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]
Since the 1995 amalgamation of the former Districts of Abbotsford and Matsqui, the City of Abbotsford has not added a public recreation centre while its inventory has declined. 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—a move that cost the City $605,000 in capital expenditure (City of Abbotsford file 0580-20/2022-296). 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. Matsqui Village’s outdoor pool operated for the last time in 2010 and was formally decommissioned by council in January 2011. Residents now have fewer publicly owned neighbourhood recreation amenities than they did before amalgamation.
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]
Although Abbotsford Centre opened in 2009, its principal tenant, the Abbotsford Canucks, primarily consumes the available ice time.