Reduce Speaker Time to Three Minutes

Statement Watch

You'll have three minutes. Thank you. Thank you, Chair Digby. My name is John Irwin, and I'm representing myself, but I'm also seeking a nomination for park board with one city, local party. I just wanted to thank everybody. Yes.

We are, as long as it's not oppressive or embarrassing for this. Could you repeat your question? Sorry, I'm doing this again.

It was a point of order and I want to know whether people are... allowed to speak of the affiliated parties that they might be campaigning on, because right now we're focused on our motion.

Thank you, Commissioner. People are, but we will ask the Commissioner to move on from that statement. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Thank you. I will issue no more party-based things. I'm seeking that. So I just want to thank Chair Digby and the Commissioners, members of public and staff, for having us speak to this. And I also want to thank Commissioners and Chairs. John Cooper and Aaron Jasper and all the people who worked hard to save the Park Board because I'm so excited that we can run for Park Board again and keep this great institution going. Yes, speaking in favour of the motion in principle, I'm kind of wondering if it might be better to temper it slightly to a billion, but you folks are privy to the numbers and the perspective, you know. discussion that's going to happen. I view this as starting the discussion or the capital plan and a good ask towards council. You know, it might be good to put this capital plan, this is a bigger thing, you know, in a different slot, like midterm or something, because it comes up right at the end of everybody's terms, but that's a governance thing. I think it brings much needed improvements to community centres and new rebuilds and park acquisition, which we know are important. and always a challenge and will be very important in the Broadway plan corridor for sure. We're also impressed with the habitat restoration and would hope that it could revive the West End waterfront plan and extend it and do a little bit of planned renovation, rebuilding. of the seaball that that's a little bit of planned retreat given the constant threat of you know a rising tide that that causes that it's great to see the stanley park bike lane uh funded as well as the 50 meter pool prospectively started and funded And, you know, over the years on Park Board that I had, four years, there were many discussions and processes to prioritize pressing needs. So I think this motion and hopefully the capital funding that comes with it will step that up because it was, you guys know this, it's a struggle to get that sorted and to get that done. I also want to note that there's been some hopeful announcements just today that Brampton got major money for community centres. And my understanding is some more Marple community centre funding came from the senior levels of government. I think it's also important to point out that these processes bring on partners from senior levels of government and other sectors that can help us build this. Because as a father of three children who spent many years... and days as a stay-at-home dad in the West End Community Centre and Coal Harbour Community Centre, these are the places that give us the space for our kids to grow and learn and play, and ourselves as well, right? So I think it's very important that we fund them fully and we keep them going. They're a big part of the social infrastructure and the environmental infrastructure of our city, and I wish you all the best.

Statement Watch

Yeah, Aaron Jasper, former commissioner and chair. I'm here to speak in favor of the motion. I want to actually give a shout out to a former commissioner here because the capital plan that you folks are working on was one that was developed by the previous board, if I'm not mistaken. So I think it's worth acknowledging. I think for people to understand that you're really working on the next capital plan. And so we'll see. Hopefully a few of you are reelected. be able to shepherd that through. But it's important to note, and I think just a shout out to the former commissioner and that board, because it's a really good plan that you're working on right now. I want to commend this board for your diligence, you and your senior management team, on seeing this capital plan through. I know from personal experience with Trout Lake Little League, Commissioner Jensen has been a great champion to help us shepherd that. That was nearly a million dollars that went into the renewal of our diamonds. So thank you for that. Yes. Is this enough money? No. So congratulations on at least starting the discussion. I agree with Commissioner Hare. Yeah, it's not enough money. But I think to clarify, I think you need to go with full renewals of community centres. The $200 million envelope which was discussed, I think it's enough to at least get Hastings well underway. and would give you at least enough planning money to get the renewal projects for the next two in line. And so I would really urge you to, where possible, stick to the lists you have. We've seen this in this last little while where there's been some pet projects. that have jumped the queue. And I would say for this board, for anyone who is in the audience or watching online who are aspiring to be park commissioners, stick with the list. All of the work, all of the buy-in that's been done with the community center associations, with different user groups, whether it's the Field Sports Federation. A very thoughtful process and a lot of goodwill that's gone into developing these lists. So I would urge everyone, regardless of who's sitting around this table, stick with the list. But I think this is a good start. And as former Commissioner John Irwin pointed out, there was an announcement today with some federal funding. So for there to be arguments from City Hall that there's not enough money, I don't buy it. I think there is enough money, and I think that if you were to proceed with this, and it allows you to get some planning done, you might be able to tap in to some of that federal money. And whether it's a question of the City Hall getting some other, their infrastructure projects done, so they can shift some monies over, I think the money's in the system. And I really think that this 1.35, it's long overdue. Sorry, I'm just watching my time, 20 seconds left. I'd love to go down a little bit of a walk down history, memory lane, to give you some of our experiences, some of the pitfalls that we ran into as a cautionary tale on how you should proceed, this and future boards, because it is unfortunate that no community center has been open since 2011. And there's some challenges that went through, and I think there's some things that you could best avoid if we look back at what happened in the past.

Statement Watch

Good evening, Commissioners and staff, and the public who have joined us tonight. My name is John Cooper. I represent myself, and I support this motion, mainly because for a long time, Park Board capital plans, especially since 2008, have largely been given an envelope of dollars from the City of Vancouver, and projects have been shoehorned into those often insufficient plans. I applaud the effort to actually tackle the ongoing decline in our system. During the time I was on the board, we were advised that strategy work needed to happen before funds would be approved by the city of Vancouver. So as an example, we did a lot of strategy work. I was on the board for 11 years, and during that period, we did van splash and van play and field sports and a whole bunch of others. And we were assured that once we had the strategy in place, the money would follow. Unfortunately, it never materialized, and the city had other priorities. So over the time, if you look at the park board over many, many years, you see it continues, even though you talk about the biggest budget ever, it has a declining percentage of the city's overall budget over many, many years, and that is the result of what we're facing today. I also believe a big part of the disconnect is is the creation of REFM at City Hall and its removal of its service delivery from park board jurisdiction, changing the park board from delivering the service to being a client, often overshadowed by City of Vancouver priorities. So a little history and a question. How was it possible for a park board to develop and complete the Bloedel Conservatory, QE Park Restaurant, Van Dusen Gardens, Vanier Park, the Vancouver Aquatic Centre, False Creek Seawall, New Brighton Pool, and Lord Ming Pool, and Langara Golf Course, in a period of seven years between 1968 and 1975. Something has changed. And I think that something has been the park board has not had the authority that once had to move forward with its own projects. We are finally now opening two new community centres, which I'm proud to say I was involved in. And that's tremendous. The only problem is that those two community centres, particularly Oak Park, was supposed to have a swimming pool next to it. The park board approved it. It went up to the city. The pool never materialized. So, commissioners, I think you need to push hard. We're opening two new community centres, the first since 2010, which is a 16-year period.

I would suggest reviewing previously approved board projects that have languished without action and ask staff to report what steps have been taken to remedy the situation. And be sure you as commissioners have provided staff with the capability and resources to get those often vital park and recreational projects back on track. Thank you. That's my request tonight. Thank you. And I appreciate all the work you're doing, and I think you're doing a great job with this because people need to know it costs money to have quality facilities in the city of Vancouver.

Excellent. Thank you, former chair. Are there any questions for the former chair? I do see Commissioner Hare would like to know.

Coming today. You had mentioned that you don't think the operating budget, which is the largest ever Vancouver's had is realistic. What was your operating budget? And what were the numbers can you know what what I what I said was yeah Is that the operating budget over time has not kept track? with the rest of the departments of the city so even though it sounds like a big number to you and I I Appreciate your work as a commissioner, and I know it's your first term as a commissioner the trend is very obvious. The Park Board is getting less and less money over time as a percentage of the overall city budget. It's unsustainable for the Park Board to do all the things that it has to do with the money. And I know, we have, when I say we, I still feel like I'm part of the group, but there are tremendous staff people here. These people can wring money out of nowhere. They are very resourceful, they're extremely talented, and I was so proud to represent them. But the fact is, if you go back and look at some history, and look at those projects that were done in that seven-year period, I can tell you that the mayor in those days and the council in those days appreciated the park board and understood that if those services were delivered, they would look great. We haven't had that for a long time. And with all due respect, we haven't had it with the present mayor, and we haven't had it for probably 15 years. One more quick question and a quick answer. Thank you. With the RAFM, the selection process when we farm out a lot of our services, if you want to call it that, did you guys not do that during your time? No, that was done prior to me coming on the board. I came on the board in 2011. I was on the board from 2011 to 2022. That happened in 2008, 2009, when there was a new administration, a new city manager. At the time, it was Mayor Greg Robertson, and the city manager was Penny Ballum. She made the decision to take that service delivery away from the park board and move it up to the city. And what happened is it created, in my opinion... a bureaucracy that is really not hasn't served the park board very well over those last... So was it in the mayor's hand or was it in the staff's hand? Like, what are you trying to say? Because you were elected, you could have altered... No, no, this is prior... You could have altered it. You could have changed it during your time, but you haven't. Let me clarify. This was prior to me being elected. This was 2008, 2009. Okay. This was done by the city manager with the approval of the mayor and council at the time. It never came, surprisingly, to the park board for decision. Mm-hmm. So it was taken out of the park board hands. It was done by the city of Vancouver. I think that fundamentally was a big mistake.

Statement Watch

Thank you very much. Good evening, park board commissioners, park board staff, and members of the public. Nice to see you here. My name is Stephen Shapiro, and I'm the executive director of the Vancouver Botanical Gardens Association, the joint operating partner of the park board, which operates both... the Van Dusen Botanical Garden and Bloedel Conservatory at Kewi Park. I'm here tonight to speak specifically as it relates to section C of the motion, subsection six. I don't know if you can switch that. Yes, right at the bottom. The planning support for community-led capital projects at partnered facilities, including Van Dusen Botanical Garden and Bloedel Conservatory. I want to speak in favour of this section, very important section. As per the recently renewed and so far very successful joint operating agreement that took effect on January 1st, 2025, that incidentally all of you voted unanimously for, if you recall, in the spring of 2024. the agreement called for a master planning process or a comprehensive plan for the future growth and improvement of both facilities over the past year we've seen phenomenal growth of the joint membership program a collaboration between the park board and vbga and we now are close to having 18 000 members at both of the facilities one of the largest membership programs in the city so this sets the stage for future growth and development of our partnership with this park board During this agreement renewal process, which took six years to complete, we consulted with numerous leading gardens around the world and learned from best practices among many experts in the field. Every public botanical garden across North America goes through these processes which provide a blueprint for responsible growth, new future installations and features, and continued engagement with their communities that can last at least 20 to 25 years in the future. It has been more than two decades since the last attempt was made at this in Vancouver, and that plan ultimately was largely incomplete and basically ignored. Van Dusen is among the largest and most beloved jewels in Vancouver, some 55 acres in the middle of the city, and Bloedel is the most visited by locals and tourists alike. Both exceed 50 years since their creation, and a new comprehensive plan is needed.

If this board is successful in convincing the public and City Hall for this momentous investment in our parks and recreation, then please, I strongly request that this board include that investment and the resources necessary to embark on this comprehensive planning process. Great cities are often judged by their unique and wonderful places that they offer to their residents and visitors, and these two places are no exception. Thank you for your time tonight, and I'm happy to answer any questions. Run, run, run.

Statement Watch

Good evening, Commissioners. My name's Jerry Fast. I apologize for my voice. I have a little laryngitis. I chair the Association Presidents Group. or APG, representing 19 Vancouver Community Centre Associations in all parts of the city. I'm speaking to you tonight in support of the motion regarding the Park Board's proposed capital plan. I will focus my comments on recommendations in the motion regarding community centres. The community centre associations have known for many years that there has been a serious shortage of capital funding for the renewal of the ageing community centres in Vancouver. Tonight, you are proposing a capital budget of $1.35 billion. This very substantial budget speaks to how serious the infrastructure deficit is. I note that $200 million has been designated for community centre renewal, identifying three centres as priorities, namely Hastings, Kensington and Renfrew. While we fully support this proposal, we note that $200 million will not likely be sufficient for the renewal of three centres given the cost of construction these days. The APG believes that Hastings Community Centre should be the first priority for renewal. The need for renewal, and importantly, planning for renewal, has been identified in several studies and reports in recent years. Van Play, the 2019 Parks and Recreation Services 25-year master plan, proposed renewing two aging community centres in each capital plan. The community centre strategy completed in 2022 identified 11 centres in urgent need of renewal and also recommended renewing two of those centres in each capital plan. And the Recreation Facilities Asset Management Audit from the Auditor General in 2025 concluded that, quote, the city does not have a capital asset management framework, end quote. The auditor goes on to say that, quote, in the absence of a capital management framework... that anticipates continuous service delivery, the city has not put aside funds for the replacement of assets as they reach the end of their useful lives, end quote. Finally, the auditor concludes, quote, at approximately 500 million, Vancouver's annual infrastructure deficit is significant. Current funding levels are not sufficient to maintain assets in a state of good repair, let alone address funding for asset replacement." In addition to renewal of existing centres, the official development plan approved by the City Council projects population growth of 250,000 people. That will require seven new community centres, if you look at the 1.2 square foot per person that we use as a measure of how much space we need.

So we're looking at seven new centres. And that's in addition to the current centres and the 11 that need renewal. So we have a lot of work to do.

