The Highly Anticipated Renewal of Britannia Community Centre

By: Elsie Iwankow (11) 

Britannia Community Centre Credit: Vancouver Sun

Over 50 years ago a group of Britannia students felt strongly about the lack of recreational resources that were available to them outside of school hours. Without a library, recreational facilities, or a place to foster community, students gathered and advocated to the city of Vancouver for the establishment of a community centre. Now, 50 years later, with limited space for a growing neighbourhood and failing mechanical systems, Britannia Community centre is falling apart. For almost 20 years the community has been pushing for a full renewal of the facilities, and although it has been a tumultuous process, plans are finally being solidified. 

In 2005 a formal needs analysis was conducted on the facilities, concluding that the site needed to be renewed and expanded. However, the renewal of Britannia Community Center was not a project to just simply restore current conditions. The vision was to expand and improve the centre, creating whole new opportunities for students and other members of the neighbourhood. Craig Ollenberger, who is a director on the Britannia Board and joined the Britannia renewal process as a representative of Britannia, explains that “It would have been a generational change for this community”. The new centre had plans to provide a brand new pool and ice rink, a larger gym, areas for students to work and study, space to run programs and child care services, bigger kitchens to run food programs, and spaces for cultural gatherings and learnings.  

“This is something that would’ve had a direct benefit to the students in the near [future] and obviously a lifelong benefit to them as they continue to grow in this community,” Ollenberger describes. In 2014 Britannia was able to get on the city’s capital plan, and by 2015 the capital funding package was approved. With the acceptance of the master plan in 2018, Britannia’s renewal was on the road to development.  

However, barriers began to reveal themselves. The Vancouver School Board and the Britannia community have had a rocky relationship for many years, with conflicting priorities and perspectives in the past. This posed as one of many obstacles throughout this renewal process. In June of 2023 folks of the Britannia community were hit hard with devastating news that the city of Vancouver postponed the renewal in favour of another project. Ollenberger describes what it was like to hear the news at the beginning of the summer. “It was a gut punch; I mean it felt awful… feeling like all the years of work that I personally put in and thousands of hours that others put in were being thrown away.” Britannia’s renewal was to be a change for the community and provide generations of people with opportunities that other spaces have had for years. So, this setback to the renewal was particularly upsetting as it demonstrated how the city was willing to neglect the needs of people who have not been able to access resources that they deserve. It showed a disregard to the many members of the Grandview Woodland Area Council who put hours into planning, researching, and trying to bring this vision for a new Britannia community to life. Many members felt frustrated with the lack of communication from the city about any sort of plan in regards to the future of the project. It was a moment of fear for many. There was concern that Britannia’s future as a whole would cease to exist if the community centre was not renewed. 

In spite of the fear, this also became a time where people were able to come together and share with the city that their needs are important and do not deserve to be brushed aside and postponed as they had been. Craig emphasised the importance of young people’s, specifically the students of Britannia secondary, involvement on the issue. “I certainly encourage the students to see their future in this community centre, it's going to be [theirs]. It's really for them and their children, and make their views known to the city”.  

As we know from understanding the origin of this centre, the voices of young people carry weight. Although youth involvement wasn’t the leading force, when all different people from the Grandview Woodland area came together and voiced their stance demanding that Britannia get the restoration it needed, the city finally listened. The project for the renewal of Britannia Community Centre is back on the road to development because of devoted community pressure. However, as the conditions of the facilities have become even more dire there has been a slight shift in focus. The renewal project is prioritising critical maintenance needs above all else. Although edits have been made to the project, Britannia Community luckily has the chance to be preserved. This can only be attributed to the people of this neighbourhood who stood up for their needs even when the city attempted to brush them aside.