Vancouver Park Board votes in favour of hiring legal counsel to review mayor's dissolution plan
The Vancouver Park Board voted in favour Monday night of seeking legal counsel amid the mayor's efforts to eliminate it.
The motion, which was brought forward by park board commissioner Tom Digby, passed with a 4-3 vote. It allocates $20,000 for legal advice on "the merits and probability of success of quashing via judicial review" the mayor's plan to dissolve the elected board.
"Green/Indy caucus, respecting 170,000 voters in last election, votes to fight mayor's anti-democratic motion to abolish mid-term," Digby wrote on social media after the vote, tagging Mayor Ken Sim and Premier David Eby.
After the 2022 election, Sim's ABC Party held a majority on the park board. However, that changed when he announced his plans to move forward with a plan to eliminate it. Now, Digby and three former ABC commissioners – sitting as independents – constitute the majority.
In order to abolish the board, the province would need to amend the Vancouver Charter. Nevertheless, Sim has already announced a transition team tasked with overseeing the board's dissolution.
"It is important for clear and transparent information to be presented to this board to guide our direction in light of the mayor's undemocratic move to disenfranchise thousands of Vancouverites," park board commissioner Scott Jensen, who voted in favour of the motion, wrote on social media.
Commissioners Brennan Bastyovanszky and Laura Christensen also voted to pass Digby's motion.
Ahead of Monday night's board meeting, Sim discussed the motion during an interview on CTV Morning Live saying, "at the end of the day, people can do whatever they want to do."
"What we're focused on is making sure our parks are vibrant, they're protected and they actually grow over the next hundred years," Sim said, claiming the park board's structure is "not fixable."
"We do have a group of vocal, passionate individuals who believe that the status quo works but what I share with everyone is what got us here doesn't necessarily get us to the next stage … I can tell you the parks system, it needs some help."
With files from CTV News Vancouver's Lisa Steacy and Ben Miljure
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
From essential goods to common stocking stuffers, Trudeau offering Canadians temporary tax relief
Canadians will soon receive a temporary tax break on several items, along with a one-time $250 rebate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Thursday.
She thought her children just had a cough or fever. A mother shares sons' experience with walking pneumonia
A mother shares with CTVNews.ca her family's health scare as medical experts say cases of the disease and other respiratory illnesses have surged, filling up emergency departments nationwide.
Trump chooses Pam Bondi for attorney general pick after Gaetz withdraws
U.S. president-elect Donald Trump on Thursday named Pam Bondi, the former attorney general of Florida, to be U.S. attorney general just hours after his other choice, Matt Gaetz, withdrew his name from consideration.
A one-of-a-kind Royal Canadian Mint coin sells for more than $1.5M
A rare one-of-a-kind pure gold coin from the Royal Canadian Mint has sold for more than $1.5 million. The 99.99 per cent pure gold coin, named 'The Dance Screen (The Scream Too),' weighs a whopping 10 kilograms and surpassed the previous record for a coin offered at an auction in Canada.
Putin says Russia attacked Ukraine with a new missile that he claims the West can't stop
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Thursday that Moscow has tested a new intermediate-range missile in a strike on Ukraine, and he warned that it could use the weapon against countries that have allowed Kyiv to use their missiles to strike Russia.
Here's a list of items that will be GST/HST-free over the holidays
Canadians won't have to pay GST on a selection of items this holiday season, the prime minister vowed on Thursday.
Video shows octopus 'hanging on for dear life' during bomb cyclone off B.C. coast
Humans weren’t the only ones who struggled through the bomb cyclone that formed off the B.C. coast this week, bringing intense winds and choppy seas.
Taylor Swift's motorcade spotted along Toronto's Gardiner Expressway
Taylor Swift is officially back in Toronto for round two. The popstar princess's motorcade was seen driving along the Gardiner Expressway on Thursday afternoon, making its way to the downtown core ahead of night four of ‘The Eras Tour’ at the Rogers Centre.
Service Canada holding back 85K passports amid Canada Post mail strike
Approximately 85,000 new passports are being held back by Service Canada, which stopped mailing them out a week before the nationwide Canada Post strike.