Almost 12% of city parks, open spaces in poor condition: report

Nearly 12 per cent of the city’s parks and open-space assets are in poor or very poor condition and it would cost $108.5 million to replace them, a new city report says.

The city rates 60.9 per cent of the assets to be in good or very good condition, 23.1 per cent as fair and 11.6 per cent as poor or very poor. Another 4.4 per cent are not yet rated.

The poor and very poor rating reflects assets nearing the end of their useful lives.

“Assets in poor or very poor condition may deliver services with reduced quality,” writes Dave Domke, the city’s manager of parks and open space, in the report.

The ratings assess everything from pavilions to maintenance yards, trash cans, benches, fences, gates, picnic tables, play structures, sport fields and trees.

In an interview, Domke acknowledged the portion of assets in the “poor to very poor” category has remained stagnant for several years.

He said tight city budgets limit how many items can be replaced each year, as park space grows.

“We don’t have enough funding for our parks, in general,” he said.

The report notes the city now has more than 370,000 park and open-space assets to maintain, including 3,270 hectares (8,100 acres) of parklands.

“It’s 255 additional hectares (555 acres) of land (that) we’ve added to our inventory since 2012 and we haven’t received a lot of additional funding as a result of that,” said Domke.

The removal of some aging assets is part of a city’s parks strategy added in 2022.

Domke said few changes have been made so far. The city is most likely to remove under-used assets where other options are located close by, he said.

For example, the city expects to demolish the Harbourview Park and Recreation Complex buildings at Kilcona Park and replace them with something smaller, said Domke.

“We’d be looking at putting a pavilion out there with a smaller footprint that meets the needs of the immediate area,” he said.

While some assets may be removed, he said Winnipeggers can still expect an overall increase in park amenities.

A local green-space activist said she’s not sure if the option to remove some deteriorating assets poses a concern, since there’s little detail available on how that will play out.

Pam Lucenkiw, a member of Outdoor Urban Recreational Spaces – Winnipeg, said she would like the city to increase its parks maintenance budget overall.

“Clearly, the (city) should be investing more in maintaining their parks… for safety and maintenance (that) helps them last longer…. they really are important to our climate-change response, they’re important to preserving biodiversity,” said Lucenkiw.

The city typically spends between $1.7 million and $6.8 million per year on capital improvements at parks and open spaces, with separate funding for Assiniboine Park, the city report notes.

Coun. Vivian Santos, chairwoman of community services, said the fact 11.6 per cent are in poor to very poor condition is a concern.

Santos (Point Douglas) said she’d like to see more parks spending but that budget must compete with many other spending priorities.

“As we continue to grow out, these (assets continue to be added) to our portfolio, and it does become tough trying to balance… where we want to spend our dollars,” she said.

Mayor Scott Gillingham said that budget pressure is aggravated by the age of many recreation assets.

“The City of Winnipeg, we’re now (more than) 150 years old…. We see that buildings in the parks, roads within parks, pathways within parks, even trees within parks, they’re all at a certain age now. And, so, the need for investment is significant,” said Gillingham.

The mayor said council should rank park maintenance in its next strategic priority action plan to help set the most appropriate budget. He hopes to start that process next year, if re-elected for another term on Oct. 28.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

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