Photo Credit: Jason Del Vicario via The Tyee
On June 15, the Vancouver School Board (VSB) formally announced the suspension of its Britannia Hockey Academy (BHA), citing low enrollment.
What is BHA?
BHA has provided low-cost hockey training to students at Britannia Secondary for nearly 20 years, replacing their Physical Education class. According to parents, the school receives no additional funding from the VSB for its hockey program, with the ice time, guest coaches, and specialized equipment funded by Canucks for Kids and private group bursaries. The program costs students $800 per school year, and many scholarship and financial aid options are offered.
Naomi Stinson, whose son played in the academy, shared how the program enabled her to keep her son in hockey. “For a lot of families, particularly in this area, it's paycheck to paycheck, and sometimes you borrow Peter to pay Paul. Minor hockey just wasn't doable for us.” She added that her son’s first introduction to organized, competitive hockey was through the program, “and he loved it.”
John Marquis, a Vancouver business owner, has provided financial aid to many students through the Ken Waterman program, which offers scholarships to students who cannot afford otherwise afford to participate in the program.
Marquis recalled one of his first scholarship recipients, a BHA student whose single mom was struggling and had just had another child. “Well, it turns out he ended up playing for a university, I think in Minnesota or Michigan, and his mom ended up getting her MBA in sports fitness and helps college hockey players.”
He added that in addition to providing specialized hockey training, BHA provided the option of a National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP) and Referee certificates, both opportunities and direct pathways to a career that he said are not available at any other VSB school.
The VSB’s Justification for Suspension
In an email response to The Nest, the VSB explained, “For the 2026-2027 school year, 11 students initially expressed interest, with approximately eight to nine ultimately able to participate because of scheduling conflicts. Given the level of enrollment and scheduling considerations for the school year, the class was not offered.”
VSB Associate Superintendent Pedro da Silva explained at a June 17 Board meeting that with the declining student population at Britannia, the school changed their staffing numbers and underwent a process to modify the number of allocated blocks. BHA’s head coach was among the staff who were declared surplus.
However, according to Stinson, BHA had run in previous years with enrollment as low as seven students in 2017.
“By removing that class, they were able to offer another class that would have potentially impacted more students,” da Silva stated. “And those are really difficult decisions that occur in all of the schools.” He did not name the class replacing BHA, but shared that the decision was made by Britannia’s principal and staff.
Jason Del Vicario, whose son plays in the academy, said he’s frustrated that the VSB did not name the class that would replace BHA.
"We've asked. They won't tell us [...] All of these programs are important, and all of these programs deserve to have a fair shot, in this case, at Britannia. All we're asking for is for there to be open and transparent communication.”
Parents have raised other concerns regarding BHA’s suspension.
According to Del Vicario, the optimal number of students in a hockey program may be different than the optimal number of students in a typical classroom. He said that BHA’s coach previously told parents that the optimum workable number would be approximately 16 students, as it becomes difficult to run a safe hockey practice with more.
This is why, according to COPE Trustee Suzie Mah, “there needs to be consistency. Do we treat all district choice programs the same? Do we have different enrollment minimums and maximums for these district programs? Are there reviews on these district programs when there are decisions to be made, whether or not to continue or discontinue these programs?”
In addition, Stinson shared that more students may have enrolled over the 2026–2027 school year, as the program has “regularly seen other students come in during the year because [Britannia Secondary is] a continuous enrollment school.”
When asked by The Nest, the VSB did not specify whether a minimum number of students must be enrolled in BHA in order for the program to run.
“The Hockey Academy has not been discontinued. Britannia continues to assess student interest and explore opportunities to offer the class,” VSB Communications wrote in their statement.
Stakeholder Reactions
The decision to suspend BHA attracted significant attention from stakeholders, many of whom told The Nest that they felt blindsided by the decision.
Marquis stated that when he heard of the program’s suspension, “I was furious. […] To take that away from the kids, especially on the East Side, where some of the families don't have the means to support hockey because hockey is an expensive sport. It's just not right, and you never know what kid gets good and gets a scholarship and plays in the States or in Europe.”
