Park Board opens door to Vancouver Canucks practice facility at Britannia rink | Daily Hive

Park Board opens door to potential Vancouver Canucks practice facility at Britannia ice rink

Existing condition of Britannia Rink in East Vancouver. (Britannia Community Services Society)

After a prolonged two-year maintenance closure that began in March 2024, the ice rink at the aging Britannia civic hub finally reopened to the public in February 2026 following extensive repairs.

The facility had been closed due to a brine leak and other mechanical issues.

In response, the City of Vancouver allocated $17.5 million in capital maintenance funding for the overall Britannia site over 2025 and 2026.

The work included replacing the ice rink slab, upgrading digital control systems, repainting the exterior of the ice rink and swimming pool buildings, replacing skylights in the pool building, and reinforcing roof trusses. It also involved major repairs and upgrades to mechanical and electrical systems, plumbing, pool systems, HVAC, boilers, and domestic hot water heating, along with other improvements.

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In recent months, there has been renewed speculation that Aquilini Group, the owners of the Vancouver Canucks, are prioritizing an involvement in the Britannia redevelopment as their preferred option to finally realize a dedicated practice facility for their NHL team, with reports noting the franchise is nearing a partnership agreement with the municipal government.

The possible scheme being floated could retain the existing, newly upgraded Britannia ice rink while adding a four- to five-storey building expansion of approximately 20,000 to 25,000 sq. ft. This addition could conceivably provide dedicated facilities for the Canucks, including change rooms, high-performance training and physiotherapy areas, and office and media space — a combination of uses commonly found at dedicated team practice facilities across the NHL, and a previously cancelled concept envisioned by the Canucks at the Plaza of Nations.

“Additional funds from the Canucks” for Britannia renewal

Earlier this week, Vancouver Park Board commissioners approved a member motion asking Vancouver City Council to set aside $1.43 billion in the four-year, 2027-2030 capital plan for building new and improved facilities and infrastructure for the city’s parks and recreation system. This includes $1.08 billion for aquatic, community, and recreation centres, with $300 million specifically for the Britannia redevelopment.

City Council will take the Park Board’s recommendation into consideration when they deliberate and finalize the municipal government’s overall capital plan later this month.

As well, for the first time, Park Board commissioners have indicated they will consider the involvement of the Canucks. They approved the motion’s component of exploring a “collaboration with the Canucks, including enhancement of the ice rink facilities, and renewal of the swimming pool and community centre spaces.” There would also be “additional funds from the Canucks,” the provincial government, and other sources.

Prior to the Park Board’s deliberations and vote of approval, the commissioners heard from dozens of public speakers, including some who provided their input on the possible Canucks involvement in the Britannia renewal.

One speaker said she was “a bit disturbed” with the recent reports that the Canucks were going to use Britannia’s sole existing ice rink without building an additional secondary 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,” she said. “The most effective way to build things is to put two rinks with a pool and reduce the operating costs.”

Another speaker was supportive of the Canucks being involved. He suggested the hockey players could also benefit from using the new aquatic centre planned for the Britannia civic hub.

“I see that the Aquilini’s are maybe partnering in Britannia. 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,” he said.

Britannia ice rink at the Britannia civic hub in East Vancouver. (Google Maps)

britannia community centre vancouver master plan 2018

2018-approved master plan concept for redeveloping the Britannia site of community and recreational facilities. (Vancouver Park Board)

The master plan for redeveloping the 18-acre Britannia site — located just off Commercial Drive in the Grandview-Woodland neighbourhood — was first approved by the Vision Vancouver party-led Park Board in 2018. At that previous approval juncture, the intention was to proceed into rezoning in 2019 and detailed design in 2020, with construction on the multi-phased project spanning a timeline of 10 to 20 years.

However, there has been no progress on implementation, with Park Board staff stating in an internal memo in Fall 2025 that they are now returning to the preliminary planning stage for the renewal of the facilities.

That memo included highly vague mentions of a swimming pool, gymnasium, fitness centre, multi-purpose rooms, administrative space for programming, skateboarding amenities, and potentially on-site childcare — no mentions of a brand new ice rink to replace the existing facility and/or providing Britannia with a secondary sheet of ice. This would appear to deviate from the 2018 master plan’s vision of building a brand new ice rink with non-market housing and a rooftop sports park.

The various existing community and recreation facilities found at the Britannia civic hub, including the ice rink, were built in the 1970s.

Existing condition of Britannia Rink in East Vancouver. (Britannia Community Services Society)

The previous practice rink concept at the Plaza of Nations redevelopment

The Canucks are now among the very few remaining NHL teams without a dedicated practice facility — and the only team without a defined plan for implementation. This is partly the result of a previously planned partnership that ultimately fell through, years after an agreement was made.

Years before the pandemic, the Aquilini Group had been working with Canadian Metropolitan Properties — the developer of the Plaza of Nations redevelopment on the Northeast False Creek waterfront, next to Rogers Arena — to incorporate an ice rink within a new public community centre as part of the large mixed-use project.

NHL teams typically practice in the mornings, leaving the facility available for public, community, and group use for the remainder of the day.

The Plaza of Nations concept would also have provided the Canucks with approximately 25,000 sq. ft. of dedicated space across three levels, including more than 8,000 sq. ft. for a sports medicine hub — immediately adjacent to the rink level — serving both the team and the broader community. The ice rink would also have nearly 400 seats for spectators.

Cancelled concept: Level 2 — ice rink and Vancouver Canucks space within the community centre at the Plaza of Nations redevelopment. (James Cheng Architects/Canadian Metropolitan Properties)

Cancelled concept: Level 3 — ice rink and Vancouver Canucks space within the community centre at the Plaza of Nations redevelopment. (James Cheng Architects/Canadian Metropolitan Properties)

Cancelled concept: Level 4 — ice rink and Vancouver Canucks space within the community centre at the Plaza of Nations redevelopment. (James Cheng Architects/Canadian Metropolitan Properties)

Cancelled concept: 2019 site plan of the Plaza of Nations redevelopment, with the civic centre/community centre with the Vancouver Canucks practice facility and ice rink shown. (James Cheng Architects/KPMB Architects/PFS Studio/Canadian Metropolitan Properties)

City Council approved the rezoning application for the overall Plaza of Nations redevelopment in 2018, with the community centre incorporating the ice rink planned as a later phase of construction.

However, in 2021, Daily Hive Urbanized reported that the partnership involving the Canucks’ participation in the Plaza of Nations ice rink had collapsed for unspecified reasons, with the developer indicating at the time that the team had recently withdrawn from the project.

The redevelopment retained the ice rink component. But then in 2025, after years of delays with reaching the construction stage, the Plaza of Nations site changed hands, with the new ownership group now planning to create a drastically different redevelopment concept with greater density, taller towers, and new and different mixed uses, such as the introduction of a hotel as one of the anchor uses.

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