---
title: "Park Board asked to pause Vancouver Aquatic Centre demolition before court order expires November 3"
description: "A civic group is asking the new Park Board to pass an emergency motion at tonight's inaugural meeting before a BC Court of Appeal order pausing demolition expires at noon on November 3."
canonical_url: "https://voche.me/news/park-board-aquatic-centre-injunction-motion-november-2026"
last_updated: "2026-11-02T06:49:54.914Z"
---

A civic group is asking Vancouver's newly elected Park Board to pass an emergency motion at tonight's inaugural meeting before a BC Court of Appeal order pausing demolition of the Vancouver Aquatic Centre expires at noon on November 3.

CityHallWatch published a press release on November 1 from the Protecting Our Vancouver Aquatic Centre Society (POVACS). The society is asking all seven incoming commissioners to pass a motion during "other business" at the inaugural ceremony to extend the pause on demolition.

## The deadline

The BC Court of Appeal issued an order on October 13, 2026, pausing demolition of the Vancouver Aquatic Centre. According to CityHallWatch, that order expires on November 3 at noon, 17 hours after the Park Board meeting begins.

The Park Board's inaugural meeting is at 7 pm on November 2 at VanDusen Botanical Gardens, 5251 Oak St. The full board is being sworn in that night.

## What POVACS is asking

POVACS says the incoming board has an opportunity to review engineering and environmental reports it says were not shown to previous elected officials. The society says ASCENCO Engineering recommended further testing in 2023 and that the tests were never done. It also says a report found toxic petrochemicals on the site that, if demolition proceeds, it says could leach into False Creek.

POVACS puts the cost difference between demolition and a retrofit at over $100 million. The society has not published a breakdown of that figure. These are POVACS's own figures and numbers, and voche.me has not checked them independently.

POVACS also states that an Integrity Commissioner complaint has been filed three times against Green Park Board commissioner Tom Digby regarding his conduct. The press release does not name who filed the complaints or what they say. CityHallWatch carried no response from Digby. No ruling has been reported.

POVACS separately states that a police complaint has been filed for potential procurement fraud related to conversations between City staff and architects. That complaint is at the filed stage and no charge or ruling has been reported.

## The new board

The seven newly elected Park Board commissioners are:

- COPE: [Jamie Han](/candidates/jamie-han), [Sacia Burton](/candidates/sacia-burton), [T'uy't'tanat Cease Wyss](/candidates/t-uy-t-tanat-cease-wyss) and [Tamiko Suzuki](/candidates/tamiko-suzuki)
- Green Party: [Tom Digby](/candidates/tom-digby), [Breanne Smart](/candidates/breanne-smart) and [Spencer van Vloten](/candidates/spencer-van-vloten)

COPE holds four seats and the Green Party holds three. The board has the power to pass a motion at its inaugural meeting.

Residents who want to attend the inaugural ceremony can go to VanDusen Botanical Gardens, 5251 Oak St, tonight at 7 pm.

## Sitemap

See the full [sitemap](/sitemap.md) for all pages.