Park board users can likely consider 2012 as the beginning of the end for traditional joint-operating agreements between community centres and the park board.
Community centre regulars will want to pay attention as talks between these 24 associations and the park board move forward, because the end result could dramatically affect how their neighbourhood centre operates and influence the future of their favourite programs.
It's been more than a decade since the Courier first reported a then-new joint-operating agreement between the associations and park board had stalled. Now the park board's general manager, Toronto transplant Malcolm Bromley, and city manager Penny Ballem, seem determined to make an agreement happen but with several twists.
For more than four decades, the service model allowed associations to work and raise money independent of the park board. That model allows community centre associations to raise money as non-profit entities. But the park board wants to take control of the associations' revenues, which would negate their ability to raise funds as a non-profit.
Some associations have hired lawyers to fight the proposed changes and others have threatened to break away from the park board. In recent years, the park board has held some of the more successful associations hostage by threatening to eliminate positions at community centres if the volunteer boards didn't pony up to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. The park board also wants to keep the revenues earned from room rentals and programs, which traditionally went to the associations. In the past the associations have used that extra money for buying equipment, building a fitness centre at Kerrisdale Community Centre or helping to build new centres, such as with Trout Lake. The park board now wants the power to collect all of that money to distribute as it sees fit. Stay tuned during 2013 for more fireworks.
In other news from 2012, in October the park board approved the much-awaited Stanley Park cycling plan implementation strategy. The 60-plus recommendations include constructing new pedestrian pathways, removing parking from Pipeline Road, increased enforcement by using park rangers during peak hours, and undertaking a lighting study for the park. Other suggestion include the possibility of bike repair stations in the park, widening the seawall at the Lighthouse, creating two-way bike access in some areas and the installation of more signs in Stanley Park and the West End.
Another big park board story of 2012 was a proposal to extend the seawall from Kits Beach to Spanish Banks.
Coincidently, both Vision Vancouver and the NPA brought very similar motions to the city and park board at almost the exact same time.
The motions came after an anonymous donor stepped forward with an offer of $10 million towards the project. As the result of public criticism, that decision was put on hold until further consultation could be held.
Trees were also on the radar in 2012 after the Vision Vancouver-dominated park board and council decided an additional 150,000 trees should be planted across the city as part of the 2020 Greenest Action Plan. But many Courier readers questioned the decision, asking how the park board plans to care for these trees with ongoing budget cuts to maintenance. Regardless, the park board wants to spend $1,166,667 in 2013 and 2014 towards replacing and planting trees.
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