Despite some disagreements, city councillors swiftly approved Richmond’s proposed capital budget for 2025.
On Monday evening, councillors at the finance committee discussed and carried next year's $152.6 million budget for 78 capital projects – Coun. Michael Wolfe was the only councillor who was opposed.
Discussion around the construction of pickleball courts took some of the spotlight in the meeting.
The capital budget includes an $800,000 project to construct four new pickleball courts at South Arm Community Park. The staff report reads “pickleball is the fastest growing sport in North America,” as it features a low barrier to entry and a social playing environment.
This project will bring the total number of public pickleball courts in Richmond to 13.
Coun. Bill McNulty opened the floor on the pickleball discussion by asking staff if there was any possibility to build more courts with the $800,000 price tag.
“Will that $800,000 go further? Can we squeeze more courts in for that?” he asked – to which staff responded the infrastructure to support the courts is a factor that drives up costs.
Staff added constructing four courts for that price tag is already a squeeze, as the new courts will be located near existing pickleball-court infrastructure.
“It’s a pity we can’t afford more at this time,” said Coun. McNulty.
Coun. Alexa Loo also questioned staff on the price and on the possibility of building more courts.
“It seems expensive; it seems to me we were able to build that pump track that seemed to have a lot more stuff going on for a lot less money,” said Loo. “Four pickleball courts basically fit on a tennis court, so is it gold?”
Staff reiterated components such as sound attenuation, location, surfacing, lighting and proximity to amenities comes at a higher dollar value than a typical park project.
Loo also compared the price tag of the pickleball court project to the curling club.
“There’s 700 (pickleball) members, so for $800,000 you can get a whole bunch of them playing,” she said. “Versus if we look at how much the curling club is, it’s $4 million and there’s fewer than 300 members; so we’re spending a lot of money on a few people.”
Coun. Kash Heed closed the pickleball discussion by encouraging other councillors to move forward with the budget.
“I don’t agree with everything for 2025, but at the end of the day I think this is a decent capital budget put forward by our staff,” said Heed. “We can study the depth of pickleball courts for years, it’s $800,000, we’ve agreed to it, let’s move forward.”
All councillors voted in favour of the capital budget except Wolfe, citing two reasons.
The first was because of the funding source of a proposed $5 million fire vehicle replacement reserve purchases project in the budget, which will replace four front-line fire vehicles and a high-flow industrial pumper.
According to the staff report, the total replacement cost for the vehicles is $11 million, but additional funding of $5 million is needed to complete previous submissions due to price escalations. This additional funding will be sourced from the emergency response fuel facility reserve.
“As I mentioned a few weeks ago, it’s not the $5 million cost… it’s the funding source,” said Wolfe. “I don’t see why there was any need to use the emergency response fuel facility reserve… we’re draining $5 million out of something that was intended for something else.”
The second was the inclusion of phase one of a $2.5 million public safety camera system (PSCS) consisting of installing 48 high definition cameras at 10 intersections across Richmond – this first phase will have an annual operating budget of about $180,000.
“I’m not supportive of the capital budget because it includes that,” said Wolfe. “And it’s just phase one of what I anticipate will be a $13 million or more total project with a very high operating budget impact going forward.”
Other projects highlighted in the 2025 capital budget included $7 million to install electric vehicle stations throughout Richmond, $4.5 million to renew the Richmond Ice Centre’s interior and $1.5 million to renew the Hugh Boyd Community Park playground.
The capital and operating budgets are also on the agenda for Monday's city council meeting.
- with files from Valerie Leung and Maria Rantanen
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