Vancouver Mayor says he won’t try to eliminate the park board if re-elected

Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim said he will move on from a three-year campaign to get rid of the city’s independently elected park board if re-elected this October.

Vancouver Mayor says he won’t try to eliminate the park board if re-elected ABC Vancouver Party will run slate of park board commissioners in upcoming election Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim said he will move on from a three-year campaign to get rid of the city’s independently elected park board if re-elected this October. Sim made the announcement at Kitsilano Beach on Monday, where he said his ABC Vancouver Party will run a slate of park board commissioner candidates this election and try to win back a majority on the board, which has been at odds with city council since Sim first tried to get rid of it in 2023.

Sim also promised that an ABC-led park board would eliminate the reservation and timed occupancy system for the city’s outdoor pools that has proved controversial since its inception last year. Vancouver is the only municipality in British Columbia and only major city in Canada with an independently elected park board, and while it has control over priorities and operation of the city’s parks and community centres, its budget is set by city council. Because of that — and of the ways that issues in parks, from bike lanes to tent encampments can become city-wide issues — the board has seen itself at the centre of controversy on a regular basis, with debates over who should ultimately be in control.

For several years Sim talked about eliminating the park board, but shortly before the 2022 election, he changed his mind, saying it could be reformed from within. But in 2023 — one year after becoming mayor — Sim announced his desire to get rid of the park board, and city council voted to ask the B.C. government to get rid of the provincial legislation that enshrined it as part of Vancouver's governance model. However, the plan faced setbacks immediately, from three of Sim’s ABC Commissioners leaving the party in protest (stripping ABC of a majority on the board) to questions over how park land would be protected or be able to be developed if the board was eliminated.

While the province introduced legislation last year to allow its elimination if there was a referendum, they dropped the bill after a further dispute with the city, and since then Sim has abandoned talking about it. "We’re not going to do it. We are way too focused right now on public safety and making life more affordable for residents," he said in a January 2026 interview.

"We will still make sure we have vibrant parks, but we really have to pivot." Sim’s announcement means the separate ballot for park board commissioners in this October’s local election will be that much longer. COPE, OneCity, the Greens and Vote Vancouver have already nominated three candidates, while the Vancouver Liberal Party has four — including incumbents Brennan Bastyovanszky and Scott Jensen, two of the former ABC commissioners who split with Sim.

"I am running for re-election under the promise that I'm going to continue to show up and work, and try to make sure the park board is really not in the news," said Jensen, who defended the work of the park board over the last four years. "People are passionate about their parks and their green spaces and their community and recreational facilities, and I take that responsibility very seriously."