Vancouver voters are being asked to approve $495 million in debt, including for a new Aquatic Centre in downtown

In each Vancouver civic election, there are typically two core parts to the ballot form — the voting on the candidates for Mayor, City Council, Park Board, and School Board is one part, and the plebiscite questions on the capital budget is the second part.

On the backside of the ballot form for today’s civic election, voters are being asked to approve $495 million in new debt towards funding a portion of the $3.5 billion capital budget between 2023 and 2026.

The remaining $3 billion in the capital budget will be covered by various other sources, including developer-driven revenues and general revenues from taxation.

Unlike the operating budget, the capital budget deals with new construction and maintenance works for facilities and infrastructure.

You might also like:
• What you need to know to vote in Saturday’s municipal election
• This is the random order of all 137 candidates listed in Vancouver's civic election ballot
• Why TEAM's Colleen Hardwick takes issue with the "housing supply" solution for affordability
• Decades-long repair waits: 11 community centres in Vancouver in poor condition
• Opinion: Vancouver is falling behind on building community centres and infrastructure
• Opinion: City of Vancouver needs to focus on its basic municipal responsibilities

The first plebiscite question seeks support to borrow $173.5 million largely for transportation infrastructure maintenance and enhancements.

This includes $94.3 million for arterial and neighbourhood roads, sidewalks, greenways, and bike lanes, as well as repairs and structural work on the Cambie Bridge and Granville Bridge.

Another $54.3 million is for traffic signals and street lighting, while $8.5 million is for electrical services in public spaces — such as built-in power connections for food trucks, film productions, and lighting for special events. This first question also covers information technology system upgrades, worth $16.4 million.

The second question seeks permission to borrow $162 million for new and improved community and recreational centres. Most of this, $103 million, would go towards overhauling or replacing the aging Vancouver Aquatic Centre at Sunset Beach in downtown Vancouver’s West End.

There is a greater urgency to replace Vancouver Aquatic Centre after a portion of its exterior wall near the main entrance crumbled in March 2022.

The remaining $59 million would go towards improving other community and recreational facilities in the city, including RayCam Community Centre.

A partial collapse of the exterior wall near the main entrance of the aging Vancouver Aquatic Centre in March 2022. (Daily Hive)

The third and final plebiscite question is on borrowing $159.5 million for “parks, public safety and other civic facilities, climate adaption, and other emerging priorities.”

This includes $33.5 million towards parks, the seawall, pathways, playgrounds, playfields, and sport courts, $60.6 million for renovating or replacing public safety and other operational civic facilities (such as the Downtown South Fire Hall), $20 million for “emerging climate adaption priorities” of upgrading infrastructure in response to climate change (such as seawall reconstruction), and $45.4 million towards cost-share projects with other levels of government — “to provide the City’s share of funding to leverage senior government and partner funding in the areas of transportation, community facilities, parks, civic facilities and technology, and/or other emerging priorities.”