A motion to fund and reinstate lifeguards at some of Vancouver’s beaches failed Wednesday afternoon at city council.

Instead, it has been sent back to the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation, with ABC councillors — who hold majority on council — saying it falls within the park board’s mandate.

“We know that this referral really doesn’t offer a productive process in terms of engaging with park board,” said Vote Vancouver Coun. Rebecca Bligh. “It essentially says, ‘This is your problem, not ours.’ And I think we can do better than that.”

Greens Coun. Pete Fry put forward the motion to reinstate lifeguards after the park board cut coverage at five of 10 staffed beaches last month due to budget challenges.

To make that happen, Fry’s motion would have asked staff to allocate up to $600,000 from the city’s budget to the park board.

“In reality, we can’t refer a request for council to approve funding to the park board — back to the park board. That makes absolutely no sense,” said Fry.

Dozens of speakers spoke in support of the motion, urging council to provide the money.

“It is not a matter of if, but a matter of when aquatic death at these beaches occurs, if the lifeguards are not reinstated,” said Gabi Tremblay, who said she started lifeguarding in 2014.

“These are not simple environments to navigate, especially for visitors or people who are unfamiliar with the water,” said Michael Robinson, president-elect of CUPE 1004, which represents some City of Vancouver workers.

“Without these trained professionals at our beaches, response times increase and so do the risks to beachgoers. Lifeguard services are a core public safety function,” he said.

ABC Coun. Mike Klassen acknowledged remarks from speakers in support of the motion, but he said the responsibility lies with the park board.

“If a park board is truly prioritizing these services, they would have properly funded this appropriately at their last meeting, where they had an emergency motion to discuss this topic,” said Klassen.

He and fellow ABC Coun. Brian Montague moved to refer the motion back to the parks board, which attributes its budget constraints in part to Mayor Ken Sim’s promise of a zero property tax increase in the 2026 budget.

Last month, park board Commissioner Tom Digby told CBC News inflationary increases have resulted in the elimination of $11 million worth of operating costs from the board’s budgets, resulting in dozens of layoffs.

Klassen said no money has been taken from the board.

“Where we find ourselves today has nothing to do with a zero per cent property tax increase,” said Klassen. “This has everything to do with the park board not properly prioritizing lifeguards at our beaches.”