There could be a light at the end of a long tunnel for the Vancouver Park Board’s joint operating agreement with the city’s community centre associations.
On Monday night, board commissioners approved adding two clauses to the agreement that at least one association representative says brings the outstanding CCAs closer to signing.
“Those clauses were vital,” said Ainslie Kwan, past president of Killarney Community Centre Society, speaking on behalf of Killarney, Kerrisdale and Hastings community centres.
“It was a big step that we were able to get those clauses,” she said, adding that the CCAs and park board still need to work through other aspects of the agreement before signing but this is a step in the right direction.
In April, after a year of consultation, park board commissioners voted to approve the joint operating agreement and gave the community centre associations (CCAs) a signing deadline of Sept. 30.
As of the deadline, six CCAs — Marpole, Douglas Park, Strathcona, Thunderbird, Roundhouse and Dunbar — signed the agreement. The remaining associations have yet to sign the agreement with many citing a list of outstanding concerns. They say, among other things, the proposed agreement infringes on the autonomy of the CCAs, gives the board the ability to evict an association from all or part of a community centre and does not reflect the board’s responsibility to provide recreation programs and services.
The document is comprised of the main body of the agreement, which is the same for every community centre, and a series of appendices, which vary from centre to centre based on each facilities specific needs.
After the signing deadline passed with the outstanding concerns still to be resolved, the park board proposed changes in some of the language in the appendices to address the outstanding issues.
In an Oct. 16 letter to commissioners, 10 of the CCAs voiced concerns that the proposed language at times conflicted with the body of the JOA and that it “did not provide a clear and enforceable basis upon which the language of the agreement can be overridden by contrary language in an appendix.”
The 10 CCAs asked commissioners to change the JOA to add to clauses that would override the agreement and reference the appendices directly.
After going in camera to get legal advice, park board commissioners unanimously approved a motion to add the clauses to the agreement.
Several commissioners and those involved on the CCA side took to Twitter following the decision.
Thank you all parks commish for unanimous decision to amend JOA at Oct 23 meeting. Look fwd to working with @ParkBoard @Vancouver_CCAs
— Anita_Romaniuk (@Anita_Romaniuk) October 24, 2017
Final amendments to JOA to reflect concerns of CCAs passes. Hopes for moving forward together to support neighbourhoods. #vanpoli
— Stuart Mackinnon (@betterparks) October 24, 2017
Proud to support amendments to JOA to address final concerns of CCAs. Looking forward to bright future with CCAs - vital @ParkBoard partners https://t.co/EvJGHe5IgF
— Casey Crawford (@CaseyCrawfordPB) October 24, 2017
It's a pleasure to work w our CCA partners. Glad to be on home stretch of completing new #JOA all get back to serving our communities.
— Sarah Kirby-Yung (@sarahkirby_yung) October 24, 2017
Thank you to the CCAs for providing the recommendations so Commissioners & staff can deliver amendments #vanpoli @Vancouver_CCAs @ParkBoard https://t.co/KWnwiwZjm5
— Erin Shum (@ErinYVR) October 24, 2017
“I’m hopeful that this amendment will be a breakthrough in a process that is nearly at an end,” said commissioner Catherine Evans.
“We’re very happy to make this clarification,” she said. “I am hopeful that this is the change that is needed.”
Kwan said adding the clauses is a step in the right direction but it is not a guarantee that everyone will sign, there are still some outstanding concerns that need to be addressed before many of the associations will sign the agreement.
The new JOA goes into effect Jan. 1, 2018.
