Inside the stalled renewal of Britannia Centre

In 2018, the city adopted an ambitious plan to renew and reconfigure the Britannia Centre complex – a sprawling site for recreation and social services in the heart of the Grandview-Woodland neighbourhood. Developed in the 1970s, the area now includes an elementary school, pool, ice rink, library, fitness centre, field and running track, DIY skatepark, carving centre, seniors centre, and other social services, as well as a high school that dates back to 1910. 

The site is governed through a unique agreement between the City of Vancouver, the Vancouver School Board (VSB) and the Britannia Community Services Society (BCSS). The VSB owns 70 per cent of the 17-acre Britannia site, with the city owning the remaining 30 per cent. 

“We're not your conventional recreation center. The neighbourhood we’re in needs a lot of support, and Britannia is a key part of that support,” Craig Ollenberger told Vancity Lookout. Grandview-Woodland and nearby Strathcona have some of the lowest median incomes in the city, high rates of early childhood vulnerability, Vancouver’s largest urban Indigenous communities, and many arts and culture workers. 

Ollenberger sits as a director on the board of the BCSS, which runs the recreation and social services on site. He’s also the chair of the Grandview Woodland Area Council (GWAC), a non-partisan neighbourhood group that’s been active in the community for over 50 years. Ollenberger emphasized that his comments aren’t made on behalf of the BCSS board, but are his personal opinions and those of GWAC.

Seven years after the Britannia Master Plan was adopted, the future of the site’s facilities is still uncertain. The plan relied on “significant funding from the province and city – as well as land agreements” between the city and VSB, according to a memo from city staff earlier this year.

However, after delays due to the pandemic, that funding has yet to materialize. “The necessary funding for future phases, including construction, is currently unavailable,” reads an update on the city’s webpage dedicated to the renewal. Instead, the city shifted funds to address the deferred maintenance at the Britannia ice rink and pool, investing $17.5 million in the 50-year-old facilities over the next two years. 

That includes “significant repairs, upgrades, and renovations” to both facilities in 2026, with work being done on the HVAC and pool systems, as well as to mechanical, electrical, plumbing, boiler, and hot water components.  

For Ollenberger, the biggest concern right now is over the pool. “You can't fix the fundamental pieces of the pool that are beyond end of life, and so [the current pool is] effectively a ticking time bomb,” he said. “The facilities are already beyond their useful life… if the pool fails there's a huge amount of service that we lose… that's the most imminent concern for the neighbourhood right now,” he explained. 

In 2018, replacing the Britannia pool was identified as a top priority by the park board, but has been “passed over,” Ollenberger said, due to pressing issues at other old pools around the city, namely the Vancouver Aquatic Centre and Kits Pool. 

“That creates, you know, real uncertainty and real anxiety for a lot of people who depend on all the things that that pool does for everybody,” Ollenberger said.

The maintenance also includes ongoing repairs to the rink’s roof and replacement of the ice rink floor, after the rink required an unscheduled closure and short-term repair in March 2024 due to a pipe leak under the ice. Less than a year later, the rink had another equipment failure, Ollenberger said.

A recent audit of the city’s recreation facilities cited the Britannia rink as an example of how “deferred maintenance and outdated systems increase the likelihood of operational disruptions,” with the city using reactive, short-term solutions to fix problems once parts fail. 

Deferred maintenance refers to work that’s required but not performed, which accelerates deterioration and increases operating and renewal costs. The rink floor at Britannia, which was pushed 20 years past its expected lifespan, is now being replaced, with the rink closed until at least the end of 2025. 

The current repairs “should set us up for the rink’s ice surface to be robust for the coming future,” Ollenberger said, noting that there’s currently no plan for a full replacement of the rink.  

The Vancouver Minor Hockey Association (VMHA), which has about 660 youth players annually across its various teams, is a primary user group for the rink from September to March, with about a quarter of the association’s ice times at Britannia in a typical year.

“The park board is doing what they can with the ice that they have,” VMHA President Levi Higgs told Vancity Lookout regarding the rink closure. “We've been happy with the working relationship that we have with them, and the mitigation that went into maximizing the ice that we could get,” at other rinks, he said. 

The Britannia rink is scheduled to be closed until at least the end of 2025, but the VMHA doesn’t know how much longer the closure might last. To be safe, they’re planning not to have access for the rest of their season, Higgs said.

Higgs lives in Grandview-Woodland, has been using the centre for years, and even sat on the BCSS board from 2016 to 2019 while the site’s master plan was being developed.

“It's a shame that we aren't part way through the construction of a new facility there. But for whatever reason, other priorities came up,” Higgs said. “The rink is one part of it, but I remember the other user groups of the recreation facilities speaking about the opportunities that they would have, so it's a combined benefit that can happen if facilities like Britannia are renewed and replaced,” he explained. 

BCSS is now waiting to see if the city will commit to funding detailed design work in the 2027-2030 capital plan to build a new pool, gymnasium and fitness centre in the parking lot next to the rink. They’ll find out whether it gets the green light at a meeting with the city in mid-November, Ollenberger said. 

But even if funding comes through and everything goes ahead, the actual construction of the new facility wouldn’t be considered until the 2031-2034 capital plan, according to the city. That means it would take roughly eight to ten years until the new facility is functional. 

“Low point” for city and VSB collaboration at the site

It was the VSB omission of the Britannia renewal from its long-term capital priorities that led the city to pause planning for the major renewal envisioned in the master plan, according to a memo from city staff in May.

Ollenberger said he thinks the partnership between the city and VSB is “at a low point,” but he’s hopeful it can improve if the city moves ahead with the new pool and gym development. 

“I think the partnership was always meant to be a really honest working together of the school board and the city to make things better for this community. I think right now, we're struggling to see that realized,” Ollenberger said.

“If the City of Vancouver intends to restart the process for site redevelopment and has funding to advance improvements, the VSB will continue to work with the City to determine viable paths to improving education facilities on the site,” the VSB said in a statement to Vancity Lookout. 

Britannia Secondary is the oldest remaining high school in Vancouver. New buildings were added in the ‘50s and ‘60s, and an elementary school was incorporated when the larger Britannia complex was completed in 1976. The elementary school received a seismic upgrade in 2009, while the highschool got a partial seismic upgrade in 2003. 

The city did not provide answers to Vancity Lookout’s questions before publication time. We asked for more information on what they call the VSB’s “withdrawal” from the plan, the decision to prioritize maintenance of existing facilities, updates on various timelines, and how city-wide budget cuts would impact BCSS.

Budget cuts on the horizon

Ollenberger shared that the city is asking BCSS to make approximately $1 million in cuts to its operating budget. At the direction of Mayor Ken Sim and the ABC majority on council, the city is looking to make $120 million in budget cuts for next year to pay for a freeze on property tax increases. The park board has gone public with the city’s directive that the park board cut $15 million from its budget. 

Sim’s motion directed staff to “prioritize core city services, and maintain community and arts and culture grants, library, and community centre services.” ABC Coun. Mike Klassen, who was absent during the vote on Sim’s motion, previously told Vancity Lookout that he was “without question” committed to maintaining frontline services, including parks and recreation. 

However, “that certainly doesn't seem to be the way it's looking right now,” Ollenberger said, adding that “these kind of cuts are going to really impact what we can do for people.” Ollenberger has been on the BCSS board for more than 12 years, and he has never seen the city ask for deep cuts to the society’s operating budget. “It's dramatic and very concerning,” he said. 

“For now, we're just hoping to keep the place together so we don't lose the services we have,” Ollenberger said. “There's a lot of people in this neighborhood who really, really depend on what we do. It's the difference between families being stable and families really struggling.”