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Vancouver 2010
Olympic vote at Britannia opens up divide in community
By Dawn Paley
Plans to hand over ice rink to VANOC stirs fears of security crackdown on Commercial Drive
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A contentious meeting the night of October 29 kept Olympic plans on Commercial Drive moving forward, but as locals stir their lattes, trouble is also brewing.
In a move that disappointed the majority of those who packed into the special Britannia Community Centre meeting, the board voted in favour of offering up their ice rink as a hockey practice site during the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.
In a secret ballot, eight out of thirteen board members voted in favour of handing over the East Vancouver rink to Olympics athletes and organizers from January 29 to March 3, 2010.
Big money doubtless helped the Olympics skate through the contentious meeting. In return for giving up their rink during the games, the City of Vancouver and the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) have agreed to pay for $273,000 worth of rink renovations and $50,000 worth of equipment replacement. Sweetening the deal for locals are 2,400 “community access tickets” to the Olympics.
“We are in a struggle to find the money to make improvements,” said one board member who spoke in favour of passing the motion.
Britannia was not included in the books during the city’s Olympic bid. Britannia’s board of directors was first approached by the City of Vancouver about the possibility in November of 2007.
The decision to allow use of the ice rink for the Olympics was a contentious one. A vote was initially scheduled to take place in May, but it was pushed back because of an uproar from local activists. Before yesterday’s vote, a petition signed by 397 people from the area who opposed the Olympics arrangement was handed off to board members.
VANOC’s proposal “fails to clearly address two major community concerns: security and the accompanying surveillance apparatus and service disruption of both Britannia and community,” said Tammie Tupechka, a local resident and former board member at the centre.
“The majority of people in the Commercial Drive area are against the Olympics,” said Garth Mullins from the Olympics Resistance Network. He voiced concern that if Britannia is used as an Olympic site, it could double as a platform for staging crowd control measures. An estimated 13,000 police officers and soldiers are expected to be in Vancouver and Whistler during the games.
“We’re in the middle of a box, with Olympics venues on all sides of us,” said one board member, acknowledging concerns about security. “This place is going to be crawling with police officers no matter what we decide tonight,” she said.
Red flags went up for many locals because of the cost overruns and the temporary shut down of the Trout Lake Community Centre, where Olympic speed skating competitions will be held. Initially budgeted at $5 million, the venue at Trout Lake is now expected to cost $16 million, with the city picking up most of the inflated tab.
"The Trout Lake Ice Rink Replacement project shows how VANOC seed funding for the construction of Olympic venues derails community infrastructure planning, disrupts community services and leaves Vancouverites with a huge bill," said Jessica Peart, a member of Britannia.
Ray Gallagher, president of Britannia’s board, declined to reveal how he voted. He did acknowledge that it was “not at all common practice” to hold a vote by secret ballot. Gallagher will take the board’s decision to Vancouver City Council and “go from there,” he said.
Britannia is one of two community centres in Vancouver that has an independent board of directors. The remainder of the city’s 23 community centres are jointly run by the City and local community associations.
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