OneCity's Park Board Team Announces Parks, Pipes, & Pools: Three New Community Centres, More Lifeguards, and a Plan to Fund the Park Board

VANCOUVER (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh and səlilwətaɬ Territories) – OneCity Park Board candidates John Irwin, Tyler Petersen, and Dominic Denofrio today released A Plan for Better Parks, Pipes, & Pools, the party's plan to make sure every neighbourhood gets the parks, community centres, and pools it needs, and that the boring basics underneath them keep working.

"Vancouver is lucky to have an independent Park Board, but for too long there’s been uncertainty and conflict around what Park Board can actually do with its democratic mandate," said Tyler Petersen, OneCity Park Board Candidate. "Our plan gives the Park Board a stable budget it can count on so we stop fighting for scraps every year. And we’ll bring nature back to neighbourhoods that successive Park Boards have shoved to the side."

• An Evergreen Funding Model for our Independent Park Board - OneCity will build Park Board revenue through no-and low-cost tools with a long-term strategy to increase the independence and resiliency of the Park Board, so that the board can do what it was elected to do: protect our parks. We’ll make sure the Park Board keeps the revenue it earns, instead of losing it to the general city coffers and we’ll launch a low-cost, low-risk gift shop program in some parks that give Vancouverites a way to support the parks they love without a single fee going up. 

More than a third of Vancouver is covered in blacktop, and our trees, parks, and green spaces have withered under four years of ABC austerity. The OneCity Park Board Team will ReWild Vancouver, and bring nature home. 

• ReWild Vancouver – OneCity will increase park land, grow urban meadows, and resurface buried creek systems for greater access to green, wild spaces in the city. We will also increase the tree canopy target to 40%, grow park land from 11% to 12% of total city land, and daylight up to three creek systems buried under our streets. 

" I have been on Park Board, I know what it looks like when a pool closes because nobody planned for the lifeguards," said John Irwin, OneCity Candidate for Park Board. "Ken Sim and ABC slashed lifeguard staffing and put the safety of Vancouverites at risk. We’ll bring back fully staffed and funded lifeguards at beaches and pools, and make sure there are more places to swim year-round."

• Every Beach Guarded and Every Pool Opened – OneCity will ensure public pools are kept open, staffed with qualified lifeguards through city-run, equity-focused certification, and funded long-term so that communities aren’t left in a lurch because of poor planning.

• Three New Pools – OneCity will solve the 50M pool problem through new pools in Mount Pleasant (through Kingsgate redevelopment), Hastings Community Centre, and Marpole as locations for new pools.

"Marpole and South Vancouver have waited long enough for the pools and community centres other neighbourhoods take for granted," said Dominic Denofrio, OneCity Park Board Candidate. "We should stop picking and choosing where to build pools based on political advantage. We’ll build three new pools in line with neighbourhood needs – including a new 50M pool that Vancouver can’t go without."

Media Contact:
Giovanna Orecchio, Campaign Director
media@onecityvancouver.ca

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