City of Vancouver

Chapter 2.
How Vancouver is governed today


Vancouver today is a fast-growing city of just over half a million people. In addition to the municipality itself, the region surrounding Vancouver in the Lower Mainland contains a further 1.3 million people. These people do not vote in Vancouver elections however, although they share many services and concerns with the city (see "Vancouver and the GVRD" later in this chapter).


The elected government

The Vancouver City Council is made up of a mayor and ten city councillors (formerly known as aldermen). Council members are elected at-large by all eligible citizens who choose to vote in city-wide elections. Since 1990, these elections have been held on the third Saturday in November of every third year.

The City has two boards which are also elected at-large. The Board of School Trustees is entirely independent of the rest of municipal government and looks after the City's primary and secondary schools and its adult education programs. The Board of Parks and Recreation administers the City's 169 parks and public recreation programs. It receives its budget from City Council, but has considerable independence in the way it administers its resources.


Council's responsibilities

Under the Vancouver Charter (described later in this chapter), Council is charged with the good rule and government of the City of Vancouver. It is authorized to carry out the following activities: Council business is carried out under a committee system. There are two permanent committees known as "standing" committees: the Planning and Environment Committee and the City Services and Budget Committee. All Councillors sit on these committees and vote on their business. The City also has two standing commissions, the Liquor Licensing Commission and the Traffic Commission, made up of five Councillors each (four regular members and one alternate). Finally, the City also has a varying number of special committees and boards created to deal with specific issues such as development permits, family court/youth justice, and the public library system. Councillors do not sit on most of these advisory committees, but rely on them as an additional source of information and guidance.

Although elected separately, the Mayor is both a member of Council and its Chair. The Mayor is also the Chair of the Vancouver Police Board and is therefore the City's chief law enforcement officer.


City staff

Including the police and parks staff, Vancouver has over 5,100 full-time and 3,000 part-time staff. A variety of departments and service groups administer everything from civic theatres to social planning. The overall administration of the municipal civil service is the responsibility of the City Manager, who is also responsible for carrying out the decisions and policies of Council. The annual municipal budget is over $500 million.

A chart showing the organization of the municipal government with its various departments and reporting relationships is included at the end of this chapter.


The Vancouver Charter

The Vancouver Charter is the provincial legislation which sets out the powers and responsibilities of the municipal government. It has its roots in the Vancouver Incorporation Act of 1886 which formally created the City, but was completely revised in 1953 and has been amended from time to time since then.

Among the most important provisions of the Charter are:

The City cannot change the Charter itself, but must instead request that the provincial government pass an amendment to the Charter in the Legislature. The government is often prepared to make changes that the City requests. On some issues such as the ward question, however, the government has sometimes either opposed or simply not acted on requests from the City.

The current wording of the Charter on the electoral system of Vancouver is contained in section 138, entitled "Councillor elections: at large unless on a neighborhood constituency basis" (the section is presented in Appendix 1). The section allows for some or all Councillors to be elected by ward if the City passes a by-law creating such a system and if the provincial government okays the by-law.


Vancouver and the GVRD

Vancouver is the most populous community in the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD). The GVRD is a separate level of government set up to deal with concerns and services that affect all of the member communities. These include hospital planning and regional planning, as well as regional parks, water supply, solid waste and sewage disposal, air pollution control, and certain aspects of housing and transportation. Costs are shared among the various communities according to their population levels, usually on a fee-per-service basis.

Since Vancouver is the largest community in the region, the decisions taken by its City Council can have a great deal of impact on the rest of the GVRD. The same is true of the GVRD's effect on Vancouver. The City's voice on the GVRD is expressed by five members of City Council who sit on the regional body's Board of Directors.


For further reading

For details regarding Vancouver's municipal administration, the most complete source is the City's 113-page document Information on Departments and Boards, which can be obtained from City Hall. Much of its information is available on the City's Internet home page at http:\\www.city.vancouver.bc.ca.

Information on the City's formal relationship with other levels of government can be found in an unpublished 1993 document called "Government of the City and the Region," which was prepared by the City Clerk's Office.

A brief reader-friendly summary of much of this information can be found in a brochure called "Who Does What" (CityPlan Tool Kit 15, Part 2).


Organization of Vancouver's city government

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Last Updated: June, 1996
(c) 1996 City of Vancouver