Vancouver neighbourhood groups face expulsion from community centres without new deal with park board

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      The surprise change of leadership in the Vancouver board of parks and recreation is welcome news to many neighbourhood groups.

      Ainslie Kwan, who speaks on behalf of 15 community centre associations, feels encouraged about the election of Green park commissioner Michael Wiebe and Non-Partisan Association commissioner Erin Shum as chair and vice chair, respectively.

      The associations that Kwan represents have a number of concerns about a proposed joint agreement with the park board over the operation of community-based recreation centres across the city.

      The groups are concerned about several provisions in the deal.

      The park board has to adopt the agreement on January 25 next year, and the community centre associations have until March 1 to sign the deal.

      If an association refuses, the park board can then end its relationship with the group and find a new partner.

      “We will be terminated,” Kwan told the Straight in a phone interview Wednesday (December 14).

      In 2013, the park board at the time tried to evict six associations from the community centres in Hastings, Kensington, Kerrisdale, Killarney, Riley Park Hillcrest, and Sunset after the city terminated its agreements with them.

      However, a court issued an injunction preventing the city from booting out the associations.

      If the same six associations don’t sign the new proposed agreement, litigation will proceed.

      “The lawsuit will have to go forward, which we really don’t want to see happen,” Kwan said in the phone interview. “So at the end of the day, really what we want is we want the commissioners to listen.”

      This is why the election of Wiebe and Shum is important to many associations.

      For a bit of background, Wiebe and Shum were elected Monday (December 12) following Shum’s decision not to back her now former NPA colleague Casey Crawford for the chair’s post.

      “What I can tell you is that Erin Shum is actually the liaison commissioner to Killarney, and the experience that we have with her is that she is very dedicated, hardworking, [and] collaborative,” said Kwan, a former president of the Killarney community centre association. “She really listens, and I think what impresses us most is that she really is focused on what is best for the community.”

      According to Kwan, feedback from the Thunderbird neighbourhood association about Wiebe, who acts as board liaison to the local community centre, is also good. Thunderbird is one of the 15 associations that Kwan speaks for.

      “So we’re really looking forward to their leadership and to helping guide the process, so that we can get this joint operating agreement signed,” Kwan said.

      Kwan said that the 15 associations like to see changes in many provisions in the draft agreement.

      These include clauses about the termination of the agreement, which Kwan said will “undermine” the security of community associations.

      Kwan pointed out that community centre associations have been involved with their local recreation centres, and are not planning to leave.

      “We are not going to say to the park board after five years, ‘We’ll, we don’t want to renew this agreement anymore’,” Kwan said.

      There is also disagreement about memberships in the associations. Kwan

      “We have some specific language that will allow people that don’t want to be a member of our society to opt out if they should choose to, but the park board position is that nobody should be a member, that they must specifically opt in,” Kwan said.

      She also said that community centre associations also like to see more accountability in the proposed Community Centre Investment Fund (CCIF) that is included in the agreement.

      Community centre associations will be required to contribute to the CCIF, which means groups will have to increase fees for their programs.

      Kwan said: “Having the park board say they’ll come and tell us twice a year what they did with the money doesn’t give us a great deal of comfort.” 

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