1. It’s day one on the job… and to start your work with the Park Board, you are invited to make one change in one park – which park do you pick, and what do you do?
Renfrew Park. I would plant a grove of shade trees
Renfrew Collingwood is one of the neighbourhoods where Vancouver’s Treecanopy is the thinnest. It is also where the Rupert and Renfrew Station Area Plan will bring thousands of new neighbours. Renfrew Park Community Centre ranked second for renewal needs in the Park Board’s own 2022 Community Centre Strategy. It still has no committed construction date.
My one change would be a grove of shade trees along the park’s most exposed paths and gathering spots. It would come with a commitment that most tree announcements skip: five years of watering, mulching and formative pruning. The first five years decide whether a young tree survives.
It’s a small change, but it says what I think the Park Board should be doing: improving our tree canopy in places that are being impacted due to resident growth and caring for what we plant after the photo op.
2. In your opinion, how well is the delivery of parks and public spaces aligned with the type of growth and change taking place in Vancouver’s neighbourhoods?
Not well. The gap is widest where population growth is the fastest.
The Broadway Plan, the Rupert and Renfrew plan will add tens of thousands of residents. Many will live in apartments without yards. Parks and community centres become their backyard, living room and cooling centres. Meanwhile, the 2025 Auditor General report found 72% of examined recreation facilities in poor or very poor condition as of 2022. We are adding people faster than we are renewing the essential places and programs needed to support these communities
The capital plan shows the problem too. Being named in a plan is not the same as being funded or scheduled. Residents deserve to know which it is.
What I would push for:
Plan parks with density, not after it. Park space, mini parks, plazas and facility renewal should be part of neighbourhood planning from the start, through community based planning.
Use every square metre. Mini parks, street end plazas, school grounds after hours and underused City land.
Be honest in the capital plan. Publish a clear list of what is being renewed, what is funded and what has a construction date.
3. Heavier rains, more intense heat, and wildfire smoke are all being described as part of a “new normal” tied to climate change. Should Vancouver’s parks and recreation facilities play a part in supporting climate resilience or climate adaptation? If yes, how?
Yes. Parks are already one of Vancouver’s most important components of climate infrastructure. We just do not treat or manage them with this level of importance
Heat: The 2021 heat dome was the deadliest climate event in Canadian history. It hit hardest in low canopy neighbourhoods, mostly in East and South Vancouver. We are at about 25% canopy, with a target of 30% by 2050. We will not get there by planting harder alone, we will get there by keeping trees alive. That means more in house urban forestry capacity: a municipal arborist apprenticeship, making the case for forty arborists over our term, and a published pruning cycle.
Cooling and clean air: Community centres should be designed and staffed as reliable cooling and clean-air spaces during heat and smoke events. Add more drinking fountains, splash pads and shade structures where canopy will take years to grow.
Rain: Parks and tree pits can absorb stormwater instead of shedding it to the sewer. That means rain gardens, permeable surfaces, and structural soil in tree pits wherever we open the ground
Wildfire and storms: Fuel management in forested parks and pest surveillance are maintenance jobs. So is storm response; In house crews are the only capacity the City controls when every contractor is booked the same morning.
Cleaner operations: Switch to battery electric equipment wherever it’s ready. It’s quieter for neighbours and cuts local emissions.
4. The Park Board (and City) is under increasing pressure to find new ways to finance park upgrades, deliver new parks, and cover other capital and operational costs. How do you propose financing your priorities in the context of the broader City budgeting process?
I will be direct, because this is where most platforms go vague. Vote Vancouver is one of the only parties saying plainly that the 0% property tax freeze should end. We would replace it with predictable, modest increases based on long term planning. I would rather have a small, planned increase than close community centres or pull lifeguards off beaches. A freeze is not free. It is a decision to pay later, and in emergencies paying premium prices due to extremely limited internal capacity.
Support the parks borrowing question on this ballot.
Coordinate before spending. Tree, sidewalk and park work on the same street should be scheduled together, not as separate jobs in separate years.
Compare in house and contracted costs. Publish the comparison and choose on evidence.
Use development contributions well. DCLs and community amenity contributions from growth should fund parks in the neighbourhoods that are growing.
Partner with other governments. Work with the Province and Ottawa on shared priorities, and push Ottawa on exploring leveraging the infrastructure development bank and/or for a tax exemption on municipal bonds.
Publish it all. In plain language, residents can see what they’re paying for and whether it worked.
Earned revenue stays within Park. Instead of revenue earned in excess to plan being sent to the cities general budget it should go directly back to Park Board to reinvent in additional opportunities.
As a commissioner, I can bring member motions, set service standards and make the case with real numbers. Council approves the budget, that is why who sits on Council matters as much as who sits on the Park Board and that is why I encourage you to vote for Rebecca Bligh and Vote Vancouver councillors.
5. Vancouver is a city with a very diverse population with lots of different cultures calling this place home. Should the Park Board be doing more to respond to the needs of different cultural user groups? If yes, what sorts of changes to Park Board processes or practices would you envision?
Yes. Our parks were largely designed around one idea of how people use public space. Vancouver has outgrown it and changes are required with both our population growth and the different cultures that call Vancouver home
Engage in the languages people speak, and meet communities where they already gather instead of expecting them to find a City web page.
Co-design programs with the communities who will use them, working through Community Centre Associations and cultural organizations rather than around them.
Make permits simple and affordable. Festivals, cultural celebrations and community events shouldn’t need a consultant to navigate. I would support a single point of contact for community groups.