Meanwhile, when Stinson’s son came home in June to tell her that the program would not continue the next year, she said, “It was shock and disbelief. It's been such a major part of Britannia for so long. It's had a transformative effect in so many lives.”
She shared that when their house burned down in October 2024, her son insisted on going to school the following day. “He wanted to be with his team. And the team rallied around him [...] I don't know of anything that would have given that level of support and stability and that kind of anchor to anybody going through that kind of trauma.”
According to Stinson, parents were informed that for the program to continue, 20 students would need to enroll in the 2027–28 school year. In their emailed statement, the VSB did not confirm this number, but shared that they are “prepared to support [BHA’s] return if student interest increases in the future.”
Del Vicario expressed frustration that parents and students were informed of the suspension decision so late. “I really don't think it would have been that difficult to find nine more students to enroll in this program had we been told that this program was lacking enrollment in February or March or April even,” he stated. “But by June 3, most students know where they're going to school next year […] It's a huge ask to ask students and their parents to pivot and move to a different school and a program that may or may not even run the following year.”
However, parents are not giving up on BHA. To increase student interest and enrollment for the 2027–28 school year, Del Vicario stated that parents are working to spread greater awareness of the program.
“The only reason we knew this program existed is we saw a little poster at Britannia Rink when [my son] was there to play one of his minor hockey games. We saw it out of the corner of our eye and thought, well, that's interesting. He had been playing minor hockey for five years. We'd never even heard about this program.”
Del Vicario suspects that if more people realize the program exists, many will be very attracted. “We're really confident that we can raise awareness and get that 20 figure [...] We only need nine more students across the entire Vancouver. Out of 52,000 students, we need nine more.”
To that end, the parent group has contacted organizations such as Hockey Heroes, Canucks for Kids, and every Parent Advisory Council (PAC) in the Lower Mainland for both Elementary and Secondary schools, according to Stinson.
Stinson shared that she received many responses expressing interest and support, including many from people who had previously not known that the program existed, or had been unsure about the quality of it.
“Now that people know about it, there's a lot of interest. I see 20 [students] as a very achievable goal, and so does Jason, and so do most of the other parents. We just need to get the word out there.”
Both parents stressed the importance of receiving written confirmation from the VSB that the program would run in future years if 20 students enrolled.
Without confirmation that the program will run if the goal is achieved, and with the teacher overseeing the academy being surplused, Del Vicario explained that potential applicants may be dissuaded from applying to the program due to the uncertainty.
“You can imagine any parent or student who's going to be attracted to this program or thinking about this program; it's suspended,” Del Vicario explained. “So their number one question is going to be, well, is this program going to run? It would be very helpful for us to be able to then show an e-mail or something in writing from the school board and say, ‘yes, if you get to 20, it will run in the ‘27–28 school year.’”
In a written response to The Nest, the VSB said that parents and students were notified of the suspension as soon as possible.
“Once enrollment numbers were finalized, the school immediately sent a letter informing the impacted families on June 3. The school also informed the PAC at a meeting the same day,” the District said.
Upon learning that the program would be suspended, Mah was “very concerned when [she] heard that the parents said that their children had no knowledge from their coach, from their teacher, from their principal, or anybody, that this program was being put on pause. [...] That was quite shocking and I was quite upset about it.”
“It's very upsetting to students and parents when they're told things like this at the last minute,” she shared. “And as a trustee, that concerns me greatly. You know, for these students to have played their last game, you know, last week, knowing that they're not going to be coming back, you know, in January of next year, it's very sad.”
She believes that if the program's stakeholders had been informed earlier that the program could be suspended, they could have raised awareness and attracted more students to the program to avoid the suspension.
“The process in which the decision was reached didn't give the parents enough time to perhaps increase the enrollment interest. If they knew that this program was in jeopardy, possibly, you know, half a year ago, maybe they would have been able to market it.”
