Vancouver's new 50-metre pool: Park Board to pick a site by month's end

The last swimmer left the Vancouver Aquatic Centre in June 2026. By early November, the walls were coming down and the new Park Board was settling into office with a promise to build a 50-metre pool somewhere else in the city.

The BC Court of Appeal's interim order that had halted all demolition work at 1050 Beach Avenue expired at noon on November 3, 2026. A Park Board spokesperson confirmed that day that the 25-metre pool renewal plan would go ahead. Work on the $175-million project is now underway, with the full facility targeted to open in the last three months of 2029.

That leaves one open question for the new COPE-Green Park Board: where in the city will Vancouver build a 50-metre competition pool?

The site choice the new board inherits

The aquatic centre closed in June 2026 for a rebuild. The approved design calls for a 25-metre, eight-lane lap pool, a leisure pool, a diving pool, a hot tub and a fitness gym. The Park Board approved that plan in March 2025 and Vancouver City Council approved $22.5 million toward it in June 2025.

The Protecting Our Vancouver Aquatic Centre Society (POVACS) went to court, arguing the 25-metre design conflicted with a 2022 plebiscite in which Vancouver voters approved $103 million in borrowing for the facility's replacement. POVACS's position was that voter support was conditional on a 50-metre pool. A BC Supreme Court judge dismissed that challenge, and POVACS appealed. On October 14, 2026, one day before the new appeal was heard, Justice Dickson of the BC Court of Appeal granted an interim order pausing demolition.

The order gave the newly elected Park Board, sworn in at VanDusen Botanical Gardens on November 2, one day to consider acting. It did not pass any motion before the order expired the next afternoon. Demolition resumed.

A new board, the same 25-metre plan, and a promise

Seven commissioners took office on November 2: Tom Digby, Breanne Smart and Spencer Van Vloten for the Green Party, and T'uy't'tanat Cease Wyss, Tamiko Suzuki, Jamie Han and Sacia Burton for COPE.

The board has not changed direction on the aquatic centre rebuild. Commissioner Spencer van Vloten told the Tyee that demolition has resumed and the 25-metre facility is on track. But he said the board is working on the other half of the commitment the Green Party made during the campaign: a separate 50-metre pool at another location in the city.

"We're beginning that process," van Vloten told the Tyee. "But it's something we're excited to make a reality."

Park Board staff are expected to recommend a location by the end of November. The two main options are Hastings and Kensington community centres in East Vancouver.

Van Vloten said the new facility would open "in three to four years." Staff have put the opening in the last three months of 2029. He also acknowledged that a fully purpose-built 50-metre facility, designed from the ground up for competition, would be "at least six or seven years away."

The community that swam there

Tony Correia, a West End resident who swam regularly at the aquatic centre, told the Tyee he relies on facilities he can reach without a car. The main candidates for the new pool, Hastings and Kensington, are in East Vancouver, several kilometres from the West End neighbourhood where the aquatic centre sits.

The society that fought to keep the 50-metre pool at the beach location is running out of money for a continued legal fight. POVACS co-founder Jon Girard told the Tyee the society has spent about $95,000 of the $115,000 it raised on its court challenge. A further appeal would cost another $40,000 to $50,000. "It's a funding thing," Girard said. The appeal case remains technically open but is unlikely to proceed.

The facility operated at about 30 percent of capacity in February 2025, and at 26 percent in 2018. Pool advocates have argued those figures reflect a facility with known maintenance problems, not a measure of demand.

What comes next

The Park Board's first regular working meeting of the new term is on November 30, 2026 at 7 pm. The agenda and meeting location will be posted at parkboardmeetings.vancouver.ca before the meeting.

Staff are expected to bring the 50-metre pool site recommendation to the board that month. If the board approves a location, the next steps would be a design process and a funding plan. Neither has been announced.

Residents who want to follow the aquatic centre rebuild can track progress through the Park Board's public meetings. Those who want to speak at a meeting must register in advance through the Park Board's website.

The tracker page for Tom Digby records his campaign promise to pursue a new 50-metre pool at Hastings or Kensington as not yet started. The first staff recommendation will be the first marker of whether that commitment moves forward.