Will you commit to ensuring accessible, free, and clean washrooms are available across the city, with implementation starting in 2023, by fully funding the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation’s Parks Washrooms Strategy and publicly reporting, alongside the Parks Board, on progress towards the Washroom Strategy?
Why this Matters
- While having clean, accessible, and widely available washroom facilities open 24/7 will make our public spaces work better for everyone, it is particularly needed for seniors, people with disabilities, people with young children, and those who are unhoused.
- Participants in our community engagement said that their ability to access public spaces is determined by whether there is an accessible washroom or not, and more often than not, residents told us they would miss social gatherings due to lack of accessible washrooms.
- Providing and maintaining free, accessible, and widely available washrooms is a critical component of public health, anti-poverty, disability justice and public space initiatives–but as identified by the Parks Washrooms Strategy, most current facilities were built decades ago and are not accessible or functional.
- A systems-wide strategy is available through the Parks Washrooms Strategy alongside existing motions and commitments such as Access to Water and Washrooms as a Human Right motion, the Accessibility Strategic Phase 1 Update, and Advancing Efforts for an Age Friendly City. However, these strategies lack funding from the city to meet their goals, particularly the Parks Board’s goals of improving facilities by 2040. Council must work to ensure they adequately resource these commitments through operation and capital budgets and improve public spaces for everyone.