Multiplex Housing Policy Review

Yeah, hi. Thanks, Mayor and Council.

Yeah, well, thank you. On a personal note, you know, my name is Tom Digby. I'm the chair of the Vancouver Park Board and I am a resident of Vancouver and my position on this is other. On a personal note, you know, I'm a bit disappointed. In fact, I'm a lot disappointed that we are negotiating this very important point of children assuming the lessons in a public meeting in front and spending all this council time and staff time debating this in a public forum. The mayor can just give me a call as the chair of the park board. I would love to discuss what can we do for children in the city. for 136 years. You know, Mayor's been calling up chairs of the park board and saying, hey, look, we should do something for children of the city. And they worked together to get this solution. So Mayor, send my phone number again, 604-365-0338.

You're welcome to call me anytime and we'll see what we can do for kids. In fact, I want to, you know, maybe escalate this a bit. We could make the swimming pools in Vancouver free. Free for all residents at the way they do in Port Coquitlam and I know in Halifax swimming is free in the summertime. So you know there's a lot of things we could do, but it does require your ABC commissioners at the park board to reopen the fee schedule that we passed back in November and so long they you could invite them to do that. We'd be able to fix these fees and also we'd be able to lower the price at Spanish banks parking. which is excessive this year. Unfortunately, staff has jacked it up too high, but we can't intervene to lower it. Now, regarding the other parts of the motion, C to F, please, we do not need a report back in 2027 regarding pool priorities. We know what those are. To fund the kids' pool, it needs $40 million to stabilize it for another 15 years. If you want to do more than that, there's a $90 million option. And a $300 million option, full replacement. Please give me a call. Happy to chat about it. The Keresdale pool has been out of service for 10 months. My guess is it'll cost about $15 million to put in a new tank there. So that pool needs to go. And as you know, the city has been begging for a 50-meter pool, a new one. This could cost us up to $275 million. uh dollars at hastings center or at kensington community center so i encourage you to uh to call me and we'll talk about where that pool should go and if there's any federal money i'd love to put it there uh finally regarding kit's pool uh you know we did have a full hour-long discussion of this at the park board on march the 30th the issue was settled there were zero public speakers at that meeting so i assume that matter is settled Thank you for your time today, and I'll let you finish your considerations on the motion. Thank you, Tom.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. My name is Linnea Grace, and I'm the Executive Director of the Life Saving Society, BC and Yukon Branch. I'm here to speak in favor of today's motion. As mentioned, drowning is the leading cause of accidental deaths of children under the age of five in Canada. There is no better way to prevent than to intervene early with lessons. The Life Saving Society is a charitable organization dedicated to preventing drowning through swim lessons, training programs, water smart education, aquatic safety services, and life-saving sport. We're recognized as Canada's life-guarding expert and one of the five leading agencies in providing first aid. And annually across the country, over 1.7 million Canadians participate in our swimming, life-saving, life-guarding, first aid, and leadership programs. So we are so proud that the City of Vancouver and the Vancouver Park Board staff are an active affiliate delivering Swim for Life swim instruction. We're thrilled to see this proposal come forward, and we welcome city leaders as allies in education and safety. We also welcomed recent support on the restoration of lifeguard services at local beaches, a critical piece of the puzzle, with special thanks to Councillor Frey and other colleagues for shining a light on this issue. We've long advocated for all British Columbians and all Vancouverites to have access to essential skills to survive an unexpected fall into water and avoid drowning. We've supported potential policy solutions like making swim lessons and swim to survive mandatory in school curriculum, swim outreach programs, to bring instruction to underserved areas of BC and training more qualified lifeguards. Providing the first few levels of swim instruction for free presents a creative solution and moves us further towards everyone in Vancouver having essential life skills. As a coastal city, the natural risks of living and playing by or in the water are greater, making it even more important to have basic swim abilities. Program fees, limited availability of lessons that are in high demand, scheduling challenges, and other issues can prevent people from learning to swim, making it difficult for many to access these opportunities. This is especially challenging with those who statistically have reduced swim skills and access, including newcomers to Canada, low-income residents, and families with young children. Should this motion be approved, the Life Saving Society is available to collaborate. with the City of Vancouver, Vancouver Park Board, as desired. We remain ready to provide expert advice, and we want to help your team determine the most successful methods to deliver free swim instruction going forward as they form their recommendations, if staff are directed to do so, and if funding allows. Together, we can prevent drowning and reduce water-related injury. Thank you very much.

