Park Board approves recommended updates to fees and charges for 2024

Last night, November 28, the Park Board approved fee increases for 2024 as recommended by Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation staff. These increases are designed to help maintain affordability for core park and recreation services, while addressing current cost pressures and the need to support a long-term, financially viable approach to fees.  

Specifically, changes will affect golf courses, pitch & putt, recreation services, parking, permitted park use like special events and film, Burrard Marina and local attractions like the Stanley Park Train, VanDusen Botanical Garden and Bloedel Conservatory. The average individual fee recommendations per service area ranges from four per cent to 13 per cent.

To prepare the recommended 2024 fees and charges, staff reviewed comparative and neighbouring markets and the fixed costs to operate services. They also considered the potential effects of new fees on customers, and integrated the projected results into the proposed 2024 Parks and Recreation Operating Budget. 

The fee changes are expected to generate roughly $5.44 million of incremental revenues in 2024. The table below displays average fee increases for various services and the incremental revenue included in the Board’s preliminary 2024 budget as proposed to Council. 

Examples of Changes to Fees and Charges

Golf and Pitch & Putt 

• Fraserview and McCleery golf courses will increase adult green fees by four per cent each and Langara golf course will increase adult green fees by 10 per cent. Langara’s fee increase reflects recent improvements from the completion of a significant drainage project, but its fees will remain lower than the other two Championship Golf courses. 

VanDusen Botanical Garden and Bloedel Conservatory 

• Admission fees will increase by 12 per cent, while VanDusen Botanical Garden regular garden admissions will increase by 10 per cent for fall/winter and 12 per cent for spring/summer and most other fee increases are approximately six per cent. 

Recreation Fees 

• Flexipass rates will increase by 11 per cent to generate approximately $300,000 needed to help fund fixed cost increases in recreation facility maintenance, driven by supply price increases and regulatory changes.
• Recreation Lessons and Program fees have been simplified and fully synchronized between skate and swim instruction, resulting in many fee changes. Child Fundamentals Skate Lessons fees, for example, will decrease by eight per cent and Child Swim Lessons fees will remain frozen at 2023 levels.
• Fees paid by minor non-profit groups for Diamonds, Outdoor Sport Courts, and “Natural Turf” sport field rentals will be raised to $5 per hour, an increase of up to 112 per cent. Vancouver fees are historically low ($2.36 - $2.40 per hour in 2023) compared to surrounding municipalities, whose 2023 fees range from $5 to nearly$10 per hour. It is anticipated increased fees will result in higher field use by encouraging permit holders to free-up unused times for other user groups. 

Parking 

• Patron Parking fees will increase an average of six per cent for hourly fees, four per cent for daily fees, and 15 per cent for other non-bus fees. 
• Bus parking fees will increase by an average of 25 per cent, and new fees are based on comparison to metro Vancouver Parks and Granville Island fees.

Permitted Park Use 

• Most fees will increase between six per cent and 11 per cent. Fees have been set to reflect the increasing demand for permits for special events, film, wedding and picnics in parks, with the largest increase approved, 50 per cent, for wedding fees in neighbourhood parks, as current fees are low compared to neighbouring sites/venues. 

Burrard Marina 

• Moorage fees will increase between three percent and five per cent, while fee increases for land storage average 11 per cent and for vehicle parking average 25 per cent.

In this meeting, the Board also approved the recommendation to have staff report back on options to implement an infrastructure fee and framework to help fund improvements and maintenance of revenue-generating facilities like golf courses, marinas, and attractions like Stanley Park Train.

The update to the Park Board’s fees and charges were established before the release of the Auditor General’s Audit of Park Board Revenue Management, however, future planning will integrate and action recommendations made in the audit. 

Backgrounder

Park Board Fees and Charges Policy

The Park Board Fees and Charges Policy requires that fees and charges are adjusted to ensure reasonable recovery of operating costs. This means as costs increase, similar increases to fees and charges are required to help maintain levels of service provided. Cost increases reflect wage and fringe benefit increases, as well as inflationary increases for supplies, materials and contracted services.

Infrastructure Fee Options & Report Back

The development of the Infrastructure Fee Framework and the creation of an associated interest-bearing reserve fund will provide funding for revenue-generating facility maintenance and upgrades, in addition to the funding available in the Capital and the Operating Budgets. The use of similar approaches to create the Park Board’s Golf reserve and the Vancouver Civic Theatres reserve has been successful in supporting infrastructure maintenance through user-fee funded initiatives and provides a strong precedent for an Infrastructure Fee. 

Dependent on specific details of the Infrastructure Fee and framework recommendations from staff, a one per cent fee increase applied to all fees (golf fees are exempt) could generate $300,000 to $400,000 in net revenues annually.

For more information about the updates fees and charges, please view complete report here: https://parkboardmeetings.vancouver.ca/2023/20231128/REPORT-2024FeesCharges-ParksRec-20231128.pdf PDF file (856 KB)