Recreation Facilities Presentation
Recreation Facilities Presentation on May 27, 2025, by Brooke Kuyer and Abby Mercier:
[video presentation starts at 2:30 and ends at 26:00 minutes]
[Petition]
[Recreation Facilities and Fields Literature Review]
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Since Abbotsford and Matsqui amalgamated in 1995, the City has neither added a new public recreation centre nor preserved its existing inventory. The City blames an inadequate manufacturing property-tax base, yet the evidence points elsewhere. The underlying issue is weak urban and transportation implementation and the City’s failure to compare per-hectare taxable value and revenue with lifecycle costs in projects such as Cooper Farm and McKee Peak—leaving Abbotsford with an unsustainable capital-infrastructure deficit. [A video essay by Not Just Bikes explains the issue. Refer to the APC Municipal Fundamentals page for further resources.]
1) The lawn-bowling greens and clubhouse, which was a neighbourhood gathering place, in Jubilee Park were closed in autumn 2018 when the club was forcibly relocated to Mill Lake Park to a non-accessible facility—a move that cost the City $605,000 in capital expenditure (City of Abbotsford file 0580-20/2022-296). [Letter from the Jubilee Lawn Bowling Club to the City]
2) The McCallum Activity Centre—often called the Friendship Centre—on McCallum Road, beside the former Visitor Information Centre and Chamber of Commerce building, has also been demolished; it once hosted seniors’ programmes, community meetings, theatre rehearsals, and coin shows.
3) Matsqui Village’s outdoor pool operated for the last time in 2010 and was formally decommissioned by the council in January 2011.
4) Residents and non-profit groups lost Tradex, which was affordable and revenue-neutral while operated by Tourism Abbotsford, when City Council, without a mandate, terminated its agreement with Tourism Abbotsford and entered into a long-term lease with a private sector operator. [More Information]
5) Although Abbotsford Centre opened in 2009, its principal tenant, the Abbotsford Canucks, primarily consumes the available ice time.