 | Monday, April 18, 2022
Reading this online? Sign up to get this delivered to your inbox every Friday. | | Untangling Surrey’s political issues will be straightforward. Vancouver's, not so much | | |  | | | There’s a lot of social media angst these days around how city hall operates in B.C.’s two biggest municipalities.
In Surrey, there’s a mayor who lost three of the seven councillors on his team within a year of being elected, with a regular drumbeat of allegations of secrecy and centralization. The mayor’s push to give Surrey an independent police force brings new critics each month, and virtually every big decision ends in a 5-4 vote with much gnashing of teeth.
In Vancouver, this week continued the prevailing sense the city is paralyzed on big issues. Its minority council is less predictable and sees constantly shifting coalitions with debates — like the unresolved one over a tall tower on Broadway — regularly taking weeks to come to a conclusion. The park board has been studying drinking in parks for 19 months and a decision to allow sheltering in parks prompted Mayor Kennedy Stewart to blame the federal government for the lack of progress, continuing an exercise in buck passing that has existed over the roving tent cities for more than a year. But one of those situations is much easier to politically resolve.
For Surrey, the next election is shaping up to be a referendum on Doug McCallum, the decisions he’s made and his leadership style. He will either be re-elected — or someone who clearly supports his agenda will be — or he’ll be tossed out. It simplifies the discussion and provides set long-term goals for both sides.
For Vancouver, the next election will similarly be about Mayor Kennedy Stewart. But because of the nature of the problems Vancouver has been facing, it will also be about the makeup of council and the speed at which the city moves. Housing, homelessness, crime and drug policy will also likely be big issues, as they have for several elections in a row. So will the role of the park board. And the four parties with seats on council and park board all have different viewpoints on these issues.
In other words, while the political resolution to Surrey’s controversies is fairly clear, the issues Vancouver faces are much more diffuse.
Or put simply, at this point it seems the next election will provide some clarity in Surrey.
The same can’t be said in Vancouver. | | |  | | | 1. Vancouver | Like a sixth grade student's homework, every week there's a new reason why Vancouver council is unable to finish the task it set out for itself — but this week's was particularly strange, as the decision over a 28-storey rental apartment on Broadway was delayed because Coun. Sarah Kirby-Yung hadn't finished reviewing all the public comments made. Even stranger? Kirby-Yung wasn't the one who pushed for a delay.
Read more in The Province | | | | |  | | | 2. Surrey | While a lot of new city councils in the province have made ethics and transparency a priority, Surrey is the first to hire an ethics commissioner. Reece Harding is a longtime lawyer specializing in municipal law in Metro Vancouver, and what rulings he makes — and how public his work is — could serve as an interesting template for other cities.
Read more in the Peace Arch News | | | |  | | | 3. Port Coquitlam | Speaking of ethical issues, the City of Port Coquitlam responded to the lawsuit filed by Coun. Laura Dupont after she was censured by Mayor Brad West and the other members of council. It's partly about a tree, partly about disclosing in-camera information — but mostly about whether Dupont's punishment fits the crime.
Read more in the Tri-City News | | | | | |  | | | 4. Victoria | While Vancouver was (repeat after me) unable to deal with a motion in the week they intended to discuss it, the capital city has moved quickly on the issue of police street checks. Council unanimously voted at its meeting on Thursday to call on the Victoria Police Department to stop using the measure — though it's up to the independent police board to actually implement it.
Read more in CHEK News | | | |  | | | 5. Richmond | There's no politician in Metro Vancouver with a longer record of municipal service than Harold Steves, but the longtime Richmond councillor has announced he'll retire after the 2022 election. Aside from his legacy of preserving agricultural land, his family's history in the city goes back so far that the neighbourhood of Steveston is named after his great grandfather.
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forwarded to you. | | | | That's it for us today! Check out the latest headlines at cbc.ca/bc and follow our municipal affairs reporter Justin McElroy on Twitter. And if you have any questions, you might want answered in a future mailbag, drop Justin a line at metromatters@cbc.ca. | | | |
