TEAM platform calls for $739M in Vancouver parks spending and 50-metre pool

TEAM for a Livable Vancouver, led by mayoral candidate and former councillor Colleen Hardwick, has released a parks and recreation platform ahead of the Oct. 17, 2026 civic election.

The party says it would commit at least $739 million over four years, matching the value of the draft 2027-30 Park Board capital plan. That draft allocates $496 million for recreation facilities, $223 million for parks and public spaces, and $20 million for service yards.

TEAM says the investment would address deferred maintenance, restore Park Board operational capacity and support maintenance, renovations and replacements. A 2025 report by the City of Vancouver auditor general found 72 per cent of 46 recreation facilities examined were in poor or very poor condition as of 2022.

The platform also calls for retaining a 50-metre pool at Vancouver Aquatic Centre. The current $175-million replacement project, approved by the City and Park Board, is planned around a 25-metre lap pool, leisure pool and diving tank. The existing facility closed in June and is scheduled for demolition this fall; TEAM did not say how a revised design would affect cost, timing or financing.

Other promises include increasing public park space by at least 20 per cent, building Sunset Pool, renewing Kitsilano Outdoor Pool, protecting Langara and Fraserview golf courses from development, and designating temporary and de facto parks as permanent parkland. The platform does not identify land for new parks, acquisition costs or a timetable for achieving its park-space target.