Eight years of minutes: who asked about the waitlist?
Sources: all 177 published Vancouver Park Board meeting documents, January 2019 – July 2026 — regular, special, and committee minutes plus in-camera decision releases (two of which are near-empty redactions) — collected with collect_minutes.py and searched in full for “waitlist,” “wait list,” “wait-list,” and “waiting list.” Every document is in the library; the dated claims below link to the specific minutes.
The finding
The word “waitlist” does not appear in a single Park Board minute in eight years. Not during the 2022 lifeguard shortage, when the board went three months without meeting while pools cut hours. Not through 2023’s summer of service reductions, which passed without one minuted aquatics discussion between June and September. Not on March 31, 2025, when a staff report citing “over 8,000 requests for fall swim lessons” sat directly in front of commissioners and the recorded debate stayed on pool footprints and capital costs. Across 177 documents, no commissioner moved a motion, filed an enquiry, or was recorded asking staff how long the queue was, who was in it, or what would shorten it.
Asked, then removed
Four times, the question nearly forced its way in. Three reporting requirements that would have produced capacity analysis were drafted — and removed before the vote:
- October–November 2023, Britannia renewal: as noticed on October 30, the “Advancing Britannia Renewal” motion (Digby/Christensen) directed staff to report back by Q2 2024 with, among other items, “a schedule of planned spending for repairs and enhancements of Britannia Pool and Fitness Centre” (B.ii) and a “re-assessment of capital planning for replacement of indoor swimming pools scheduled in VanSplash to include the Britannia Pool” (B.iii). On November 27 a Bastyovanszky/Digby amendment struck and replaced the motion; the version that carried (unanimously, Virdi abstaining) asks only for the amount of funding allocated in past capital plans and the categories of spending permitted.
- June 2, 2025, “Think 50 Metres”: the original clause D directed staff “to produce, at minimum, a preliminary report on the state of Vancouver’s aquatic infrastructure by Q1 2026, including an overview of service gaps and preliminary siting considerations for a 50-metre pool in South Vancouver.” Stripped by substitute amendment before passing (June 2, 2025 minutes).
- May 25, 2026: a clause directing staff “to report back on the timeline and operational requirements necessary to reinstate this pre-pandemic service model in advance of the upcoming summer season.” Dropped before the vote (May 25 and June 1, 2026 minutes).
The fourth, a motion titled “Think Aquatics” (April 14, 2025), was defeated outright.
The year-by-year verdict
| Year | Formal ask for waitlist, capacity, or staffing analysis? | Nearest approach |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | No | Lesson-space shortage noted once as an advisory-committee bullet |
| 2020 | No | Unattributed enquiry for Leisure Access pass counts; a $1M pool amendment defeated 4–3 (Sept 14, 2020) |
| 2021 | No | “Waitlist,” “instructor,” and “swim lesson” are absent from the year’s minutes entirely |
| 2022 | No (staffing only) | The board did not meet between July 20 and October 24; the crisis summer passed with zero board discussion. A December urgent motion ordered a staffing report for the next summer |
| 2023 | No | The report-backs arrived (Feb 27, 2023) and noted “concern with… long-term shortage of lifeguards and swim teachers”; no follow-up. Britannia reporting clauses stripped |
| 2024 | No | The year’s aquatics attention went to facility condition; “waitlist” absent |
| 2025 | No | The 8,000-request figure was before them in writing (March 31); debate stayed elsewhere. Two report clauses stripped or defeated. Lesson metrics reached commissioners only by confidential memo |
| 2026 | Partially — the first real asks | The June 1 amendment (carried 4–3; the motion as amended carried 5–1 with one abstention) directing staff to report back on free-lesson cost and capacity options; an audit invitation; a staffing report-back; a facility feasibility report. Still no waitlist ask |
The analysis that exists but was never published
The near-decade of public silence does not mean no numbers ever moved. They moved privately:
- A February 2025 confidential memo to commissioners contained lane-hour and lesson-revenue data — the only staff-supplied lesson metrics in the entire corpus, delivered in camera. (Released by the board later; its revenue figures appear in the working answer.)
- A March 2026 staff briefing memo on Kitsilano Pool options, referenced in the July 13, 2026 minutes but never published. (Requested under FOI 2026-641; pending.)
- Five in-camera aquatics documents in 2025 alone, catalogued in the library.
The pattern repeats in 2026: the Kerrisdale Pool closure updates and the Kitsilano attendance ledger also travelled by briefing memo. The board’s aquatics evidence base exists — it just doesn’t pass through the public record until someone requests it.
What this means
The conclusion is milder than a cover-up and, for a governing body, worse: for eight years, spanning two elected boards, the queue was nobody’s question. The governance layer never asked, so the staff layer never compiled, so when both council and the board finally directed free-lesson analysis this spring, the design work had to begin from zero — and the first costed options report the public got was written by a resident, from records released under freedom of information. It’s on this site.