Minutes of the West Shore Parks and Recreation Society Board of Directors Meeting October 12th, 2023

Minutes of the West Shore Parks and Recreation Society Board of Directors Meeting

Thursday, October 12th, 2023, in the Westshore Room

PRESENT: Directors Leslie Anderson, Shelly Donaldson, Kimberley Guiry, and Dean Jantzen

ABSENT: Director Damian Kowalewich

STAFF PRESENT: Grant Brown, administrator Ron Dietrich, manager of operations Geoff Welham, manager of recreation Wei Wu, manager of finance and administration Chantelle Bremner, recorder

STAFF ABSENT: April Luchinski, manager of human resources

PUBLIC PRESENT: Jules Van Rosenbrook – Victoria Regional Pickleball Association

CALL TO ORDER

1. The chair called the meeting to order at 5:30pm.

APPROVAL OF AGENDA

2. MOVED/SECONDED BY DIRECTORS DONALDSON AND GUIRY THAT THE AGENDA BE APPROVED AS PRESENTED. CARRIED

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

3. MOVED/SECONDED BY DIRECTORS GUIRY AND ANDERSON THAT THE MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING SEPTEMBER 13th, 2023, BE APPROVED AS PRESENTED. NO ERRORS, NO OMMISIONS. CARRIED

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

4. Jules Van Rosenbrook from Victoria Regional Pickleball Association asked for an update.

Grant Brown, administrator replied:

• The consultant presented 12 options and suggested one, which the board of directors approved. Next step is to source out funding for the project.
• The suggested location is to replace the existing outdoor volleyball courts with 6 north to south facing pickleball courts. The entire area will be fenced and there is the option of removable fencing in between the courts themselves.
• In discussion with the Tennis Clubs of Canada (TCC) to operate an air bubble, containing lights with go over the tennis courts and the newly established pickleball courts during the winter months. This would be operated by TCC.

Jules Van Rosenbrook commented:

• The Victoria Regional Pickleball Association has over 700 members.
• Would have preferred more than 6 courts for tournaments.

The WSPR staff and Board of Directors commented that temporary courts could be added to the lacrosse box, and tennis courts and there are the indoor courts available in the ISC.

CHAIR’S REMARKS

5. Dean Jantzen, vice chair, commented that he has been working on the implementation of new bylaws to do with open drug use within the City of Colwood.

STANDING COMMITTEES

5. a) Finance Committee Update Director Leslie Anderson, finance committee chair commented:

• The finance committee has recommended that the draft 2024 WSPRS budget be presented to the council for approval.

MOVED/SECONDED BY DIRECTORS GUIRY AND DONALDSON THAT THE DRAFT 2024 WSPRS BUDGET BE PRESENTED TO MUNICIPAL COUNCILS FOR APPROVAL. CARRIED

OLD BUSINESS

7. N/A

NEW BUSINESS

8. a) Site Security Staff Report Grant Brown, administrator commented on the following:

• There has been an increase in drug usage on the property lately and since the report was sent out there have been multiple occurrences. Staff have used our Sheepdog training when met with these types of situations.
• Commissionaires are locking gates at night, and we will look for a solution to further lock the bus transit lane once it has been constructed. The locking of the gates will help with the issue of the public using the parking lots as a cut through to avoid the traffic on the highway.

There was discussion around where the public can shelter in the community. WSPRS is private property which helps make it possible to evict patrons.

b) Strategic Plan Update Grant Brown, administrator commented the following:

• New updates have been bolded in the report.
• Next year, a strategic priority will be to do a review of the governance agreements as they come up for renewal.

c) Asset Management Plan Update Ron Dietrich, manager of operations, highlighted the following:

