Following is a letter to Burnaby residents from Mayor Mike Hurley
Tomorrow night, Rise FC kick off the new Northern Super League season as reigning champions at Swangard Stadium.
In Burnaby, promoting accessible, active living across every project we can is a priority. Having the winners of the first ever professional Canadian women’s league, based right here in Burnaby is a clear reflection of that commitment.
From hosting teams, events, and competitions, to investing in community facilities, parks, trails, and active-living infrastructure across the city, we are focused on creating opportunities for all residents, encouraging and inspiring them to get outside, get moving and experience the lasting benefits of sport and nature.
Active living is essential to a healthy community—supporting physical and mental well-being, easing pressure on our healthcare staff, strengthening the local economy, and enhancing quality of life for families and residents of all ages.
Positioning Burnaby as Canada’s competition capital
At Burnaby Lake Recreation Centre, construction is well underway on a facility that will become home to Burnaby’s first Olympic-sized swimming pool. This will be one of the largest and most versatile aquatic and recreation facilities in Western Canada, supporting community use, competitive sport, and provincial events. It will also include an NHL-sized arena.
My vision is to make this area of Burnaby Lake the competition capital of Canada—the playground of the lower mainland located at the very heart of it. At the Burnaby Lake Sports Complex, the City has also recently completed a major rehabilitation of the Burnaby Lake Rowing Pavilion, upgrading docks, access routes, safety features and public accessibility. In the same area, Burnaby has committed land as part of a partnership with Tennis Canada for a potential future regional training facility, supporting year-round tennis, junior development and wheelchair tennis.
At the Christine Sinclair Community Centre, Burnaby is also bringing underused space back into active use by creating a City-run hotel designed to support sport and recreation hosting, providing affordable, on-site accommodations for teams, competitions and training camps at Burnaby Lake.
Meanwhile, City-wide trail and accessibility upgrades—including improved multi use pathways, safer crossings, and ecosystem restoration—are being delivered alongside a broad playground renewal and neighbourhood park reinvestment program.
Historic investment to be the beating heart of Burnaby
These upgrades are adding accessible play features, sport courts, seating, shade, and improved pedestrian connections, alongside the City’s sidewalks program focused on improving pedestrian access near parks, schools, seniors’ facilities and transit corridors.
Outdoor investments are being matched with major funding for community centres, including the new Cameron Community Centre and Library in Lougheed, which ensures Burnaby’s growth is supported by accessible spaces for physical activity.
Building on Burnaby’s legacy as an active city
This ambition for Burnaby Lake is firmly grounded in the long-standing legacy of sport and active living in the area and across the city. I would recommend anyone out early in the morning to watch the world-class rowers training on Burnaby Lake—the speed and precision they move with is remarkable.
Burnaby Lake is one of the few natural 2,000-metre rowing courses in North America and has hosted national-level competition, including the 2023 Canadian University Rowing Championships, which brought university athletes from across the country to Burnaby. The lake also regularly hosts Rowing Canada-sanctioned championship regattas and qualifying events.
The fields at Burnaby Lake host rugby, and in the summer months the area is also home to cricket. Just across the road at Burnaby Lake Sports Complex West sits one of the largest clusters of soccer fields in Metro Vancouver, supporting everything from grassroots participation to high-performance training, alongside field hockey and football.
Swangard Stadium remains one of the province’s most important athletics venues, hosting track and field events ranging from provincial championships and the Harry Jerome International—which regularly attracts world-class athletes—to schools and local residents who make daily use of the state-of-the-art track.
In addition to hosting Rise FC, the stadium benefits from a partnership with the Vancouver Whitecaps and is home to TSS Rovers in League1 BC. The city also hosts the Burnaby Lakers, competing in the Western Lacrosse Association and carrying forward a proud lacrosse tradition.
Burnaby’s ice facilities continue to support elite youth hockey, highlighted by the continued success of the Pat Quinn Classic—a major international youth tournament and one of the standout events on Burnaby’s annual calendar.
This late-December minor hockey tournament has been part of Burnaby’s sports calendar since 1962, making it one of the longest-running events of its kind anywhere.
Making sport and activity accessible to all
It is essential that sport and active living are accessible to everyone in Burnaby. That means ensuring our facilities and community centres offer low-cost and drop-in programs.
Accessibility and equitable access for all is a core consideration in major infrastructure projects, such as the new Burnaby Lake pedestrian cyclist overpass, which uses naturally higher ground to create an almost flat crossing without steep ramps, for people using wheelchairs, walkers and strollers.
Age accessibility matters as well. Pickleball has become one of the fastest-growing sports in Burnaby because it is low barrier, social, and age-inclusive.
To meet that demand, many neighbourhood parks now include lined pickleball courts, either shared with tennis or purpose-built, along with indoor court access through community centres and our new outdoor covered sports boxes which allow year-round participation.
The latter reflects the City’s recent public engagement for the new Parks, Recreation and Culture Plan, alongside the addition of new basketball courts at Willingdon Heights Park and Edmonds Park, as well as upgrades to the multisport courts at Lewarne Park.
For younger residents, events like the Girolino, Burnaby’s annual bike-and-run event for children at Confederation Park, introduce kids to cycling and movement in a safe, family-friendly environment.
Burnaby is also backing women’s sport and ensuring girls have the same opportunities and exposure to compete. We are delighted that the BC Amateur Golf Championships will be hosted at Riverway Golf Course in 2026, and the Women’s Championship will follow in 2027. Since 2018, girls’ teams have formally participated in the Pat Quinn Classic, with female divisions now a regular part of the tournament.
Delivering the wider benefits of active living
With the World Cup coming to Vancouver this summer, the real legacy will be the number of kids who want to get outside and start kicking a ball with their friends. But the tournament will also have significant economic and social impacts across the region, because events centred on sport and active living don’t happen in isolation.
Sports tourism fills hotels, restaurants, supports local businesses, reinforces Burnaby’s reputation as a destination and encourages further investment. High-quality amenities also matter when companies decide where to locate and grow, and likewise for educational institutions and students.
Regular physical activity also helps keep our aging population healthier and more connected—physically, mentally and socially—reducing the strain on our health-care workers. For young people, participation in sport and recreation builds confidence, teaches teamwork and resilience, and instils lifelong habits around movement, learning how to compete, and how to win—and lose—with grace.
So, my message is to get out and support Rise FC and our other teams here in Burnaby, take advantage of the new facilities and infrastructure across the city, and make activity part of your daily routine.
Supporting women and children fleeing violence in Burnaby–with Dixon Transition Society's Monika Verma