Good afternoon. Hi.

Thank you very much. My name is Jody Vance. I'm a Vancouverite, a swimmer, a community advocate, and a mother. And I'm here this afternoon in support of the motion being passed because Kitzpool, one of the most iconic public amenities in this entire country, is still being run like it's March 2020. The pandemic is over. The restrictions at Kitzpool are not. We're talking about Vancouver's largest outdoor saltwater pool. It's a landmark, a place that has served this city's families, seniors, athletes, and newcomers for generations. And right now, it is sitting empty when it should have opened this past weekend. For six years, Kitspool has been operating at a fraction of its capacity with multiple 30-minute crossover closures for cleaning and an entirely unnecessary advanced online reservation system that functionally locks out anyone without a smartphone, a laptop, or the luxury of planning a spontaneous swim days in advance. Let me be very direct about who that hurts most. It hurts families, families who want to teach their kids to swim by spending a summer day at the pool, but don't have the devices or the data plans to navigate a reservation portal. I know these families, they've stopped trying. That is an equity failure and it belongs to the Vancouver Parks Board. Swimming is a life skill. The current system hurts low income kids and teenagers, an entire generation being denied the simple spontaneous joy of showing up at a public pool on a hot day. Kids don't plan group swims a week ahead, they just go. or they used to. It hurts seniors, it hurts newcomers, it hurts everyone who believed that a public pool meant public access. We've been told this is about capacity management, about lineups, about a lifeguard shortage. I want to address that directly. There is no lifeguard shortage. What there is, is an administration that doesn't understand the fundamental difference between outdoor seasonal guards and indoor pool guards. and has arbitrarily restructured their scheduling in ways that put frontline workers in an impossible position and the public in a longer queue. And if lineups are the concern, get creative. A QR code at the gate, a text notification when space opens up. There are a dozen low friction solutions that don't require turning Vancouver's most beloved public pool into a reservation only private club. Reservations are for restaurants. Kit's pool is a public good. The ask this afternoon is simple and it is reasonable. Restore full capacity and the reservation system and the crossover closures extend the season. Our shoulder seasons now feel very much summer-like. Think April to October and let this pool be what it was built to be. Open, accessible, at the point of entry for every single person in this city and our visitors. Life lessons for kids, free lessons for kids, life skills for kids, 12 and under is a great idea, but the pool needs to be open. Vancouver built Kids Pool for its people, all of them, not just the ones with laptops and flexible schedules. Open the pool. And by the way, the baby in that photo is my son, and he's now 18. He learned to swim at Kids Pool. Thank you.