• Evaluate in 5 different ways
  • Replacement value: $104.04 million
    • Buildings
    • FF&E
    • Rolling Stock
    • Site Infrastructure
    • Yard Improvements
• Operating Budget
  • WSPRS Asset Portfolio
    • Buildings -$74.71 million
    • WSPRS Owned Assets - $5.93 million
    • Yard Improvements - $11.68 million
    • Site Infrastructure
  • WSPRS Owned Assets
    • Rolling Stock - $2.55 million
    • FF&E - $3.39 million
• Gathered information using the following:
  • High-Level Lifecycle Forecast – Buildings
  • Lifecycle 25 Year Plam – Rolling Stock and Buildings
  • Accounting Asset Register – Fixtures, Furnishings & Equipment, and Rolling Stock
  • Site Drawings – Site Infrastructure
  • 2020 Appraisal – Buildings, Yard Improvements, Rolling Stock and Fixtures, Furnishings and Equipment
• Capital Investment values has varied over the years.
• Improvement Plan
  • Current improvement plans include:
    • Reviewing assets annually
    • 5-year plan
    • Cross referencing with our insurance provider
    • Roadways and gardens have been catalogued and prioritized
    • Working with the new format and review and collating all data is underway
    • Surveys and public feedback are always implemented
    • Energy consumption is tracked for all municipalities and a report is delivered annually.
    • RetScreen system has also been incorporated.
    • Use of the ProMaintainer system is used to track servicing and maintenance needed.
• Uniformat
  • Through review of the building data, all of the elements were translated into ASTM E1557 Uniformat II Building Standard.
• Where are we now?
  • Financially
    • We need to contribute annually $1 million to put into reserves for maintenance. Every year, we increase the contribution in order to get closer to that $1 million mark.
  • Asset Management
    • Buildings are in good condition currently.
  • Grant Funding
    • Successful grant applications changes the way that the assets are managed.

There was discussion around staff looking to partner with municipalities in order to use their GIS software, include natural forest asset management.

FOR INFORMATION

9. a) Administrator’s report The report included the following:

Administration/Human Resources

The finance team has caught up on outstanding Intelli imports with the assistance of the new reception team leads and will continue to focus on improving the timeliness of accounts receivable collection and reconciliations. The reception team lead positions have been a great addition to the organization, with positive comments received from other departments. Staff are working with IT to facilitate the replacement of the current phone system and very soon, the public will be able to purchase reloadable BCTransit Umo cards at reception.

The administrative systems specialist recently announced their retirement, following an extended absence from the organization and the staff team joined them to celebrate their career with WSPR in September. Chantelle Bremner, who has been acting in the role, was the successful applicant and will officially take on these full duties starting October 23rd. The competition to fill the administrative assistant position will be posted shortly.

The dates for the upcoming bargaining sessions between WSPR and CUPE 1978 have been rescheduled for early December.

Operations

Maintenance Within mechanical maintenance, several notable activities were undertaken last month. At the Q Centre Arena, the lobby air handling unit experienced a fan motor failure, resulting in its replacement. Additionally, the control board in the north end weightroom air handling unit was replaced due to malfunction. To enhance functionality, check valves were installed in the Zamboni Bay mixing valve at the JDF arena to prevent the mixing of hot and cold water.

The team executed annual maintenance tasks which included the semi-annual servicing of the Q Centre Arena dehumidifier and Kids Cottage air handling unit. Furthermore, critical annual tasks such as ammonia training for staff and boiler inspections were completed. Maintenance of the steam sauna boiler tank was successfully completed, along with the annual brine filtering at the JDF Arena. In addition, essential maintenance tasks included pole chinking for the fieldhouse and significant repairs to the Centennial Centre Oak Room deck.

Larger capital projects are underway as Parker Johnston prepares to reroof the pool, and the digital controls at the library are being linked to the site network. Unfortunately, the tennis court delay has left the contractor worried about cold weather installation conditions, leading to the delay of the project till the spring of 2024 when temperatures warm.

The crew welcomed a new full-time worker to the team, along with two new auxiliary staff members to supplement the call-out list. Interviews for the vacant facility maintenance worker 3 position are underway.

Parks On the golf course, the tee box on #7 has been reshaped and seeded, making it ready for the 2024 season. In a proactive effort to minimize wear during the winter months, tee mats have been ordered and will be introduced for the winter pass season. Extensive aeration and maintenance, including overseeding and top dressing, have been carried out on tees and fairways. While the greens are holding up well, additional hand-watering is being conducted to address dry spots. Aeration of golf greens is planned in the coming weeks, subject to weather conditions.