Statement Watch

Thank you. Good evening. I'm speaking on behalf of Kitts Pool Swimmers, a grassroots group of thousands of supporters working collaboratively with the city and the Parks Board on Kitts Pool renewal. Our vision is bold but achievable. We want to create the greatest swimming pool experience in the world, open year-round through architectural innovation and sustainable technology. Kitts Pool, at 137.5 metres, is the longest outdoor saltwater pool in North America. It's more than infrastructure. It's a civic icon that embodies Vancouver's spirit and could become our signature image, like the Sydney Opera House. We have three essential elements that we're looking for. Number one, to preserve its length at 137.5 meters. This dimension defines Kit's pool experience. It cannot be replicated anywhere else and must not be compromised. Our theme, Go the Distance, reflects this commitment. Number two, enable year-round operation. Transform seasonal underutilization into continuous community benefit. This maximizes public investment, increases equitable access, and relieves pressure on overcapacity in aquatic centers. And number three, create a world-class showcase. Use architectural innovation and sustainable technology to enable Kitts Pool as the global landmark that reflects Vancouver's values and ambition. This renewal is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to model a new kind of city-community collaboration, one that delivers what neither could achieve alone. The outcome will shape Vancouver's landscape and reputation for the next 50 to 75 years. Kitts Pool Swimmers stands ready to go with Go the Distance together. Thank you.

Thank you, Kitts Pool Swimmers. Commissioner Jensen has a question.

Thank you so much for being here this evening. I just wanted to know that in our motion, or in the motion, sorry, it states or talks a little bit about public partnerships. What would the Kits Pool Swimmers Association or you as a representative tonight feel if there was outside park board money that was invested in this facility to bring it to meet the needs that you were talking about this evening?

So Kitspool Swimmers is actively involved right now in conversations around fundraising. We're interested to become or to be a continued community partner because we believe that the financial restrictions in the city are significant and we would like to help in raising significant dollars to fulfill that gap. Wonderful. Thank you so much. I appreciate your time this evening. Seeing no further questions, thank you for very interesting comments. Thank you.

Statement Watch

Thank you. Good evening, Chair, Board members, Commissioners, and members of the community. My name is Sylvie Peretz, and I'm here tonight representing the Carersdale Community Centre Society. We're here to advocate for Carersdale as a vital, integrated community hub. Specifically, we ask that the Board explicitly include the Carersdale Arena and Pool in the pending renewal motion, committing to a full and comprehensive refit of the critical amenities. We strongly support the direction of this motion, particularly its focus in addressing aging infrastructure and facilities that are reaching the end of their service life. That reality is already playing out in Carisdale. The Carisdale pool was built in 1970, and the arena, also several decades old, are now well beyond their intended lifespan. Today, both are inoperable, leaving a significant gap in the recreation access to our community. This is exactly the type of situation the capital plan is meant to address. I want to thank Commissioner Herrera for pointing out earlier in the question about equality and across the board. Thank you. The motion proposes significant investment in recreation facilities including funding for facilities and the renewal of community centres across the city. However, Karesdale Arena and pool are not explicitly identified with these priorities. Without the explicit inclusion, there's a real risk that these facilities, despite being inoperable and at the end of their life, will not be addressed within the capital cycle. We're asking the board to close the gap by naming Carousel Arena and Pool as part of this renewal effort. This is not just a local issue. The Lower Mainland is facing a well-documented shortage of ice facilities. Families are experiencing long wait lists, significant travel burdens, and late night ice times that impact quality of life. Renewing Carisdale Arena would directly support the motion's broader objective in investing in recreation infrastructure that meets growing demand across the city and region. Carisdale is a design growth area, and its role as a community hub will only become more important over time. This is an opportunity to go beyond place, meal, renewal, and instead deliver a complete, future-ready hub, one that brings together recreation, wellness, and social connection in a growing population. The motion rightly emphasizes the importance of a long-term planning and assessment management, including Carousel Arena, and Poole is fully aligned with that intent. And we support an amendment to explicitly include the renewal of the Carisdale Arena and Carisdale Pool within the 2027 to 2030 capital priorities.

We urge the board to take this step to ensure the critical community hub is renewed in full and positioned to serve Vancouver residents for decades to come. Thank you for your time this evening.

And thank you, Sylvie. A quick question from Commissioner Herr. related to the subject matter of the speaker. Thank you.

I understand your concern about being prioritized as well. How many families come through Kerrisdale, the ice rink and also the swimming pool? Do you know roughly? How busy is that? How busy is that? I don't know exact to that, but I could tell you that there's wait times to come in and use the facilities. I know there are a lot of families that live around there as well. Lots of families. Lots of seniors, but mostly are families with young children. And more families have moved into the neighborhood. From what I'm told, and I'm new to the board, there's 60% are seniors and 40% are families with young children. And you kind of agree with this motion, I'm guessing, but your community's been left out. Yes, I have. $200 million, do you think that's suffice? No, it does not. Okay, thank you. Thank you.

Statement Watch

First off, thank you very much to the commissioners, the park staff, and even the community for being here tonight. This is really an important topic for all of us, and I really appreciate the opportunity to speak in support of the Parks Board's capital plan motion. I'm Barry Lineback, president of the Kitsilano Showboat Society. I'm sure you all have memories of Kitsilano Showboat from being this tall to an adult, going down with your mom and dad, children. Everybody has a story about the Kitsilani Showboat. You've all received a copy of last year's program book, and it outlines some of our amazing shows last year. I'm here to say that this year, our season is even bigger and better. Since 1935, the Kitsilani Showboat has been a beloved jewel in the city of Vancouver. In our 91-year history, we have facilitated over 4,500 nights of entertainment, 7,200 diverse groups, including Indigenous, LGBTQ+, and multicultural performers. Showboat is... and has always been all-inclusive. We don't say no to anybody. Everybody's welcome to perform on the stage. We have put on over 100,000 artists on the stage for millions of visitors from all around the world. Most importantly, this is all done by dedicated volunteers at zero operating cost to the city. We are self-funding. We do it ourselves. In our 91 years, we have never missed a season. not through war years, renovation, king tide floods, COVID-19, even after the devastating 2023 fire, we kept the lights on with the help of your amazing park staff. It was really good to work with them in making that happen. Looking ahead, our 2026 season features 50 shows over 10 weeks, a huge accomplishment for Show Boat. In fact, we're already planning Show Boat 100, and I've saved a date for Park Sport for the ribbon-cutting ceremony, just so you know. The Show Boat is a vital rung in the professional ladder for many local arts groups. We are the first experience on a professional stage, providing a turnkey platform with sound, lighting, MCs, and a very appreciative audience. It's always showtime at the Kitsilano Showboat. We've hosted legends like Chief Dan George, Dale Richards, Red Robinson, Jim Patterson, Paul Revere and the Raiders, and many, many more. CKNW, CKWX, CKLG, CFUN, most of the radio stations of Vancouver have all broadcast at one time or another from the showboat stage. We have watched our performers move on to the New York Met, the London Royal Ballet, the Stuttgart Ballet, and many world champions.

Barry, I'm just going to interrupt you with the time. Are you going to weave this into the motion that's for us? Because we need you to tie that in to the motion before your time's up.

Thank you. Yes. Showboat has a stellar reputation in the city of Vancouver, and we do need the funding to rebuild the showboat in the form that it is, or better, because we have a golden opportunity to do something in partnership with Parks. We have a rare opportunity to make a difference by building a lasting legacy in Vancouver, in Kitts Pool. By including us in the Parks Board budget, we aren't just fixing structure, you're securing a home for a Vancouver institution that is to the test of the time. That's why we should be included in the budget.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Very compelling tie-in. Some people wait to the end to make it all happen. Commissioner Jensen.

That's your business.

I have a question for you. Could you just explain how much damage was done to the facility during the 2022, was it 2022, 23 fire and explain whether or not any of those parts of your theatre are still operational or if they're still closed?

We survived the King Tide flood of 2019, and we thought we were doing really good. And then we got hit with COVID, and then we got hit with the fire. And the fire basically, Parks Board condemned the building shortly after, within a week. Tom, you were down there. Scott, you came down. And we were devastated in how we were going to proceed. The centre core of the building is burned out. It's a mess. It has to come down. It's destroyed. The two outside buildings and the washrooms were both, and the stage, were all felt to be tied part and parcel of the whole structure, and they were going to have to come down too. But Parks Guidance did an assessment, and we were able to save the two outside buildings, two washrooms, and the stage. So right now we're looking at replacing the center core of it. So what looked like a big bill has now been skinny down quite a bit to getting back to center stage. We think the future is very bright. We're working with parks right now as a key stakeholder and part of the pool plan, working with various people on what we can do to get showboat back up and running in the pool. or in the new pool, whatever Parks decides.

Statement Watch

Good evening. My name is Katie Finley, and I am in favor of this motion. I'm the owner of Vancouver Performing Stars, a prominent performing arts studio in Vancouver dedicated to providing accessible, high-caliber training for children and youth across the city. Since 2012, we have provided arts programming across eight community centers and now operate our own 80-seat theater in Mount Pleasant, a community staple that serves over 1,500 students weekly across the city. I'm here representing our widespread student base and the hundreds of young performers who have been privileged to grace the Kitsilano Show Boat stage. For nearly a decade, this authentic community arts experience has shaped their futures, teaching them the value of their own voices within the cultural fabric of our city. To support the Showboat is to invest directly in the growth and success of the next generation of Vancouver. Showboat is so much more than just an outdoor amphitheatre. It's a gift from the city to its people. For young performers, standing on that stage and looking out at hundreds of supportive faces is a transformative moment that builds a lifetime of confidence. It is a stage that is blind to financial means, proving to the future changemakers of our city... that their voices and talents have a rightful place in our public spaces. Shelburt's Valley extends far beyond the performers. It addresses Vancouver's documented loneliness crisis as an intergenerational bridge, one of the few spots left where kids, seniors, and families connect through an accessible and inclusive shared experience. A restored, modernized facility is an opportunity to preserve the cherished tradition of the free community season led by the society while ensuring the new facility is built to a professional standard, allowing for complementary uses that also benefit citizens, such as weekday workshops or arts training, and generate the revenues needed to subsidize and protect Showboat's long-term viability. Parks Board has an opportunity to protect a cultural legacy and ensure performance will have the opportunity to perform there with that beautiful backdrop and the community spirit for decades to come. It is truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience that cannot be replicated and is the hidden gem of Vancouver that makes it so uniquely special. By ensuring Kitsilano Showboat has its own protected allocation as essential infrastructure within the Kitsilano Pool project, you are investing in the social health and collective spirit of our entire city. Thank you.

Thank you, Katie. Question, Commissioner Hare.

Thank you for coming out. I'm glad that you support this. Are you concerned that the show vote itself is not explicitly... showcased here because they don't, I mean, you're supporting this, but then again, you're talking about show book, which is not talked about in this motion. And it's obvious there's not enough money being allocated here. Is that a concern? Yeah, you know, I actually was surprised that it wasn't demonstrated here, but I do believe it is a part of that entire kids pool area and project. And I think it would be such a shame for it to just disappear. And I think it needs to be considered as a part of that motion. Obviously, there's... So you do not support the motion as written. You'd like to see the show vote to be explicitly mentioned as well? Yes. Thank you.

Statement Watch

Thank you. Again, David Simons speaking in support of the showboat as well. And I'm speaking from the perspective of performance and performance-based groups across Vancouver. People who rely on spaces to entertain, not only but to connect and to express and to build community. I came here about 45 years ago from Montreal, and I worked as a professional actor and a singer. I still do. But I began my own journey through community-based leverage going in through the United Players, which was a volunteer place at the time. And so I have a real understanding of what kind of... opportunities exist because of the showboat to performers and performing arts. Along the way I've spent many years volunteering and nearly two decades at the Three Links Care Centre as Santa and you can see I'm still carrying that torch right now. But I can, it really is from a lifelong vision of and working within the community as an entertainer that I'm supporting the showboat. For 91 years, the showboat has been really a living, breathing stage for the people of the city, not just as a venue, but as a cultural cornerstone. At a time when Vancouver has seen a steady loss of live performance spaces, small venues closing, opportunities shrinking, the showboat stand is just one of the last truly accessible open-air stages available to everyone. And that term everyone really does matter, as the showboat has always been very inclusive by design. It's welcomed youth performers taking their very first steps on stage. It's provided space for Indigenous artists to share culture and story. It's amplified LGBTQ voices, multicultural groups, community choirs, dance troupes, independent musicians, many of whom wouldn't otherwise have had an opportunity to get up on a professional stage. It's not just about entertainment, though. It's about equity, access, giving people a place to be heard and seen. For emerging artists, the showboat is often their first opportunity to gain a confidence, experience, and connection with a live audience. For established community groups and artists, it's a reliable and respected platform. And for audiences, it's a rare chance to experience the diversity of Vancouver's cultural fabric freely and openly. There's something uniquely powerful about live performance in a shared public space. It brings together cross-generations, cross-backgrounds, beliefs in a time when division and isolation is really ruling the day. So spaces like the showboat create connection. They really remind us of what community is when you sit there and you look around you and you see who all is sitting beside you. It's really remarkable. And so is the work done on stage. If we lose spaces like that, we don't just lose stages. We lose opportunities. We lose voices and cultural continuity. Continued support and funding for the Kitsilano Showboat is not just an investment in the arts.

It's an investment in community well-being, cultural diversity, and the next generation of performers. And that is why I'm speaking in support of the showboat being included in part of the Parks Board capital plan.

