Dog tiffs, political splits highlight year of change

By Sandra Thomas-Staff writer

For those affected by parks board decisions in 2006, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

For Vancouver Aquarium president John Nightingale, the green light from the parks board last month to expand the facility by 1.5 acres couldn't have been better news. But to animal rights activist Annelise Sorg, director of Coalition for No Whales in Captivity, the news was devastating. Sorg, who fought the $80 million project since it was proposed earlier in the year, told the Courier she was so disheartened by the decision she was "hanging up her harpoon."

The biggest surprise wasn't the parks board's approval of the expansion and a 20-year lease to the aquarium. What shocked many was the 11th hour decision of COPE commissioner Spencer Herbert to support the approval. Herbert had spoken out against the expansion almost until the night of the vote.

The first hurdle to the expansion was removed in May when the NPA majority on the board rescinded a 1995 board decision requiring aquarium expansion be put to a referendum. Construction of the project is scheduled to begin next spring.

The NPA handed a six-month membership suspension to long-time parks commissioner Allan De Genova. The directive for his removal came from Mayor Sam Sullivan after De Genova expressed his concerns that former NPA parks board chair Heather Holden, a senior employee of the Vancouver Aquarium, did not excuse herself during a vote about a new concession strategy.

Part of the strategy included changes to the concession and food service offered at the aquarium and De Genova took offence that Holden participated in the proceedings. In November, De Genova-an NPA parks commissioner for 13 years and a member of the party for 18, announced he had left the NPA for good and would sit as an independent.

The new concession strategy also meant the end of the line for many of the parks board's long-time food service operators. The strategy recommended changes to the operations of the city's 15 concessions, forcing concession operators out of work and eliminating employees at the board's central warehouse when it closes. The parks board claims that by contracting the concessions out, healthier food will available at our city's parks and beaches.

The parks board's newest aquatic centre opened in April, complete with a lazy river, "beach" access, three-metre diving platform and six-metre waterslide. The pool, which cost almost $11 million to complete, is wheelchair accessible, has both 15-metre and 25-metre lap pools, a steam room and large whirlpool. The new Killarney pool is the first completed project included within the parks board's long-term aquatic renewal plan.

Another change to the city's park landscape was the completion, 10 years after its conception, of the Vancouver AIDS memorial at Sunset Beach. In April the last two panels of the monument were installed and dedicated at a candlelight vigil.

Ed Lee, former chair of the board of the Vancouver AIDS Memorial Society, fought for almost a decade to have the 60-foot ribbon of steel erected. The memorial is engraved with 1,000 names of B.C. residents who died of HIV or AIDS.

Directly across the city in southeast Vancouver, the parks board's "bug lady," entomologist Sophie Dessureault was battling a fight of her own. A new bylaw restricting the use of cosmetic pesticides, fungicides and herbicides for residential and commercial properties within city limits meant Dessureault had to get creative in her battle against the dreaded chafer beetle.

The aggressive beetle had been devastating lawns in New Westminster and Burnaby for several years before making its appearance in southeast Vancouver in 2005 and creeping its way across the city. Without pesticides at her disposal, Dessureault turned to what she knows best-"good bugs," and in particular nematodes.

The microscopic worms come in small packages containing up to 50 million miniature warriors, and while they might be tiny, they pack a terrific wallop. Residents hand-water them straight onto their lawns. Once in the soil, the nematodes enter host insects like chafer beetles through their skin or breathing holes and feast from the inside out. One nematode can lay 10,000 eggs. The battle the parks board and city now face is convincing residents to use bugs instead of sprays to save their lawns.

No look back at the parks board in 2006 would be complete without a word about the city's 60,000 often pampered and always controversial dogs.

In July the board formed the dog strategy task force of volunteers to give both parks staff and commissioners a better understanding of the needs of dog owners and other park users. Unfortunately, unlike in the case of the chafer beetle, there is no "good dog" the board can turn to in its battle against irresponsible owners who allow dogs to run off leash or who don't clean up after their pets.

Last year the city raised the fine for ignoring dog bylaws from $25 to $250, but many defiant owners said they would refuse to comply until the parks board supplies more off-leash parks. It's now up to the six-person task force to come up with solutions on the contentious issue. Don't miss the 2007 wrap up for more details.

published on 12/29/2006

VANCOUVER COURIER editor@vancouver.com