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How Does the GVRD System Work?
The GVRD, like most other regional bodies throughout North America, is faced with many challenging issues such as rationalizing land use and transportation, safeguarding and improving air and water quality, dealing with waste management, health, parks and open space, and providing traditional hard services. These challenges are compounded by conflicting interests and differences in perspective amongst members.
At the time the regional districts were created, careful consideration was given to selecting the best model for governance. The focus was on cooperation among municipalities to achieve service delivery. Because this model relies on consensus or on majority rule – as opposed to subordination to a directly elected regional or metropolitan government – the powers of the GVRD to ensure implementation of coherent planning policy have been limited. At the same time, member municipalities clearly see the benefits of collective service delivery even when they have difficulty achieving agreement on certain issues.
Specifically, the governance structure of the GVRD comprises three legal districts:
- Greater Vancouver Water District (GVWD)
- Greater Vancouver Sewerage and Drainage District (GVS&DD)
- Greater Vancouver Regional District
These districts work in partnership to provide services to the taxpayers through their constituent municipalities.
The GVRD is governed by a Board comprised of elected representatives from each municipality whose number of directors per municipality and number of votes per director are determined by population. Each director exercises one vote for every 20,000 residents, to a maximum of five votes. The board usually meets monthly. Several standing and advisory committees have been established to provide advice to the Board and serve as a link to wider stakeholder groups (see Appendix B: GVRD Organizational Chart). These committees include:
- Communities
- Corporate and Intergovernmental Relations
- Finance
- Housing
- Parks
- Planning and Environment
- Waste Management
- Water
- Labour Relations 16
The transportation agency for the GVRD, TransLink, is also described and analyzed in Appendix C.
Strengths and Weaknesses of the GVRD Model for Achieving Sustainability of the Region
Applying UN HABITAT's governance criteria identifies some of the strengths and weaknesses of the GVRD model.
Sustainability – By virtue of Creating Our Future and the Livable Region Strategic Plan, the GVRD has moving toward sustainability for many years. Both incorporate the elegant vision statement:
" Greater Vancouver can become the first urban region in the world to combine in one place the things to which humanity aspires on a global basis: a place where human activities enhance rather than degrade the natural environment, where the quality of the built environment approaches that of the natural setting, where the diversity of origins and religions is a source of social strength rather than strife, where people control the destiny of their community; and where the basics of food, clothing, shelter, security, and useful activity are accessible to all." 17
Beginning in 2001, the organization decided to make sustainability the basis for the review of its Livable Region Strategic Plan (LRSP). This was motivated by the perception that social and economic issues had been receiving inadequate attention, and that even environmental issues had been attended to in a somewhat fragmented way. In its development of a framework for achieving sustainability, the region has focused on the three components of meeting basic needs, enhancement of human capacity, and enhancement of social capacity. It has also offered four guiding principles: equity, social inclusion and interaction, security, and adaptability. 18 As evidence of its commitment, the region has begun issuing annual sustainability reports based on the collection of indicator data on trends in the region and a triple bottom line framework. 19
Although the LRSP focuses on many sustainability principles, the lack of an explicit mandate to consider social, environmental and economic matters in an integrated way for the whole region means that some activities can be sidetracked or viewed as 'less than legitimate' by municipalities that see the province as responsible for social services and health, or want to compete economically with their neighbors rather than collaborating with them in a regional context to be successful in the global competitive environment.
Subsidiarity – In contrast with regional agencies in other jurisdictions – where metropolitan regions function as senior governments with planning control over municipalities – the GVRD system operates on a largely collaborative basis where municipalities have to work together for the common interest and negotiate their differences.
As Smith and Oberlander note, regional districts in BC are "confederal" and "exist only to do what municipalities agree they cannot do for themselves." As such, the B.C. system is "biased toward agreement." 20 They go on to note that, "[w]hile imperfect, consensual planning has resulted in considerable ability to achieve agreement on matters of specific policy in a range of regional district settings." 21 At the same time, it is not uncommon, as with the recent dispute over the Strategic Transportation Plan, for deep divisions to occur between the different municipalities, and for individual municipalities to put their own interests ahead of those of the region. Nonetheless, a strength of the system is that local leaders elected to regional positions of responsibility tend to develop a 'wider' view and become strong proponents of the regional interest. 22 Overall, the GVRD is a good example of subsidiarity.
Equity – As noted, equity has been articulated as one of the guiding principles of the Sustainable Region Initiative (SRI). Prior to that, a commitment to an "Equitable Region," where livability is shared across all communities, was a pillar of the LRSP. 23 The intent was and is that residents throughout the region would have a relative equality of a variety of services, including park space. The region has also attempted to address issues of housing through its housing corporation, and by developing a region-wide strategy on homelessness. 24 One significant area of weakness is the lack of full multi-cultural representation in the regional political leadership and administration to match the extraordinary ethnic diversity in the region. Most politicians and administrators are 'white,' and most continue to be male.
The organization itself is intended to function as a confederation of relative equals. Municipal representatives on the GVRD board have voting power based on the size of their respective populations. However, equity is often in the eye of the beholder, and in the process that led up to the adoption of the Livable Region Strategic Plan, there was much grumbling that some municipalities weren't getting their fair share of growth. 25
Through the Livable Region Strategic Plan, the GVRD and member municipalities seek to build complete communities, where people can work, shop, learn and play within easy reach of home. These communities are designed to provide a complete range of choices in housing type, tenure and cost, with housing affordability as a key objective. Under the provisions of existing and previous federal and provincial social housing programs, the GVRD's subsidiary, the Greater Vancouver Housing Corporation, develops, owns and manages about 3500 units of housing for people in target groups such as the working poor and the disabled.