Statement Watch

Please state your position. Good evening, Parks Board Commissioners, staff and management. Thank you for the opportunity to speak in support of the motion that's put forward today. My name is Costa Chatsy-Spiros, and I'm the president of the Kitsilonga Showboat Society and the Showboat Building Committee Chair. My Showboat volunteering journey began back in high school in the 80s, and I'm one of the literally thousands of volunteers that have supported Showboat's simple founding dream, you know, the Kits Beach gathering place for the public to enjoy free summertime entertainment. Although Showbutt does not receive arts and culture funding today, the facility's support and ongoing partnership with Parks and the City of Vancouver has actually been stellar. It's immensely appreciated by all, all the community. As a stakeholder, we've been engaged with staff in the assessment of the current state of the Showboat facility and considerations for its future. Since 1935, Showboat has been a self-funded turnkey operator delivering significant summertime programs with at times up to 100,000 audience members in a season and well over 1,000 performers per year. The current facility is actually over 75 years old and has extensive water damage and fire damage, as we heard from Barry earlier. Park staff have done an amazing job of erecting a creative and safe backdrop that allows our performances to go on. It's conveniently designed in such a way that audiences are shielded from seeing the burnt out shell behind there, which is great for performances and very safe. By including Showboat in a rebuild, refurbishment, or modernization of the pool facility, we can continue being the summer heartbeat for many local performers, all while focusing Showboat on producing free and easily accessible entertainment for everyone to enjoy. As we actually set a course for our 100th year in 2035, we see an opportunity to protect our legacy, our Vancouver cultural legacy at Kitts Beach. And for future generations, something to really be proud of and enjoy its use. For that specific reason, and for the reasons from my colleagues, the prior three speakers, I believe a capital allotment for Showboat specifically should be included in the Parks Board 2027-2030 capital plan. And I thank you very much for your time this evening.

Thank you, Costa. A quick question from Commissioner Herr.

Thank you for coming tonight.

Thank you.

I could see that the showboat is very dear to your heart and it's not included in this motion and neither is there enough money in this motion. Do you think this motion is redundant almost with all the concerns and do you feel included? Your group of people, your community and do you wish that it was changed? Because you're saying that you're supportive but you actually don't because you want to be included. I read it as carefully as I could, and I don't understand all the minutiae, and there's obviously a lot of supporting detail. And I imagine it's hard work to put together, as I heard earlier. Of course. It's hard work. The staff have been hugely supportive and very transparent, and management as well, to the best of their ability. And I think it's difficult. So definitely we don't see a lot of dollars there, given all the projects. we're aware of. And for Showboat, we've had consistent communication about how it could be included, if you will, in things. So we don't have enough transparency to know if there's enough dollars. I don't really know. So you've been speaking to the staff and they're trying to work well with your community. They're always consistently trying to do that. I think Barry would say for as many years as we've been around. But there are limitations. Again, I'm a layman when it comes to the capital budget. $200 million. It doesn't sound like a lot of money. And you guys are not included in this motion. It doesn't sound like enough money. It's maybe good for repairs for two recreation centers. Right. So you don't support it the way it is. With an amendment and specifically identifying showboat, yes. and hopefully some more money on that. We'll be glad to support that and put our voice behind it. Thank you.

Statement Watch

Wonderful. Thank you so much. So my name is Oliver Tennant, and in short, I support this motion. For a bit of background, I am on the Planning and Development Committee at Britannia, and I also chair the Britannia Skateboard Committee. and there's a section of this motion that mentions the renewal and that's specifically the section that i want to highlight at britannia community center there is a skate park called britannia quartz it's a very popular well-loved and special spot for the skateboarding community and thankfully with working with city staff park board staff as well as the staff and volunteers at Britannia. The renewal now includes a new skate park. And as such, as part of the Britannia Skateboard Committee, we support this motion because it obviously supports the renewal. And we're really thankful that it's included within it. And the one thing I just want to highlight in closing is it all ties into the skateboard amenities strategy that Park Board passed in June of 2022 unanimously for the growth of skateboarding across the city of Vancouver for the next 20 years, specifically highlighting actually Britannia Courts, including a skate park within the renewal within phase one building there. uh because uh once britannia does get redeveloped uh the current britannia courts uh will be uh removed so looking to have it replaced but just want to say thank you very much for your time thank you for this motion and i do support it with heavy focus on the renewal and the skateboard features around that thank you commissioners

Statement Watch

Hi. Chair, commissioners, staff, thank you so much for making this city a wonderful place to live. and also a great place to have fun and go out and play and be healthy. So thank you very much. Really appreciate it. I support the motion, but have some suggestions, like Oliver, who is a friend of mine. For the last 30 years, I've been a volunteer with the Vancouver Skateboard Coalition. And... I also worked for the city for about 34 years and worked on four capital plans. No, actually five capital plans. And this motion is very helpful for advancing the significant needs for parks and rec facilities in the city. We've certainly heard about the 250,000 more people that are going to be arriving here, and certainly their expectation will be that they will have a quality of life that Vancouver is known for. And definitely the parks, the recreation facilities, and having a whole bunch of fun is part of living in Vancouver. I support the spirit of the investments identified in the motion, and also want to note that it would be great under number three to specifically mention the skate park. If you go to the courts, you'll actually see mothers with their daughters learning how to skateboard, so it's a very unique spot. Also, thank you so much for the excellent concept plan for Broad Slopes. Park and the inclusion of a modest size skateboard facility as as part of the other facilities there and all definitely with with my butt over there be back next week to speak to you about that as well also wanna note that the Hastings Bulls skate park which is a world-renowned skate facility we've been having a whole bunch of fun there for more than 25 years And it's showing some wear and tear on the coping and the concrete. So indeed, we're going pretty fast there, so it sure needs some repair. So that's something to pop by there sometime and have a look at the maintenance need for that facility. I also just want to note that I'm also chair of the Vancouver Heritage Commission and I'm on the board of the Vancouver Heritage Foundation. And we recognized the China Creek Park as a place that matters because we saw that the old escape park in the city is an important part of Vancouver's heritage. So thank you so much for all you do, and we look forward to some more investments in skateboard facilities. We really appreciate your support on that.

Statement Watch

I'm here to support the motion in principle with some reservations. I think I'm speaking on behalf of all present and future swimming pool users in the city of Vancouver. The pool capacity shortfall in this city is becoming critical with five of the nine existing indoor pools currently considered at end of functional lifespan, and one of which is closing in a couple of months. The 2019 van splash report set out a 25-year plan for the renewal of aquatic facilities, including two larger facilities, 50-meter pool at VAC and one at Connock Park. No new facilities have been produced under this plan to date. There are no planned additions to pool capacity until earliest the end of 2029, when the new smaller VAC will open, resulting in less lane capacity than we currently have. As we know from our experience when the VAC closed for three weeks in November, the other city pools do not have the capacity to absorb the VAC users. With the VAC closing, we not only lose our 50-meter pool, but we are left with no pool in the city of Vancouver capable of hosting a swim meet of any size. So cost and the $200 million in point C1. If the cost of rebuilding of the VAC at $175 million is the standard, the city will never be able to catch up. The motion seems to provide for planning of a 50-meter pool, which would then presumably move it into the next capital plan. The effect of kicking the provision of more capacity 10 years down the road is this. Children currently of less than age will be graduating from high school in 10 years and will never learn to swim. So I have spoken before about modular pools. These pools have been dismissed by staff as too expensive, quote unquote, temporary pools. But the reality is that their lifespans are around 40 years. The aging VAC was considered for demolition as early as 2014, 40 years into its life. So essentially, there's no difference. The cost of building modular pools, which are built at grade, is a fraction of the cost of building conventional pools. $28 million for a 50-metre and 25-metre complex, $16 million for a 25-metre pool. I sent everybody an email that gives you links to these two particular projects, but there are many more out there. The city must explore the building of modular pools and move beyond spending tens of millions on architects and consultants, hundreds of millions on construction, and multiple years to produce architectural award-winning pools that are not functional, do not provide the capacity we need.

and end up limiting drastically the number of pools a city can afford to build. So in conclusion, we need to think outside the box to find a solution to the lack of pooling capacity in the city of Vancouver. Investment needs to be done wisely and thoughtfully. To be able to renew Kit's pool and provide a 50 meter indoor pool within budget constraints, a modular pool or pools have to be the answer. Thank you.

Thank you, Carola. Commissioner Hare has a question.

Thank you for coming out tonight. You know that this proposal in this motion, it's not final, like there's still a capital plan coming out tomorrow. Right. Right? So there may be more money, there may be less money, we don't know. This has just been proposed, and it's left out a lot of community centre, a lot of community groups that feel like they should be included, including yourself. Do you think it's almost like, this is great in principle, you're right. We all want Vancouver to be renewed. Sorry, it is great in principle, but what I'm saying is that $200 million for aquatic facilities could be enough if we thought outside the box and built modular pools instead of $175 million, $200 million structures. And it would be a lot faster because these modular pools could be provided within 15 months. So you would rather the $200 million, instead of going into the infrastructure of recreation centers, go into modular pools? Well, the modular pool is a recreation center. It's just thinking outside the box and not creating a conventional structure, but creating one that's faster and more economical. So with a similar lifespan.

Statement Watch

I support the motion in part. I echo what Carolla has said about the modular pools and being able to put multiple pools around the city. The statement at the start of the meeting was that we have 14 aquatic facilities with the population that's 53,000 people per aquatic facility in the city of Vancouver. $200 million for an aquatic seems a little bit low, considering that the Vancouver Aquatic Centre has been replaced for basically that amount. I think that we need more. 50-metre facilities are much more urgent than the smaller 25-metre pools, which have a lower usage and ability to have multiple groups use at the same time. We have over 1,000 age group swimmers in Vancouver with another 300 to 500 masters and artistic swimmers in the city. It's important that Vancouver starts to treat pools with the importance that they need to be. Pools are one of the few sports facilities where the public has access at the same time as our club. Most skating rinks don't have access of public and hockey teams practicing at the same time. Soccer teams don't have the same thing. Baseball teams don't have the same usage. So I'm just wondering why swimming always has to share with the public. I think that if the public wasn't in at the same time, they probably wouldn't have the same sort of thought process as it's always competitive swimming. But I believe the Vancouver, the Canadian dolphins used to have a block of two hours in the afternoon where the public wasn't allowed. And then there wasn't many fights on that part of things. Swimming is a lifelong skill used for various modalities of rehabilitation and training. I see that the Accolini's are maybe partnering in the Britannia Community Centre. It would be a great idea for someone to suggest that they go together with a pool, a 50-metre pool. I know that hockey players do a lot of rehab in pools and that having a pool on site would help them both in cold baths and hot tubs as well as water running, which is less stress on their legs and trying to get back into shape and everything like that. I sent everybody a copy of what Ontario is doing. I've talked to the sports minister in BC. I've talked to the sports minister in Canada. The Swim Canada wants to host Olympic trials in Vancouver. They've wanted to host that for multiple years. And there's hundreds of thousands of dollars that are brought in with hosting that type of event. Thank you.

Statement Watch

Hello. Thank you, everyone. I'm glad I registered early because it's going to be a long night. I am in support of the motion. My name is Curtis Rowe. I'm the president of the Hastings Community Association. I've met with multiple commissioners in the past, worked very closely with staff at the Parks Board and staff at the city. As many of you know, Hastings is one of the centres that is listed in this Plan for Renewal, which we're very delighted to see. Again, we've worked with city staff for years to develop this plan and have been listed as the most high-need centre in the city. We are more than 90 years old now. And in that 90 years, many things in the city have changed. Our population has more than doubled. But our programming capacity at the community centres has stayed virtually the same, especially in East Vancouver with older centres like Hastings. We're very supportive of seeing this motion, but we, like many others, do call on the Parks Board to really ensure that we are looking at an adequate budget for community centre renewal. Based on the community centre development plan, the plan does call for two community centres per capital cycle. This has not happened for, as it's been called out, 16 years as the last centre. We are far behind this. My fear isn't this capital plan, my fear is the next one and the one after that. And if we continue to bypass community centres, such an essential part of our infrastructure, when my child comes to the age where he hopefully will be volunteering for one of these community centres, we will be in the case like we're seeing with some of our ageing infrastructure with ceilings falling down, walls falling down. Our city had done a great job in some aspirational infrastructure over the years. It was commented in the 50s and 60s. How much we did, that was great. It's great to see the push for increased capital budget. I would challenge the Parks Board that $1.35 billion is not enough, especially with hearing all these asks from different community groups. It's hard to say that any speaker so far has had a bad argument. whether it be pools or community centres or various other community groups. They're all very deserving, and I think that the Parks Board should be really advocating on our behalf, as I know you all do, to push the city to increase funding for this capital plan, including an emphasis on community centres. The very last point I want to make before I go is ensuring that, and I've heard it said multiple times by commissioners, that we are not looking at changing to a renovation model for community centres. I think this is also very important and in line with the Parks Board and REFM's old planning for how a renewal will look. Putting Band-Aid solutions on 90-year-old buildings will only prolong the problem. And again, if we're looking at inspirational capital investments that will benefit generations to come, we need to look to your own planning, which is two new centres supported by this. So again, on behalf of Hastings, we are very supportive of the bill.

Thank you, Curtis. We did get a lot of emails from the Hastings community about this. Could you just remind the room, you've been offered a proposal for a partial renovation of your facility, but you're saying that that's not sufficient. Could you just...

