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POOL POLITICS
Park Board Split on Future of the Vancouver Aquatic Centre

By Nate Lewis
(click images to enlarge)

In the latest volley in the back-and-forth debate on the future of the Vancouver Aquatic Centre (VAC), park board and city staff are doubling down on their recommendation that the lap pool’s length be downsized, from the current 50 metres to 25 metres in the new facility.

**the current pool at the vancouver aquatic centre** *(Shuttercock photo)*

A February 14, 2025 park board staff report (see Related Links below) stated a larger pool isn’t feasible due to funding constraints and the size of the site.

BACKGROUND … The 51-year-old pool has quite literally been crumbling over the past few years.

In 2019 the previous park board made the renewal of a “large scale” pool at the VAC site a priority. Then, as part of the 2023-2026 Capital Budget, the previous city council approved a phased renewal of the facility, including a 50m pool. During the election later that year, voters authorized council – by way of a plebiscite – to borrow $103 million for “replacement, renewal, or rehabilitation,” of the facility.

It wasn’t until 2025 that commissioners or the public were made aware the pool would be downsized in the new facility, multiple commissioners told Vancity Lookout.

THE DETAILS … An analysis by city staff from the Real Estate and Facilities Management department, along with park board staff and outside architects, said they decided to pivot the renewal plans, away from a 50m pool, for several reasons. It’s essentially a funding issue, according to Commissioner Scott Jensen.

**The Vancouver aquatic centre from the waterfront.** *(West End Journal Photo)*

“Financial constraints are really what's moving the needle,” in the recommendation to scale back the pool’s size, Jensen said.

$140 million – including the $103 million authorized by plebiscite – has already been allocated toward the new VAC facility in the current capital budget. But staff say it will cost $30 million more (most of which would need to come from the city) just to build the facility with the smaller 25m pool.

Including a 50m pool in the current design would cost an additional $50-100 million, Green Commissioner Tom Digby told Vancity Lookout.

Digby emphasized the importance of the new leisure pool that’s currently planned for the new facility, and noted that the facility couldn’t include a leisure pool and a 50m training pool without a significant expansion of the site.

“You cannot get a whole lot of swimmers in a 50m tank at the same time, compared to a smaller leisure pool,” meaning – between the leisure and 25m pools – capacity and usage can be at least doubled from what it is currently, Digby said.

The VAC operates at the lowest capacity out of the city’s nine indoor pool facilities, according to the February 14, 2025 staff report.

STAFF OVERREACH? … “The decision to move away from a 50-meter pool, that's a major policy decision… so the City [staff] have come back and made those decisions without following the direction of the Board,” Commissioner Brennan Bastyovanszky told Vancity Lookout.

Bastyovanszky feels the city is withholding the necessary funds and overstepping their jurisdiction in their involvement with the recommendation for a 25m pool.

“They're not meant to do that. That is undermining the democratic institution of the Park Board… in this case, the City has taken that over.” he said.

Jensen feels differently, saying he didn’t look at the city’s involvement with any critical eye. “[Staff] are ultimately accountable to what their budget numbers provide to them,” Jensen said.

When commissioners were on-boarded in 2022, Jensen said “the understanding was, with whatever you build, it's going to have to reflect the limitations for that space [and budget constraints]”.

PLAN PUSHBACK … At the February 2025 board meeting when this pivot was presented, three commissioners, including Bastyovanszky and ABC’s Jas Virdi and Angela Haer, successfully brought an amendment for staff to reconsider the design to include a larger pool. Commissioners Digby and Jensen voted against the amendment.

The pool size pivot received significant public pushback, forcing the board to extend the meeting over two days. In particular, competitive sports programs that use the current pool would be impacted by the change, according to CBC (see Related Links below).

“It'll kill all the sports that are done there now [like water polo] and the swim clubs that have been there for 50 years,” Bastyovanszky said.

A petition for a 50m pool has gained well over 14,000 signatures.

The folks over at City Hall Watch had their own IDEA FOR AN AFFORDABLE 50-metre pool (*© Urban Cartoon Syndicate). city hall watch is another local news and views site we encourage you to follow* *here*.

Part of the staff report includes a provision to significantly expand 50m training availability at Hillcrest Community Centre.

BY-ELECTION PROMISE … On Thursday, March 27, ABC Vancouver announced they’re committing to building a new 50m pool in South Vancouver. The announcement was short on details, like where the new pool would be built, how much it would cost, or how it would be funded.

THOUGHT BUBBLE … It’s a nice idea. But also, it’s pretty blatantly a splashy, opportunistic election promise that ABC can tack their candidates’ names on.

Any potential new pool facility would take many years of work to bring about – as evidenced by the current VAC renewal – and is totally unrealistic in the partial year-and-a-half term that ABC’s Ralph Kaisers and Jaime Stein are seeking.

Moreover — given the park board hasn’t set this as a priority project — the announcement presupposes City Council jurisdiction over parks and recreation, which is still very much up in the air.

WHAT’S NEXT? … If commissioners don’t approve the new facility with a shorter pool, the renewal project would need to be put on hold until at least 2027, staff said. This would require funding from the next capital plan and a renewed plebiscite commitment from the public, unless the city decided to reallocate funding this year.

If the project were to be delayed in hopes of securing that funding – and physically expanded to include a 50m and leisure pool – it would expose the project to various risks. Those risks could result in cost escalations of $10-20 million per year, according to staff.

For Bastyovanszky, he told Vancity Lookout that he’s willing to take those risks posed by a delay.

Jensen said if the park board can somehow find the additional funding now, “that would be amazing,” but he isn’t optimistic that will happen given the conclusions of a March 2025 staff report that found there’s limited extra funds available on the park board side.

“Without additional funding, I do not want to see that facility sit any longer in the condition that it’s in,” Jensen told Vancity Lookout, adding that he’s going into Monday’s decision with an open mind.

Digby said he hasn’t made up his mind either. “If there's a potential for $50-100 million [from the city], then I could see deferring it on Monday and saying, ‘Okay, let's make that happen.’ But otherwise, I think we've got to get rolling with the 25m [pool] and move all the 50m swimmers [to Hillcrest], despite their unhappiness with it,” Digby said.

Regardless of whether they choose the 25 or 50 metre option, commissioners will need more money from city council — it’s just a question of how much they think they can get.