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

Looking around Vancouver, one can’t help but notice that so many public facilities are old and falling apart: The crumbling Vancouver Aquatic Centre. Kits Pool leaking. Outdated community hubs in Grandview-Woodland and the West End. Ancient ice rinks. The derelict Stanley Park train. Broken and inefficient water features. The list goes on and on. 

It’s a widespread issue that’s particularly noticeable when it comes to Vancouver’s recreation facilities. Out of 24 community centres, 14 pools, and eight ice rinks, 72 per cent are in ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’ condition, according to a 2022 analysis by the city.

There’s a pressing need to renew and replace these facilities, and the stakes are high for Vancouverites' quality of life. Rec centres improve people’s lives on a daily basis, and are an expectation of urban life – especially for families, youth, seniors, and people with middle to low incomes.  

But the combination of increasing construction costs and declining revenues from development contributions has led to a situation where our local government struggles to keep up with the maintenance needs of aging facilities, much less afford to build many new ones at the rate required to expand service. 

As of 2022, the city had an annual infrastructure funding deficit of $500 million – which is the difference between the amount of money needed to renew and replace existing infrastructure and the amount that’s budgeted. That includes an underfunding of recreation facilities by about $33 million per year, according to the recent audit by the city’s Auditor General Mike MacDonell. 

“The City has been hard pressed to fund the maintenance of its existing facilities, let alone create more,” MacDonell said. 

“It is difficult to envision how the cumulative deficit will be overcome, especially given the City has no plan in place to close the annual funding gap. Several [recreation] facilities are nearing the end of their useful lives and are becoming increasingly difficult and expensive to operate,” MacDonell’s audit found.  

“What this means is our choices moving forward will not be what new shiny asset can we build, but which facilities will we need to decommission, because we can afford to maintain them,” Park Board Chair Laura Christensen said.  

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