Panorama

Next week the Vancouver Park Board will hold Public Hearings on their proposed Park Board 2009 - 2011 Capital Plan.

Included in the Draft Capital Plan is a request for Vancouver Citizens to approve $800,000 for the construction of Wheelchair Accessible Change Rooms at Renfrew Pool. Change rooms that were already approved to be built for $1.4 Million in the 2006 - 2008 Park Board Capital Plan. A plan voted on by Vancouver Citizens on November 19 2005 when 72 percent of the voters voted in favour of the project.

I originally wrote about these Wheelchair Accessible Change Rooms back on September 14 2005 when Yvette Bodnar spoke to Vancouver City Council to let them know that the Renfrew Park Community Centre Pool did not have proper changing facilities for people with disabilities.

On March 10 2008 Park Board approved the draft 2009 - 2011 Park Board Capital Plan which includes $800,000 for the construction of the wheelchair accessible change rooms at Renfrew Pool (Appendix A, Page 4). Actually the description of the project also includes the installation of acoustic panels which I understand have already been paid for and completed (perhaps the amount needed is now less than $800,000?). These funds, as I understand it, are to be added to the $1.4 Million, if voters approve the borrowing on November 15 2008. The additional funds are necessary because, I am told, of rising construction costs.

The current $800,000 borrowing question is unnecessary and misleading.

It is misleading because how many people who voted in 2005 will remember that they already approved $1.4 Million for this project? A project that should already have been built, or atleast well under way. Sadly, it hasn’t even started. New voters will think that the change rooms will only cost $800,000. If the question is to be asked at all there must be an explanation that outlines the previously approved $1.4 million and why an additional $800,000 is now necessary.

Ultimately though the $800,000 borrowing question is unnecessary because of Section 245(4) of the Vancouver Charter which refers to Capital Plan borrowing:

if any of the projects, or any part thereof, approved pursuant thereto, is delayed for any reason, the Council shall have the power to pass by-laws to borrow the funds necessary to carry out the said project without the assent of the electors at any time within seven years after the last year mentioned in the question submitted to the electors.

What the Park Board should do about the alleged $800,000 shortfall is ask Vancouver City Council to approve an additional $800,000 in the city’s 2009 operating budget. This will force the Park Board to be transparent about their short-sightedness in getting this important work done and also provide some accountability and an actual plan so that the Wheelchair Accessible Change Rooms at the Renfrew Pool actually get built.