Roundhouse, Vancouver’s community centre, suffers funding cuts due to the Olympics
Roundhouse, Vancouver’s community centre is a historical monument, its 374 steam engine being the one that pulled the first transcontinental train into Vancouver.
A popular destination with tourists, the arts and recreation centre has embraced the Games, hosting many of the Cultural Olympiad events such as that of Tanya Tagaq, an Inuit throat singing with orchestral and contemporary influences. It has also created a community ‘living room’ with big television screens allowing people to come together to enjoy the sports.
However Diana Vandeveen, Roundhouse programme co-ordinator, declares she was shocked when ten of her staff had to be laid off a week before the Olympics started due to money diverted to finance the Games.
“People are not seeing the essence of what the Roundhouse community centre is”, according to Diana. In non-Olympic times the Roundhouse provides arts and recreational activities focusing on families and wellbeing of senior citizens.
The programming of the Roundhouse has been substantially reduced and the community centre had to rent their space to Casa Italia, the Italian House, for the eight weeks of competitions. The Roundhouse is not the only arts establishment whose funds were reduced in the eve of the Winter Games. Last year in September, members and supporters of the arts community in Vancouver protested against the cuts at the grounds of the Vancouver Art Gallery.
With Montreal finishing to pay its 1976 Games debt only last year, questions over the faith of Vancouver’s community projects remain open.
Rachael McAlister and Erin Linton are Broadcast Journalism Post Graduate students at the University of the West of Scotland and are contributing to Culture @ the Olympics during their time in Vancouver.
Great article but, just to be clear, The Roundhouse is one of 24 community recreation centres throughout the City of Vancouver, many of which have had their funding cut. This cannot be blamed solely on Olympic spending, though. A greater impact was caused the downturn in the worldwide economy which led to falling property values and, thus, less property tax revenue for the City. Also, many businesses went bankrupt during the worst phase of the market crash so business tax revenue also dropped. When the Olympic Village financial backer stopped funding the $1.1 billion project, the City leveraged its own multibillion dollar public lands endowment to borrow enough to take it over. This caused its credit rating to slip making it more difficult to raise capital to continue spending on programs and services for the community. I think it’s important to be clear on why these funding cuts had to be made.
I should state my bias by offering that, while I write as a private citizen here, I am a full-time employee of the CIty’s Board of Parks and Recreation.
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