The Vancouver Liberals are committed to rebuilding a strong, independent, and well-supported Vancouver Park Board that has the tools, budget stability, and modern facilities needed to serve residents. If elected in 2026, we will take the following actions to support improved governance, long-term planning, and better outcomes for Vancouver’s parks and recreation system.
- The Park Board must remain elected, and independent.
- Fight all efforts, by the current Mayor and anyone else, to remove our elected Park Board.
- Repeal the Mayor’s motion at City Council which called for abolishing the Park Board
- Create a more effective budget process.
- Create a Joint Budget Advisory Committee that includes Park Board Commissioners, City Councillors, the City’s GM of Finance, and the Park Board GM. This committee will guide the annual budget cycle and set shared expectations for financial planning.
- As a longer-term goal: Park Board’s budget should be its own line item on property taxes, and this rate should be set directly by Park Board
- Set the following financial goals:
- Earlier access to accurate financial forecasts
- A jointly issued annual pre-budget outlook
- Alignment of service levels with approved funding
- Clear, consistent reporting and performance measures aligned with OAG guidance
- Restoring funding from 7.9% to 9% of the global city budget in four years
- Implement a three-year rolling budget framework for the Park Board that:
- Approves Year 1 and forecasts Years 2–3
- Determines Year 4 collaboratively through the Joint Budget Advisory Committee
- Adjusts annually for inflation, population growth, and asset renewal
- Reduces year-to-year volatility and supports long-term program and capital planning
- Restore the facility oversight function to the Park Board
- Provide clarity for all: the Park Board is in charge of our Parks and Recreation facilities.
- Repeal the centralized, park-board excluded, REFM facilities-management structure, restoring facility oversight directly to the Park Board. This action will offer the Park Board:
- Clear authority over recreation facility management
- Direct control of maintenance and capital planning
- Quicker operational and capital decision-making
- A structure that enables transparent, accountable planning
- Get serious about capital renewal
- Launch a capital plan to build new, energy-efficient, modern recreation centres to replace aging and outdated facilities. Our goal is to gain:
- Reduced operating and energy costs
- Increased program capacity and accessibility
- Lower long-term costs and budget pressures
- Facilities built to modern standards and community needs
- For every capital cycle, we will aim to:
- Build one new community centre
- Renew & update three additional community centres, following the Community Centre Strategy
