With ‘out of the blue’ proposal, Vancouver moves to shut down volunteer advisory bodies
‘These voices are absolutely crucial to understanding the city that we live in,’ says advisory committee co-chairperson Ashley Daniel Foot. ‘I would argue that they are the city.’
By Dan Fumano
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A proposal to shut down almost all of Vancouver’s volunteer advisory bodies seems to have caught councillors and committee members off-guard.
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In a report going to city council next week, city staff recommend disbanding 10 of the 11 advisory committees at the end of January.
Soon after the staff report became public late Wednesday, political rivals of ABC Vancouver started taking shots at the majority party, accusing them of shutting out the voices of the public they serve. Past and present advisory committee members were shocked and upset.
But ABC politicians said Thursday that the recommendation comes from city staff, and no decisions have been made either way on the future of these civic agencies.
“This is a request from staff that seems to have come forward out of the blue,” said ABC Coun. and deputy mayor Sarah Kirby-Yung. “It seems we’ll hear from staff next week and I’ll have a number of questions about this.”
In an emailed statement, ABC Mayor Ken Sim said that council will not make any decisions until after hearing from staff and the public next week.
“In their report, staff explain that they are bringing this recommendation forward as the city prepares for an exceptionally busy year in 2026,” Sim said.
The staff report says 2026 will bring “an intense council meeting schedule” with several public hearings, activities related to hosting FIFA World Cup games and the October municipal election.
“While council advisory committees would typically continue in an election year, the overlap of these events in the same year is expected to create organizational capacity pressures,” the staff report says. “These pressures will also reduce the ability of advisory committees to function effectively and meet their mandates as the schedule will leave limited opportunity for advancing committee recommendations to council.”
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Alida Oegema-Thomas, co-chairperson of the women’s advisory committee, finds that rationale “incredibly disappointing and almost embarrassing.”
“They’re literally saying that city councillors are now spending too much of their time thinking about the upcoming election to actually continue to do the work of governing,” Oegema-Thomas said.
The Cup isn’t a good excuse either, she said.
“If the government cannot continue to work on the core policy asks of its residents — like housing and safety and access to child care — because of a one-off tournament, then they also are communicating that their priorities are one-time events, not the day-to-day lives of their residents.”
These committees are made up of community members who are appointed by council. They serve on a volunteer basis, so the cost to the city is small. The staff report estimates that ending these 10 committees would yield about $11,000 in direct savings from the reduction in meeting-related expenses and expense allowances. If council votes against the staff recommendation, the report estimates two additional temporary staffers would be required, at a cost of $160,000, to adequately staff next year’s meetings.
Committees meet regularly, and advise council on policy directions. The committees on the chopping block include those focused on seniors, children and families, people with disabilities, arts and culture, racial equity, renters, transportation, and women. Of the 11 current bodies, the only one staff recommend keeping past January is the urban Indigenous Peoples’ advisory committee.
These kinds of committees aren’t unique to Vancouver, and similar ones operate in other B.C. cities. Councils can choose which kinds of committees they want to form, which is often seen as a reflection of their priorities.
Ashley Daniel Foot, co-chairperson of Vancouver’s arts and culture advisory committee, said the proposal seems “sadly, incredibly short-sighted.”
“These voices are absolutely crucial to understanding the city that we live in. I would argue that they are the city,” Foot said. “By saying that we’re not interested in hearing these voices on a regular basis, one wonders, who do they want to hear from?”
Vote Vancouver Coun. Rebecca Bligh said the advisory committees provide good value and produce good outcomes. She pointed to the example of the city’s first gender-based violence prevention strategy, which council unanimously directed staff last month to create, building on the work of the women’s committee.
Bligh, who was elected with ABC in 2022 but now plans to run against Sim for mayor next year, said that if her former party votes next week to end these committees, “they’re saying: ‘We’re not interested in the public’s input.’”
Green Coun. Pete Fry said the proposal appears to be a “direct result” of ABC’s austerity budget approved last week.
“This is Ken Sim’s chainsaw politics at work,” Fry said. “This is a direct result of the ‘zero-means-zero’ budget.”
OneCity Coun. Lucy Maloney said that if the council majority supports ending these committees, it “sends a very clear signal that hearing directly from these particular groups, that have lived experience of the consequences of council’s priorities and policies, is a low priority.”
During the current council term, ABC has demonstrated that “they are listening only to their small group of supporters and donors and their social groups,” Maloney said, and this move would further illustrate that.
The future of the committees is on the agenda for Tuesday’s council meeting.
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