Vancouver Will Have One Night of Fireworks

The city will have a fireworks show this year

What does $2 million (US$1.46 million) buy you in Vancouver?

A two or three bedroom condo in Kitsilano or downtown, or perhaps a detached house in East Vancouver.

The $2 million could be used to keep libraries open seven days a week, or give to food banks to ensure people have food to eat, fix potholes, or fund arts groups so they can hold their annual events.

But no, Mayor Ken Sim and his ABC Vancouver majority have voted to spend $2 million on fireworks for an hour this summer.

The three-day Celebration of Light, a fireworks competition that was held for three decades was cancelled indefinitely last year because of the lack of federal funding, and Sim felt it was necessary to bring it back -- kind of.

He said it was a "deeply personal" issue, claiming his family had "struggled financially" when he was young, and really looked forward to free events like the fireworks.

Sim added the city had "never pulled our support" from the fireworks, and "had already committed $1.4 million to the event", so the increase is actually $600,000.

Sounds like someone is trying to massage the numbers.

His opponents on city council were not impressed, smelling smoke.

Green councillor Pete Fry, who has also announced he will run for mayor later this year, said that the event was not financially viable.

"The reality is that it was a business model that was not sustainable," he said. "They couldn't make it work, for a variety of reasons, including the lack of federal funding. We need to recognise that we are in this austerity budget. ... We're talking about the allocation of $2 million at a time when this city has talked about a zero means zero austerity budget."

In November City Council voted for a zero percent increase in property taxes, but that meant 400 jobs cut, while utility fees for water, garbage and sewer will go up 4 percent.

Meanwhile COPE councillor Sean Orr also questioned if it was worth spending $2 million on a one-hour fireworks show.

We also wondered that too. The fireworks show would be literally burning money in the sky for an hour. And then what?

While there are complaints that Vancouver is a "no-fun city", now isn't the time to put on something so frivolous. 

It's Sim's attempt at getting in voters' good books before the upcoming civic election later this year. Will voters return the favour?

The Mayor's Private Mojo Dojo

Councillor Fry's picture of Sim's gym space

There are a lot of questions about what Vancouver's mayor is doing at City Hall these days. 

Ken Sim, the city's first Chinese-Canadian mayor seems more interested in working out than actually running the city.

Green Party Councillor Pete Fry took a picture of what used to be a meeting room next to the mayor's office that was used for meetings and now seems to be Sims' personal gym space.

Sim riding on the Peloton bike for the cameras

There's a Peloton stationary bike, a chin-up apparatus, weights, resistance bands, and an exercise mat in the 300 sq ft space that used to be a board room.

Fry posted the picture on X, formerly known as Twitter and wrote: "The deeply unserious and absolute absurdity of a civic asset being repurposed as Ken's mojo dojo casa house belies a very real problem with process, transparency and good governance that we continue to get stonewalled on."

In a radio interview this morning Fry explained council had received a memo in January from the city manager explaining the meeting room was now being used by the mayor and would not be used for meetings.

So when Fry saw it unlocked and open, he took a picture as evidence of how the room was being used.

Fry said he had tried to ask about the mayor taking over the space during council meetings on Tuesday, but was shut down by other ABC councillors.

Then the mayor invited the media to come look at the space and spun the opportunity as his way of being transparent. He rode the stationary bike for the cameras.

"It allows me to actually get to promote health, including my own health -- the hours are pretty long here," Sim said Wednesday. "If you don't have your health, you can't help your family out and you can't help your organisation."

Sim accused Fry of playing politics, but it should be pointed out there is an existing gym in City Hall for people to use... there is no need for this extra gym next to the mayor's office. Taxpayers are fuming to see their mayor more concerned about his physical health than the city's fiscal outlook...