Park Board supports revenue-sharing for community centres
Posted February 4, 2013 6:09 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Update 6:09 a.m.: The Vancouver Park Board has voted to accept recommendations that will lead to community centres sharing their revenue.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The Vancouver Park Board is hoping to strike a deal by this summer on a controversial plan to change the way community centres are funded and run.
Hundreds people packed the West End Community Centre as they wait for 73 speakers to address the controversial changes.
Commissioner Niki Sharma says the plan is about creating equity among the centres.
“We heard a lot of concern last week from citizen that have a lot of fear about what might happen to their programming at their centre. We just want an opportunity to set those fears aside and let people know that this has nothing to do with cutting services or changing services at your centre.”
Many people are worried the funding re-structuring proposed by the park board will do more harm than good.
Eric Harms with Hastings Community Association says some of the changes that could be seen are changes that would happen across the city. One of the programs Harms is referring to is one for small children, for the kids who can go with mom or dad and play. Parents can get nutritional tips and parenting information. He says programs like these provide much more that just a service. “The most important thing is that it makes a very social connection for those people that maybe are immigrants, single parents, or people that might be new to the neighbourhood. They’re able to make friends.”
He says the cost of the program isn’t covered by the grant they get. “We actually are going to see, this year, we’re going to be $35,000 in the red, even with the grant that we enjoy. If the park board gives us $30,000, that program alone, will be cut completely because we won’t be able to afford it with the allowance, our yearly stipend.”
Presently, he says, they have enough sources of revenues and they are able to underwrite that program. “We think it has incalculable social worth, and we don’t mind spending the money on that program.”
He says the concern is that in the future, somebody at City Hall will look at that money lost, and cut the program. “We don’t think that should happen.”
The park board says it wants to pool surplus resources from community centres, in a way to even out the capital among the centres.
Harms says that plan has some problems. “We’re willing to negotiate virtually all the reasons they trot out for taking all the money. The fact is, that money might stay in the system, it might not. In another 18-months another park board may come in and decide to that money for something else. Then everybody will be a loser.”
Jesse Johl with the Hillcrest Community Association is telling the park board to keep their hands off the centres. “This is a blatant cash grab, nothing more, nothing less. The public will not stand for that.”
Johl says that communities know, and have shown, what is best for the communities. “They have shown their stewardship of the money has been the most effective, and they know how to make a dollar stretch at the end of the day.”
He says the city can’t boast the same claim. “If you look at the city’s record, it’s absolutely abysmal. They can show you one overrun over another overrun over another. I don’t think the city wants to trust all their eggs in one basket, only to see that someone has dropped the basket.”
The park board says the new agreement isn’t a cash grab and no programs will be cut. The board is expected to vote on recommendations, including seeking guidance on the proposal sometime tonight.
