The Vancouver Sun reports that Metro Vancouver may hand over some of its regional park network to individual municipalities. It’s one of those good news/bad news stories: From the Sun:

Metro Vancouver is preparing to hand over Burnaby Lake, and potentially Sumas Trail and Matsqui regional parks, to the local municipalities as it seeks to focus more on protecting eco-sensitive and regionally significant park lands.

The move comes as Metro is preparing a new land acquisition strategy that reaffirms two goals: to preserve sensitive wetland conservation and connect people with nature. A regional parks service review, commissioned by Metro Vancouver in 2014, also suggests the regional district rejects further requests for park transfers to Metro from local municipalities.

So the good news is that for the first time in recent memory, Metro may actually be clipped slightly. The regional district, originally formed as a sewer, water and garbage utility, has ventured well beyond that, mucking about in social housing, parks, regional “planning,” arts and culture grants, air smells, and other items. No wonder they bought a $205 million skyscraper to house their burgeoning bureaucratic staff.

The bad news is that Metro wants to buy more land instead, and continue to grow their kingdom. So Metro’s growth will continue…