City facility investments

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Good morning, 

Nate with you today. I’m back after some time off and ready to dive back into all things Vancouver, especially on the City Hall side. We know many readers value our coverage of local government, and we’re excited to lean into that part of our publication. 

I can’t reveal anything else now, but we’ll have more to announce on this soon. In the meantime, we’ve got the latest on the various promises by elected officials and candidates to fund major infrastructure projects, especially community centres. While promises are easy, how they’ll do it is a different question. 

Let’s get to it!

— Nate Lewis, Vancity Lookout

I’m back on my beat and looking for story ideas! Please send your tips, leads, and civic musings to me at [email protected].

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WEATHER

Friday: 15 🌡️ 8 | 🌤️

Saturday: 12 🌡️ 7 | 🌧️

Sunday: 12 🌡️ 7 | ☁️

Monday: 9 🌡️ 6 | 🌧️

Read the story online.

It’s become common knowledge that most of Vancouver’s recreation facilities are in dire need of renewal. Community centres, pools, and ice rinks are often at capacity and in bad condition, delivering inadequate service to Vancouverites who rely on these spaces for community recreation, public space, and programs. 

Significant structural failures at Kits Pool, the Vancouver Aquatic Centre, and Brittania ice rink are some of the best-known examples of a beleaguered network of community facilities — nearly three-quarters of which were rated as being in “poor” or “very poor” condition, according to an assessment by the city in 2022.

A 2025 audit of recreation facilities painted a sombre picture of the city deferring much-needed renewals in favour of band-aid solutions, leading to unexpected closures and reduced service. “The City has been hard pressed to fund the maintenance of its existing facilities, let alone create more,” Auditor General Mike MacDonell wrote. 

“Residents are absolutely desperate to get a proper investment in parks and recreation … they can't get kids in lessons, they can't access facilities because they’re closed or over capacity,” park board commissioner Brennan Bastyovanszky, who is running for re-election with the upstart Vancouver Liberal Party, told Vancity Lookout. 

Bastyovanszky said that desperation was what motivated him to submit a request to the city, which controls park board funding, to invest $1.43 billion in parks and recreation over the next four years through the city’s 2027-2030 capital plan. 

That big number – which would be over two-and-a-half times more than the $562.5 million the park board received under the current capital plan – would pay for a lengthy list of park board projects, including $400 million to renew the Hastings, Renfrew, and Kensington community centres, $300 million for a renewal of Brittania Community Centre, including the rink, pool, skatepark, and community spaces, and $250 million for aquatic facilities, including a Kits Pool replacement.

“This is to realign the infrastructure to make the city livable,” Bastyovanszky said, especially given the city’s push to add more housing density throughout the city.

Bastyovanszky’s motion got approval at the park board, with support from fellow commissioners Scott Jensen, who is also running for re-election with the Vancouver Liberals, and board chair Tom Digby. However, commissioner Laura Christensen, who is typically aligned with those three, abstained from the vote, telling Vancity Lookout the request is a “wish list” that’s “detached from the fiscal realities of Vancouver’s budget.”

“It's one thing to advocate for more money … to say this is how much money we should have to meet those renewal targets … but to just say we want everything, without recognizing that park board is just one portion of the whole city and that a lot of other areas need money as well – I think it's just unrealistic,” Christensen said. 

“You look across all the other departments in the city, like engineering, they're facing the same problems of crumbling infrastructure. Park board is not unique in its situation of being underfunded, historically, and needing renewals,” she explained. 

Bastyovanszky disagreed, saying the funding request is realistic if the city is willing to borrow a large sum to invest in these long-term assets. While city revenues, developer contributions, and funds from other organizations and levels of government all go toward paying for the city’s capital plan, borrowing is a key way to fund major infrastructure investments.

Borrowing that amount of money for capital projects is “at the limits of the realm of possibility, but not completely outside [it],” according to Stewart Prest, a political science professor at UBC. 

“There is a trade-off between thinking small and trying to maintain balanced budgets – perhaps under-spending on the services and the structural investments that a growing city like Vancouver needs — and thinking ambitiously, perhaps too ambitiously, and taking on more than the city can sustain,” Prest explained to Vancity Lookout.

Elected officials “making the case for why they have the right level of ambition is a core element of city planning,” he added. 

Under the Vancouver Charter, the city can’t run a deficit in its annual operating budget, but it can take out loans for projects as part of its capital plan. However, local voters must give the city permission, through a successful referendum, to borrow money for those projects. Those referendums typically take place at the same time as elections. For example, in 2022, voters approved the city borrowing $495 million for various infrastructure projects.

During a speech at the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade on Wednesday, Mayor Ken Sim put forward the idea of dedicating $400 million in the next capital plan “towards rebuilding and renovating five of Vancouver’s community centres.” 

While it’s a much smaller number than what the park board is putting forward, Sim’s announcement carries more weight because he and his ABC majority, unlike the park board, have the power to put these projects on the ballot for voter consideration.

The Mayor’s office declined to share specific information about which community centres would be prioritized and how that would be funded, saying more details will be made public next week as part of a motion on strategic priorities for the capital plan coming to council on April 22. 

It’s a rare situation where the ABC majority seems to be aligned with the park board, at least on funding for the city’s community centres. Bastyovanszky told Vancity Lookout that he’d be in conversation with several city councillors, whom he declined to name, about the possibility of securing the funding the park board has asked for. “If I thought that we weren't able to afford this, I wouldn't have brought it forward,” he said. 