Yes, good afternoon, Chair, Mayor, Council. My name is John Irwin. I'm speaking for myself. I want to speak in support of the intent of the motion. I think the motion has good intent. I want to question the jurisdictional boundaries, so I think it's better to leave this for the Park Board. But on the intent, I think there are three blood sports in Vancouver. Housing, childcare, and swim lessons. Like many other residents, and I'm speaking on behalf of my children as well, I would get on the system. I have all the gear. I've had that for a while because I've been in academia. And you really had to work hard to get a slot. So often we go to a private provider to get the swim lessons because we do a lot of water sports, and it's essential, as you said. I agree with that. And so I think we can do this, and we need to do it, but I'd argue it should be park board-led because it's a jurisdictional issue, really. The park board is there. It needs to be honored as an institution. I'd also like to say that, you know, kids' pool is a great pool. It needs to be rebuilt, but it's in a very difficult spot in terms of the logs and the climate change and the king tides and the storms that happen. So that's tricky, but I understand people like it, especially my partner who likes to swim for miles, unlike me, who I don't swim for miles. You know, so I think it's valid as well. I also think if you're going to support this and, you know, kind of copy something I said in the past, I can't remember if it was here or not, about Joe Fortes and thinking back to Joe Fortes, it's important to remember he taught people how to swim, kids how to swim in the ocean. And the ocean is almost like an unlimited beachside resource that we have in our city. When the weather's hot, especially, we could run programs. Apparently, there was one. One lifeguard told me this during the discussion around the lifeguards. And we could hire enough lifeguards to teach people, especially kids, with this free swim lesson idea, which I really like. I think it's wonderful. But we need to work together in collaboration with each institution. Yeah, I'd also like to say that basically the lifeguards, one person thanked you folks for the lifeguards. I'd just like to point out that the park board trimmed its budget in other areas to put the funding in to keep the lifeguards, right? Because lifeguarding is essential. Swimming is essential. The death by drowning, after death by automobile, by the way, being struck by automobiles, getting injured in automobiles, bicycles sometimes hitting people, but more rarely is the number two cause of death for children over one in Canada. That's a StatsCan statistic. Yeah, so I like the intent. Let's do it. But pony up. Show me the money. Do it now. Because we're, you know, this can't be an election strategy. This has to be something we do. And we do it now for the safety of our children. Thank you very much.

Good afternoon.

Please go ahead. Thank you. I'm a Vancouver resident, and I'm speaking on behalf of the Vancouver Society for Promotion of Outdoor Pools and the Mount Pleasant Community Centre Association. We support the many goals of this motion while also sharing some important concerns. We strongly support improving equitable access to public aquatic facilities across Vancouver and making swimming lessons accessible to all ages and the younger they can start learning, the better. We appreciate the recognition that we have a stark and growing pool deficit and the urgent need to resolve this. More aquatic capacity will help address the lifeguard shortage by creating long-term employment opportunities. If we build the facilities, people will train for those jobs. We do, however, caution...

and delay projects that are already urgently needed and already well advanced through public planning and consultation. We especially want to stress that outdoor pools must explicitly be included in aquatic strategies. Outdoor public pools are essential infrastructure for our resilience. They provide essential skill building, recreation, cooling, and accessible public space during extreme heat events, especially for residents without other options. They can also be delivered at a much lower cost than large indoor destination pools, which may have certain efficiencies, but are ultimately far more costly to build, maintain, and operate. We need to expand both our indoor and outdoor aquatics. Outdoor pools are not less valuable because they're seasonal. Many facilities and activities are seasonal, and outdoor pools are one of the most accessible and popular ways people are introduced to water and swimming. Currently, access is not equitable across the city. We also cannot assume that our beaches can replace outdoor pools. We no longer have two or four days at English Bay teaching people to swim, and learning in open water can be intimidating and unsafe. As contamination, sea level rise, and erosion increasingly affect our beaches, outdoor pools are becoming even more needed. Anticipated Stage 3 water restrictions will mean that private backyard pools cannot be filled, so the importance of public facilities is greater than ever. Park Board is already requesting $250 million for aquatic infrastructure in the capital plan. Council should consider supporting and potentially increasing that investment while ensuring planning processes do not slow urgently needed delivery. Unless we build more pools now, many of the beneficial goals in this motion will not be possible. Finally, I want to highlight Mount Pleasant, where residents have been waiting since 2009 for progress on a pool facility that is already prioritized. There is no reason for further delay as our other facilities deteriorate. It is positioned to be a quick start project that can begin to address our pool deficit in the near term. Whether through this motion, the capital plan, or the park board's aquatics request, Vancouver needs more aquatic capacity and faster delivery. So thank you for your time.