Not so much a proposal. So we've been working with Parks Board and RAFM for several years now towards a new building. And throughout the entire process, there's never been a question that this was going to be a new build. We have the land on site that we could do a building without having to tear the current one down. It would mean we don't have to close our services and our programming down for 18 months. Up until February, this had been the plan for years, and multiple generations of board members have all been doing this. In February, the RAFM team from the city came to us and proposed a very limited renovation as a changed scope, and we were told it's due to limited capital for this upcoming campaign. We pointed out the plans for a limited renovation did not meet the needs of our community centre. They were not looking at increasing our programming space. In fact, it looked more like somebody looked at the architectural drawings of our building, having never been there, and made some crude mock-ups, including an exit of the building that would probably cost millions of dollars to an unused place where you can't park cars and nobody is in that side of the building. I would implore that no matter what the decision is and how we proceed, that you're going with staff recommendations. Your teams have done years of research. Your Auditor General has supported, for the City of Vancouver, has supported the plan for community centre redevelopment. Changing to renovation simply because there's not enough money to go around is not going to solve the problem per your own plans.

Thank you for clarifying that. I'll move you to Commissioner Herr for a question.

Thank you for coming out tonight. My concern, and I want to know if you feel the same way, the $200 million, are you worried that you guys are going to be pigeon-tolled into just a mere Band-Aid solution, as you had said, because there's not enough funds? Because you are going to be sharing that fund. It's $200 million. 200 million is not enough to build two community centers based on the current information of about 120 million per. So you do not support this motion? I do support the motion with the caveat that we look at continuing with the current capital plan. So as it was explained at the beginning of the meeting, 200 million doesn't necessarily mean... And we don't know what the capital plan is yet, right? So... Exactly, but that's what we're asking for here. So I would advocate for an increase to that budget, and I would advocate for clear distinction that we will be doing it with following the community centre strategy. What is typically the amount of money, from your experience, do you know how much it would cost to build out a brand new facility? Never done it, and the city hasn't done it in a lot of years. The most recent one, I believe, is coming in at $112 million. The current estimates, which are guesstimates, not by architects, is about $120 million. Thank you.

Statement Watch

Hello, my name is Georgia Neal and I'm 11 years old. And I'm a proud swimmer with the Canadian Dolphins Swim Club. And tonight I'm here to support your proposed capital plan for my city. This parks board decided to close our pool, the Vancouver Aquatic Center, which is one of two remaining 50-meter outdoor pools in this city. We are now having... We are now having to look for other places to swim. When we were at Hillcrest, the other 50-meter pool, because the lanes are so narrow, I got kicked in the ribs during breaststroke and had a head-on collision near their wall. Vancouver is a big city with loads of kids who are desperate to learn how to swim and maybe even compete, like me. We need you to promise that there will be more pools for us, especially 50-meter pools, which we really, really need quickly. There are even temporary ones that don't cost too much money compared to the 25-meter pool with a hot tub you already approved. Before this motion is approved, please add more money for 50-meter pools so me and my friends can succeed in our swimming goals. Without more 50-meter pools, you are taking away a huge opportunity for me and my teammates to get better and maybe win some races.

Thank you, Georgia. Very helpful. Commissioner Herr, please go ahead with the questions.

You are so brave. Thank you for coming out tonight. Thank you. Yes. Now that things have changed and shifted, do you feel like a lot of your practices are more of a headache? Are you guys struggling to book spaces or get more practice spaces, or are there more people where you have to practice? Well, in July we're going to start 3, 6, 45 a.m. practices in the week, so I think it's harder than what we're usually doing. Right, and it's going to be at Hillcrest? Yeah, most of them. Most of them? And where are the other ones? Do you know? Second Beach. Okay. Okay, thank you for sharing. Thank you. Thank you for coming out.

Statement Watch

So hi, I'm Kate Phillips, Georgia's mom, and I stand before you with cautious support for your proposed motion to spend the $1.35 billion in upgrading and replacing the Vancouver facilities. As a doctor, I can tell you there is overwhelming evidence that healthy communities, that for healthy communities, we do need to invest in our children's physical and mental well-being. There are a lot of studies that link at least one hour of physical exercise along with diet and good sleep to positive outcome. Having the resources to participate in exercise, especially for girls who in their teenage years have less access to organized sport, is paramount. Swimming is a sport that is gender equal in representation, and it should be considered a priority in the capital plan, not only to replace the 50-metre pools in Vancouver, where getting swim lanes and access to lessons are akin to the Hunger Games. This board has already taken the controversial step of closing the 50-metre pool and replacing it with a 25-metre pool and a large hot tub. Given not only the increasing need for 50-metre pools for our competitive swimmers, but for general physical fitness and training, coupled with the increasing rise of obesity, the frequency of pandemic illnesses and global warming, we do not need more hot tubs as it will be underutilised. We need more pools. As a taxpayer, I'm here to tell you that we don't need fancy architecture, and with creative thinking, there is in cost-effective portable solutions that can be sourced for a fraction of the $175 million that was approved for the back replacement. In fact, I think this motion should not only include the replacement options, but the generation of new pools, which can far exceed the total of 14 we have, the lowest of any major city in Canada. As a single parent, I can tell you personally the benefits that my daughter has gained through competitive swimming and how worried I am that she's going to burn out and give up as a teenager. As of June, when the second last 50-metre pool in this city is going to close, the patchwork solution to this lack of pool availability means that my 11-year-old daughter will have four 645 practices scattered throughout the city. Please add language in your motion that includes more solutions for immediate pool construction. I've always lived in Vancouver and considered it a spectacular city, but as a resident here, the lack of necessary resources really reveal it is more like a six dressed up as a nine. So while I support this motion, we really need concrete visions of how we are going to increase these resources, especially the access to 50-metre pools.

Thank you very much. You've spoken here before.

With my daughter.

Statement Watch

Yes. Hi, everyone. Oh, it's loud. Okay. My name is Alexis Palmer-Flubog, and I do support this motion with some caveats. I'm a Vancouver parent of a swimmer and a swimmer myself and a member of a community. But I want to start with something a bit more simple. And that's for many kids in the city, the pool is more than a place to swim. It's where they find confidence, it's where they build resilience, and it's where they feel they belong. When our pool, the Vancouver Aquatic Centre, is scheduled to close on June 28th of this year, Vancouver will lose its only public accessible 50-metre pool for training and competition. Hillcrest is not a competition pool. And for many families, including mine, the loss of the VAC is deeply personal. My son, Lucas, swims with the CDSC, the Canadian Dolphin Swim Club. Like so many kids, he spends hours each week in the pool working hard, setting goals, learning discipline, and being a part of a team that supports him. But this story actually starts a generation earlier. We're second-generation dolphins. Swimming with the Canadian dolphins helped buoy my husband, Adrian, as he navigated dyslexia as a young person. School wasn't always easy for him, but in the pool he found structure, purpose, and confidence. Much thanks to Kelly for that. That place where he succeeded gave him confidence to be carried into the rest of his life. Now as parents of a child with dyslexia who also swims with the dolphins, we're really counting on this same community to now buoy our son. I speak all the time to parents who say the same thing, that the pool is where their children thrive, where they feel strong, where they feel like they're part of something bigger than themselves. We hear it all the time. As parents on the CBC this morning, we need to get our kids off their phones. We need to protect their mental health. We need to keep them active. Well, this is Vancouver's chance to make that a reality, and we have the solution here. It's not just about swimming. It's about mental health, belonging, and opportunity. And it's about access for everyone. Aquatic centres are not a luxury. They're essential public infrastructure. They serve children learning to swim, seniors maintaining mobility, people recovering from injuries, and families to connect. But not all pools are created equal. A 50-metre pool can be used by everyone for recreation, for lessons, for lane swimming, and for competition. A leisure pool cannot. When you do remove a 50-meter pool from our city, you're removing a critical piece of infrastructure from us. You're taking away something that cannot easily be replaced, and right now there's no clear plan to replace it. So what happens next? While the $1.35 billion is being debated, where do our kids go? Where do the teams go? Where do they train? Where does our community gather?

Because the reality is right now there isn't anywhere else. You guys are all very smart people. I know you can come up with some innovative solutions that will cost less than 175 meters for a pool that's not worthy of competition. Thanks very much.

Statement Watch

My name is Lucas Fluvog, and I'm a swimmer with the Canadian Dolphin Swim Club. I'm here to ask you to please build a 50-metre competition-ready swimming facility. We need it for training and for the public. Swimming is a big part of my life. It's fun, it keeps me active, and I love competing. Honestly, if I wasn't swimming, I don't know what I'd be doing instead. The Dolphins are known as a strong team, one of the best in Canada. Everyone is motivated to support each other. That's what makes it special. We're not just individuals, we're a community. Right now, we all train together in one pool, and that's a big part of what makes us feel like a team. If you just play across different pools, it won't be the same, and it's harder to stay connected. It's harder to train the level we need. Training 25-meter pools also make it more difficult for us to compete against larger clubs that have access to 50-meter facilities. We had a disadvantage. I've swum in another club before, and it wasn't the same. The Dolphins are unique. Without a facility like the Vancouver Aquatic Center, it's really hard to make the progress we're all working toward. Swimming isn't about just doing less. It's about setting goals, working hard, and being part of something. Right now, a lot of us worry about the future. We don't know what we'll be training next season, and that uncertainty is really tough. It would mean a lot if the park board could find a way to build a new facility, ideally before I head off to university, and I know there are good options out there. Please put your heads together and make this happen. Thank you.

Statement Watch

reintroduce okay hi uh my name is cameron french i'm also here with the vancouver skateboard coalition um i support the proposed 2027 to 20 2030 capital plan um in line with vancouver's city skate skateboard amenities strategy introduced in 2022 i would like to highlight the need for covered skate spaces and for skate parks in underserved areas Vancouver's growth should be backed by widespread investment in parks and recreation, as of course we're discussing here today. Correspondingly, the city's thriving skate scene deserves world-class facilities as well. Community initiatives reflect the need to expand skate amenities. Examples of this include the well-known Britannia Courts DIY skate park that Oliver mentioned earlier, and the Vancouver Skateboard Coalition's covered green ramp on Granville Island, which has been well-used every winter since 2019. I want to advocate for following Vancouver City Skate's strategy and especially the recommendation to create rain sheltered facilities mirroring the successes of Surrey's partially covered Cloverdale and Chuck Bailey skate parks as well. The strategy also recommends addressing geographic gaps in skate amenities and the proposed skate park in the new Burrard Slopes Park fills a huge gap in skate parks west of Cambie Street. I hope that this space and others can come to fruition under this new capital plan. And then, yeah, myself and others from the Vancouver Skateboard Coalition look forward to returning for next week's meeting in support of the Broad Slopes concept plan as well. Thank you.

Statement Watch

I'm Jeremy. I'm here with the Vancouver Skateboard Coalition as well. I'm the current vice president. Thank you, commissioners, staff, and communities. I am for the motion with a few amendments possible in terms of the skateboarding aspects. Cameron, Albert, and Michael have already spoke on the Vancouver's... skateboard amenity strategy that was put forward by the Parks Board in 2022. It highlights the severe lack of skate spaces in Vancouver in terms of total area compared to our neighbors in Seattle, Calgary, and even in Surrey. Yeah, the part A of the motion highlights a bit of the need that is covered in the skate strategy in terms of repairs under the sports court and skate parks. As Michael has already mentioned, Hastings Skate Park, which is a world-class facility for Olympic training, is one of only two that is comparable to the skate park skating in the Olympics. So a lot of training goes on in the Olympics. the Hastings Skate Park. It's 25 years old and has not received any repairs, and it's in need of a lot of repairs. I'd also like to add that the strategy highlights the need for building of new facilities, especially network hubs, like the plaza, downtown Skateboard Plaza, also highlighting the community aspect of skate parks as mentioned by um oliver and michael in terms of the britannia skate courts it brings people for recreation for sport for practice but also brings for gathering beyond just skateboarding and yeah I am for the motion and would just like to highlight that there needs to be beyond just repairs and upgrades, development of new escape facilities. Thank you, Jeremy.

Statement Watch

Thank you. Respected Chair, Commissioners, and Park Board staff, thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Balwinder Singh Varad, President of the Sunset Community Centre Association. I want to begin by acknowledging and sincerely thanking the commissioners and park board staff for your leadership, professionalism, and commitment to the thoughtful long-term planning. Your work shape healthy, connected, inclusive community across Vancouver. I support this motion. However, I'm here to respectfully advocate for an aquatic center in South Vancouver as part of your capital planning, aligning with your motion on June 2nd, 2025. Park board motion. South Vancouver is a growing and diverse community with increasing demand for accessible recreation and wellness space. Yet, when it comes to aquatic infrastructure, our area is underserved. Residents, families, youth, seniors often travel a significant distance for swimming lessons or through aquatic services. For many, this creates a real barrier to participation. From a planning perspective, this is an opportunity to address this service gap, to align investment with the population growth. As Park Board 2027 to 2030 capital plan motion notes, the Park Board is committing to upgrading and adding aquatic facility across the city. Today, Vancouver has roughly 14 aquatic facilities, and if I'm not mistaken, not even one is in the south of 49th vancouver on june 2nd 2025 the board carried unanimous motion to reform equitable access to aquatic service across all region, direct the chair to pursue federal and provisional funding for 50-meter indoor aquatic facility, align Van Splash with future capital planning and ground opportunity, ensure South Vancouver aquatics needs are included in Vancouver Splash update. Tonight, as we review the 2027-2030 capital plan, I respectfully ask How are South Vancouver aquatic needs reflected in this plan? Have a letter to Member of Parliament's provincial minister been sent? And funding opportunity identified? What is the timeline for the van splash update to provide clear recommendation? This is not just about building. It's about delivering on the municipal principle and guide your work. Accessibility, inclusion, community, well-being. There is also historical context. When the outdoor pool at sunset was removed in the 1990s, there was clear expectation that aquatic amenity would return. That expectation has remained for decades. Today, through your leadership, there is a real chance to move that vision forward, Chair. We are at a strategic moment with the new Sunset Senior Center opening in May 2026.