As the lawn bowls season comes to a close, the greens will enjoy a period of rest, with no soccer activities scheduled for the fall and winter. Greens B and C have undergone aeration and top dressing, while A and D are slated for similar maintenance in the near future.

Fields and diamonds are bustling with activity as fall ball season commences, with the fields holding up admirably. The soccer and rugby fall season is underway, promising another busy year.

At the park, efforts are underway to address irrigation issues, with ongoing fixes scheduled throughout the fall. Additionally, installation of the replacement bike shelter at the main entrance is underway. The prior bike shelter was damaged beyond repair during high winds last spring.

Programs

Community Recreation Staff saw 98 youth attend the first Youth Night of the new school year which is the most for an opening night yet. Part of this is in thanks to our outreach partnership with the Westshore RCMP. The RCMP officers who attended, handed out 120 bags of popcorn. Next up in October is RCMP dodgeball against the youth. The child & youth Brazilian Jiu Jitsu programs are growing with 18 participants between the 2 classes, the highest attendance so far.

The 10-month preschool started September 11th with 78 (out of 100 spaces) children coming to programs in the Kids Cottage, Metchosin Room and View Royal Room. Bright Beginnings (a program for 2 to 3-year-olds) is full with 24 children in attendance. Daycare welcomed 13 new children starting September 1st and has been a great transition for the new families, with everyone settling in. This is the first year that there has not been funding from Supported Child Development for preschool/daycare families, resulting in new families whose children require one on one support, being unable to attend the program. One family is paying privately for the staff wages on top of the program fees. They are over the moon happy to have their child participate.

WSPR welcomed back Music Together Victoria (MTV) after a 3-year break due to COVID. MTV is running 3 classes on Tuesdays at Centennial Centre. 2 of the 3 classes are full. All music, dance and art classes started back up this month including: 16 pre-school aged, 17 school aged and 16 adult visual and performing arts classes. Centennial Centre also hosted 2 art birthdays this month and are sold out for art birthdays in October.

WSPR was successful in securing a $10,000 grant from the Intergovernmental Relations Secretariat – Francophone Affairs (IGRS) for French programming within the daycare and 10-month preschool programs. One of the primary objectives of the project is to expand French-language activities and opportunities offered to families in the Westshore communities.

Fitness and Weights Attendance in the weightroom continues to grow with a large influx of returning users and students with the start of back to school and September. Peak times tend to see 85 plus users at one-time between 4-6pm.

Fall fitness programs started strong with over 90% of programs running successfully. Several new drop-in fitness classes have been added and launched with the fall schedule including Power Core, Functional Fitness, Cardio Core and Core & Restore. Youth weightroom orientations have been full with waitlists, resulting in additional sessions added to support the growing interest.

The new cardio equipment and redesign of the weightroom has been well received by patrons who are learning all the new features of the equipment, including 16” LED Screens with cable TV, internet access, interactive apps and phone charging stations.

The new accessible platform stretch bench has had great reviews from participants and is used frequently for a variety of exercises and abilities.

Aquatics During the month of September, the Aquatics team introduced two new instructional team lead positions to help oversee the growing demand in swim lessons. Devon Woolley and Shakinah Landry have filled these roles and have been doing a fantastic job helping oversee the swim lesson program, acting as role models for our instructors as well as keeping lessons organized and running smoothly.

The fall swimming lessons are in full swing, offering 673 courses consisting of 287 private and 386 group lessons. With most courses fully booked and running large waitlists, staff have been very busy in the pool. The aquatics team has brought on 4 additional staff as junior instructors/lifeguards. The junior instructors provide the flexibility to increase capacities where needed in lessons, helping meet the growing demand. The fall in-service focused on teaching strategies, parent interactions and lesson planning to help improve lesson offerings.

Arena, Events and Golf During August, the golf course saw 5,396 rounds played, which was slightly more than 2023. The month experienced 18 days of sun, 12 days of cloud, and 1 day of precipitation. The average temperature was 25 degrees.

