This article focuses on the governance of Granville Island, a former industrial stretch of land that operates as an arts destination abutting the City of Vancouver’s waterfront. While Granville Island might look like any other neighbourhood in Vancouver, it is in fact owned and managed by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, a federal agency, on behalf of the Government of Canada. This article examines what it means, democratically speaking, for the federal government to operate public space in a city. Public entities are each legally unique, raising questions as to how they and their relationships with other entities can be understood, evaluated and adjudicated. This article animates how public entities are understood under Canadian law by demonstrating the difficulty in crafting inclusive, participatory governance models that respond to the many interests involved in public space, especially spaces that are explicitly identified as ‘innovative’. Drawing on qualitative data and document review, the article highlights the manner in which Granville Island has been structured and operated by the federal government, its singular focus on commerce and tourism and its weak commitments to accountability, transparency and representation. Granville Island is rendered ‘invisible’ in its governance: it blends into the urban form as though part of the City of Vancouver, while at the same time lacking in accountability, transparency and representation. We conclude that while Granville Island governs public space, making it seem like a neighbourhood in a municipality, it cannot be conceptualised as a ‘democratic body’.

中文翻译：

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具有法律独特性的机构对公共空间的治理：以温哥华格兰维尔岛为例


本文重点介绍格兰维尔岛的治理，该岛以前是一片工业用地，现在是毗邻温哥华市海滨的艺术目的地。虽然格兰维尔岛可能看起来与温哥华的任何其他社区一样，但实际上它由代表加拿大政府的联邦机构加拿大抵押贷款和住房公司拥有和管理。本文探讨了从民主的角度来说，联邦政府在城市中运营公共空间意味着什么。每个公共实体在法律上都是独一无二的，这引发了如何理解、评估和裁决它们以及它们与其他实体的关系的问题。本文通过展示制定包容性、参与性治理模型来响应公共空间（尤其是明确标识为“创新”的空间）涉及的许多利益的困难，生动地阐述了加拿大法律如何理解公共实体。文章利用定性数据和文件审查，强调了联邦政府构建和运营格兰维尔岛的方式、其对商业和旅游业的单一关注以及对问责制、透明度和代表性的承诺薄弱。格兰维尔岛在其治理中变得“隐形”：它融入了城市形态，仿佛是温哥华市的一部分，但同时缺乏问责制、透明度和代表性。我们的结论是，虽然格兰维尔岛管辖着公共空间，使其看起来像一个市镇的一个社区，但它不能被概念化为一个“民主机构”。