Sunset Community Solutions is seeing meaningful investment in community infrastructure. This is a strong opportunity to consider a multiple generation hub model where services are as accessible and mutually reinforce. And Accra Center here would support active aging rehabilitation for seniors, for essential water safety education for children and youth. These outcomes align directly with the broader goal of public service delivery and goal terms.

I understand. Bowender, we'll get you to.

I understand that capital planning requires balancing many priorities, and I appreciate the care and diligence the board and staff bring to these decisions. With that understanding, I respectfully ask that South Vancouver receive strong consideration. Thank you for your leadership once again, your vision, and your commitment to a city where all communities are supported. Please make South Vancouver part of the legacy you are creating today. Together we can bring this long-awaited, much-needed vision to sport. Finally again, I do support this motion, and thank you once again for the time, and I apologize for going over the time.

Statement Watch

Start with your strong points and conclude. Thank you. Great. Thanks for letting me speak tonight. My name is Nigel Peck, and I'm speaking as a Grandview resident and a coordinator of the Nature Vancouver New Brighton Biodiversity Enhancement Project. I want to strongly support the 2027 capital plan I think it'll be money well spent as a start for a healthier, creating a healthier city in the decades to come. Vancouver parks enrich the lives of all Vancouverites in a multitude of ways. They provide green spaces, playing fields, recreation and community centres. The health of everyone is enhanced through these different spheres. I'm talking about the, or focusing on the biodiversity of Vancouver. It's a very important component of Vancouver Parks. The wild spaces promote pollinators, bird life, the natural environment has been documented as key. for having the benefits of the health prescription. I have coordinated and I started the restoration back in 2022 where we've had 400 people from every background volunteering 1,500 work days to volunteer there. The benefits of that is we have people volunteering multiple times. The ages range from teens to people in their 70s and 80s. And with people who have a 60-year difference working shoulder to shoulder, the social benefits of that is incredibly huge. Please include biodiversity as an important component. It is a critical part. It's a low cost to the park board, but it has huge benefits. Thank you. Thank you very much, Nigel.

Statement Watch

My name is Dan Jackson. I support the motion. I am here representing both the Strathcona Community Center Association and the Strathcona Residents Association as I'm on the board of both. I just want to share with you the view from Strathcona. Our community center and parks are within a kilometer of 90% of the social housing in Vancouver. Close to 300 new social housing units located within two blocks of the center are slated to open in the next year. Much more social and market housing are in the planning stages, so our needs are great and growing. The Strathcona Community Center is in an over 50-year-old building leased from the Vancouver School Board. We have no pool, no ice rink, no squash court, no senior center, and our gym is only available after school hours. Outside of our childcare and food security activities, we have only two rooms that could be used for programming. So we're very limited now in what we can do, and we're already at capacity. We have two parks, McLean and Strathcona. McLean Park, in McLean Park, a promised renewal of washrooms and a splash park, which was part of the previous capital plan, has been delayed now until 2028. The tennis courts in Strathcona Park were closed three years ago due to a sinkhole. which repairs are scheduled for in maybe 2029. The only improvement that's been made since the homeless camp was closed was the restoration of a lit gravel field that we've never seen used for anything but film crew parking. So we're in need of some help, and we're encouraged by this motion. It's great to make plans and strategies, but unless there's some realistic chance of carrying them out, they're just demoralizing. To prioritize political gains for much needed maintenance and investment is to condemn the city to a future of neglect. The motion before you is bold and ambitious. But if we want to grow Vancouver, if we want to even maintain the city we have now, bold and ambitious is exactly what we need. Thank you very much.

Statement Watch

Many thanks for allowing me to speak tonight. My name is Gerry O'Neill. We operate the Stanley Park Horsetron Tours. As well, on the behalf of the Vancouver Board of Parks, we operate the information booth for the last... 10 years and 16,000 days and counting, which is 43 years, the horse-drawn tours. We've been operating from the same location, which is 735 and 715 Stanley Park Drive, which happened to be the building of the information booth. In a nutshell, we're not going to be talking about something, anything sexy here tonight. We're talking about bathrooms. It's a need. It's not an option. In 1999, the building was built, coincidentally at the same time that the Totem Pulse building. And the Totem Pulse building was upgraded just prior to 2010 for the Olympics. To give you an idea, they have 21 stalls, ladies, mix, and so on. At the information booth, which is at the entrance of the park, there's two stalls for the ladies, one for the men, and one urinal. In a good day, people have to wait 20 to 25 minutes. So I'm only here as your soldiers to tell you what I see. After a while, certain human beings have different plumbings than the boys. So they got to do something about it. So what's happening? They go in the bushes. I know it's not sexy, but that's the truth. I need to be here in good conscience to be able to tell you this is what I see. That's the entrance of the park. We have a little event called FIFA coming. Now they're planning to have party parties there. So, look, I've written a thesis about this. Like, I don't want to be here to be rude. You know, we need, it's a matter of priorities. I had two children, and I'll tell you, they run the show. If we go somewhere with my wife and the bathrooms are not adequate, we don't go there. You know, there's no change room for babies, either in the men's or the ladies' bathrooms. Yeah, I don't know what else could I add to make it so, I mean, all the speakers before me today were extremely eloquently spoken. I just thought, I've been told by my wife not to say too much tonight, and I'm looking at the clock, 36 seconds left, so I will end this there.

Thank you for your comments. Your washroom intensity is felt by everyone in the room, so we know what you're talking about. Thank you for raising that, and there is one quick question from Commissioner Jensen. Thank you.

I understand that the washroom facilities is also a concession building, is that correct?

Yes, it is.

And do you feel that that structure meets the needs of the growing changes and the evolution of the food services that the park board is offering around the city?

Unfortunately, it does not. And we have discussions with staff. We're hoping and, you know, truthfully, the staff have a huge amount of, how can I say, priorities to deal with, you know, and I totally get it. you know, and I want to work with the staff. And not only do I want to work with the staff, I'm willing to invest money on the buildings, bathrooms, and everything else to generate more dollars for the stockholders, the taxpayers. Thank you so much. I appreciate your time. Thank you very much.

Statement Watch

Good evening, commissioners and staff, some of whom I know quite well. I'm Linda Johnston, and I'm the president of the West End Community Centre, West End and Coal Harbour Community Centre Association. I'd like to say first that I strongly agree with the points made by my colleague, Gerry Fast, on behalf of the 19 community centres across the city. The West End Community Centre situation, I decided it would give you a specific example of why these funds are so badly needed. We will be celebrating our 50th anniversary this year. And in listening to my colleague, I hope it doesn't take 100 years before we can get renewed. Think about all of the changes which have happened in the West End since 1976. Indeed, just since 2016, the population has at least doubled. At least eight new residential towers have opened in the last five years. The demographics have also changed as the number of children has greatly increased. Our schools are now all overcrowded with both elementary and high school students having to travel to schools elsewhere. As well, the nature of the housing of this huge increase is a fraction of the size of the houses that they used to be here. and the apartments that they replaced. Rental buildings do not have fitness centres or outdoor spaces for the dozens of people who live in them. There's no room in these tiny apartments, often without a storage locker, for exercise equipment, painting or other crafts, or even having friends over for dinner. All this exemplifies why our community center is so important, but also why our 1976 facility simply cannot meet the needs of our community. We have wait lists for all of our children and youth programs, especially summer camps and before and after school care. We have similar issues with our adults and seniors programming. Our meeting rooms are not equipped for modern communication technology, and neither is the electrical system. Only two of our washrooms have current accessibility standards. It's 2026. Our population has doubled, but we're still trying to serve them while living in 1976. So please support this motion. And I'll put in a small word for the Kitsilina Showboat. I danced on there when I was 10, 11, and 12, and it was the biggest audience I ever had. So I agree with them, too. Thank you.

Statement Watch

Good evening, Chair and Commissioner. I'm a senior who sees great value at community centre. Part of my philosophy comes from the fact that I lived in Germany when I was young, and it was divided. And later, after I graduated from Emily Carr, I went to live in China, where my father was born. I think we have a lot here. And as some seniors do, I make the rounds. I go to Champlain Heights, Killarney Community Centre, Renfrew Park, Trout Lake, Marple Oak Ridge, and Kitts. At Champlain Heights, I go for martial gym for seniors, and then I go to Killarney for floor curling and Renfrew carpet bowling. There are so many activities. They're subsidized, and we're so fortunate. When I came back from China, I noticed that Canadians complain a lot. But we have everything. We have a good standard of living. We can say what we want. I was in China during Tiananmen Square. I was outside talking to someone on campus. Someone went by on a bike and said, be careful, the walls have ears. And they also all said to me, go home to Canada. It's safe. I realize that the pioneers worked hard in the union. They got us so many rights. I was part of the Hospital Employees Union, which was quite good until Gordon Campbell came along. So it's a good life we have here, and I'm grateful.

Statement Watch

Good evening, Commissioners. My name is Marjorie Duda and I'm representing the Mount Pleasant Community Centre Association and the Vancouver Society for Promotion of Outdoor Pools. We support the proposed capital plan and your commitment to the Van Splash Aquatic Strategy and community pools. I'm here to respectfully ask that you replace the 25-metre outdoor pool in Mount Pleasant Park as part of this capital plan under community pools. When Park Board purchased the land in the 1960s, the community advocated for an ice rink. But the Park Board identified an outdoor pool as the greater need. Since the closure of Mount Pleasant Pool in 2009, the community has consistently called for and been promised its replacement. Planning and policy support this direction. The 2010 park redesign featured a replacement pool pending funds. And the 2019 aquatic strategy specifically identified it as a top priority. To quote past Chair Jasper, stick with the list. While some residents call the lawn their backyard and want to keep the space empty that was reserved for a pool, the planning process and survey work showed that a pool and an open lawn can perfectly coexist as they did before. This isn't about replacing one use with another, it's about delivering the full range of amenities that the community park was intended to provide for a broader catchment. Outdoor pools are one of the most effective and inclusive responses to extreme heat. The upcoming renewal of Kitts Pool, the Vancouver Aquatic Centre, and Britannia will take multiple major facilities offline for some years. The project helps address a growing capacity gap and a clear equity issue. Vancouver's already lost five outdoor pools, leaving only three full-size public pools, all located on the waterfront facing climate risks. This pool can be a quick start for less money. Access to swimming should not be dependent on where you live or whether you can afford private alternatives. Pools are not a luxury. Public pools are essential. Mount Pleasant Park is centrally located in a dense, growing community well-connected by walking, biking, transit, and the Broadway subway, and is a designated park with no acquisition cost. It's a universal, accessible amenity and would provide year-round public washrooms. Newly built outdoor pools are a perfect fit for solar integration, and this project aligns with Park Board's renewable energy strategy. We respectfully ask that you commit to reinstating Mount Pleasant Pool in this capital plan to strengthen equity in the aquatic system and return outdoor swimming an opportunity to inner-city residents. Thank you very much for your time.

Statement Watch

Yes. My name is Melina and I'm in favor of the proposal. I'm a resident of Hastings Sunrise Community and I have lived in this neighborhood for almost 20 years and even at that time the facilities at Hastings Community Center were decrepit and that's being generous. I urge all the park commissioners, if you haven't already, to look at the community center strategy. It is well-researched, documented. They've gone through extensive consultations and came up with a very clear criteria for prioritizing where renewals were needed. I urge you to follow those guidelines. As many people have already mentioned tonight, Hastings Community Center has been prioritized as one of the centers that deserves to be renewed because of growing population and because of bad condition of the building. It is worth noting that of the 10 centers that are mentioned in the community center report, the top five are all in East Vancouver. So I want to emphasize that this is about equity and it's about livability in this city. And community centers are more important than ever for leisure, for community, for recreation, for health. And decisions, you know, not everything can be done at once, but it's really not fair nor a good idea to defer this for any longer. And I just wanted to quote from the report. that the community center strategy was a data-driven approach informing the decisions on which community centers should be prioritized and ensured that available resources are invested in those projects that derive the greatest level of public benefit. A prioritization approach was developed to support the task of ranking renewal projects. So I just wanted to emphasize that these important amenities need to be uh available to people across the city um and not just for uh neighborhoods that um well anyway you know east vancouver is is is lacking in in renewed infrastructure and and

Statement Watch

in support it's a very difficult set of decisions to make um i am going to comment not about a specific place but about what i think kind of got disconnected way back in 2017 i believe when In Van Splash, one of the things that was brought forward was to build a pool at Connaught Park in advance of the aquatic centre, because it was going to need to be done later, and then we'd have it in advance, and of course we never did that. But what I notice kind of because it's just jointed in the plan is for the most efficient operation and the saving of the most money, you need to put a pool with two ice rings because the cooling of the ice creates enough heat for covering half the cost of the pool. So you put two there and it's essentially free. So I kind of, we're still in the planning stages, but it doesn't matter where it is, but kind of we need a pool and we need more ice rinks and so it would make sense. And my other comment is I've been kind of a bit disturbed lately with the suggestion that the Canucks were going to come and do something at Britannia that didn't involve building another ice rink. We have so little capacity, the fact that they would want to use even one hour and take it away from the community to me is not on. Not on at all. And I thought that they were going to be involved with the North Falls Creek ice rink that was going to be built. But anyways, so more kind of the most effective way to build things is to put two rinks with a pool and reduce the operating costs. Yeah.

