Three of four NPA board members’ work involves resource development or research related to it, or the packaging of nature as a commodity for tourism.

Ian Robertson works for Rocky Mountaineer Vacations, a company that sells sight-seeing packages to tourists. According to Industry Canada, the company has done over $50,000,000 worth of business since opening in 1990. The parent company, Great Canadian Railtour Company, runs a number of rail tours, most recently taking over the rail tour to Whistler from North Vancouver. And make no mistake, these services are not aimed at local people. The company has sales representation in 18 countries and has hosted close to one million clients since its opening.

Before privatization, these routes were served well by companies at prices that made the trip accessible to average Canadians. Each of these rail routes amount to a massive public subsidy because generations of Canadians paid for and built the rail lines. NPA Parks Commissioner Heather Holden absented herself from most of the aquarium expansion debate and all the voting as she works for a group affiliated with the aquarium, the Pacific Ocean Shelf Tracking project (POST). Holden also works for the right-wing think tank, the Fraser Institute, a group with a long record of never seeing a public good that shouldn't be privatized. POST tracks salmon and other marine life off our coasts, but it has clear economic implications. The group lists the Moore Foundation as one of its sponsors. The Moore Foundation's fifth anniversary report points to the fact that "two million Americans rely on ocean related jobs from fishing to shipping to tourism. These activities contribute more than $117 billion to the US economy." With our ecosystems increasingly under assault, the foundation funds projects aimed at mitigating the effects on our economic systems.

NPA Parks Commissioner Korina Houghton works for JS Thrower & Associates Ltd, a forestry consultancy company which in May 2006 merged with a number of other firms under the umbrella of the Timberline Natural Resource Group Ltd, which bills itself as "one of Canada's largest and most geographically diverse full-service natural resource consultancies."

Finally, NPA Park Commissioner Marty Zlotnik, who works in the financial services industry, stands out among the four as the only one not directly tied to the exploitation of nature. Zlotnik is an old-school NPA power broker. His powerful position within the NPA is illustrated by his recent criticism of Mayor Sam Sullivan. He told journalist Allen Garr that Vancouver City Manager Judy Rogers "is running the city." What other first-time elected official could so fearlessly hurl such a criticism at their party's putative leader and suffer no consequences?