--- title: "What Vancouver's mayor can do: 1 vote of 11, the chair, and seats on regional boards" description: "The mayor chairs Council and is the city's chief executive officer, but carries 1 vote of 11. What the Vancouver Charter and the Procedure By-law give the office, what Council keeps, and how the 2024 Police Act changes moved the police board chair." canonical_url: "https://voche.me/news/vancouver-mayor-role-powers" last_updated: "2026-10-10T04:01:08.922Z" --- The mayor is the best known name on the October 17 ballot, and the office is easy to overestimate. Vancouver's mayor chairs Council and speaks for the city, and the law gives the office a short list of powers of its own. Most decisions still need a majority of Council. This guide sets out what the Vancouver Charter, the City's Procedure By-law and 4 provincial laws say the mayor can do. ## 1 vote of 11 Section 137 of the Vancouver Charter sets Council at a mayor and 10 councillors. The mayor votes on each question like every other member. The Procedure By-law says a motion carries with a majority of the members present, unless the Charter or a bylaw requires more. Section 145.1 of the Charter adds 2 rules: - a tie vote defeats the motion, and - a member who is present and does not vote is counted as voting yes. A mayor whose side holds 6 of the 11 seats can usually carry a vote. A mayor with fewer allies has to win councillors over one question at a time. ## Chief executive officer and president of Council Section 207 makes the mayor "the chief executive officer of the city and the president of the Council." Section 208 lists the duties that come with it. The mayor must: - work to make sure the city's laws are enforced and obeyed, - recommend to Council the measures the mayor thinks are needed, and - oversee the conduct of city employees. Section 208 also lets the mayor suspend a city employee, without pay unless Council directs otherwise. The mayor must tell the Director of Finance and the City Clerk in writing, and the suspension lasts until Council either reinstates or dismisses the person. The mayor can also put items in front of Council. The Procedure By-law has a category of report called "communications", which it defines as a report containing a recommendation from the mayor or the City Clerk. ## Chairing the meeting Section 4.1 of the Procedure By-law makes the mayor the chair of Council meetings, special Council meetings and public hearings. As chair, the mayor must keep order, decide which member speaks, and rule on points of order. A point of order is a claim that the meeting has broken its own rules. The chair may also refuse to open a motion for debate if it breaks the rules in section 8.7, and must explain why. The chair's word can be overturned. Section 166 of the Charter lets two-thirds of the members present overrule a ruling of the chair. The chair also has limits. Section 4.3 says the chair may not speak, ask questions or make motions on a matter under debate without first handing the chair to the next person in line. Under section 2.5, the mayor can call a special Council meeting. A majority of Council members can do the same by writing to the City Clerk. When Council passes a bylaw, section 167 of the Charter says the City Clerk and the member who presided sign it. ## Asking Council to vote again In most BC cities, the mayor can force a second vote. Section 131 of the Community Charter lets a mayor require council to reconsider a decision at the same meeting or within 30 days after it. The Community Charter's definition of a municipality leaves out the City of Vancouver unless a section says otherwise. We searched the full text of the Vancouver Charter for a matching power and found none. The word "reconsider" appears there in rules about decisions made by staff and other delegates, and in a rule about Council's code of conduct. None of those sections lets the mayor call a new vote. In Vancouver, the Procedure By-law sets the rules instead, and they apply to every member in the same way: - A motion that passed can be reconsidered only at the same meeting, and only by a member who voted with the majority (section 8.13). - A motion to rescind or amend a decision must wait for a later meeting, and again comes from a member who voted with the majority. - A motion that failed can be brought back within 365 days by a member who voted with the majority, or later by any member (section 8.14). Section 166 of the Charter also requires two-thirds of the members present to rescind a resolution passed in the current term. ## Appointments: mostly Council's choice Council holds most appointment powers. - **Deputy Mayor.** Under section 207, Council appoints a councillor as Deputy Mayor, with the mayor's agreement, and decides which of the mayor's powers the Deputy Mayor may use. - **Acting Mayor.** Under section 209, Council may appoint a councillor as Acting Mayor when the mayor is away or unable to act. - **Committee chairs.** Section 159 lets Council create committees. Section 4.2 of the Procedure By-law says Council appoints the chair and vice-chair of each standing committee every year. - **Advisory committees.** Section 15.4 says Council assigns a councillor as liaison to each advisory committee, on the mayor's recommendation. Section 160 ends every Council committee just before the new term begins, on the first Monday after November 1. In 2026 that is November 2. ## The police board: changed in 2024 Until 2024, the mayor sat on the Vancouver Police Board and chaired it automatically. The Union of BC Municipalities reported the proposed change on April 10, 2024. The Police Amendment Act, 2024, Bill 17, passed third reading in the BC Legislature on April 25, 2024. Its transition rules gave each council 3 months to appoint a member to its police board, and ended the mayor's membership if Council chose a councillor instead. The current Police Act says: - Council appoints 1 of its own members to the board, for up to 4 years (sections 23 and 24). - Council appoints 1 more person, who cannot be a councillor. - The provincial cabinet appoints up to 7 more. - The board elects its own chair and vice chair once every 2 calendar years (section 25). - The chair votes only to break a tie. The mayor can still hold the council seat on the board, if Council appoints the mayor to it. ## Regional boards One seat comes with the job. Section 208 of the South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority Act puts every mayor in the region on the Mayors' Council on Regional Transportation, which works with TransLink. Section 211 gives each mayor 1 vote for every 20,000 residents, or part of 20,000. Metro Vancouver works differently. Section 198 of the Local Government Act says each city's directors on a regional board are "appointed at pleasure by the council from among its members." The mayor sits on the Metro Vancouver board only if Council makes that choice. ## Reading a mayoral promise A promise that needs a new bylaw, a budget change or a rezoning needs a majority of Council: 6 votes when all 11 members are present. A promise about how meetings are run, or which items the mayor recommends, sits closer to the mayor's own powers. Our guide to [what City Council controls](/news/what-vancouver-city-council-controls) covers the decisions those votes can reach, and the [candidates page](/candidates) lists everyone running for mayor. The Vancouver Charter and the City's Procedure By-law are the final word on the mayor's powers. If anything here disagrees with them, the law is correct. ## Sitemap See the full [sitemap](/sitemap.md) for all pages.