Difficult decisions ahead as Vancouver grapples with how to replace aging, underfunded recreation facilities

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A lack of money for capital projects is not something that’s unique to Vancouver. However, the report found other big problems in terms of management and communication. 

“Not effectively managed”

Macdonell’s audit found that successive civic governments have failed to effectively manage these facilities. He found that the city and park board have no comprehensive framework for long-term management of its recreation facilities, nor do they have a way to measure whether the park board’s desired levels of service at recreation facilities are actually being met. 

That “limited the Park Board and Council's ability to make informed decisions about priorities and trade-off risks for capital renewal and maintenance projects,” Macdonell said. 

The city and park board share the responsibility for maintaining the material conditions and service levels at local rec centres, while making long-term plans to renew and replace old facilities and build new ones to match residents’ shifting needs. 

One of these major issues, the lack of a management framework for recreation facilities, was identified by the Mayor’s Budget Task Force in early 2024. 

Staff in the city’s Real Estate and Facilities Management (REFM) department have been working on it behind the scenes, but it has yet to be implemented, ABC Coun. Mike Klassen told Vancity Lookout. 

Elected officials evidently take the audit's results quite seriously. Both the park board and city council unanimously approved Macdonell’s recommendations. 

“I think this report highlights very, very serious concerns in our city, and I hope that people are paying attention,” Christensen said. A successful motion this week from ABC Coun. Sarah Kirby-Yung asked staff to report back on the work to implement an asset management framework “as soon as practically possible.” 

Kirby-Yung motion focused broadly on speeding up the delivery and completion of capital projects, directing staff to prioritize renewal of “core community facilities and essential infrastructure,” particularly old assets. The motion also asks staff to prioritize projects that have full or substantial funding and can be completed within the three-year capital plan window, while deprioritizing planning initiatives with uncertain funding.

Kirby-Yung also asked for a comprehensive inventory of community facilities, including age, expected lifespan, and current condition in 2026 to inform council’s decisions for the next capital plan in 2027. 

The deferred maintenance problem

In 2009, maintenance and repairs of park board facilities were shifted over to the city’s real estate department in an effort to save money and share services. However, as of 2024, REFM racked up $347 million in cumulative deferred maintenance costs, according to a REFM report to the park board. 

Deferred maintenance is work that’s required but not performed, accelerating facility deterioration and increasing renewal and operating costs, the report said. However, it’s a problem that’s not unique to recreation facilities, given that the city infrastructure as a whole is underfunded by about $500 million each year.

“It looked good on paper, if we can amalgamate departments [and] find efficiencies,” Aaron Jasper, a former park board commissioner from 2008 to 2014 who was part of making that decision, told the board this week. “It didn't pan out,” and the former board wouldn’t have supported it if they had known what was going to happen, Jasper said. 

However, Jasper pointed out that the park board is still responsible for maintaining recreation facilities, regardless of its agreement with REFM. The audit also found that there wasn’t clear communication or understanding of departmental responsibilities.

“I have really high confidence in how REFM is being led, and if those communications gaps that have been outlined in the report still exists then I'm sure that they're going to be addressed,” Klassen said in response to Macdonell’s audit. 

Defining roles and responsibilities between the park board and REFM was one of 13 recommendations Macdonell made to park board and council. Another recommendation was to shift towards planned and predictive maintenance. 

The audit detailed how deferred maintenance and old buildings led to service disruptions at Kerrisdale and Britannia ice rinks in March 2024, when pipes under the ice began leaking, causing safety issues. The audit found REFM used reactive, short-term solutions to fix the problems – decisions that weren’t based on formal assessments of risk and how significant the issue were to the rinks’ operation.

“Though a planned repair was subsequently scheduled for Britannia, concerns were expressed that the Kerrisdale leak may recur, and another unplanned repair may be required before a longer-term solution is implemented,” Macdonell wrote. The repairs at the Britannia rink are currently ongoing as of September 2025.

Population growth will further stretch limited facilities 

Another factor is continued population growth, which, without new and expanded places to play, exercise, and learn, will only put more pressure on existing facilities and hasten their decline. 

Take the Renfrew Park Community Centre for example. Courses and classes at the aging building and pool (the latter renovated in 2005) are already fully booked, and a new area plan projects eventual population growth of 18,000 or more people in the surrounding neighbourhoods. 

The 60-year-old centre is a high priority for renewal, but that’s a long way off. The city has made planning and design for an expanded facility a 10-year priority, according to the area plan. 

However, given its age, it will realistically need to be replaced, Renfrew Community Centre Association president Anthony Mehnert told Vancity Lookout. Right now, that kind of project could cost somewhere in the neighbourhood of $100 million, Mehnert said.

But Renfrew is just one of 11 community centres around the city that need renewal. With this in mind, Macdonell said the city and park board will need to have “candid and fulsome conversations” about where to spend its limited resources. 

“If maintenance and renewal gaps are not bridged through taxpayer funding or other means, the City will have to make the difficult decision,” about which facilities and services are a priority, leaving others to be decommissioned and discontinued, Macdonnel wrote. 

While the city and park board worked together on a strategy to repair and renew aging facilities, park board targets were not matched by city funding, according to the audit. For example, while the park board wanted to renew two existing community centres in every three-year capital plan, the city only approved one renewal per plan due to budget constraints.

Even then, the one renewal funded in the 2023-2026 plan, the RayCam Community Centre in Strathcona, was deferred in 2024 in city council’s update to the capital plan last year. That’s part of a shift from funding renewals to budgeting for maintenance, while the city waits on the province to provide funding and deliver projects. 

The most significant examples are the major community hub projects at Britannia and in the West End, which have stalled out. These are places that include services like community centres, schools, libraries, pools, and ice rinks all in one location. That also makes them uniquely difficult to renew, given the overlapping jurisdictions and coordination required. 

“The necessary funding for future phases, including construction, is currently unavailable,” for Britannia, according to the city. 

“It has become apparent that maintenance and repairs for existing facilities at Britannia have become even more urgent,” and focus is being shifted from renewal planning to prioritizing maintenance, the city said in a project update. That includes the ongoing ice rink repairs. 

Money budgeted for the West End hub design and RayCam was shifted to other renovation and maintenance projects, like Britannia, plus a couple million to study options for Kits Pool.

What it means 

This is an extremely significant issue for everyone in Vancouver. There are so many bad outcomes if we don’t have access to community facilities: declining mental and physical health, decreased affordability, kids who don’t learn basic skills like swimming, reduced social services and opportunity for connection, and ultimately a breakdown of the social contract between local governments and residents. 

It’s an issue that isn’t really about the parties and politics now — it stretches back to decisions made over at least the last couple of decades. The warning signs have been everywhere. Aging, crowded facilities, breakdowns, and rising costs, deficits, and deferrals mark a system stretched to its limits. But this audit has put a point on it.

As Macdonell says, there will be difficult choices to make, but that starts with honest communication about the serious problem Vancouver has on its hands. The early signs are that the call has been heard — let’s hope there’s follow-through, for all our sakes.

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