Park Board chair Tom Digby says the Vancouver Aquatic Centre cannot be rebuilt as a 50-metre pool without expanding the footprint, which the province has refused due to unsettled land claims.
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The Vancouver Aquatic Centre cannot be rebuilt as a 50-metre pool because of unsettled land claim issues with the city’s First Nations, Park Board chair Tom Digby said.
Digby, who is running for re-election as a Park Board commissioner with the Vancouver Green Party, said the Park Board has previously stated that rebuilding a 50-metre pool would require expanding the facility’s footprint to meet modern safety and competition rules.
Digby said the province owns the lands and would not permit the footprint expansion, adding that land claims have not been settled on the foreshore. “The province owns the lands there and the province refuses to allow us to expand the footprint, mainly because they haven’t settled up land claims with the First Nations on this very sensitive foreshore land,” Digby said in an interview.
Chief Wayne Sparrow of the Musqueam Indian Band said a request was made to expand the footprint and that a letter was sent from the province to the MST Development Corporation, a partnership of the Musqueam Indian Band, Squamish Nation and Tsleil-Waututh Nation. “(The province) wanted us to do a lease to the city,” Sparrow said.
Sparrow said the province proposed leasing the land to the City of Vancouver “for as little as $1,” and he argued the Crown has a duty to consult and accommodate. “If they lease it for a dollar, what’s our accommodation, 3 cents?” said Sparrow. “I keep stressing that the Crown has a duty to consult and accommodate us.”
Sparrow said there had been no meeting between the Province and MST Development Corporation at the time of the comments, but he said it could still happen. “We are always open to conversations; it’s Crown land and whatever the government decides they want to do about it, they have to come and talk to us.”
The comments followed the issuance of an interim injunction by the B.C. Court of Appeal granted to a community group, Protecting Our Vancouver Aquatic Centre (POVAC), which paused demolition work until after the municipal election. The work was paused until at least Nov. 3, one day after the first scheduled Park Board meeting.
POVAC director and park board candidate for TEAM, Jon Girard, said the decision was a win for democracy and argued a renovated or rebuilt facility needs to “stay a 50m pool”. “We couldn’t be more pleased with the outcome,” Girard said. “At minimum, when this facility is renovated or rebuilt, it needs to stay a 50m pool”.
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