Vancouver, British Columbia, July 23, 2011 – Today, the Government of Canada and the City of Vancouver celebrated the official opening of two artificial turf fields and a field house. The MP for Vancouver South, Wai Young and Vancouver Deputy Mayor, Heather Deal, were at the Trillium East/West artificial turf fields, along with Vancouver Park Board Commissioner, Sarah Blyth, to participate in the ceremonial ribbon-cutting.
“I am proud to be here today to celebrate the completion of these fields,” said MP Young, on behalf of the Honourable Denis Lebel, Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities. “Through our Economic Action Plan and projects such as these, we are delivering results for communities across the country.”
"These two state-of-the-art synthetic turf fields are already serving our growing play field user community of soccer, field hockey, ultimate and field lacrosse. The new fields join two others that were recently added to the Park Board’s inventory. An artificial turf field officially opened at Memorial South Park last month and a fourth field will officially open at Jericho Park later this year. The city now has a total of nine artificial turf fields each providing 2,000 hours of play per year,” said Park Board Chair Aaron Jasper.
The Government of Canada, under the Infrastructure Stimulus Fund, committed $700,000 dollars and the City of Vancouver contributed double that amount, $1.4 million, towards the construction of a new field house and field lighting, as well as renovations to field houses from the 1950’s and 1960’s in three other prominent Vancouver Parks – Jericho, Kitsilano, and Sunset. The Trillium artificial turf fields were paid for by the Vancouver Park Board.
Artificial turf carries four to five times the "play time" as a grass field. The fields are equipped with high mast lighting for evening use through the fall, winter and spring when daylight is limited, and a computer system that turns the lights on when the fields are booked, and off when not. The fully accessible field house includes washrooms and change rooms.
As part of the Government of Canada’s Economic Action Plan, the $4-billion Infrastructure Stimulus Fund is supporting more than 4,100 infrastructure projects across the country. Since March 2009, a total federal investment of over $505 million has been committed to more than 440 projects under the Infrastructure Stimulus Fund across British Columbia.
For further information on the Government of Canada's infrastructure investments in British Columbia, visit www.creatingjobs.gc.ca. To learn more about Canada’s Economic Action Plan, visit www.actionplan.gc.ca
Contacts:
Vanessa Schneider
Director of Communications
Office of the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities
613-991-0700
Joyce Courtney
Communications Manager
Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation
604-257-8699
City of Vancouver
Corporate Communications
604-871-6336
media@vancouver.ca
Infrastructure Canada
613-948-1148
Toll free: 1-877-250-7154
