{"id":590492,"date":"2026-04-08T15:39:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T15:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/590492\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T15:39:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T15:39:13","slug":"vancouver-park-board-commissioners-vote-to-ask-city-council-for-1-43b-in-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/590492\/","title":{"rendered":"Vancouver Park Board commissioners vote to ask city council for $1.43B in funding"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 4 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

Vancouver Park Board commissioners have voted to ask city council for $1.43 billion to fund maintenance and upgrades on aging parks and recreation facilities. <\/p>\n

The funding request<\/a> comes a little under two months before a draft version of the city’s 2027-2030 capital plan is presented to the park board. Council will vote on the full plan in late July.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Brennan Bastyovanszky told a Tuesday park board meeting that, for decades, the city has underfunded parks, community centres, sports fields and pools \u2014 which he argues are essential to community health and well-being.<\/p>\n

With a looming municipal election in October, the commissioner said the funding request would aim to make parks and recreation funding top of mind for city councillors voting on the capital plan this summer.<\/p>\n

\"ABastyovanszky’s motion says that Vancouver is rapidly growing, but that city funding for parks and recreation facilities hasn’t kept up. (Ben Nelms\/CBC)<\/p>\n

“This is a big number, but it’s because we’ve caught up with 15 years of deferred maintenance,” Bastyovanszky said.<\/p>\n

“So we’ve got aging-out assets and we also have increased demand, all at the same time.”<\/p>\n

Bastyovanszky pointed to a report released last year<\/a>, in which Vancouver\u2019s auditor general said that 72 per cent of the city’s 24 community centres, 14 pools and eight indoor rinks were in “poor or very poor condition,” with an infrastructure deficit of $33 million per year. <\/p>\n

WATCH | Bastyovanszky speaks about necessity of funding request:\"\"<\/p>\n

Park board commissioner says $1.35B needed for Vancouver’s aging facilities<\/p>\n

Vancouver Park Board commissioners are deciding whether to ask city council for $1.35 billion as Vancouver’s auditor general warns that the majority of recreation facilities are in “poor or very poor condition.” Commissioner Brennan Bastyovanszky, who submitted the motion, said the request is about community needs.<\/p>\n

The commissioners’ funding request highlights a number of priority projects \u2014 including the proposed replacement of the crumbling Kitsilano pool<\/a>, planning for a new 50-metre pool<\/a> and renewing the Britannia Community Centre in East Vancouver.<\/p>\n

The Britannia proposal follows a recent report<\/a> that the Vancouver Canucks and City of Vancouver are close to announcing an agreement that could see the team build a practice facility at the ice rink and community centre site.<\/p>\n

Bastyovanszky’s motion asks for funds to be dedicated to planning support on similar projects that would require funds from other levels of government, developers or community partners.<\/p>\n

Other priority projects listed include a bike lane through Stanley Park<\/a>, acquiring future park land in the Broadway Plan area<\/a> and funding for biodiversity restoration at places like Stanley Park’s Lost Lagoon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Unique governance structure<\/p>\n

The specific direction of many projects listed in the proposal will be the purview of future park boards.<\/p>\n

But Bastyovanszky argued the capital plan \u2014 which sets the park board’s priorities for a four-year period \u2014 was a once-in-a-generation opportunity to signal the importance of parks and recreation.<\/p>\n

In making the large funding request to council, the motion once again highlighted the unique way in which parks and community centres are administered in Vancouver \u2014 a separately-elected park board sets priorities, the funding of which ultimately falls to council.<\/p>\n

WATCH | Park board to cut lifeguard staffing at busy beaches:\"\"<\/p>\n

Why Vancouver’s park board is cutting lifeguard staffing at some beaches<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation announced that lifeguards would be redeployed from Spanish Banks, Trout Lake, Third Beach and Sunset Beach amid budgetary pressures. Steve Jackson, the board’s general manager, said the redeployment would allow the board to deliver lifeguarding in the places where it would be more impactful.<\/p>\n

Over the course of the current park board’s four-year term, many commissioners have publicly criticized Mayor Ken Sim and his majority ABC council \u2014 blaming a lack of city funding for fee hikes<\/a> and cuts to lifeguard staffing<\/a>, among other things.<\/p>\n

After hearing from over 60 speakers who urged the park board to prioritize various projects, commissioner Scott Jensen added specific proposals \u2014 such as $27 million for modernizing golf services \u2014 that pushed an initial $1.35 billion funding ask to $1.43 billion.<\/p>\n

\"AScott Jensen is seen in February 2025. He urged Vancouver residents to make their support for parks funding known at city council. (Nav Rahi\/CBC)<\/p>\n

He also urged residents to make their voices heard when city council debates the park board’s capital plan in July.<\/p>\n

“Capital budgets come just before elections. So make your voice heard,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Let them understand just how important this is, and make sure that if this is important to you, that you put people there in October that are going to continue to fight for this.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":590493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[49,48,55],"class_list":["post-590492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vancouver","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-vancouver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}