The Vancouver Park Board is asking for a massive investment from the City of Vancouver to meet the demands of a growing population.
The 2027 to 2030 Capital Plan, submitted by Commissioner Brennan Bastyovanszky, states that Vancouver is expected to reach almost one million residents by 2050, putting even more demand on parks, recreation facilities, sports fields and public spaces.
The plan asks for a “historic investment in parks and recreation” of $1.35 billion.
According to the Park Board, the Office of the Auditor General audit of Recreation Facility Asset Management recognized that 72 per cent of recreation facilities are in poor or very poor condition.
This Capital Plan is a critical opportunity to address “longstanding infrastructure renewal needs, implement adopted Park Board strategies, and invest in the next generation of parks and recreation facilities for Vancouver,” according to the motion.
The $1.35 billion would include: $300 million to prioritize investments in seawall and waterfront repairs, stump removal, planting new trees and pruning street trees around the city, developing new parks, including Burrard Slopes and East Park Phase II, renewing parks, including John Hendry, Strathcona, Columbia, Delamont and others, acquiring new park land, replacing concrete pools with spray parks and updating playgrounds, courts, lacrosse boxes, updating turf and maintaining new competition facilities at Killarney Park and Kerrisdale/Pt. Grey Secondary, making new off-leash dog areas, repairing bike lanes and building and maintaining washroom facilities.
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The Park Board also wants to commit $50 for biodiversity restoration opportunities in areas such as Lost Lagoon, Beaver Lake, Musqueam Park Forest and others.
It also wants to allocate $200 million for aquatic facilities, including the replacement of the Kitsilano Pool, planning for a new 50-metre pool and community pools and spending $200 million on the renewal of community centres, including Hastings, Kensington and Renfrew, and maintenance at all others.
No one from the Vancouver Park Board would comment on the proposal on Monday.
“Park Board staff are not in a position to comment on a Commissioner’s motion in advance of the Special Meeting or before it has been formally introduced and considered by the Board,” a spokesperson said in an email.
Last October, the B.C. government tabled legislation to dissolve the Vancouver Park Board, saying it came in response to a request from the City of Vancouver. The government also said the city requested that permanent parkland being transferred to First Nations be exempt from the assent vote.
However, in a statement, Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim said neither he nor the city council has ever formally requested that any provincial changes be exempt from the referendum for any parkland transfers to First Nations and he would like that detail removed from the legislation.
The Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation was established in 1889 as an independent statutory body to oversee and manage parks in Vancouver.
In December 2023, Vancouver city council passed a resolution to ask the province to dissolve the park board and transfer all the board’s powers, assets and obligations to the council.
Abolishing the park board has proven controversial.
Sim campaigned on keeping and fixing the elected body in the 2022 municipal election, but months later, he reversed course, saying it was too broken to repair.
Sim argued that cutting the body would eliminate red tape and redundancies, while saving the city about $7 million a year.
The special meeting of the Park Board is scheduled for April 7 and then a draft plan is set to be delivered to commissioners in June.
The public will have a further opportunity to speak to the 2027-2030 Capital Plan when the Park Board votes on the final version in early July. The public may also speak when the council votes on the full plan at the end of July.
Vancouver voters will then vote to approve or reject the required borrowing authorities in October as part of the 2026 municipal election.
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