Burnaby struggles to afford new Confederation Park Community Centre

Burnaby City Council discussed a staff report at its Aug. 26 meeting recommending that the city defer the construction phase of the Confederation Park Community Centre project until funds become available. 

According to the report, the city currently has four ongoing parks, recreation, and culture projects, costing hundreds of millions of dollars. These projects are the James Cowan Theatre, Burnaby Lake Recreation Complex, Cameron Community Centre, and Brentwood Community Centre. 

The report mentioned that the construction phase of the Confederation Park Community Centre, which is currently under discussion, would cost around $154M. With the cost of design, the total cost is $215,460,000. The report said that the city is $31.2M short of the funds required for the centre and recent provincial zoning legislation contributed to the lack of funds. 

“This project was initially planned to be funded by the Community Benefit Bonus Reserve. However, due to recent legislative changes from the province, this project will now be funded through the Amenity Cost Charge (ACC) program. As this funding program is new, no ACC funding has been collected to date to fund this growth portion of the CPCC. As ACC funds are generated from developer contributions, the timing of the collections of these funds is uncertain,” the report said. 

The report also included a table detailing a cost comparison between the Confederation Park, Cameron, and Burnaby Lake recreation centres. 

“While the unit rate of construction for this project is in line with Burnaby’s other projects, the others include pools and an arena, so staff would expect these project costs to be lower. The promenade and building envelope with the two-building design are significant cost drivers on this project,” the report said. 

Deferring the project is not without risk, as the cost of construction is likely to increase over the next five years. In addition, any design changes will also be costly to the city. 

“The costs spent to date on feasibility studies, design and design revisions, and project management are approximately $20 million. Cost consultants are currently estimating a 7% construction cost escalation for at least the next five years. If this project is deferred by 5 years, this project is expected to cost about $82 million more to build, assuming no design changes,” the report said. 

Councillors “disappointed” by the recommendation 

“I’m extremely disappointed that after 10 years or more of doing needs assessment studies, consulting with the neighbourhood being the first community centre to be designed and redesigned and having allocated funds to it,” Coun. Pietro Calendino said during the council meeting. “It seems to have ended up at the end of the priorities.”

In response to Calendino’s comments, Coun. Sav Dhaliwal said that the city is struggling to fund the Confederation Park Community Centre due to the loss of the Community Benefit Bonus, one of the primary funding sources for large projects. Under the Community Benefit Bonus Policy, Burnaby required developers to either build community amenities or pay the city for the extra units they add to their buildings.  

“The funding that previously would have been allocated to Community Benefit Bonus is no longer there. Hard choices have to be made by council to see how we proceed without having to burden property taxpayers to the tune of double-digit tax increases every year,” Dhaliwal said. 

Dhaliwal also said that the city needed to consider the operating costs of the centre, which would be passed on to taxpayers if the city cannot cover them. 

Coun. Daniel Tetrault said he was disappointed to see the deferral recommendation and asked staff whether it is possible to reassess the cost and possibly redesign the centre to reduce costs. 

“The cost you have in front of you now already has 30 or 40 million out of it,” James Lota, general manager of lands and facilities, said. 

Lota added that city staff had not considered redesigning the centre “from scratch” and would need to consult with parks, recreation and culture staff to ensure the new design meets programming needs. 

Coun. Joe Keithley said the provincial government’s decision to change the legislation was a “tragic mistake.”

“I do agree a lot with what Councillor Dhaliwal said. One key point there, that he brought up, the provincial government has changed the financial landscape. So now we’re not able to handle this. Before, we had the means to do it; now we don’t.”  

Councillors Maita Santiago and James Wang both asked staff to consider alternative sources of funding for the community centre. 

Council amended the motion to request that staff return to council at a later date with options to save on the cost of the centre, such as redesigning it. Staff will also look into alternative funding sources.

This piece was made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.

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