Vancouver City Council created the Vancouver Electoral Reform Commission in 2003 to re-examine what it feels is an important issue, and to find ways to improve civic democracy. Thomas Berger, a former Supreme Court judge and head of several federal inquiries, was chosen to be the Commissioner.

During the first six months of 2004, the commission held 17 public forums in neighbourhoods all around Vancouver to hear from citizens about their views on whether we should consider a change from the at-large voting system to a ward system, or look at other alternatives. The commission also provided a questionnaire asking for public opinion on the issue, which was available in print and online. It also received many other written submissions as well.

Based on the feedback and discussions, Berger recommended in his report to Council that the City should let citizens have a say and hold an October 16, 2004 vote on whether we should change from the at-large system to a ward system and increase the number of Councillors to 14 from 10.

• Download the report (1.2 MB, PDF)

Election Systems and Municipal Government (1996)

In November 1995, City Council asked the City Clerk to research the systems of governance currently used in other North American cities and to report on those cities' experiences with their particular systems. The Mayor also asked that recent studies on local governance be collected, along with factual information on the history of Vancouver's local governance.

This information was collected and assembled into Volumes I and II of this June 1996 report.

• Table of contents
• Chapter 1: Vancouver government structure since 1886
• Chapter 2: How Vancouver is governed today
• Chapter 3: City government: some basics
• Chapter 4: Systems for electing city government
• Chapter 5: Results of the survey
• Conclusion
• List of appendices in Volume II
• Bibliography
• Survey results spreadsheets