The battle of the future of the Vancouver Aquatic Centre continued Friday as residents took the city to court.
In a bid to stop the city from replacing the current 50-metre pool with a 25-metre pool, a group is suing the City of Vancouver and the park board, alleging the park board didn’t have the authority to decide on the smaller pool size.
They are also asking the judge for an injunction to stop the city from closing the pool as planned on June 28.
Lawyer Robbie Fleming, who is representing the Protecting Our Vancouver Aquatic Centre Society (POVAC), argued that when residents voted to allow the city to borrow money for a replacement, they were expecting the new pool to be the same size.
“The 50-metre pool can be built in that location. It’s just a matter of priorities,” Fleming told the court.
Fleming said the primary issue of the case is whether the park board had the authority to change course on the project after having received permission from voters to borrow the money for the replacement project.
The question over whether to borrow money was put to voters as a plebiscite during the 2022 municipal election.
It asked residents if the city could borrow $103 million for the “replacement, renewal or rehabilitation of the Vancouver Aquatic Centre.”
“Everybody thought they were talking about a 50-metre pool,” Fleming said.
“The context makes it clear what was intended,” he said, referring to voter information provided by the city ahead of the vote.
Some of that information was included the city’s capital plan, which said the money would be used to “design and build the renewal and expansion” of the pool.
It also said the project would be built in two phases, with the first phase “prioritizing the renewal of the 50-metre lap pool and diving pool.”
The pool at the aquatic centre is seen in February 2025, when it was closed. (Karin Larsen/CBC)
Voters approved the borrowing — but as planning for the project progressed, park board staff proposed that due to funding and site constraints, the city would instead build a 25-metre pool.
Fleming argued that if the city and park board had intended to use the money for anything other than a 50-metre pool, they should have said so ahead of time.
The city’s lawyer, Iain Dixon, said the project did initially focus on a 50-metre pool — but it changed course after it determined that wouldn’t be feasible.
He argued that the project fits within the question asked in the plebiscite.
“The language used is broad enough to allow for the project to proceed,” he told the court.
Dixon said the central question of the case should not be about whether the park board had the authority to make the decision to build a smaller pool.
Rather, he said city council — which has the authority to reallocate plebiscite funds toward a different project — approved the decision in June 2025 when they voted to allocate extra funding toward the park board’s proposal to build a 25-metre pool.
“These issues were before council, and council made that decision. A unanimous decision to proceed with this particular project and to reallocate the funds,” Dixon told the court.
Also pressing at Friday’s hearing was the group’s application to stop the city from permanently closing the pool on June 28, while waiting for the larger court case to be resolved.
The city has said that the pool is at the end of its “functional lifespan” and is closing the pool as part of the renewal project.
The pool is set to close to the public on June 28 as the city moves ahead with the renewal project. (Ben Nelms/CBC)
In court on Friday, the city’s lawyer argued against the injunction application.
“[The pool] has been kept open for as long as it can … but at this point, park board staff are telling this court that they have genuine safety concerns and it is their belief that it should close,” Dixon said.
With the planned closure less than 10 days away, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Christopher Giaschi promised he would provide a decision on the injunction application on Tuesday.