Hi. So my name is Laura Christensen. I'm speaking as a park board commissioner, but on my own behalf. And I'm speaking, I guess other would be my category. I do just want to say I appreciate the Council's interest in investing in aquatic infrastructure. I think this is a good move towards that. I do want to flag, for one, questioning why some of the ABC Park Board commissioners didn't bring this to the board, seeing as a significant portion of this is within Park Board jurisdiction. There's two things I want to address. This is primarily around items C and G. So on the topic of C, which is setting targets, this is actually already set in Van Splash. If you look at page 55 of Van Splash, the target that they use is a unit of swims per capita. So they have a 25-year vision of hitting 5.0 swims per capita. And this is sort of, you know, large pools can provide more swims per capita versus small pools. And that's how they're setting the targets for aquatic infrastructure. So let's not reinvent the wheel. We can just use this criteria we've already developed. I don't think we need to set staff on another mission when we already have this developed with advanced splash already. I do also want to address item G, which is the Kitsilano pool. uh reservation system um you know on march 30th the park board did was received a report from staff that provided significant data in support of the reservation system and including a lege poll and this staff report was considered and approved by the board um you know in a previous meeting about lifeguards uh city councillor you know called out the park board's not coming to speak at the city city council uh so i'd like to call out city council for not coming to speak at our meeting on this If this is something that council wanted, they could have come and spoke at our meeting when we considered this. However, we had no one from city council come speak to us. We only received four letters in support of the reservation system, none opposed. We had one speaker that night which was classified as other. I think both the report that we received and the public feedback that we received at that time. I think indicates the support for the reservation system. People appreciate the ability to reserve and know that they have a spot. And the information provided by staff showed that there was only two times the entire last summer where people were turned away. And I think it was, you know, a very small handful of people in two different sessions over the entire summer that drop-ins were turned away. So this shows that the reservation system is working. And the board has already on March 30th considered and approved maintaining So I think the request to Park Board likely won't be received because we've already considered this, and it'll be out of order for us to reconsider that item again already. So again, I just want to flag, you know, if these are investments in our aquatic infrastructure, it would be great if Park Board could be included in this. I believe the chair, Tom Digby, already spoke to this.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm wearing my glasses today because I actually made some notes. I'm glad that Commissioner Christensen referenced the Kitsilano report. Actually, it's a very good report. I would encourage all of the councillors to go through it. And I think she covered it off well in terms of the public response to not only Kitsilano, but all of our public outdoor pools and the booking system. So let me back up. My name is Aaron Jasper, former park board commissioner and former chair. Served on the board from 2008 to 14. I'm also a member of the Save Our Park Board Coalition, which is comprised of over 30 previous park board commissioners across the political spectrum, community center associations, and citizens and residents across our city. I part down against this motion, and I wanted to qualify that. If this motion had been worded in a way that encouraged Park Board to explore free lesson options with a promise of funding that, then I would have been the first person to sign up to support it. I see this motion, however, as an empty, hollow motion. I do also want to touch on something that's been mentioned by my friend John Irwin in terms of jurisdiction. And I brought a copy. I'm happy to leave it with any of the council members. The Vancouver Charter section, as it pertains to the park board, and I would reiterate the comments made earlier that this is not council jurisdiction. This is park board jurisdiction in terms of how they are going to put on their programming and all the operations. It's worth noting... I've watched council for the last three years. I haven't really seen any overstep when it comes to the Vancouver Police Department or fire and rescue. No directions or any ways of dictating how they run their operations. In fact, you're very supportive. This council is very supportive with respect to staffing, funding, equipment. But when it comes to park board, this council seems to not be able to swim in their own lane. I think it's important to respect our jurisdiction or the park board's jurisdiction. While no one would disagree with that swimming is a fundamental life skill, again, I find it hard to believe that the purpose of this motion is to get us to improving that skill level amongst our youth. You can't say that you support world-class parks and rec when you underfund park board operations by $11 million, and that's a fact. Contrast to that with the funding you give to the Vancouver Police Department. Furthermore, given that this motion directs staff to report back to council in 2027, in my opinion, what we're looking at here is nothing more than a bullet point in an election platform for ABC.