Excellent. Thank you, Maureen. Helpful suggestions on skating rinks. Always a great skating rink advocate. Adrian Denham, are you available? Please go ahead.

Statement Watch

Good afternoon, Chair and Commissioners. My name is Adrienne Denham and I'm speaking on behalf of the Britannia Community Centre in strong support of this motion, especially the portion that prioritizes the renewal of the Britannia Community Centre, including the rink and the pool and the community centre spaces. Britannia is not just another facility. It is one of Vancouver's most important civic spaces. It is a 17-acre site that brings together recreation, education, library services, culture, community services, all in one place. And it has served East Vancouver for 50 years. It exists because the community fought for it. It exists because of youth activism and the local community organizing itself. We are here again tonight to fight for it. This matters because the Britannia Community Centre is in part of the city that has all too often heard, you need to wait. It is important that I say clearly that Britannia operates on the unceded territories of the Squamish, Musqueam, and the TTsleil-Waututh Nations. And at Britannia, we believe that reconciliation has to be reflected in the spaces that we build, the relationships that we honour, and the programs that we sustain. That is the issue here today. East Vancouver cannot be told to continue to wait. Britannia's renewal has already been stalled. It's only getting urgent repairs and maintenance at this time. The need is well known. The planning work has been done. The community has shown up for years and years, and the money is still missing. A modern and world-class city is not one with aging facilities that are falling apart. From Britannia's perspective, this is not just about replacing our aging infrastructure. It is protecting our heart, the heart of our neighbourhood, and honouring all of the people like me who use it every single day. i urge you to support this motion and to keep britannia clearly and firmly in it please send council a strong message that britannia is not a side project it's not a someday project it is a now project and it's overdue thank you uh adrian for

Statement Watch

Thank you, Chair Tom Digby and Park Board Commissioners. I'm Grace Nombrado, and I am a Vancouver resident and founder of Free the Fern, a nonprofit based in southeast Vancouver. I'm here to speak in support of this capital plan. Specifically, I wish to speak in support of a $50 million investment in biodiversity restoration, which includes a $2 million investment in protecting the Champlain Heights trails in southeast Vancouver. These trails are some of the last remaining native forests in our city. According to the urban forest strategy put out by the city, there's only 4% of our forests remaining, which is part of the Champlain Heights trails. Within the trails, you'll find towering Douglas fir trees, cedar trees, big leaf maples. It's home for eagles, owls, bats, pileated woodpeckers, and migratory birds coming up from the Fraser River. Despite being such an important habitat area, the perception of the trails has not always been so positive by the city. When I first called the city in 2021, mentioning the Champlain Heights trails, it was referred to me as hazard area, and that is because of the widespread invasive plants that were taking over the trail system, including English ivy, which climbs and kills our local trees. Not only that, there was a large-scale amount of dumping happening in the trails, as happens in neglected spaces. The city was not caring for this space, so the citizens decided to take care of it themselves. So together we formed the non-profit Free the Fern in 2021. Since that point, we've had over 1,700 event volunteers come together to remove the invasive species. We've removed over 240 cubic metres of invasives in the last five years, and replanted over 4,000 native species without city operational funding. We've dedicated this time to caring for the trails, and the perception of the city has shifted over time as well. In October, the city council made a unanimous motion to protect the trail system. This investment in funding would be aligning with the city council and that motion to protect the trail system. Not only that, last month... The official development plan mapped the trail system as an existing ecological corridor, and the city wishes to extend a network of ecological corridors across the whole city. We need funding to make this possible. We cannot do this alone. Our nonprofit, Free the Fern, has been left to take care of this trail system without city funding. So there needs to be long-term investment in habitat restoration such as this. These provide amazing benefits for the city, including obvious habitat enhancement, flood mitigation, urban cooling, access to nature for equity-deserving groups. Many in our neighborhood are living co-ops social housing, seniors housing, supportive housing. We also have mental health benefits, physical health benefits from taking care of nature.

Ultimately, it comes down to the fact that if we don't care for nature, how will we expect nature to care for us? I encourage you to vote in support of this budget. Thank you.

Statement Watch

Thank you for paying before April 1st. All right, my name is Dominique Labrosse. I'm here representing the Jericho Sailing Centre Association alongside with our president, Chris Stairs, who's been our president for about 15 years. We're pleased to be named as a partner in this, we're in support of this plan. We're pleased to be named as a partner to be supported with planning support. Jericho Sailing Centre has demonstrated a history of funding our own capital projects without significant taxpayer contribution. And we have ambitious plans of our own over the next 10 to 15 years. A big part of those plans are targeting defense against sea level rise. Part of our due diligence around this issue, we had two environmental scholars who happened to be on our board prepare a document defining the scope of our problem. And one of the big data sources in that study was the city of Vancouver's floodplain modeling. around sea level rise. So the city took the provincial recommended curve of 0.5 of a metre, so 50 centimetres of sea level rise by 2050. By the way, 2050 is only 24 years away. And we've seen some rise since this data started in year 2000. And when you add that 0.5 metres of sea level rise, you add a high tide of 5.74 metres, which we saw this last year. 0.7 metres of storm surge during a storm event added on top of 1.5 metres of wave height. That floodplain extends all the way to the new hospital in Foss Creek, takes care of, swallows the kids' pool. It's part of the footprint of the current Vancouver Aquatic Centre. All the big, big pieces of this plan. And so it also takes out a whole bunch of other pieces that we're not even talking about tonight. All of our beach concessions, washrooms, lifeguard stations, all along the South Shore, those are all taken. And just about every piece of parkland on the Fraser River. So obviously, foreshore protection is a big deal, and I wanted to, I'm pleased to see seawall and waterfront at the top of the envelope and under item A. But obviously, it's a very big problem to solve. And so in that light... I would like to encourage the park board to prioritize for shore protection as part of this plan. The Jericho Sailing Centre has our own plan that we're hoping to dovetail in with the city and the park board, and we're looking forward to working with First Nations and various levels of government to make that happen.

Statement Watch

Hi there. My name's Dominic D'Onofrio. I'm a resident of Marple. I'm speaking in support of the motion. I'll just get right into it. Approximately three quarters of our recreation centres are in poor condition. Our parks are not being maintained to the standards we expect in this city. APPROXIMATELY 7000 STREET TREE STUMPS HAVE NOT BEEN REMOVED MEANING REPLACEMENT OF OUR STREET TREES CAN'T TAKE PLACE. OUR POPULATION IS GROWING BUT SERVICES AND GREEN SPACE HAVEN'T BEEN INCREASING TO MEET DEMAND. IT'S NO WONDER PEOPLE ARE FRUSTRATED WITH THE PARK BOARD. The motion is a good step in the right direction. I'm really glad to see a plan being put forward to do the infrastructure maintenance, do the repairs we need to see. And I'm really glad to see this motion includes asking for funding for new parks and new facilities in areas of the city that the population is growing. I'm particularly happy to see the point in the motion about land acquisition in the Broadway plan area and the future UBC extension for new park space. These are areas of the city that are going to grow really rapidly in population over the next couple of years and can absolutely benefit from more public parks. The issue with this motion is that it is just an ask. Even if this passes here at Park Board, it seems extremely likely to me that our current ABC City Council will just say no, that this is not going to go forward. While I certainly hope this proposal passes and that it goes through to the capital plan, I'm a bit pessimistic that any of this will go forward to the voters for approval. It also concerns me that this motion and these discussions have only started recently. Now, the problems we've been seeing with park board funding for infrastructure, for repairs, for renewal of facilities, for expansion of public amenities, these are issues that have been present for quite a while now. And while I'm glad this motion is being brought forward, and I certainly hope it passes, I want to make clear that I am disappointed that we're only seeing this now, six months before the next election. And I think from the speakers we've heard from tonight, it's pretty clear I'm not the only one who's feeling this way. But thank you very much for your time. Please vote in support of this.

Statement Watch

Sorry. Hi, everyone. My name is Henry Lu. I'm the executive director of the Dr. Sinia Sen Garden Society of Vancouver, which governs, as a lot of you know, the Dr. Sinia Sen Classical Chinese Garden in Vancouver, Chinatown. And our position on the motion is other because we cannot support or oppose without some information that we're seeking clarification on. So I would like to actually start by asking the park board to clarify on the item in the motion concerning the doctors in the same garden. So quote planning support for community led capital projects as partner facilities including Van Dusen Gardens, Bodell Conservatory, Jericho Selling Center, Broad Marina, and Dr. Sanderson Gardens, as may arise in the future. This item is included in the proposed $1 billion investment as part of the capital plan, but no dollar amount is attached to it, while the rest of the proposed components are signed budgets. So I think that for us, we're trying to find out what this item entails exactly. And can you please elaborate on how this would work and what that would be like in action?

So thank you for your question, but we don't answer questions at this table. It's your opportunity to ask questions. So if you're finished, I can ask you a question which would help you get to that answer, but I'm afraid we don't answer questions at the table. So that is a question. I'll take it as a question and duly note it. Would you like to add anything further?

Yes. So I would like to provide a little bit of education on the Dr. Sanyasin Classical Chinese Garden and the Dr. Sanyasin Public Park, because I realize it has come to our realization that actually this was not understood throughout the Parks Department and the Park Board. The Dr. San Yat-sen Classical Chinese Garden and the Dr. San Yat-sen Public Park were built between 1985 and 1986 in a spirit of cooperation and high ideals. They were built in time for Expo 86 to celebrate Chinese culture.

Henry, I'm sorry, I do have to interrupt you. So we did run out of time for your presentation, and now we're moving on to another commentary. So I'm afraid we... Did he have a full three minutes at the start? until we got to the question. So unfortunately, we're out of time for your commentary. But let me just say that we do onboard your commentary. I personally, as a park commissioner, was not fully understanding of the situation of the Sun Yat Sen, which has your own garden, but it also has a park board garden associated with it, which we maintain separately.

Can I just please add something to that? Very briefly. Very briefly. I just want to say the Dr. Sands and Castlewood Chinese Garden and the Dr. Sands and Public Park are two separate entities. However, we share the pond. And the pond is entirely under the park board jurisdiction. And we were actually invited by the park board to provide input for the Capital Plan 2009 to 2011 in 2008. for that input and then we came up with a plan and then we provided to our park board but that was not realized so this has not been a new issue. The pond restoration has always been in the works and we're trying to get the public's attention but it has been under the radar for decades. And this year is our 40th anniversary, and it's really important, not just aesthetically and also as an economic driver, but also this is a community space that's cherished and enjoyed by many. But I do not see any inclusion of the Dr. Sanyasin Public Park in this motion.

Thank you very much. It is actually contained in the earlier part of management of natural areas. But I'm afraid we're out of time. I do thank you. It's very rare that we have Sun Yat Sen representatives at our table, and we do look forward to getting more familiar with your organization.

The absolute last note I would add is that I did send exactly the same question to you, and I will look forward to hearing the answer for that through email.

Thank you. commissioner jensen does have a question for you now henry so i'll give him a brief question please

Thank you very much. So you are specifically speaking to six planning and support for community-led capital projects. Do you see within this capital funding scope a partnership that Dr. Sun Yat-sen Community Gardens could potentially have that could work where we could be working in collaboration where funding could be supported to further make this place such a destination?

Thank you so much for asking that, because that was exactly what I was talking about, but because we're running out of time. No, you're allowed to answer. Go, go, go. But a study was actually done, like I said, decades ago, and then there was a dollar amount attached to this. And then if you think about the $200 million and then $100 million, the dollar amount to fix the pond, it's quite minimal. Think about that. So the study was done, assessment was done, but it was never really... supported in that way. So decades, we're trying to really lobby this, but there's no result. So I think that there is an actual financial support for this project that the park board can actually build into this motion.

Perfect. That's what we want to hear. That's what we want to do. Thank you.

Statement Watch

My name is Mayeli Alvarez, and I'm here today to speak in opposition of this motion in principle. I'm here representing myself and speaking as one of the directors of protecting our Vancouver Aquatic Centre Society. Seeing as the purpose of tonight's meeting is to discuss a historical budget request, I believe it is appropriate to begin by acknowledging the people who fund this municipal enterprise, the Vancouver taxpayer. Let's reflect and remember that every word spoken in this chamber, every light bulb and every salary paid, including those of park board commissioners, is funded almost entirely by the hard work and earnings of taxpayers and property owners. We acknowledge that while taxpayers have endured an ever-increasing cost of living in this city, with little to no increase to our services, only a small and insulated group decides how much of their income is expropriated to sustain an ever-growing municipal bureaucracy that continues to grow regardless of outcomes or results. We pay respect to those taxpayers because without them, this institution could not indulge in ideological excesses like the greenwashing and accessibility washing of project approvals such as the architect ego-driven new build over rehabilitation.

Excuse me, I'm going to ask you not to comment negatively on contractors and park board staff decisions. You can say, make your point in a... IN A MORE ACCEPTABLE MANNER. PLEASE CONTINUE.

