Monday night.