The newly increased Vancouver park board public swimming and skating fees are keeping teens away from fitness opportunities, according to Commissioner Spencer Herbert.

On December 17, the park board voted to increase user fees by 2.75 percent to reflect inflation as determined by the City of Vancouver. Herbert, the youngest commissioner, was not successful in his request that youth fees be set at 33 percent, rather than 75 percent, of adult fees. His request would have meant swimming at most pools would have cost teens $1.65 instead of $3.70, as the board decided.

“User fees can be a disincentive for people to use the public facilities they’ve already paid for through their tax dollars,” Herbert told the Straight in a phone interview. He added that just four percent of pool and rink users are teens. “When I have to choose a food budget or a swimming budget, I know what I’d choose.”

The park board’s so-called leisure access card is available to people with low incomes. Single people with an income under $20,800 qualify; families of four with an income under $38,625 also qualify. The card makes swimming and skating free, and many other park-board activities available at 50-percent off. However, only about 16,000 Vancouverites have the cards, though likely many more qualify. (Vancouver’s average income, according to Statistics Canada, is $21,600.) Herbert noted that those who don’t speak English well enough to find out about the cards or complete the forms experience barriers. He also noted that some people are embarrassed to declare they are low-income and show their card each time they use a facility.

Park board chair Korina Houghton, however, told the Straight she thinks the fees “are quite fair”. She pointed out that the access card is a “great mechanism”, and no different than flashing any membership card.

User fees are just one of many barriers to fitness for youth, according to Dick Woldring, coordinator of Vancouver’s MoreSports program for inner-city kids. Time and lack of transportation also keep many marginalized youth away from programs. “Everyone’s barriers are different,” he told the Straight. “For lots of people, though, fees are the barrier that breaks the camel’s back.”