{"id":622489,"date":"2026-04-23T03:48:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T03:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/622489\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T03:48:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T03:48:20","slug":"vancouver-city-council-kicks-back-lifeguard-funding-motion-to-park-board-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/622489\/","title":{"rendered":"Vancouver city council kicks back lifeguard funding motion to park board"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A motion to fund and reinstate lifeguards at some of Vancouver\u2019s beaches failed Wednesday afternoon at city council.<\/p>\n

Instead, it has been sent back to the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation, with ABC councillors \u2014 who hold majority on council \u2014 saying it falls within the park board’s mandate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that this referral really doesn\u2019t offer a productive process in terms of engaging with park board,\u201d said Vote Vancouver Coun. Rebecca Bligh. \u201cIt essentially says, \u2018This is your problem, not ours.\u2019 And I think we can do better than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greens Coun. Pete Fry put forward the motion to reinstate lifeguards after the park board cut coverage at five of 10 staffed beaches last month due to budget challenges.<\/p>\n

To make that happen, Fry\u2019s motion would have asked staff to allocate up to $600,000 from the city\u2019s budget to the park board.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn reality, we can\u2019t refer a request for council to approve funding to the park board \u2014 back to the park board. That makes absolutely no sense,\u201d said Fry.<\/p>\n

A lifeguard looks over Kitsilano Beach in Vancouver. (Maryse Zeidler\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Dozens of speakers spoke in support of the motion, urging council to provide the money.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not a matter of if, but a matter of when aquatic death at these beaches occurs, if the lifeguards are not reinstated,\u201d said Gabi Tremblay, who said she started lifeguarding in 2014.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are not simple environments to navigate, especially for visitors or people who are unfamiliar with the water,\u201d said Michael Robinson, president-elect of CUPE 1004, which represents some City of Vancouver workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout these trained professionals at our beaches, response times increase and so do the risks to beachgoers. Lifeguard services are a core public safety function,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

ABC Coun. Mike Klassen acknowledged remarks from speakers in support of the motion, but he said the responsibility lies with the park board.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a park board is truly prioritizing these services, they would have properly funded this appropriately at their last meeting, where they had an emergency motion to discuss this topic,\u201d said Klassen.<\/p>\n

He and fellow ABC Coun. Brian Montague moved to refer the motion back to the parks board, which attributes its budget constraints in part to Mayor Ken Sim\u2019s promise of a zero property tax increase in the 2026 budget.<\/p>\n

Last month, park board Commissioner Tom Digby told CBC News inflationary increases have resulted in the elimination of $11 million worth of operating costs from the board\u2019s budgets, resulting in dozens of layoffs.<\/p>\n

Klassen said no money has been taken from the board.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere we find ourselves today has nothing to do with a zero per cent property tax increase,\u201d said Klassen. \u201cThis has everything to do with the park board not properly prioritizing lifeguards at our beaches.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622490,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[49,48,55],"class_list":["post-622489","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\/622489","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=622489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}