Vancouver City Council

Vancouver City Council is the governing body of the City of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

The city is governed by the Vancouver Charter, not the Community Charter and the Local Government Act which are used for other municipal governments. The Vancouver Charter gives the city greater powers than those of other municipalities in British Columbia.

Powers of the Vancouver council include:

  • pass by-laws to regulate such things as noise and land use
  • buy and sell property
  • collect certain taxes
  • approve expenditures
  • take on debts
  • give grants
  • hire and discharge employees

City council sits at City Hall at 453 West 12th Avenue.

The council consists of the mayor plus ten councillors elected to serve a three-year term. Monthly, a deputy mayor is appointed from among the councillors.

The most recent election was on November 19, 2011. All Vancouver councillors are elected at-large, which is very unusual for a city of Vancouver's size. A proposal to move to a conventional ward system was rejected by voters in an October 17, 2004 referendum.

Read more about Vancouver City Council:  Vancouver City Council Members (by Party), 2008-2011 Vancouver City Council Members, 2005–2008 Vancouver City Council Members, 2002–2005 Vancouver City Council Members

Famous quotes containing the words city and/or council:

    “The city is loveliest when the sweet death racket begins. Her own life lived in defiance of nature, her electricity, her frigidaires, her soundproof walls, the glint of lacquered nails, the plumes that wave across the corrugated sky. Here in the coffin depths grow the everlasting flowers sent by telegraph.”
    —Henry Miller (1891–1980)

    “I haven’t seen so much tippy-toeing around since the last time I went to the ballet. When members of the arts community were asked this week about one of their biggest benefactors, Philip Morris, and its requests that they lobby the New York City Council on the company’s behalf, the pas de deux of self- justification was so painstakingly choreographed that it constituted a performance all by itself.”
    —Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)