I could get into the particulars. Van Splash already has done all the work, the analysis, and the plan. the work has already been done. And so if mayor and council are really genuine in their desire to support free swimming, I think we need to have a discussion first about funding park board operations and working collaboratively. So thank you for your time.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. My name is Phil Skinder, and I'm the director and the head coach of the Pacific Swim Academy and the Pacific Life Saving Club. I'm a resident, parent, swimmer, certified lifeguard, and my children are too. We teach swimming, life saving, and instruction skills in Vancouver at four to five pools, as well as Jericho Sailing Centre. I sincerely congratulate you on this motion. It is very well written. And in complete document, it's important significantly because it recognizes something fundamental. Finally, publicly, that swimming skills save lives. They improve public health, build confidence, strengthen communities, and give children healthy environments to grow in. Even if the lessons became free tomorrow, where would the pools, instructors, and funding come from? Well, surprisingly, the reality is we have much of the infrastructure we need, and we don't need money to provide immediate relief. We already have pools, beaches, and bodies of water that could be used more effectively. We already have certified instructors ready to teach what's missing is the pathway. And creating the pathway is mainly within your jurisdiction and your power. You can modernize policies, home-based business bylaws, and operating procedures that currently restrict access to both public and private pools. as well as other aquatic spaces. You can incentivize strata, residential and privately owned pools to invite access through measures like property tax reductions. City Council and the Parks Board can work collaboratively to allow certified organizations like ours teach life-saving courses at beaches through wading pools for novice instruction and expand existing low-cost community programming immediately. By making changes today, not spending any more money... you can decide to immediately reduce pressure on the system. And yes, in the immediate future, expand partnerships with schools. We've already written out a pools and schools proposal. Learn from what Burnaby did well and what they learned they did not do well. create pilot projects on unused public and private land, and allow private instructors and community organizations to help deliver lessons safely and professionally. For years, we've advocated for community-based swimming education integrated directly into neighborhoods and schools. Our polling verifies it. Parents want pools in schools. I'll tell you what, most can already afford it. We already have the leisure access program available to identify those who can't. But what no one can afford is driving across the city to attend lessons, and waiting hours online for swim school lottery. Seriously, the current cohort of children I'm asking you to consider today does not have the luxury of time. This is a solvable problem that you can solve here, right now. The infrastructure exists, the instructors exist, the demand certainly exists. What's needed now is the willingness to modernize policy so we can get kids safely into the water quickly and at scale. I see this motion pointing to all these solutions and I smile. Let's do it now. The children and families in our great aquatic city deserve our best efforts to do so. Thank you very much.

It was raised by several of the speakers.

That's what you're asking.

Yeah, thanks. Certainly a laudable motion in theory. And I'll spare regaling Council on... how I learned to swim. But I do have a point of information, maybe through the chair to staff. By my calculations, this program pulls in around $420,000 a year by delivering around 1,113 swimming lessons. Would that be accurate? You have the exact number, but that's what I came up with around there.

Okay, so that's a big chunk of money. I guess my question is, you know, considering that, you know, we've asked the park board to, you know, find $15 million in savings due to the zero means zero budget. Where will we find the money for this, essentially, similar to some of the speakers that we're asking? I guess this is a question through the chair to the mover of the motion. Where will we find the money for this if we continue to not raise taxes?

Okay, so there's potential for, you know, sponsorship naming for swimming lessons like, you know, Speedo, Brands, you know.