Measure who uses what. If we do not know who a facility serves, we can not tell who it is missing.
More courts and fields for a wider range of sports.
Community gardens that can grow culturally significant crops.
Continue to advance Park Boards Truth and Reconciliation commitments and work with host nations on future projects and initiatives.
6. We have to ask: are you planning – secretly, overtly, or otherwise – to abolish or reform the Park Board? If yes, what are you intending to do? In general, what’s your vision for Park Board governance?
No plans, secret or otherwise, to abolish it. Keeping the Park Board independently elected is part of Vote Vancouver’s platform. I’m running because I believe in an independently elected park board, not just in name, but also a financially independent park board
The abolition debate took years of energy that should have gone into fixing pools, renewing community centres and caring for the urban forest. The better question is what an elected board should do to earn its independence.
My vision is a Park Board that is:
Accountable: published service standards, like how long a tree hazard or stump waits and how quickly residents hear back.
Transparent: plain language budgets, and honest capital plans that separate “named” from “funded.”
Properly funded: a working relationship with Council based on evidence and working towards financial independence
A good partner: with Community Centre Associations, and with the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh and səlilwətaɬ Nations.
7. In recent years, the Park Board has taken steps towards reconciliation, decolo
Yes, and I would approach it with humility. This work belongs to a relationship between governments, and the Nations help set that pace.
Vote Vancouver’s platform commits to aligning with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action. It also recognizes the Coast Salish Nations’ ongoing stewardship of these lands. Practically, I would focus on:
Deepening working partnerships that already exist. For example, the Musqueam Nation Stewardship Team has worked with Urban Forestry on invasive removal and natural area planting.
Planting with purpose. Culturally significant species like western redcedar, berry and medicine plants, planted under plans developed with the Nations, along with harvesting access protocols.
Opening real jobs. Indigenous hiring targets in urban forestry and parks trades, through apprenticeships built with Indigenous employment and training partners.
Following the Nations’ lead on co-management. No announcements about the Nations without their consent.
8. What, if anything, do you think the Park Board should do to support/facilitate community activation and stewardship of park spaces and facilities?
Lower the barriers. Simpler, cheaper permits for small events, performances and neighbourhood gatherings, and practical help with insurance for small groups.
Create more small spaces for music and performance in parks, as our platform proposes.
Fund stewardship properly. Dedicated funding and staff support for volunteer groups doing restoration, gardening and cleanup, so volunteers are not left to cover gaps the City should fill.
Share the data. Publish tree, stump and maintenance data openly so residents can report problems, track progress and hold the Board to account. Residents are already mapping this themselves.
Respond. A 10 day response standard for community inquiries and hazard reports, so people who step up get an answer.
9. We are living in a period of both increasing polarization and increasing social isolation. Should the Parks Board be doing more to respond to these issues? If yes, what do you propose?
Yes. Parks and community centres are among the last places where people who disagree about everything still share a bench, a pool lane or a soccer field.
What I would do:
Keep drop in easy and affordable. Address outdated COVID restrictions to ensure more pool time is available through properly funding the required lifeguards and other staffing. Make recreation more affordable for families and youth through our proposed free transit path for youth (13-18 years old)
Build the basics people need to stay. Public washrooms, seating, shade and water fountains decide whether someone can spend an afternoon in a park.
Fund community centres as social infrastructure, not just buildings. Renewal is overdue, and they are Vancouver’s shared living rooms. We need to not overpromise and under deliver with the current capital campaign and prioritize the centers identified by the community center strategy There are 11 community centers that need renewal, we support the Community center’s association of the order in which these centers should be renewed
On polarization in politics itself: seven commissioners govern the Park Board. My party is running two candidates, so anything I achieve will come from working across party lines. I am comfortable with that and how parks should be run.
10. Is there anything else you would like to share about yourself or your platform?
The largest parties are running slates of seven or six, and others are running as a bloc. When one party controls the board, decisions get made in caucus before they reach the public table, and the board tends to move in step with whoever runs City Hall. In this term, the board spent much of its energy fighting for its own existence.
Two commissioners can not form a majority. Every motion we bring will need support from commissioners in other parties, so it will have to stand on evidence, not party loyalty. That is how a Park Board should work, and it is how it would work: transparent, cross-party, and accountable to residents rather than a single party.
It also makes your ballot simple. You get seven Park Board votes. You do not have to choose one team for all seven. Give some to the candidates you trust most from any party, and give two to Vote Vancouver whose only bloc is the public.
What I would bring to the table: For more than a decade I’ve served on non profit boards, including QMUNITY and Raincity housing in Vancouver, I have acted as treasurer and the Strategic planning board lead. I also was on the board of ‘The 519’ a city owned Community Center in Toronto, these experiences have provided me with extensive board governance experience and I bring a unique pairing of fiscal discipline, strategic planning and collaborative leadership. I have spent my career solving complex problems for large organizations. I have worked with start ups and enterprise organizations around the world focusing on improving the customer and user experience through solving problems and creating value. I believe this experience will be extremely valuable to help guide the Park Board to have a greater focus on the resident experience.
My priorities:
An independent Park Board focused on residents’ experience, in person and online. That covers how easy it is to book a field, get a drop in swim, report a hazard or hear back from the Board.
Capital investments the city can actually afford, planned honestly, funded properly and delivered.
Community spaces set up for current and future needs. Our parks, beaches and community centres have to work for the Vancouver that is coming.
I live in the Kitsilano neighborhood, and you will find my name first on the Park Board ballot. I’m asking for one of your seven votes.