VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Operators of Vancouver’s 27 community centres are banding together, hoping to combat a plan that will see the city’s Park Board take over operations.
“The circumstances are that the Park Board has said ‘We need to have control of all revenues that are generated by the community centres’,” said Robert Lockhart, a member of the Kerrisdale Community Centre Society and who also heads up the My Vancouver Community Centres organization, a group of concerned community centre operators.
Lockhart and his compatriots are concerned that if the move goes ahead, community centres in the city will no longer be able to keep the funding they generate and will also lose the unique programs that are tailored to each individual community.
Not so said the Park Board’s Malcom Bromley.
The current arrangement has been in place for 50 years and Bromley believes that the city is overdue for a new agreement. He also said they’re not looking to cut services, rather they’re hoping to provide a more equitable range of programs across the city, evening out perceived imbalances.
“We’ve been working with the community centre associations for eight or nine months to take a look at ways of updating the partnership agreement that we have,” said Bromley.
“[We hope] that some of the community centres that perhaps don’t have the richness of some of those programs do get to perhaps expand their programs to get the same level of service.”
Bromley said there’s no timeline for reaching a new agreement.
Lockhart’s group will meet at the Kerrisdale Community Centre Tuesday night at 7p.m. to discuss their next move.
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Community centres receive grants from the province for specific programs. Other revenue received is from programs and room rentals. Some associations get more grants depending on the area and some of the ‘have nots’ receive substantially more grants than the have centres. After paying for the staff that provide these programs, the associations also pay for some of the parks board staff as well.
This is another ploy by Penny Ballum to shovel more money into the City’s coffers to spend on bike lanes and other green worthy projects. All Malcolm Bromley wants to do is have the YMCA take over operations of community centres as that was the model he established when he was the Parks Board Commissioner in Toronto.
There’s a reason that some community centres are making money, and it’s not because they are in rich neighbourhoods! It is because they have Societies that care about the Community Centres they run and cater programs that people in the community want. Enough of this Robin Hood mentality of taking from the rich to give to the poor, start looking at the real problems with these low revenue centres, such as they are outdated and do not cater to the needs of the community they serve.
If you care about your local community centre and its operations, I encourage you to go to these open houses to learn more, and to write your City Councillers and tell them what a bad idea this is!
If you like your current community center the way it is, call one of the Vision Parks Board members. If you think the Visionistas know better ways to utilize your community center, then do not complain once things change.
This is but the latest overhaul of the entire way your city is being ran. Vision Vancouver is bound and determined to run amok in the parks board as they have done with the planning and zoning depts. already.
If community centres provide programs based on funding provided by the users- a user-pay system- why would the parks board think other neighbourhoods should to be entitled to this money?
It’s understandable that local community centres would be concerned over the parks board taking control of their funding. In terms of city neighbourhoods there seems to be a disproportionate amount of money funneled into the Downtown Eastside. And wasn’t it Constance Barnes who wanted daycare spaces in the community centres and paid for from the parks budget.
It’s time Vancouver follows Burnaby whereby members can have access to all community centers without any restrictions.
If you want to be left alone, then don’t come asking the city for money.
None of the associations are asking for money from the city. The reality is that each association funds between 50% and 75% of their operating costs. They also contribute huge amounts through grants and fundraising that would be impossible if the City steals away their revenue.
I have a few questions. It sounds like the community centres do great work but where does the other 25% to 50% of funding come from? What is the current amount of revenue the community centres give back to the City? (e.g are we paying market rates or are these subsidized?) and finally why would it be impossible to fundraise?
Full support! Leave community centres to the local communities.