Thank you very much. I am in support, and I'm a proud resident of Vancouver. Hello, mayor and council. Well, the mayor is not here, but you all know me. My name is Melissa DiGenova, and I'm the president of the Italian Day Festival Society. I'm here today on behalf of our board in support of Councillor Dominato's motion for this urgent one-time funding request for $60,000. And I want to sincerely thank Councillor Dominato for bringing the motion forward. Italian Day is the largest event during Italian Heritage Month and a celebration of the people, culture, businesses, and community that helped to build the city. It showcases Vancouver's Little Italy, something I was proud to bring forward with the help of Randy Rinaldo, who's here also for official recognition when I served as a Vancouver City Councillor. For generations, Commercial Drive has been a place where immigrant families built businesses, raised children, and created community. Italian Day honors that legacy and welcomes hundreds of thousands of people each year. In a city that has become increasingly expensive, free, family-friendly, cultural events like this matter more than ever. And this festival supports local businesses and tourism. Italian Day isn't the only festival facing extraordinary pressures, as you know, from your commitment to one-time funding for Car Free Days. The financial climate has made sponsorship more difficult, with festival costs continuing to rise. Italian Day was not recommended for a city cultural grant this year, a loss of approximately $10,000 in funding we long received. Two years ago, the province canceled the grant program that supported cultural festivals and shifted towards a tourism-focused model. Since then, Italian Day has not received provincial funding. FIFA-related pressures are also creating operational impacts for festivals across the city. We do support FIFA. I want to be very clear about that. However, these impacts are our reality. For example, capacity pressures affect our ability to secure traffic authority personnel at lower rates, and equipment costs have skyrocketed due to supply and demand. Like many festival organizations and organizations, we are finding current funding models increasingly difficult to sustain. Costs continue to rise while the FestShare grant remains unchanged in the same amount each year. Italian Day must move forward. We have made commitments to the community, local merchants, sponsors, and attendees. However, without your support, there's a real risk that the festival will need to be significantly scaled back. despite overwhelming public support and attendance. On behalf of our board sponsors and those who look forward to attending Italian Day every year, thank you for your consideration. I hope this is one motion that you will all unanimously support, and we look forward to welcoming you all to Commercial Drive on June 14th for Italian Day on the Drive, where we invite you all to be Italian, at least for the day.

My name is Randy Rinaldo, and I am the president of Il Centro Italian Cultural Center. I'm here today in support of Counselor Lisa Dominato's motion to provide one-time extraordinary support for Italian Day on the Drive. For decades, many of us in the Italian-Canadian community worked hard to preserve and celebrate Little Italy on Commercial Drive. I personally spent years advocating for the recognition and promotion of Little Italy on Commercial Drive to celebrate the culture and heritage of our community. We wanted future generations to understand the contributions Italian Canadians made to this city and to create a place where culture, food, family, music, and community could continue to thrive and to promote Vancouver as a fun city. Something we got to work hard on. We've done very well in the last few years, but we're going to keep pushing on that. Italian Day has become one of the most visible and successful expressions of that vision. Today, it is one of Vancouver's largest cultural festivals. It also showcases Vancouver as a vibrant, welcoming, multicultural city. What is important for Council to understand is that the financial challenges facing Italian Day this year are unique and outside of the organization's control. We appreciate the consideration for a one-time grant, but as Melissa has said, to keep this festival alive, we need to consider how we can work together to sustaining rising costs. And let me tell you, every single year, the water is right here, and we always think maybe this is our last year. We may not be able to go the next year because it is getting up there. This is not simply funding in an event. It is supporting culture, tourism, small business, and community connection in Vancouver. Events like this matter to our city. They bring life to our streets, support local economies, and strengthen community during a time when many organizations are struggling with rising costs. I want to thank Councillor Domenato for bringing this motion forward for consideration. On behalf of Villecentro and many members of the Italian-Canadian community, I respectfully ask Council's support.

Thank you, Randy.

