This City

Park Board gives up more public space to private interests  

And more private encroachment on public lands is in the works

By Isabel Minty  

On May 29, Vancouverites lost another piece of their public commons to private companies. The Vancouver Park Board voted 4-2 to permit expansion of the Vancouver Aquarium, which spells the loss of another 3,400 sq metres of public park space—a 28% increase to the already 11,900 sq metre complex—to this private company with $25 million in annual revenues. The four NPA park commissioners voted for the expansion, while the two COPE park commissioners voted for taking the issue to the citizens directly in a referendum.

Most of the seventeen speakers who came out to the Park Board meeting to address the issue, and who were not aligned with the Vancouver aquarium, supported Vancouverites' right to approve or oppose the expansion of the aquarium in a referendum dealing with that issue, to be included on the 2008 civic election ballot. They expressed anger and dismay that resolutions for a referendum that had been prepared by the previous board were now being ignored. NPA Commissioner Marty Zlotnick presented the resolution to rescind the referendum, thereby depriving voters of the opportunity to express their choice.

In the wording leading to his resolution, Zlotnick claimed—paradoxically—that "any request for expansion will require the full and appropriate public discussion for all interested citizens and stake-holders prior to any approval".

After the vote giving the green light to expansion of the aquarium, the NPA declared there is now no need to take this issue to the public in a referendum. Dr John Nightingale, Executive Director of the Vancouver Aquarium, insisted the majority of the public are pro-expansion . . . which raises the question, why is he, and the NPA-dominated Park Board, so determined to deny the public their say?

The next battle over private encroachment of public land looming at the Parks Board is the potential loss of more public beach space at English Bay. The Park Board has indicated they are willing to consider giving publicly-owned common land away to another restaurateur just as they gifted a part of Kits beach to a private entrepreneur for a nominal rent to build a high-end restaurant there.

When that same issue comes up at English Bay for public input, it is important for Vancouverites to lay claim to their long fought-for and hard-won public commons. This public benefit should not be lost to private companies.