Most city park toilets substandard requiring $13-$14-million in upgrades, renovations
Residents are wondering why most city washrooms are substandard and in shambles and now need $13-14 million in upgrades and renovations, says the civic watchdog Grumpy Taxpayer$.
A city staff report, to be tabled at committee of the whole on Jan. 19, found that 83 per cent of washrooms in the City of Victoria need either extensive, or moderate to extensive, upgrades and renovations.
“Taxpayers should be asking council what they have been spending their tax dollars on the last two terms, if not critical infrastructure such as public washrooms?” says Stan Bartlett, vice-chair of Grumpy Taxpayer$.
“Good governance is about choices and making good decisions. Clearly, providing quality washrooms for residents and our tourists was not a priority, but should have been.”
The new council will easily find various non-essential items to trim in the 2023 budget to fund upgrades to public washrooms, Bartlett says. Arguably, millions in excessive tax dollars are spent annually for non-essentials such as as poet-and-artists-in-residence, public relation communications, public art, and community grants.
The new city council needs to make critical infrastructure needs such as roads, parks, traffic systems and public washrooms a priority, Bartlett says.
Eleven of the city’s 18 park washrooms were opened prior to 1970 and haven’t been upgraded since, according to the report. Staff recommend two options to council – adopt a workplan that upgrades the neglected system in either four or seven years.
There are questions: When washrooms in restaurants and businesses were less available to the public during the pandemic the last three years – why wasn’t the city system upgraded? Why has maintenance been deferred up until now? Are homeless in parks exasperating the situation? If active transportation is a priority for city hall, why weren’t the outdoor facilities also improved?
Most were built between 1960-80 and require significant renovations to meet current accessibility standards and require renewal to address obsolescence.
The 23-page audit by architectural consultants hcma was undertaken on accessibility but does not address ways to mitigate the vandalism in city park washrooms.
Upgrades and renovations to public washrooms should take into account vandalism – an expensive and perennial issue – and design the washrooms to address the problem.
Unfortunately, the Park Washroom Accessibility Report report does not reference the millions of tax dollars required to upgrade toilets outside parks in the city downtown.
READ MORE
Park washrooms accessibility staff report (Item F-1), City of Victoria, Jan. 2022.
How accessible are Victoria’s public washrooms? Oak Bay News, Oct. 10, 2018
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I don’t see why the lack of necessary maintenance of public infrastructure is such a mystery….just drive up Fort Street, Pandora, Government Street and you will see where your tax dollars went. The people of Victoria have no one to blame but themselves – you elected that council not once but twice. They took away free Sunday and holiday parking. Many people in surrounding municipalities try to avoid going to downtown Victoria as a result of changes made under the previous regime.
The city washrooms are so old and disgusting. Why weren’t they upgraded when new sewer pipes were installed ?
The only decent washroom is below Milestones in the inner harbour.
The public washroom in Colwood, by the beach is heated . A great feature in winter.