Efficiency – The GVRD, and its allied structures, have accomplished significant efficiencies by only taking on those functions that municipalities could not readily perform for themselves. The GVRD, and its predecessors and subordinate agencies, evolved precisely because of the efficiencies involved in collaborating on service delivery, rather than having each municipality go it alone. Its livability goals also include a commitment to an "Efficient Region" that involves effective spending and intergovernmental cooperation, both between municipalities and with senior governments. 26
Transparency and accountability – The GVRD's board meetings are open to the public, unless confidentiality is required under provincial legislation, and delegations are routinely heard. A wide array of information, statistics, and reports can be gleaned from its web site. It has also begun reporting on its performance vis-à-vis an array of sustainability indicators, and is committed to providing a flow of information to the public about its activities and performance. 27
Ginnell and Smith have suggested that, as long the GVRD has primarily been about providing services efficiently – i.e., has had a largely administrative role – it has had sufficient accountability. However, they argue that with the close affiliation between the GVRD and the newly created TransLink, and with a combined annual budget approaching one billion dollars, the organization is beginning to become a more remote regional "government." Given this, in their view the continuing indirect election of the Board is becoming a democratic liability. 28
Moreover, the top administrators at GVRD seem to have more clout than their municipal counterparts – indeed, they are perceived by some as holding as much power as the politicians. While they tend to be progressive and pro-sustainability, they are not accountable ultimately to the public by means of election. Ginnell and Smith have argued for the direct election of a regional board through regional wards or second ballots during municipal elections, and have also argued for a monitoring body, like an ombudsperson's office, to monitor and report to the public on the GVRD's performance. 29
Civic engagement and citizenship – A variety of methods have been used to involve the public, including open houses, public forums, workshops, tours of its watersheds, opportunities for volunteer activity, and outreach to schools. Citizens and organizations are represented on its various advisory committees. A regular program about GVRD current events airs on a local cable station, and television series on regional issues have been shown on major networks in the past. Stakeholders are involved in the implementation of policies and regulations for everything from solid waste to the siting of utilities.
As part of its Sustainable Region Initiative (SRI), the GVRD has held four major forums on the ecological, social, and economic aspects of sustainability to gather input from a variety of stakeholders. These were organized in partnership with Smart Growth BC, United Way, and the Business Council of BC. Other partners in the SRI include the Fraser Basin Council (see below) and TransLink. The region has been seeking to cultivate leaders and champions both inside and outside the organization, and to ground the Initiative in an "urban regime" that extends beyond the GVRD administrative structure. 30
Perhaps the high water marks of its efforts at public engagement occurred in the early 1970s when the GVRD's planners and politicians sought input from the public on how to define livability, and the implications this should have for regional planning, and in the late 1980s in the extensive consultations in the "Choosing Our Future" process. 31 Since then, public engagement has become more routine and predictable.
Security of individuals and their living environments – The role of the GVRD in addressing this point is indirect. Its seven goals for livability include "A Healthy and Safe Region" that encompasses air and water quality, good social services, and functional space patterns. 32 Security is also one of the sustainability principles it has embraced. The organization has made progress in curbing air pollution and maintaining the quality of its drinking water, thus protecting the security of the living environment. It also works to facilitate communication amongst municipalities for purposes of emergency preparedness, and it plays a role in the administration of the 9-1-1 emergency phone system.
In the course of the cities PLUS one hundred year planning process, resilience emerged as one of the three key themes for the region's future, along with livability and sustainability. 33 The region has a Joint Emergency Liaison Committee but it is not perceived as effective. Given the importance of resilience and security to the future well being of cities, and the certainty of future crises, this is an area that requires further attention. 34
The greatest strength of the GVRD is that it enables member municipalities to develop a common vision and act on it. Thus, even after the provincial government abolished regional districts' powers to engage in planning, the GVRD was able to carry on in this role on the strength of the common vision. Moreover, when the Agricultural Land Commission was formed in 1974, the vision of "Cities in a Sea of Green" was strong enough that municipalities proposed setting aside more agricultural land within their borders than would likely have occurred if they had been coerced.
Perhaps the nadir of regional cooperation was the process undertaken by the GVRD to negotiate new arrangements in transportation, governance and funding that resulted in the creation of the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority in 1998.
At the same time, the fact that the GVRD works by consensus or by majority rule, when consensus is not possible, means that it is often slow to adopt necessary or desirable forms of change, and it is difficult to get municipalities to move beyond their own self-interest to the larger regional interest.
While the GVRD represents a robust model of regional planning and service provision, its mandate does not include giving explicit attention to social or economic issues, and its attention to environmental matters is largely related to its management of common public goods and services. These deficiencies notwithstanding, its vision in relation to land use and transportation strategies has been a comprehensive one that is compatible with and encompasses sustainability. The award-winning Livable Regional Strategic Plan and the recent cities PLUS 100 year plan have been cutting edge manifestations of sustainability thinking and action, and these were achieved through a participatory multi-stakeholder process that drew on the insights and energies of many sectors of society. Through the Sustainable Region Initiative it can now address the three 'legs' of sustainable development even more explicitly.
As it moves towards this more holistic approach, it is likely that the historic debate between those that would see the GVRD as a manager of utilities with appendages (housing, parks, etc) and those who see it as a political leadership body that also delivers utilities and services will re-emerge and sharpen. The leaders of the SRI hope that the SRI will enable GVRD politicians and administrators to rediscover a "uniting regionalism", 35 and to that end they are involving Board members and staff in workshops and national and international networking events to encourage further commitment to sustainability principles and practices.