With the early exit of the Shamrocks, it allowed for ice-in to happen the last week of August. The Grizzlies and Wolves camps started in August. The Wolves had 2 exhibition games and the Grizzlies had 1 before they moved down into their dressing rooms in the Q Centre Arena. The staff are excited and curious to see how the new BCHL season unfolds after leaving Hockey Canada in June.

The bookings staff were busy in August getting prepared for a busy fall. The Q Centre Arena ice is nearly fully booked most days from 6am-10:30pm or midnight. Some new user groups from the new Junior Prospects Hockey League have booked daytime ice in the JDF Arena and Q Centre Arena. The value of that contract is $44,600 for September-April.

Fun stats for August, the golf pro-shop sold:

• 1,838 golf balls
• 379 pull cart rentals which an average of 12.23 pull cart rentals/day
• 578 pop/Powerade
• 280 waters
• 175 ice-creams
• 651 alcoholic beverages. Lucky with the highest sales at 150 sold

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

3 Equity Across the Board skatepark workshops were offered in the fall, with strong attendance. These sessions helped to identify the target age groups for future programming.

The Thrifty Foods Skatepark was part of the Chek News segment the “Upside” that was filmed on Tuesday Sept 26th, 2023. Skateboard Instructor/WSC Chair, Jimmy Miller acted as Ed Bains’ stunt double and participated in an on-screen interview. Ed Bain and Jeff King also highlighted the golf course, weightroom and fitness studio in their promotional segments.

The JDF Seniors Association have re-opened for their 2023/2024 season and have strong membership registration, currently with 691 members. Registrations will continue to rise as some are still being entered into their registration system and are waiting for new membership cards to be printed.

WildPlay made payment on their outstanding invoice for 2022’s revenue overage and to prevent the delay for 2023, prepaid their overage for 2023 for the timeframe of November 1st – July 31st, 2023.

The parks & recreation departments of Greater Victoria work collaboratively on a number of programs, which includes the Leisure Involvement for Everyone (LIFE). The LIFE program assists with access to recreational services for those experiencing financial hardship. As with all regional programs, the intent is for each jurisdiction to offer these programs in a similar format and alterations are to be agreed upon as a regional group prior to implementation. Recently, Saanich council adopted changes to the Saanich Parks & Recreation LIFE program which are set to take effect this fall. These changes may impact the rest of the region and were not pre-approved at the regional level which has led to continued discussions at the directors’ and managers’ tables. These changes included:

• Eligible residents to have unlimited drop-in access to District of Saanich recreation facilities.
• Terms be increased from one to two years before expiry. The two-year cycle begins upon approval date, not limited to January application.
• Pass recipients receive two full years of credit on their account at the time of issue, replacing the current annual practice of offering four 50% off discount coupons up to a maximum value of $50 each. The credit amount for the two-year cycle will be as follows: $80 per preschooler (0-4 yrs.) $80 per adult (18 yrs. & up) and $120 per youth (5-17 yrs.)
• Open the LIFE program to include post-secondary students who qualify under Low-Income Cut off (LICO) guidelines.
• The removal of the requirement of a fixed address is being considered.

WSPR staff are pulling together statistics to estimate the financial impact of these changes if they were to be considered for WSPR.

WSPR recognized National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on September 30th through social media posts with the WSPR logo changed to orange as well staff wearing an orange shirt.

The Highlands Fling was held on September 10th, 2023. WSPR staff attended, offering games, two crafts and facepainting.

• Grant Brown, administrator, added the following verbally:
  • Meet with mayors next week for the semi-annual update
  • Posting for admin assistant is out as Chantelle Bremner will be moving permanently into the role of Administrative Systems Specialist.
  • Posting for youth engagement programmer is out currently and was made possible due to grant funding.

MOVED/SECONDED BY DIRECTORS GUIRY AND DONALDSON THAT THE REPORTS BE RECEIVED AS PRESENTED. CARRIED

IN CAMERA

10. N/A

ADJOURNMENT

11. MOVED/SECONDED BY DIRECTORS GUIRY AND ANDERSON THAT THE MEETING BE ADJOURNED AT 6:46PM. CARRIED