OneCity mayoral candidate William Azaroff told Vancity Lookout he’s in favour of ABC’s proposed community centre investments, a stance that seems to be somewhat at odds with OneCity’s recent public statement describing ABC’s proposed funding as a “$400 million slush fund to pull the wool over the eyes of Vancouverites.” 

Asked to clarify, Azaroff explained that OneCity sees it as “a really deeply cynical and politically motivated announcement … they've had three and a half years to invest in our communities.” While there have been some opportunities for Sim and ABC to adjust project funding during their term – the city actually moved more than $30 million away from the planned renewal and expansion of the RayCam Co-operative Centre in 2024 – the current capital plan was largely set by the previous council. This summer will be ABC’s first chance to set a capital plan with its own priorities. 

In terms of how those investments should be funded, Azaroff said taking on loans is part of the solution, but he wasn’t prepared to quantify how much they should be relied on. 

The other notable announcement Sim made in his Board of Trade speech was to promise that, if re-elected, he would push for a second year of no property tax increases. While that will likely be a popular position with many property owners, it would further reduce the city’s ability to pay for infrastructure investments with its own revenue, making it likely that a greater portion of any investments would need to be funded through voter-approved borrowing. 

OneCity called the promise of another tax freeze “flagrant mismanagement [which] puts Vancouver at risk of going over a fiscal cliff in a time of crisis.”

Speaking to the park board’s $1.43 billion funding ask, Azaroff said the infrastructure investments it proposes are really important but need to be viewed with a critical eye. “It seems like they sort of included everyone's pet projects, so I think there's some scrutiny that needs to be put on that,” he said. 

While many details still need to be determined and made public, and the hurdle of public approval cleared in the Fall, it does seem that elected officials and candidates are in general agreement that now is the time for a significant investment in Vancouver’s civic assets. But how ambitious those should be – and how to pay for them – still leaves plenty of room for debate. 

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12%

The increase in Vancouver’s homeless count compared to last year, a total of 2,715 people. Experts say the number likely undercounts the true unhoused population by as much as 20 per cent. Read more. [CTV]

⛴️ Next week, the park board is set to vote on a passenger ferry between Vancouver, Bowen Island, and the Sunshine Coast. It would use the public dock at Harbour Green Park and include two all-electric ferries with capacity for 150 people, 20 bikes, and four wheelchairs. The service would launch in 2028. Read more ($). [Vancouver Sun]

🏗️ Rarely is there good housing news, but that’s certainly the case here – there were 2,300 purpose-built rental units completed in 2025 in Vancouver, along with 730 social housing units. It’s the most purpose-built rentals created in four decades. Read more. [Urbanized]

❌ But if we look across the water, it’s a different story. West Vancouver is facing the ire of the province after it only approved 58 of the 220 housing units required under provincial housing targets. As a result, the province has overridden the municipality’s official community plan and will allow more housing to be built on Marine Drive. It’s the first time the province has done this. Read more ($). [Vancouver Sun]

🐕 The B.C. SPCA and First United, a non-profit in the Downtown Eastside, are calling on the province to end no-pet clauses in rental agreements, something Ontario has had for three decades. Since 2014, 12,400 pets have been taken in by the SPCA from people who had challenges finding homes with their pets. Their study found that in 82 per cent of cases, a normal rental deposit covered any pet damage. Read more. [CTV]

📉 Hullo Ferries, the popular passenger ferry service between Vancouver and Nanaimo, is changing its ticket prices, with $20 tickets for select weekday one-way trips – about 50 per cent cheaper than normal. Read more. [Urbanized]

Jugal’s Supper Club - Kolkata After Dark | Apr. 10, 6-8:45 p.m. | Bengali supper club dinner exploring food from the region | Tickets $101

AMS Block Party | 6133 University Boulevard | Apr. 10 | Music, food, bars, and more | Tickets $42

Vancouver Vaisakhi Parade | Ross Street Temple | Apr. 11, beginning at 11 a.m. | Family-fun parade with as many as 300,000 people expected to watch | Free

Mt Seymour Puddle Party | 1700 Mount Seymour Road, North Vancouver | Apr. 11, 1 p.m. | Last big party of the season, watch people try to ski/snowboard across the water | Free with seasons pass

Sakura Days Japan Fair | VanDusan Botanial Garden | Apr. 11-12 | See and learn about Japanese culture, tea ceremonies, food, and more | Tickets $24

Rat Taxidermy Workshop | Pretty Dead Taxidermy, 2333 Ontario St. | Apr. 12, 12-4 p.m. | Learn the basics of rat taxidermy, whether you’re a beginner or more advanced | Tickets $225

Teen Angst Night | Fox Cabaret | Apr. 17 and May 8 | Comedic reading series featuring cringy moments from people’s teenage notebooks | Tickets $22

Portobello West Spring Market | Roundhouse Community Centre | Apr. 18-19 | Buy unique goods from curated B.C. makers | Tickets $5

Earth Day Dinner at Lila with Food Stash Foundation | Lila Restaurant | Apr. 22, 5:30-9 p.m. | A dinner with food rescued by the Food Stash charity | Tickets $86

Celebrate Earth Day at Trout Lake Community Centre | Trout Lake Community Centre | Apr. 26, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. | Have fun and learn how to be a better steward of our environment | Free

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Racing at Strathcona Park’s track has a fascinating history, with the latest chapter unfolding on Thursday night after a decade-long hiatus. Fun stuff for all the gravel bike enthusiasts who participated in and came to watch the Gravel 100!

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Today’s Guesser is in theme with our story on recreation centres, but this is one of the few modern ones. Can you tell me which Vancouver ice rink this is?