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Watchdog Says Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim and ABC Councillors Broke Open-Meeting Rules

Sanctions cannot proceed because the findings implicate too many council members under Vancouver’s code of conduct.

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Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim speaks during an event in Vancouver, on Friday, June 27, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
Mayor Ken Sim and city council after voting on a 5.5 per cent increase in property taxes at City Hall on Dec. 10, 2024.
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim speaks during a news conference in Vancouver, B.C., on Sept. 16, 2024. Mayors from several B.C. municipalities say the provincial and federal governments need to take 'immediate action' to tackle mental health and public safety issues that have reached crisis levels in Vancouver and other cities across the province. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns

Overview

  • The integrity commissioner’s August report concludes private, quorum-level meetings by the mayor and ABC councillors materially advanced city business in violation of open-meeting requirements.
  • Email chains documenting draft amendments were key evidence and linked the closed-door coordination to two outcomes: $8 million for a Moberly Park turf upgrade and the removal of the Climate Justice Action Charter.
  • The commissioner said she could not rule on five additional allegations due to missing records, citing unavailable Signal messages, implied email threads and unanswered requests to the mayor’s office.
  • Under the city’s rules, council must vote on penalties, yet no quorum exists because most members were found in breach, creating a practical barrier to any sanction.
  • Mayor Ken Sim and his party dispute elements of the report and defend caucusing as normal practice, with the mayor’s office estimating the complaint will cost taxpayers about $200,000; this follows a similar rebuke of ABC-aligned park commissioners in February.