Future of breeding whales and dolphins in captivity remains in doubt despite NPA majority on park board
In municipal politics, if there's a tie vote on a motion, it's defeated.
This raises an intriguing question if the NPA majority on the next Vancouver park board brings forward a resolution to reverse a July vote to ask staff to prepare a bylaw that would ban whales and dolphins from breeding in captivity in the Vancouver Aquarium.
During the recent election campaign, NPA mayoral candidate Kirk LaPointe condemned Mayor Gregor Robertson for stating his personal opposition to keeping whales and dolphins in captivity in Stanley Park.
“It is time for the expense, disruption and uncertainty to stop and for the mayor to stand down from his efforts to change policy around keeping cetaceans at the Vancouver Aquarium,” LaPointe wrote on his blog.
On the face of it, a motion to reverse the Vision Vancouver–controlled board's decision would likely pass, given that four NPA candidates were elected to the seven-member board.
However during the last summer's debate on this issue, NPA commissioner John Coupar absented himself from the vote, citing a conflict of interest.
If this conflict still exists, there will be only three NPA commissioners who would vote on the motion against two Greens and one Vision commissioner, the newly elected Catherine Evans.
In June, Evans told the Straight that it was her preference that the aquarium and park board work cooperatively to end keeping cetaceans in captivity in Stanley Park.
The incoming Green commissioners are Stuart Mackinnon and Michael Wiebe.
If the Greens vote with Evans to retain the ban on captive breeding, the motion would be defeated if Coupar continues to absent himself because of a conflict of interest.
In the meantime, the Vancouver Aquarium has launched a court challenge against the vote on the breeding ban, arguing it exceeds the park board's jurisdiction. And park board staff have not brought forward a bylaw.
When Mackinnon was on the park board from 2008 to 2011, he was the commissioner most active on the issue, pushing unsuccessfully for a nonbinding plebiscite on the issue.
The Green platform calls for a citywide plebiscite on keeping cetaceans in captivity, so it's conceivable that Mackinnon and Wiebe will bring this matter forward for debate.
Comments
3 Comments
no breeding ban in place
Nov 17, 2014 at 8:15am
Unfortunately the current Park Board never got around to ENACTING a breeding ban bylaw like they promised to do in July. So it's not on the books. There won't be anything to reverse. The new Park Board will be free to ignore the previous Park Board's recommendations.
Tommy Khang
Nov 17, 2014 at 8:41am
Sarah Kirby-Young was quoted on CTV saying that the NPA would reverse the decision, but this analysis is pretty on point. However, I doubt that Evans when asked prior to the election ever en"Vision"ed herself to be the sole candidate on the Parks Board at the time. At the end of the day the silent majority made their voice heard loud and clear by giving the NPA a strong mandate to reverse a boneheaded decision and hopefully work with the six community associations to bring harmony back to the Parks Board.
bobsthename
Nov 17, 2014 at 3:12pm
listen very carefully Georgia straight. The story is so very wrong. There is nothing to rescind as the bylaw has not been passed. Really this sloppy journalism- the bylaw was sent to be drafted by staff, it was never passed because it didn't exist at the time of the public hearings.