New Westminster wants to make the registration process for parks and rec programs more equitable for all residents.
At Monday’s meeting, council unanimously approved a motion by Coun. Tasha Henderson to direct staff to explore opportunities to improve the equity and accessibility of the parks and recreation registration process.
Staff will report back to council with options to address the current challenges to registrants, including the time of registration, access to a credit card, access to technology, the reliability of registration software, waitlist management and others.
“There's one single registration time – 8 a.m.,” Henderson said. “If you're working 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., if you blink at 8 a.m., pretty much your chances of registering are done.”
Henderson said she has friends who take time off work, set up multiple computers and have several plans in place if they aren’t able to register their children for their preferred programs because space is no longer available.
“But not everybody has the same opportunity,” she said. “Shift workers or people who are in transit and happen to be commuting at 8 a.m. miss out. People without access to technology or who might rely on the library to access tech often also miss out. People without access to a credit card can miss out. Even people juggling a crying infant or having a toddler mid-meltdown or a sibling argument at the wrong time miss out.”
Henderson said the city’s programs are subsidized, so they provide some of the most affordable options for summer camps and other programs.
“It's important to me that everybody has an opportunity to access those, not just folks that have happen to have that morning off of work and happen to have multiple devices at home,” she said.
Because registration begins at 8 a.m., Henderson said anyone relying on technology services at the library to register is out of luck because it doesn’t open until 10 a.m. – at which time most of the in-demand programs are full.
“Not everyone can come in person. If you are a single parent and you have an infant sleeping at home, or all sorts of reasons why you might not be able to go in and register in person,” she said. “Registering on the phone, I believe ... it requires a credit card.
Henderson said one of the root causes of the registration issues is the need for increased programming, and she hopes the opening of təməsew̓txʷ Aquatic and Community Centre will help to ease the pressure of the city’s current programming. She noted, however, that the registration process is challenging in every city, regardless of its size, how many community centres it has, and the size of its parks and rec budget, but she thinks there are ways the city could improve the way citizens register for recreational programming.
“I know there's no silver bullet to fix this process,” she said. “But I do think there are likely some quick things that we can do sooner rather than later to ensure that people have a more equitable chance to register, while we continue to build in additional equity and accessibility measures in our registration process and through all of our programming as we embark on our (parks and rec) master plan process.”
Lisa Spitale, the city’s chief administrative officer, said the new council procedure bylaw is in place. Under that bylaw, senior staff will go through the work plan and determine the staffing requirements, and bring that back to council.
“And at that point, you then weigh in,” she said.
Dean Gibson, the city’s director of parks and recreation, said the registration system has been largely focused on convenience to the vast majority of folks in the community, but there’s always room for improvement. He said awareness about some of the equity issues expressed by Henderson has become more heightened since the start of the pandemic.
Henderson said the city offers “really high quality programs” at a subsidized cost to residents.
“I think it's just really important that we think about the folks who might have additional barriers to registering, whether it be time, whether it be the economic means, that they have just as an opportunity as someone who can afford to take a morning off of work and has access to reliable internet access at home with a laptop,” she said.
📢 SOUND OFF: What do you think of the registration process for parks and rec programs? Have you had troubles getting the programs you wanted? Got some ideas for what could be done? Share your thoughts — send us a letter.
