Vancouver mayor pitches $400M community centre renewal plan after park board pressure

Following pressure from Vancouver’s park board, Mayor Ken Sim outlined his own proposal Wednesday for renewing the city’s aging community centres.

Following a period of sustained pressure from Vancouver’s park board, Mayor Ken Sim outlined his own proposal Wednesday for renewing the city’s aging community centres.

Specifically, he announced plans to put forward a motion next week calling for $400 million to replace or reconstruct the Dunbar, Kerrisdale, Hastings, Roundhouse and Kensington community centres.

“This is what a back-to-basics, back-to-community approach looks like,” Sim said during a news conference at city hall Wednesday related to his goals for the 2027-2030 capital plan. “Clear priorities, real investments and a focus on what matters to Vancouverites.”

Wednesday’s news conference had an election-style feel, with Sim hoping to make his case to stay in the job in the buildup to October’s municipal election.

Beyond new community centres, Sim wants to see a 25-metre pool at Sunset Park, public space improvements in Gastown, a renewal of the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen pond, washroom upgrades at Kits and Second beaches, upgrades to Burrard View Park and improvements at the Beaconsfield Park turf field.

“Every day I’ve been approached by the community, ‘When are we going to get a pool in Vancouver South?’ We are just completing a senior centre, which is opening May 12,” Sunset Community Association president Bhalwinder Waraich told CTV News at city hall, welcoming this push for a pool at Sunset Park. “This is added. I call it icing on the cream.”

On a longer-term basis, the mayor’s motion will also call for looking into a Vietnamese Cultural Centre, a new 50-metre competition pool and a new Collingwood Branch library.

Green Party councillor and mayoral candidate Pete Fry has questions about where the money will come from.

“Certainly these are welcome investments,” Fry acknowledged immediately following the news conference. “Now the challenge is how we pay for it, and the mayor did mention at one point partnerships. Typically, our capital plans — and this will be my second capital plan — involve a significant amount of borrowing, and we do have to recognize our ceiling for borrowing.”

Fry also pondered what consultation, if any, had been done to choose these particular facilities for renewal — something echoed by his Green Party colleague, park board chair Tom Digby.

“Very pleased to see the mayor is engaged with this discussion,” Digby told CTV News Wednesday. “He proposed $400 million for five community centres. We think, with the whole list he’s provided, it’s closer to a billion dollars’ worth of proposals.”

The mayor’s call Wednesday follows the Vancouver Park Board voting last week to formally call on the city to provide $1.4 billion to upgrade the city’s recreational facilities.

“Now is a perfect time for the mayor to engage the elected park board, because we do have to both come to an agreement on where the new facilities will go,” added Digby.

The recent discussions follow an auditor general report last year that found 72 per cent of the city’s recreational facilities were in poor or very poor condition.