NEW BILL OVER REHABILITATION OF THE VANCOUVER AQUATIC CENTER DESPITE NUMEROUS TAX FUNDED STUDIES STATING THE CONTRARY IS NECESSARY. IN THIS SPIRIT OF ACKNOWLEDGMENT AND WITH AN EYE TO THE FUTURE WE RECOGNIZE THAT VANCOUVER TAXPAYER AND REVERE THEIR TOLERANCE FOR BEING TAXED. THE PEOPLE OF VANCOUVER DESERVE TO NOT ONLY BE HEARD BUT LISTENED TO. For example, I find it disgraceful that our taxes are funding studies for the future of Kitsilano Pool to be conducted by an architect who had this disparaging comment to say about current users of the Kitsilano Pool. I heard, with my own eyes and ears, heard her say, current users do not know what's good for the city. They don't care about the future and they only want to keep their pool the way they want it. Implying current users are selfish instead of the resource of knowledge that they really are. Community engagement and input should be at the forefront of major municipal investments. As experienced with VAC, that simply has not happened. Those of you in attendance last month sat here with your hubris on full display as you all one by one doubled down on your admittedly mistake-ridden decision for VAC.

She's commenting on the March 11th meeting. The commissioner's points of view, that's fine.

You believe you should be entrusted to carry out a capital plan with a budget of this size. Time and time again, you have proven to outright ignore experts as you obediently follow directions from city staff. If Vancouver claims to be a great green city in the forefront of the environmental movement, it should promote renovation over demolition of well-used community facilities. such as VAC, which has already had studies prove it could have its lifespan extended by another 50 years.

Thank you for your comments, and your criticism directed at the commissioners is heard and certainly allowed at this table.

Can I finish my last sentence?

If you have one sentence, you can finish it.

The construction sector, as a resource-intensive, wasteful, and profit-oriented sector, new buildings are unsustainable by design.

Statement Watch

Amazing. Hello, my name is Stone Friesen. I'm speaking as a representative of the Vancouver Skateboard Coalition, and I want to share my support for the capital plan presented today. However, I do echo many of the concerns shared by my fellow skateboarders regarding repairs, access to covered facilities, and the need for larger-sized network hubs. But I know we're tight on time, so I'll just get to it. uh i believe that the capital plan presented is aligned with the goals of the sydney state uh skateboard emergency strategy uh passed in june 2022 and it shows a commitment to our community and i'm really excited to speak further about the inclusion of a skate park in the berard slopes uh parkland in the next week's meeting uh but i think that this allocation of funds uh towards new parks will serve a community that's not had a permanent skate space but sees heavy engagement during the rainy season, thanks to a 100% volunteer-run temporary coverage half-pipe on Granville Island. And I also believe that the sport court strategy's inclusion of multi-use activities has been a great step forward and a step away from repressive or hostile design in our city parks and towards a strategy that welcomes all users and maximizes the utility of our investments in public space rather than welcoming some users and turning other users away. And most importantly, I believe that the allocation of funds that's going towards the Britannia Renewal Project supports the saving of arguably our most important community skate space, as I mentioned before, the Britannia Courts, which, again, is primarily self-funded DIY skate park that now operates in partnership with and I just hope that the positive impacts and the commitments to our support are taken into account when voting to approve this capital plan that supports the growth of our community in the coming years. Thank you for your time.

Statement Watch

Please go ahead for three minutes. Good evening, Chair and Commissioners. My name is Mark Hallock, and I'm speaking here tonight as a Vancouver resident and a property owner on behalf of my family and also of the Vancouver Liberal Party. I want to express my clear support for Commissioner Baskin-Vansky's motion for the 2027 to 2030 capital plan. Before I begin, a brief personal note. Until the end of January, I worked for the Park Board and the City of Vancouver. My position was eliminated following the 0% property tax direction. Returning here tonight is not easy. And speaking in front of former colleagues is naturally a bit uncomfortable. But my commitment to civic responsibility outweighs that, and that's why I'm here. To support a motion that I believe is important for the future of our city. Vancouver is growing quickly and by 2050 our population will be significantly larger. That growth increases pressure on parks, pools, community centres, sports fields and natural spaces. The Park Board manages one of the largest urban park systems in Canada and these assets are essential to public health, climate resistance, youth sport, community connection and overall liveability. During my nearly 12 years at the Port Board, I saw firsthand what the strategies and reports have been saying for years. They all point to an aging infrastructure and rising demand. Many recreation facilities are in poor or in very poor condition. The need for reinvestment is real. This motion proposes a significant but necessary investment. $1.35 billion across parks, biodiversity, restoration, and recreation facility. It prioritizes renewal, accessibility, and equity across the city, and it aligns with the long-term planning work already done by staff and community partners. I also want to highlight two additions related to my former portfolio, golf and food and beverage. These are practical, revenue-generating units that strengthen the Park Board's financial position while improving service for residents. Golf infrastructure is in need of $27 to $30 million in capital. The golf review, which the park board heard in the fall, confirmed that our courses are valuable public assets that require targeted investment. Irrigation, which is at end of life, drainage and bunker renewal, clubhouse upgrades, and improvement to pitch and putt facilities are all needed. These investments protect green space, support recreation, create jobs, and increase net revenue. Food and beverage needs $4 to $6 million, in my opinion. The 2018 concession strategy identified capital needs that remain outstanding.

Mark, we're at the end of your time.

So I urge you to endorse Commissioner Baskievansky's position.

Statement Watch

Okay, thank you. My name is Josh Bender, and I'm the Executive Director of Vancouver Athletic Football Club, one of the largest youth soccer clubs in the city, serving over 3,000 participants and over 5,000 parents across Vancouver. I'm calling in strong support of this motion. From where we sit, the issue is very straightforward. We simply don't have enough playable field time on turf today, and as has been mentioned many times today, demand continues to grow. That shows up in very real ways. Kids are on a wait list to play. Training times get pushed later into the evening. Younger age groups get squeezed out of prime hours. We're forced to play games on fields outside of Vancouver. At the same time, participation in soccer and sport more broadly continues to increase. The gap between supply and demand is only getting wider. Investing in sports fields, particularly all-weather and lit fields, is one of the most immediate and effective ways to address that gap. It increases capacity right away, extends usable hours, and creates more equitable access across the city. For clubs like ours, more field access means more kids playing, more inclusive programming, and more opportunities for families to stay engaged in their communities. This isn't just about sport, it's about youth development overall, community connection, and public health in a growing city. This is a real opportunity to make an investment that will have an immediate and lasting impact. I strongly encourage you to support this motion. Thank you for your time.

Statement Watch

Thank you. Good evening, Commissioners. My name is Bharat. I'm speaking as a Vancouver resident in support of this motion. I attended Commissioner Tom Digby's webinar yesterday, and it motivated me to come here in person. I immigrated to this beautiful city about four and a half years back, and I'm scheduled to take the oath as a Caribbean citizen very soon. Vancouver parks, seawall, beaches and pools have played a big role in helping my family settle down in this beautiful city. And that is why I strongly support this motion to urge the city to make a historic investment in recreational infrastructure. The motion itself recognizes that Vancouver is growing and that parks and recreational centers are essential infrastructure for public health and community connection. However, I would like to focus on two points and request those to be included in the final proposal. First, biking infrastructure. I've been volunteering for hub cycling for the past four and a half years, and secure bike parking is something I deeply care about. as assessed by hub volunteers, a working group. Many bike racks are outdated, insufficient, and not designed for newer forms of micro-mobility like e-bikes and cargo bikes. I've had my bike stolen from the Aquatic Center, so this is very personal to me. So we should be doing a lot more to improve secure bike parking and safety features at parks and recreational facilities to promote equitable commute options for everyone. I also want to express support for the Stanley Park bike lane. This motion specifically includes it in its infrastructure priorities, and I think that matters because Stanley Park should feel safe for people of all ages and abilities. Second, aquatic infrastructure. I was genuinely taken aback to learn that the Vancouver Aquatic Center's renewal would mean replacing a 50-meter pool with a 25-meter pool. I hope and wish that the city thinks bigger about long-term swimming infrastructure. The motion calls for a major aquatic investment, including planning for a new 50-meter pool, and I strongly support that direction. For many of us, Vancouver Aquatic Center is not just a building. It is a lifeline for health, rehabilitation, training, and everyday well-being. Thank you for your time, and thank you for the work you're doing.

Statement Watch

Thank you. So my name is Tyler Peterson. I am a Vancouver resident in the downtown east side. I am speaking in support of this motion to request $1.35 billion from city council for vital infrastructure improvements and investments through the 2027 to 2030 capital plan. I'm here today because our neighbors deserve better than the austerity budget that we've been surviving under. And this goes back further than the mayor's zero means zero budget. As you are undoubtedly aware, our communities are struggling. Our elders are facing heightened service fees and we have layers of inaccessibility preventing them from accessing these really important social infrastructure facilities. These investments are sorely needed and could do some serious good. But we have to recognize that this is still a day late and a dollar short. The Auditor General has been clear. For the past 50 years, we have seen an infrastructure deficit. 72% of city recreation facilities, as you've heard multiple times today, are in poor or very poor condition. And to replace these, there was an estimated $2.1 billion price tag in 2022. And there's no doubt that that price tag is higher today. So a $1 billion investment into this infrastructure is critically needed, but still misses the mark on what we should be pushing for. We have chronic underfunding and our facilities are showing their age. So I would ask all commissioners support this motion and make serious efforts to convince mayor and council to support this. We may be in an election year, but this is far too important to leave as a hook. Thank you for bringing this forward and for your time.

Statement Watch

Good evening. Thank you for working late and listening to all of us tonight. My name is Michelle McInnis, resident of the Vancouver Hastings Sunrise Community. I support the 2027 capital plan. The Hastings Sunrise is a growing community. My concern is the city's plan to increase the density close to the transit hubs, but hasn't built and planned for the community centers for all the current and the new residents. I still am unclear of are you planning to rebuild or renovate the Hastings Community Center? I know that it's a beautiful area. There's lots of room to expand for outside work, the tennis courts. There's the Little League Hastings facility that tournaments are hosted at. But it's really in need of the community centre to be rebuilt. Thank you.

Statement Watch

Thank you so much. I support the plan, but as you've heard so much from everybody else tonight, it's not enough. Going up to 2030, I think it's a goal, but I mean, passing the plan, getting council to pass it. But then the work needs to get done to do further planning. And what you've heard tonight, and what I've heard tonight, is that we need to work with the community, the community centers, to do long-term strategy, right? So, I mean, there's only so much you can do in a capital plan. But yes, we can dream for a better future. It's possible, Tom. But that means long-term planning. And I think, well, sure, long-term planning has been done. But also we've heard tonight that things are falling through the cracks. And some things have come before Park Board and are now forgotten. That's not long-term planning. That's not a long-term vision. You know, so going forward with this capital plan, going forward to the next Park Board, I think the Park Board needs to take a serious issue at doing that long-term planning. We got good news today, you know, federal infrastructure funding. But where's the provincial funding, okay? And where's the commitment from the developers who are not paying the fair share? We need more funds for more community centers and more facilities. We need an Olympic-sized pool. That's a dream. I think we should keep that dream. Thank you.

Statement Watch

Okay, well I support the motion, but with concerns that addresses none of the immediate needs of our city's children and families, particularly as it relates to their water safety. For me, I'm speaking here to save lives, because literally that's what we do. My name is Phil Skinder, and I'm the head coach and director of the Pacific Swim Academy and the Pacific Lifesaving Club. We are the largest combined swim school and lifesaving sport program in BC. For over a decade, we've operated across Vancouver, teaching thousands of children and representing the city and country internationally. We've started many elementary and high school swim clubs in our city, and we're the most active aquatic club in Vancouver over the COVID shutdowns. Over this period, we provided essential social, physical, and mental health support for the children of our city. Children matter to us. I want to acknowledge the work being done around long-term investment in aquatic facilities. That work matters. But there is also an immediate gap that's affecting children right now. Today, fewer than half of grade 7 children can swim. And we know that if children don't learn by that age, most never will. The good news is we don't need to wait for new facilities to make meaningful progress. We already have water, the space, and the expertise. What we need is access. So I'm here to suggest four immediate opportunities. First, unlock existing water. Residential pools, strata pools, and underused facilities across the city are sitting largely idle. Simple by-law adjustments and small incentives could safely open that capacity to qualified providers like us. Incentives could be in the form of property tax reductions, which are significantly cheaper than creating new pools. Secondly, unlock available land. There are large sections of underdeveloped or undeveloped private and public land across the city sitting largely idle. Similar by-law adjustments and small incentives to commercial developers and landowners could safely open that capacity for community-based programming. Unused parkland. could also be used to set up small teach pool centers at little cost. The footprint need not be large to teach basic swim skills. Third, enable programming in natural and public spaces, allowing certified organizations like us as affiliates of the Life Saving Society to deliver structured life-saving and swim programs in these spaces, like the ocean, expands access quickly, again, at no cost to the city. Fourth, pilot school-based delivery. Partnering with the Vancouver School Board to run pilot learn-to-swim programs in even one elementary school would demonstrate a scalable model that could put swim schools or swim program, small teach pool, in every elementary school in the city for less than one-tenth the cost it's going to take to revitalize the Vancouver Aquatic Centre.

Thank you.

