Electoral Area A Election
Metro Vancouver Electoral Area A is the only democratically representative form of local area governance actually available for citizens living in the UNA/UBC zone. It’s a big physical space, with most people residing at UBC. It’s sort of the land left over as municipalities and towns were created by settlers as Indigenous communities were displaced and marginalized. UBC has also played a major role fighting any form of responsible governance in its domain that might limit its ability to act with impunity.
This year is election year for the one democratically elected local government official. Nominations open August 30 and close September 9. Details can be found on the Electoral Area A elections page. Metro Vancouver has also produced a handy presentation video laying out what’s involved.
The current Electoral Area A Director is Jen McCutcheon. Jen was elected in 2019 in a by-election. In the 2018 general election the sole candidate was elected by acclimation. They resigned shortly thereafter declaring the workload to be too much.
Maria Harris was Director from 2008 to 2018, having won three elections during that time.
As candidates become known A Campus Resident will profile them in future updates.
The Electoral Area A Director is the chair of the Electoral Area A Committee - this is the committee that makes recommendation's on metro bylaws and related issues as applied to the electoral area.An example of the type of matters discussed by the committee can be seen on the June 9th committee agenda.
Since 2010 Metro Vancouver has had no authority over development plans on UBC lands. After a particularly fractious relationship between UBC and Metro, then UBC VP External Steven Owen asked, and got from, the provincial government regulatory authority for UBC to go its own way on local planning. Since that time UBC has been in charge of all land planning matters on land owned fee simple by UBC.
The Director also sits on the mayor's committee. This appointment first came about during Maria Harris’ term as Director. She lobbied for the inclusion of the Electoral Area A Director on this committee. According to Harris, her position was akin to being the mayor of the electoral area. After some time, Metro agreed and since then the Electoral Area A Director has been a member of the Mayors’ Committee.
The current Director is also a member of the Climate Action and Finance Committees.