New court case filed against controversial Vancouver Aquatic Centre renewal

While the Vancouver Aquatic Centre (VAC) sits empty and drained for its annual month of maintenance, a small group of advocates are going to the courts — escalating their dispute with the city and park board over the decision not to include a 50-metre pool in the planned redevelopment of the facility. 

It’s a familiar playbook: a newly-formed society made up of interested residents launches a court case against local government, arguing that elected officials ruled unfairly against their cause. 

Similar cases include the SPPS petition for judicial review regarding tree removals in Stanley Park, which has yet to get a court date, and the Kits Coalition’s successful litigation against the city over a supportive housing development near Arbutus and Broadway. 

The non-profit Protecting Our Vancouver Aquatic Centre Society was formed this summer as a strategic move to fundraise for a court challenge, managing director Jon Girard told Vancity Lookout. 

“We're able to be transparent with the public in a way that we just wouldn't necessarily be able to do otherwise,” Girard said. A GoFundMe campaign started in late July to support the society’s legal fight has raised nearly $20,000 so far. 

There are many people who support the society’s cause. A public petition for a 50m pool gained nearly 16,000 signatures, with petition organizers holding protests outside the VAC and City Hall. 

The case, a petition filed on August 18 asking the BC Supreme Court for a judicial review, alleges that the city and park board acted in bad faith and violated their democratic mandate concerning the 2022 plebiscite, in addition to other allegations of fraud and secret communications. 

One of the ballot questions in the 2022 municipal election plebiscite asked whether voters authorized the city to borrow just over $160 million to renew two community facilities over the next three years, including $103 million “for replacement, renewal or rehabilitation,” of the VAC. Just over two-thirds of voters voted yes, meaning the projects were approved by taxpayers. 

In the lead-up to the fall 2022 election, the city shared a detailed document with specific information about many of those projects. The document outlined the context, proposal, costs, and funding needs for the renewal of various aging amenities and infrastructure around the city, including for the VAC. 

In that document, the city said the proposed plan to renew the VAC, if approved by voters, was to “plan, design and start construction on the first phase, focusing on the renewal of the 50m lap pool and diving pool,” between 2023 and 2026. 

In their petition, the society argues that this constitutes a binding commitment for the city and park board to use the voter-approved funds to build a 50-metre pool. 

The city document explicitly ties the borrowing questions to specific projects, including the VAC renewal.

“If the borrowing questions are approved by a majority of voters, projects that renew aging amenities and infrastructure, including… renewal of the Vancouver Aquatic Centre… would be able to proceed,” according to the document. 

The document goes on to warn that, “if the borrowing questions are not approved by a majority of voters, these renewal projects would have to be deferred, reduced in scope, or cancelled altogether.”

The document was made available at community centers, recreation facilities, libraries, on the city’s website, and through its Van311 portal, Girard said. 

City staff were not able to respond by the time of publication to Vancity Lookout’s questions, including its position on the relationship between the ballot questions and the document, how the document was distributed, and approximately how many voters accessed it. 

In its petition, the society is also challenging the decision by Park Board Chair Scott Jensen to limit the total time for public speakers on the VAC renewal plan to one hour at the board’s March 31 meeting. The decision came after the high volume of speakers forced the board to extend the initial discussion over two meetings in late February. 

“We know how you feel about this issue,” Commissioner Scott Jensen said to the speakers who had spoken at the previous meetings. Of the 55 speakers registered at the March 31 meeting, the board voted to prioritize those who had not spoken at the previous meeting. 

“We want to make a point of ensuring that those others get a chance to speak and that this decision is concluded this evening,” Jensen said. 

However, Girard pointed out that Jensen’s decision to cap the overall speaking time “didn't consider the fact that everyone who wanted to speak had [a month] to consider new options. They had new facts to present, new reasons, any of which could have actually swayed a commissioner's decision,” on whether to approve the 25-metre option. 

The society’s petition calls Jensen’s decision a “serious procedural fairness violation.” The park board’s procedure bylaws state that a speaker “may not speak… more than once. " However, it seems that would not apply in this case, given that this was a different meeting, with new information being presented by staff.

Following the March meeting, Girard also made a code of conduct complaint to the city’s integrity commissioner, according to VIA.  

Park board commissioners eventually approved the plan for the 25-metre pool, telling Vancity Lookout before the meeting that it all came down to how much money was available from City Hall for the project. 

Unless there was another $50-100 million available for the project, “I think we've got to get rolling with the 25m [pool] and move all the 50m swimmers [to Hillcrest], despite their unhappiness with it,” Commissioner Tom Digby said at the time. 

The city and park board have three weeks to file a response to the allegations in the society’s petition. 

Girard does not expect the case to be heard for many months, but isn’t too worried about the timing, given that the construction for the new VAC isn’t scheduled to begin until late 2026. 

Meanwhile, the current VAC facility, built in 1974, will reopen to the public on September 8 for what could be its final year of service.