Statement Watch

Yes, I am representing both Mount Pleasant Community Center Association and the vice president. And I'm also speaking as a former parks commissioner and head of the park board for one year, 20 some odd years ago. I certainly support the motion at this point. I think anything that brought more money into the park board system is desirable. We do support our fellow community centers. We ourselves have a fairly new one that was opened in 2010, but with the Broadway plan, it didn't really contain any new amenities, and we are going to run out of space with all the development that's going on. It's happening now. Tower after tower has been approved and neither the community center or the other amenities such as pools is keeping up. We lost our pool when we moved to the new facility. We've been trying to get it back ever since. Mount Pleasant has historically had a shortage of park space compared to a lot of other neighborhoods. We are getting a new small park across the street, which we are very grateful for, but Mount Pleasant is still short of park space. People argue over what should go into a park because there aren't yet enough parks. We've been told we're on the list to get a dog park in the next capital plan. We hope that goes ahead because that causes friction. As I said, we have been frustrated with the pool. We don't want to be frustrated with the dogs also. I remember people speaking to me on Park Board in 2004 that they wanted a dog off-leash area, and that hasn't happened yet, so please bring that. I am an advocate for swimming. I swim myself. Mostly I swim in the lake. I like swimming outdoors. Many other people do. That's why we've been advocating for outdoor pools, not just in Mount Pleasant, but anywhere else people want an outdoor pool. And I'm hoping that there can be additional funding, not only for this, but from federal and provincial. for both indoor and outdoor pools whichever people want and like the person before me it is a safety issue we offered swim lessons when we had the pool and people had fun and learned to swim at the same time

Statement Watch

Thank you. Good evening, Parks Chair and Commissioners. I'm Janine Canmere, a current Director-at-Large of Free the Fern. I was born and raised in Vancouver 61 years ago and a resident of Champlain Heights since January 82 at 16 years old. I vote in favor of the motion with respect to the diversity and the Champlain Heights at 2 million. I have loved and walked the Champlain Heights trails at Everett Crowley Park for over 40 years. Our area was blessed when Grace Nombrado, founder of Free the Fern, stewardship society, and I have been part of it since 2022. As an elder disabled woman, now the trees and trail system overall have been good for my physical and mental health and actually has been prescribed as forest bathing for me by my physiatrist. And yesteryear, as a twice dog owner, I walked the Pasadena Park many, many times. I speak on the biodiversity section of the parks for a budget of $50 million and $2 million for Champlain Heights. This is a need, not a dream for our area. Our trail system has been massively overtaken by invasives and the city crews are limited by time, capacity, what they can do and achieve. Enter our stewardship society. We have achieved much as Grace Lombardo has given us stats earlier, speaking through grants and fundraising, but the grants is hard to come by in competitions for such as fierce. We did not receive a city grant this year as thought. Thus, we need dedicated budgeted funding under Parks Board who also hopefully will oversee green spaces like ours now rather than the engineering department. If the invasive species are not removed from our area, we stand to lose most of our trails, tree canopy, and indigenous species over time. We have lost a lot of them already, many standing stags and stumps, heartbreaking to see, and the city is not removing or replacing most of them, only removing them if a tree is a potential liability home threat or walkway impediment, but not replacing them. This method of operations has given Champlain residents wind of development and clear clips plans in the future. I'm hopeful now that Vancouver City Council has passed a unanimous resolution to retain this trail system as of October 8, 2025, and they will see fit to approve the park board proposed budget that has built in parameters for $50 million and $2 million for Champlain Heights, dedicated funds for city crews, and most importantly our Stewardship Society to continue its basic operations that is dedicated part-time employee community invasive poles indigenous tree and plant replacements education workshops and events also the cement accessible pathway in areas such as the sunrise trail a huge liability issue i almost fell twice is in desperate need of repair yes i reported it several times to 311 it has been referred to parks board upon last email i received my physio says it's really dangerous so i'm optimistic our area will be attended to now with this budget proposal with a new itemized line dedicated to the predicament we are facing in Champlain Heights and all the Vancouver parks and green spaces as a whole.

As an aside, my dream... Janine, we're almost out of time, so I'll get you to wrap up. You're doing well?

There's also several parks in the area that needed stewardships, like the one at Kinross Creek Ravine Park, where there was a fatality from a tree coming down. and I was hoping my church leadership would start a tour ship society down there. So it's really important to get this dealt with.

Statement Watch

Good evening, Commissioners, and I'm pleased to support the motion and especially the commitment to biodiversity restoration opportunities. It would be awesome to see more than the 50 million, though. Nature is very popular with about 95% support, and there's so much to do to repair the damage done over the last two centuries. Measures like daylighting streams, restoring lands, forests, and tidal marshes are probably needed. For example, I just learned that the area around Faults Creek used to have some of the largest trees in the world, and sadly, those are gone. I'd like to say I really like the daylighted stream in Patlow slash Volunteer Park, as do many others, and it would be great to see the other 12 or 13 streams that have been buried restored as well. Access to nature is really beneficial to people's physical and mental health. For example, being in nature is proven to be effective at reducing the scrimping time, which sadly many of us are addicted to. And specifically, you know, strongly supporting the First Nations priorities, including the soil of two action plans to improve the health of the broad inlet ecosystem is great. And as Commissioner Digby has mentioned, improving Still Creek is really important. And sadly, it affects Burnaby as well. I had a friend last fall. She works in Burnaby, and she was cycling home. She lives in Vancouver. And she came across an area of the Central High Greenway, which was flooded, and she didn't think it was that much. So she went in the water. She ended up having to swim. The water was so deep in there. So, you know, these are, you know, measures to improve streams and wetlands to control flooding are badly needed across the region. And certainly improvements in Vancouver will make it safer, actually, you know, for people people that live in Vancouver to cycle to work in Burnaby and throughout the region. So again, lots of work to do, but certainly glad to see the biodiversity and the other measures in this capital plan. So let's do it and let's go for more. Thank you very much.

Statement Watch

Good evening, and thanks for the long evening. Darren Sherbot, long-term volunteer with the Vancouver Youth Soccer Association and member for over 15 years with the Vancouver Field Sports Federation on behalf of youth soccer. Speaking here tonight as a representative of the Vancouver Youth Soccer Association, we represent about 7,000 kids under 18 and over 13,000 parents and guardians across multiple city clubs who are almost exclusively associated with the Vancouver Postal Code area. Thank you for the opportunity to comment tonight on the upcoming motion for the Parks 2027-30 CAP Plan. Succinctly, we support the motion and specifically the playfield projects under Section A. BYSA, my organization, strongly supports the endeavour to advance these overdue field initiatives. These projects, if implemented over the next three years, will make large strides in addressing the existing deficit of infrastructure improvements and renewals. We know that the continuous success and recruitment of youth for field sports is dependent on the available fair and equitable access to city fields. The issue is not only about hosting competitive soccer games. This is about enabling safe outside community programs to keep our youth engaged, active in physical, mentally positive environments outside of school, for all levels of play and ages, including a sport with one of the highest participation rates of girls. In Vancouver, given its wet and dark seasons, park infrastructure associated with environmentally safe, long-pile artificial sports fields with lights is critical. AT fields are a necessary complement to our appreciated grass field inventory that we use over the summer, as grass fields cannot effectively be used in the winter in the same way as the AT fields. For more context and to illustrate the predicament we are in, it should be noted that Vancouver alone in the Lower Mainland has the lowest ratio of AT field days per player of any adjacent municipality. Burnaby and Richmond, for example, have almost two times as many AT field days per capita compared to Vancouver. There simply isn't sufficient space to accommodate the current or growing demand in Vancouver without action. With World Cup around the corner and an expected increase in youth soccer interest in our host city, it would be a poor legacy to live Vancouver sports users, youth or other soccer stranded any longer without sufficient space and needs. Thank you in advance to the Parks Board Commissioners for advancing these overdue projects and the expectation to proactively work with Mayor and Council. All those footprint hours on AT will particularly be used. In particular, conversion of gravel fields to AT fields is a logical conversion. Both my kids have permanent scars on their knees from playing on gravel, so that into any AT field like Beacon's Field is a well-needed improvement. If you have any further questions or would like to talk to our provincial sports organization, BC Soccer Association, who also supports adequate field density, I'd be happy to facilitate at your convenience. Thank you for your time tonight.

Statement Watch

Thank you. I'm just going to read from my phone. My name is Robert Baxter. I'm here on behalf of the Champlain Heights Community Association. I support the motion, though with the caveat that I believe the requested amount should actually be greater. Thank you to the council and staff for developing this budget proposal and for taking the time to hear from so many speakers, of which I believe I am the 68th. I was happy to see that the park board is considering the Shine Plain Heights trail system, which is at the heart of our community. It is a well-used trail system, especially for school children who use it to walk to and from school. I remember using it myself as a kid and would love to see the playgrounds, benches, lighting, and ecological restoration that would be needed to restore it to its former usability for the community. It was also great to see that the Park Board is considering a bathroom facility in Everett Crowley. Our community is largely residential and access to bathrooms is an issue. A standalone bathroom would not only simply increase equitable access to the park, it would also allow the association and the infrastructure to expand programming in the park. The Park Board staff have been great in working with the association to collaborate so that the association can fund additional staff hours in the summer to keep the centre open so that the community has access to bathrooms as well as additional programming. I could go on and list many capital improvements and maintenance projects needed in our community. Our gym floor for instance is older than me. However, I primarily came to speak here today to urge the Park Board to seek funding to stick to the community centre renewal plan and VAM play that has already been formulated. While Champlain Heights is on the list for renewal, we are at the bottom. Several community centres are in much more dire need of renewal if they are to continue to be fit for the purpose of providing accessible community recreation and leisure opportunities. Hastings, Kensington, Renfrew. If funding is delayed for the renewal of the community centres in most need, then I fear that the Champlain Heights Community Centre will not be renewed before the centre is long past the point at which it can serve the community. While I appreciate the proposed capital projects in this plan for the Champlain Heights community, this plan does not have enough funding to maintain community centre infrastructure like Hastings, Kensington and Renfrew. Maintaining existing assets and services should be front and centre in any capital plan. Please make sure that the capital funding available is adequate to the task of renewing the community centres that are first on the list to be renewed so that the Van Play plan may proceed at the pace that the infrastructure requires.

Statement Watch

Thank you. I really don't have anything much different to say. The last speaker, almost I would say exactly the same thing. There's been many people speaking. wonderful stuff, which I agree with wholeheartedly. However, I will do my little blurb. My name is Linda Dallow, and I come representing myself, my family, and I am also on the board of the Hastings Community Association. I've been involved with the association for 20 years as a volunteer, raised my child through all the benefits of the community centre. And I speak in support of the motion, albeit I think that it should be higher. Just the realities of the costs of everything these days. And so, Hastings Community Centre was identified as the city's top priority for a new community centre, and we would all like to see that happen. I just want to clarify that I believe that it should be built new. The building is actually older than me. Parts of it are much older. And it's the community, as everybody knows, is growing massively. And the needs of the community are exceeding the capacity of the building and what can be provided. So I am definitely in support of the budget being increased as you've proposed. And please ensure that the building is built new for the community and also the other things that are suggested, I wholeheartedly agree with as well. Vancouver needs the facilities and the outdoor nature and everything else. Thank you.

Statement Watch

Great. Thank you. I'm Jim Jones. I'm vice president of the Vancouver Field Sports Federation. um and on behalf of members and delegates representing 14 different amateur field sports and 25 000 plus participants as players across the city of vancouver we are very strongly in support of this motion the bfsf is complete volunteer organization 20 plus year umbrella advocacy organization that works to improve the quality and quantity of organized amateur field sports resources in vancouver uh all the associations leagues clubs that play on parks board outdoor fields are our members and we have cross-section peers on regular meetings and we ongoing talk to parks board staff and provide them with feedback and they provide us with information it's a great way of going back and forth our mandate is really aligned with the spirit of this motion that recognizes the urgent pressure of population growth aging infrastructure lack of playable field hours and the need to implement already adopted strategies namely the sports field strategy so from our perspective this is important for several reasons first of all and vancouver continues to face a shortage of quality safe and playable field spaces across multiple sports includes pressures on synthetic turf natural grass fields ball diamonds track and field facilities and more our members have repeatedly raised concerns about shortages of field times or field conditions displacement during renewal and special events, challenges with the permit process, and uneven access across sports in different neighborhoods. And this motion supports or responds to these longstanding motions in a serious and ambitious way. And secondly, we strongly support this motion because it connects capital investments to the sports field strategy, which the Park Sport passed in 2024. This is extremely important to us because the Sports Field Federation and staff have spent substantial time over the past several years working on this strategy. And it focuses on equity, priorities, field closures, field renewals, and future needs. We believe the capital plan spending should not occur in isolation or disproportionate, but be tied as much as possible to what the sports field strategy already says. And it's worth noting the sports field strategy actually identifies which fields and diamonds other facilities are priorities to be done. And thirdly, we welcome this motion that it's not narrowly focused on one sport. Our federation refers to a wide variety of field sports, and we know firsthand that equitable playing includes not only the biggest sport around in terms of amateur sports, soccer, but also cricket, rugby, softball, baseball, ultimate field hockey, Canadian football, Gaelic football, track and field, volleyball, disc golf, and several others. We also appreciate that it's recognized that not only do we need rectangular fields and artificial turf as a priority, we also need renewals and improvements on ball diamonds, disc golf, track and field, and other facilities.

Jim, we're at the end of your time. Would you like to wrap up with a sentence?

Yep, that's it. So just thank you on behalf of amateur, volunteer, nonprofit, public community, sports associations. We appreciate this. Thank you.