Vancouver Park Board increases fees by 2 per cent
First park board meeting since Metro Vancouver windstorm also revealed extent of damage
Vancouver Park Board has voted to raise fees by two per cent, affecting recreation services like indoor and outdoor pools, fitness centres, arenas and sports fields.
The issue became divisive for park board commissioners on Monday night, since the increase had already taken effect September 1, on the decision of general manager Malcolm Bromley.
There was a two per cent fee hike last year as well — but again, commissioners only voted to approve it after the fees had already been raised.
"The General Manager has the ability to make fee increases, subject to the approval of the board, so this has happened many times in our history and it's been in our practice, depending on how the budget lines up," said Chair John Coupar.
Commissioners said they want to review fees before they're put in place, but ultimately backed this year's fee increase by a narrow vote of four to three.
The board also agreed to set up a committee to come up with a name for the newly opened Empire Fields/Plateau Park facilities near the PNE.
Windstorm damage revealed
The meeting was the first since the recent windstorm, which tore down trees and power lines in Metro Vancouver, leaving 710,000 BC Hydro customers without power, in their biggest outage in its history.
As commissioners took stock of the damage, it emerged the windstorm destroyed 300 trees, and damaged 500 others, 50 of which were beyond repair, on Vancouver Park Board land.
"We're still going to be inspecting this fall, we might find a few more, so it could end up being around 1,000," said manager of urban forestry Howard Norman.
It was also revealed that the board received 1,218 service requests during the storm and its aftermath, in comparison to a 10-year average of 250 requests.