The rumour that Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC) plans to pass operational control over Granville Island to Port Metro Vancouver (PMV) is pitting Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson against his predecessor and MLA for the area, Sam Sullivan.
“The City of Vancouver is strongly opposed to Granville Island being controlled by Port Metro Vancouver and we made our position clear to the port and the government of Canada in discussions and correspondence over many months,” Robertson said in a statement.
He added that he supports having the city step in to manage the area either as part of a land transfer or by leasing the 35-acre peninsula. Another of Robertson’s ideas is that an independent local authority be created to protect Granville Island’s “unique character.”
Sullivan, however, told Business in Vancouver that he supports an operational transition that would bring the governance of the peninsula to Vancouver from Ottawa.
There is a caveat, however.
“I also don’t believe it should be managed by the City of Vancouver,” Sullivan said. “The only reason Granville Island is as wonderful as it is, is because it is not run by the City of Vancouver.”
He believes that the city had opposed the vision for the area from Day 1.
“The city wanted that to be a playing field,” Sullivan said. “The city opposed not having sidewalks. They opposed cobblestones. It also opposed the kind of businesses that were going there. The unique nature of Granville Island would never have been done if it were managed by the City of Vancouver and the dead hand of planning.”
The other elected representative for the area, Vancouver Centre MP Hedy Fry, is concerned about any changes that could come at Granville Island.
“It is disturbing that the Conservative government continues to make decisions in secrecy regarding important regional institutions without consultations or input from MPs or their constituents,” she said in a statement.
Fry alluded to how the public market and arts-centric area was created in 1970 largely by the vision of former Vancouver Centre MP Ron Basford, who served as a Liberal minister of consumer and corporate affairs and had responsibility for CMHC.
CMHC spokesperson Teresa Amoroso confirmed to Business in Vancouver that CMHC has looked at different options for how to manage what is now a tourist destination, public market and arts enclave but she would not detail any potential changes.
“It is too soon to speculate on any outcome,” she said.
Regardless of who operates Granville Island, the area will be transformed in the near future given that its largest tenant, Emily Carr University of Art + Design, plans to leave in 2016.
Tenants such as Capilano University, Langara College and the Vancouver Public Library have been rumoured as potential future tenants.
