As the deadline to sign the new operating agreement looms, many of the city’s community centre associations are still pushing for changes.
“What we are asking for are small changes — minor compromises on the part of the park board — but they are important to us,” said Kathleen Bigsby, president of the Kerrisdale Community Centre Society. “If these changes could be made, it is our expectation that this would result in a majority of the CCAs signing the agreement, providing a win for all involved.”
Kerrisdale is one of three community centre associations (CCAs), along with Killarney and Hastings, leading the charge to have the board make several changes to the agreement.
“We have legal advice that says there are several key elements in the current draft of the agreement that are of serious concern,” she said. “We can’t, in good conscience, go back to our respective boards and recommend signing the current draft of this long-term contract.”
Bigsby said 12 associations — Champlain Heights, False Creek, Grandview (Trout Lake), Hastings, Kerrisdale, Killarney, Kitsilano, Mount Pleasant, Renfrew Park, Thunderbird, West End and West Point Grey — are behind a letter sent to the park board this week asking for the changes to be made before signing the agreement.
There are 24 community centres in the city and all but three are jointly operated by the park board and volunteer, non-profit associations.
In April, after a year of consultation, park board commissioners voted to approve the joint operating agreement and gave the associations a signing deadline of Sept. 30.
“The CCAs provided valuable feedback throughout this process, which has resulted in a stronger document,” board chair Michael Wiebe said at the time. “Approval of this new JOA marks a major step in rebuilding our long-standing partnership with the CCAs and helps ensure we continue to deliver the best possible recreation services to residents.”
Bigsby said some positive changes were made to the agreement before the board approved the document, however, she added, the group of associations behind the letter still have concerns with some aspects of the document.
She said the JOA should be a service agreement between the board and the associations, but it deals more with the internal business of the CCAs and how they conduct themselves.
“That’s really not the park board’s affair.”
Bigsby said the associations are concerned sections of the proposed agreement infringe on the autonomy of the CCAs, would restrict how associations can use any retained earnings, gives the board the ability to evict an association from all or part of a community centre, would allow the board to terminate the agreement abruptly, and that there is too much of a focus on the internal operations of the CCAs and does not reflect the board’s responsibility to provide recreation programs and services. The community centres would also like to see the agreement include a clause that at the end of the initial term (10 years) both parties would attempt to negotiate another agreement in good faith.
Two associations, Marpole and Douglas Park, have already finalized and signed the new joint operating agreement, said board chair Michael Wiebe.
“It’s not a perfect document,” he said, adding that the board worked with the associations to try and address many of the concerns before approving the new agreement.
“There are a lot of good things in the new agreement.”
Wiebe said the new agreement includes provisions that will make low income discounts available at all community centres, introduce new system-wide recreation programs, make the OneCard and Flexipass accepted city-wide and provide full access to community centres for all residents with no membership fees.
Wiebe said staff will update commissioners on the status of the agreement at Monday’s board meeting, the last one before the Sept. 30 deadline. He said it will be a chance for commissioners to ask any questions publicly before the deadline and urged residents to send any questions to commissioners ahead of the meeting.
Each commissioner is assigned as a liaison to at least one community centre. Contact information for all park board commissioners can be found at vancouver.ca/your-government/park-board-commissioners.aspx.
Many community centre associations are holding public meetings in the coming days and weeks prior to the signing deadline. Some are information meetings, while three are holding binding votes — Kerrisdale (Sept. 19 at 7 p.m.), Dunbar (Sept. 27 at 7 p.m.) and Kensington (date to be determined).
Information meeting dates include:
- Sept. 16: West End (11 a.m. to 1 p.m.)
- Sept. 19: Champlain Heights
- Sept. 20: Hastings
- Sept. 26: Killarney and Mount Pleasant (6:30 p.m.)
- TBD: Renfrew and West Point Grey
