Vancouver Park Board seeking $1.4 billion for new community centres and parks | Daily Hive

Vancouver Park Board seeking over $1.4 billion for new and improved community centres and parks

2025 concept of the new Vancouver Aquatic Centre. (MJMA Architecture & Design/Acton Ostry Architects/Vancouver Park Board)

Vancouver Park Board commissioners on Tuesday approved an ambitious funding wish list to Vancouver City Council, calling for accelerated historic investment in replacing and renewing the city’s aging network of community and recreation facilities.

The member motion, introduced by commissioner Brennan Bastyovanszky of the Vancouver Liberals civic party, initially proposed a $1.35 billion investment in the parks and recreation system over the 2027–2030 capital plan. The proposal outlined $50 million for biodiversity restoration — such as reconnecting Stanley Park’s Lost Lagoon to tidal seawater — and $300 million for new and improved parks, playing fields, sports courts, and open spaces and to make the seawall more resilient to storms and sea level rise, and $1 billion for new and improved aquatic, community, and recreation centres.

After hearing from dozens of public speakers and deliberations, the commissioners amended the motion before approving it, increasing the total request to $1.43 billion. The revision adds $80 million to the allocation for aquatic, community, and recreation facilities.

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Under the revised plan, $200 million would be directed toward aquatic facilities, including a new Kitsilano Outdoor Pool and planning for a potential new aquatic centre in South Vancouver with a 50-metre, Olympic-sized competition pool. Another $200 million is earmarked for renewing major community centres, particularly Hastings, Kensington, and Renfrew. The plan also sets aside $100 million for cost-shared projects to renew the RayCam, West End, and Strathcona community centres, along with $300 million for the redevelopment of Britannia’s aquatic and community centre and ice rink, which has seen very lengthy delays and no progress ever since the Park Board approved a master plan in 2018. Last fall, the planning process for Britannia restarted.

Through the same motion, Park Board commissioners also approved a recommendation exploring a potential partnership with the Aquilini Group, the owners of the Vancouver Canucks, to advance the Britannia redevelopment. Under the pondered concept as written in the motion, the NHL team would contribute additional capital funding toward the construction of a new ice rink, which would also serve as the franchise’s long-sought dedicated practice facility. In recent months, there has been renewed speculation that the Canucks are prioritizing involvement in the Britannia redevelopment as their preferred option, with reports noting the team is nearing a partnership agreement with the City.

Other investments include $27 million to modernize golf course facilities and $4 million to upgrade food and beverage concessions.

Additionally, there would also be some funding to support the planning of developer-led projects, including the new Northeast False Creek community centre and ice skating rink (integrated into the redesigned Plaza of Nations redevelopment) and the new Fraser River District Community Centre. Support would also be provided to improve Dr. Sun Yat Sen Gardens, Van Dusen Botanical Gardens, Bloedel Conservatory, Jericho Sailing Centre, and Burrard Marina.

This $1.43-billion request will be considered by City Council later this month, when it deliberates and finalizes the municipal government’s 2027-2030 capital plan. The Mayor and City Council have the final say over the Park Board’s capital plans and spending, including contract approvals for larger projects.

This follows a troubling review by the municipal government’s independent Auditor General last year, which found that 72 per cent of Vancouver’s community and recreation centres are in poor or very poor condition, and called on the City and Park Board to collaborate on an accelerated strategy to meaningfully tackle the need for urgent renewal of the facilities.

Not only are the facilities in poor shape, but with a growing population due to densification, there is also a need to provide residents with more community amenities and facilities.

“Vancouver is growing, concentrated along the Cambie Corridor, Oakridge, and the Broadway Plan, but the core infrastructure that supports daily life, such as parks, community centres, sports fields, and pools, has not kept pace,” said Bastyovanszky, calling the Park Board’s proposed capital plan a “once-in-a-generation opportunity to address that gap.”

“To maintain liveability, investment must align with where that growth is occurring,” continued Bastyovanszky.

This funding request also comes just ahead of the October 2026 civic election, where renewing community and recreation centres is expected to emerge as a key priority, with competing proposals likely from all major political parties.

“If we don’t address this, we’re going to hear this again. And it doesn’t get any cheaper for us to not address this today. For us to move this forward to another group of [elected] individuals is just going to make that tax burden that much higher. This is aspirational. But as a commissioner, our job is to advocate for Park Board facilities. To advocate for park space,” said Vancouver Liberals commissioner Scott Jensen during the deliberations.

Some public speakers suggested the Park Board could reduce the cost of building new facilities by simplifying and streamlining architectural designs — a critique aimed at the planned redevelopment of Vancouver Aquatic Centre, which features a high-calibre, design-forward approach. For instance, this was the approach taken for the City of Burnaby’s new Burnaby Lake Aquatic Centre, which is currently under construction.

Construction on the new Vancouver Aquatic Centre — beginning with the demolition of the existing facility — is expected to start by late 2026, as the municipal government is legally required to meet this timeline under the terms of the borrowing authority approved by voters in the October 2022 civic election. That approved plebiscite question authorized the City to borrow $103 million toward the $175-million project.

Four years ago, the renewal of Vancouver Aquatic Centre was designated as the top priority, after the facility began to crumble, literally. Then in Fall 2025, concrete chunks of the ceiling fell into the pool waters, necessitating the installation of a net over the pool before enabling the facility’s reopening.

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

The October 2026 civic election ballot could include additional plebiscite questions seeking voter approval for borrowing to help fund the yet-to-be-finalized 2027-2030 capital plan. The new Kitsilano Outdoor Pool is expected to be among the key priorities in this next four-year plan, with planning for the replacement of the aging waterfront facility already well underway.

It is unclear how Vancouver’s municipal government could cover the cost of setting aside $1.43 billion for the Park Board’s capital plan, with the property tax being the municipal government’s main revenue source. Capital plans are often achieved in part by borrowing money, which necessitates direct voter approval.

During the deliberations, Green commissioner Tom Digby, who is the chair of the Park Board this year, essentially suggested that if there is a will, there is a way, without specifying.

“I’ve heard some colleagues were leaning into the question of, can we afford this $1.43 billion to go into parks and recreations?” said Digby.

“Folks, I have reviewed the numbers. I’ve done the math. I’ve looked at it closely. We can afford this. And it’s our responsibility.”

Yesterday, during his final annual address to the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade this term, Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim announced his ABC Vancouver party-led City Council would set aside $400 million over the 2027-2030 capital plan to achieve five newly rebuilt aquatic, community, and recreational facilities.

Sim says the ABC proposal is “the most ambitious funding package for community centres in the history of our city.”

The mayor is also promising a second consecutive annual property tax increase of zero per cent — no hike — in 2027, after incurring much criticism of substantially increasing property taxes in the early years of the current term, which builds on previous significant annual property tax hikes since 2017. After 2027, Sim says, property tax increases would be tied more closely to inflation.

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