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for having us here. My name is Benalla Gaudio, and I'm the executive director for Italian Day on the Drive. And I thank you for this opportunity to come and speak today in support of the motion Councillor Lisa Dominato has put forth for the extraordinary grant of $60,000 to assist with Italian Day's 2026 shortfall. I have been with the Italian Day Festival Society since 2011 and have seen costs rise from an initial $80,000 cost to now close to $600,000, which would be even higher if it wasn't for the additional in-kind support from our partners and sponsors. Close to 60% of our expenses incurred represent base costs just to shut down the street and ensure public safety, along with sanitation, insurance, traffic management, security, production, and equipment. Since we returned in 2023, after three years of not having the 14-block festival due to the pandemic, costs have almost tripled in many cases. As an example, in 2019, before Festshare was to come into effect in 2020, our gross costs on city services provided for the festival were just under $40,000. In 2023, when the festival returned and the FestShare grant was applied for the first time, the gross costs were close to $100,000, almost triple what was in 2019. Today, gross costs before applying FestShare grant are closer to $140,000 and rising each year. This is just one example demonstrating the degree of cost increases we face, which is becoming impossible to maintain. The $75,000 FestShare grant, although helpful, today remains what it was when it first passed and in a few short years does not consider the dramatic rise in costs leaving us and many festivals at risk. This is something Mayor and Council should consider for future as a longer term solution to help resolve the variance between what costs were when FestShare was first passed and what they are now. A challenging economic climate has also seen sponsor revenue streams shrink, resulting in lower funding amounts and more challenges to obtain sponsorships. In addition, valuable grants have disappeared or have become virtually impossible to obtain because of the competitive nature for these grants. It has been two years since we received any provincial funding, which in 2023 and 2024 amounted to $100,000 combined from the BCFFE grant. The grant was discontinued in 2025 and replaced with a DEP program, which has more of a tourism focus. This year has been an exceptionally difficult year. Although we are one of the only festivals approved by FIFA to move forward with the event during the game window, the competitive nature of obtaining funds from sponsors with the World Cup in play has had us drop in historic funding significantly. Add to that the removal of one of the key benefits which draws sponsors to support, this being the street banners on the drive announcing the festival and its sponsors, now have been taken by FIFA. Further opportunities were lost to obtain funding. We have worked hard to make up the difference in revenue loss as well as additional revenue needed to address anticipated cost increases, but there remains a $60,000... Rene, I'm sorry if that's your time.

Yeah. I just wanted to say Italian Day is one of the most anticipated festivals of the year, embracing all ages and cultures together in a unifying and uplifting way. Sorry, that's your time.

Hello, Chair and members. Yes, I'm on the phone. Yeah, please go ahead, Nathan. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Yeah. Thank you, Chair and members of the committee. Yeah, my name is Nathan Davinovich, and I support the Italian Days and all the other festivals in the city, and I hope that the BC government will fund them properly. The problem arise is when the streets are closed and people are left stranded in their home, like they are prisoners in their own home. They bought the monthly pass to use transit, but then there is no transit for at least 12 hours on commercial drive. If you go on Beach Avenue, I don't know how many days throughout the summer. There is no bus service. So why would somebody buy a pass and he can't use it? Just said, yeah, you're leaving seniors and disabled people, prisoners in their own home. They can't go out anywhere because there's no bus service. Now, there is a solution. And other cities have done that. And Hansling doesn't want to do it, which is the golf cart. 12-passenger golf cart that can fit in. Chair, can you remind the speaker to stay on topic?

The people around commercial drive on Italian Day are going, left prisoners on their own home because TransLink does not want to provide alternate service to the bus service they are taking away. And it's up to council to request TransLink to provide alternate service. And, you know, it's just, I mean, it's a long way for people to walk, you know, and either to cloud drive or on a nine-way street, it's even farther away from commercial drive. It's almost one kilometer because the transit doesn't want to put a bus service on Victoria Drive. So we have all kinds of challenges, and I don't know what... You said council can't really do anything, but I can recommend things to TransLink and ask the city manager to discuss better ways to serve the public without street closures. Thank you very much for your help. All right. Thanks, Nathan.