Physical Activity, Sport and recreation was my pathway to combat bullying in school in grade 8 for  Greg. Parks, Gardens, Beaches, Arts & Recreation is the best Civic avenue for Greg to help make a difference in our communities by making good decisions and investments that will eliminate or reduce barriers inhibiting participation of children, youth and seniors in parks, gardens & recreation facilities. A promise Edgelow is making is to facilitate community engagement sessions every month for the year to reach every community centre and continue with at least one community round table a month, each year thereafter. Candidates are often fearful that they may be asked to stand up for an initiative that is indigenous to that centre or region. Edgelow will seek out those issues, discuss them, share with the Parks Board or City Council and find strategies to resolve or address them.

Edgelow was recently inducted into the Indigenous Gallery at the BC Sports Hall of Fame for his outstanding sport successes, is a coach, a sport & non-profit organization volunteer, a 1996 Outstanding Alumni winner from SFU and recipient of the 1999 Canadian Sport Athlete Leadership award where he was chosen over Wayne Gretzky because of his sport excellence and investment of his time into community. Greg has served in numerous boards including Sport BC, Mount Pleasant Business Improvement Association, Simon Fraser Alumni Association, Blanket BC and was recently appointed to the Mount Pleasant Neighborhood House Board of Directors. Greg has also worked in the local communities like the Community Centre Associations of Britannia, Hastings and Templeton and was the Children’s Breakfast Program and Food Bank Coordinator at Kiwassa Neighborhood House. Greg will now be serving on the Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House Board of Directors.

“Parks, Arts & Recreation is an investment, not an expense. There are true and demonstrated dividends, now and long into the future. Recreation, Arts, Sport and Physical Activity is a right for all children. Children who engage in more extracurricular and physical activity do better in school, more likely to stay in school and graduate. We need to invest now and continue or pay dearly for the rest of our lives!” “This also means investing in our seniors!”

Currently Greg is an Operations Supervisor, Public Works on the North Shore where managing facilities and grounds would serve well with the task of managing Vancouver’s 230 parks and 24 community centres.

Edgelow’s platform is all about listening to and investing back into the Vancouver’s unique and diverse communities by strategically investing in its widespread parks & recreation infrastructure to ensure no barriers to access and affordability for all, but also safe and clean. Greg’s key messages are based on his personal experiences and especially listening to the citizens of many local hamlets of Vancouver. It will be almost 50 years to the date upon election time that Edgelow’s biological father won a seat in the Edmonton Civic Elections for School Trustee.

Greg Edgelow’s Top 23 Talking Points & Key Messages for Parks Commissioner:

1. Employ strategies to ensure parks, gardens, beaches & recreation facilities are safe, clean, accessible, affordable and welcoming that includes more park rangers, more garbage cans & cleaning staff

2. Explore new and novel revenue streams to augment operational costs to reduce barriers inhibiting participation of children and seniors in recreation facilities by exploring more fee-free programs and services

3. Support community recreation association autonomy in managing their community facilities and developing programs that support community needs into perpetuity

4. Develop a long-term strategy to increase environmental footprint by developing more green space and convert to multi-functional park space

5. Parks Commissioners to commit to monthly community engagement activities with meaningful public consultation to help make more informed decisions on what matters to the community

6. Parks Board Commissioners challenged to commit to visiting every community center per annum to be more learned on broader issues in the recreation centre portfolio & not just liaise with a few centres

7. Commission a review of the maintenance strategy in parks & recreation facilities & where unsubstantiated disparity occurs, advocate equitable investment where fiscal deficiencies have been identified

8. Advocate increased capital investment to seismically retrofit & renovate dilapidated facilities

9. Commitment to ensure long-term, sustained investment strategy in VanDusen Botanical Gardens & Bloedel Conservatory and revisit new opportunities to manage maintenance costs of vehicles for mobility challenged visitors

10. Increase total footprint of dog parks in park portfolio & create more environmentally relevant off-leash dog compounds to enhance canine experience and reduce pack roaming activity

11. Review VanSplash & ensure strategies in place to upgrade aging pools including Templeton and New Brighton, respecting uniqueness of local cultures and traditions and commit to building 1 new outdoor pool in next 5 years with consideration of Mount Pleasant without eliminating pools

12. Develop a strategy to promote the features, benefits & value of parks, gardens, beaches & recreation facilities to the public so they become champions of Parks & Recreation

13. Stop encroachment of new pay parking in parks and around recreation facilities & propose a new license plate recognition strategy that provides complimentary parking for Vancouver residents

14. Advocate a strategic approach to immediately reinvest the profit from concessions into better upkeep of concessions, washrooms and changerooms

15. Ensure good stewardship of healthy choices by ensuring locally provided, affordable, healthy and diverse selections of food are available at all concessions

16. Review options to create new skateboarding parks in creative and unique locations across the city

17. Develop a long-term strategy that increases community utilization of Vancouver golf parks while supporting the existing course length, but also maximizes creative utilization of the entire park footprint for green, non-golf initiatives

18. Initiate review of Park Board investment in Burrard Civic Marina to determine disparity between marina fees and budgeted operational & maintenance costs & initiate a new marina capital & maintenance plan

19. Initiate process to review, recommend and develop new and novel public & private partnerships that drive new investment funding into Parks & Recreation portfolio to reduce increased user costs

20. Support a new community driven initiative to reclaim Vancouver’s park spaces from illegal sales activities, squatters and ensure the safety of citizens & their pets from needles and biohazards

21. Champion the consideration of a new branding of the Parks Board to "Parks, Arts & Recreation"

22. Commission a comprehensive review of the existing parkland and facilities square footage and subsequent changes over the past 35 years as it relates to the increased densification and population growth of Vancouver. Identify correlations and propose recommendations accordingly

23. Initiate discussions to create new and novel partnerships to utilize or share resources, fill gaps and collaboratively cooperate together between Parks Board, Community Centre Associations, Neighborhood Houses, School Board & other relevant organizations.

Parks, Arts and Recreation is an Investment, not an expense! Invest upfront now or pay dearly for the rest of our lives!

Carpe Diem