She added that, since BHA is unique to Britannia and has run for a long time, she’s concerned that the program is “effectively being shut down by a manager or managers [without] having gone through a trustee.”
At the June 17 board meeting, Mah introduced a motion, which aimed to pause the suspension of BHA for the 2026-27 school year to establish transparent enrollment targets and timelines for program viability, work with the PAC, alumni, minor hockey associations, and Indigenous community leaders, and improve their promotion of the program.
“I wanted the program to have an opportunity in the summer to increase its enrollment for the board to perhaps market it and for the parents to talk it up,” she explained.
However, the motion was voted down 3–4, and the program’s suspension was upheld.
At that meeting, then-Green Trustee Janet Fraser voted against Mah’s motion, choosing instead to uphold BHA’s suspension. In a July 6 interview with The Nest, she said she was disappointed that there were not enough students to run the program, and she voiced concern that running the program would interfere with the school’s scheduling process.
“I'm concerned that if we step in and override what's happening at a school, do a top-down approach from the board, that's not respecting the school community and the work that they're doing,” she shared. “I want to be able to say yes to everything. But we do have a process that works district-wide for 50,000 students. And it's enrollment-driven.”
Will BHA Run Again?
Whether or not BHA will run again remains unclear, and no public agreement exists on the number of students needed to run the program for the 2027–28 school year.
“I've asked repeatedly what is a viable number, and I was never told,” shared Trustee Mah. “As a trustee, I'm very disappointed and upset about that. When you ask a direct question like that, you would expect an answer. So we don't know what a viable number is.”
Former Trustee Fraser said that she did not know of a specific number of students required for the program to run. “Broadly speaking, the ministry funds classes, secondary school classes at 30 students, so that would be a factor that the timetable committee would put into their decision-making.”
Although the VSB has stated that the program was suspended, not discontinued, Mah said that without clear guidelines around the suspension and how the program may continue in future years, BHA’s suspension should have been treated as a discontinuation.
Discontinuations of District programs must come forward to the trustees, as per Section 4.4 of Administrative Procedure 220, which states that “Recommendations to discontinue existing programs will be approved by the Board.”
In their response to The Nest’s request for comment, the VSB said that BHA has not been discontinued and it is “regularly reviewed in accordance with Administrative Procedure 220.” They added that BHA would continue to be highlighted during an information night held for prospective students, and that the class would remain available for students to select during course selection for the 2027–28 school year.
Impacts on Indigenous Students
According to the VSB’s 2024–2025 learning plan, over 40 per cent of students at Britannia Secondary School identify as Indigenous. This is by far the highest proportion of Indigenous students enrolled in any Vancouver high school, as per The Tyee. Out of the 11 students enrolled in BHA’s 2026 cohort, five were Indigenous, according to Del Vicario.
Del Vicario told The Nest that the decision to suspend BHA “disproportionately affects Indigenous kids because Britannia does have such a high population that identifies as Indigenous.”
Stinson shared that Britannia’s high Indigenous population “has a really huge bearing on the school’s culture” and its “equity seeking needs.”
She stated, “Looking at the [...] equity and anti-oppression framework as it relates to Indigenous students, the VSB has a line in that mandate which states that Indigenous students have the right to see themselves reflected in their community, at the school, within the staffing and within the students. And that's what they have at Britannia.”
The mandate she is referring to comes from the VSB’s 2026 Education Plan. It states that the “VSB will create an equitable learning environment” by “having students see themselves and their communities in the curriculum and in the staff throughout the District.”
“That's what they have at Britannia,” Stinson shared. “But the school is being chipped away piece by piece, and the VSB and the Ministry of Education are letting it happen [...] I see a picture emerging of a school in decline and being left to decline by the school board and ministry that should be supporting it.”
Stinson sees the declining enrollment in both the hockey program and Britannia Secondary in general as a failure of the system.
“[Britannia] has been designated as a top-tier equity-seeking school within the Vancouver School District,” she shared. “And yet, when you take a look at, for instance, the school website, the mini programs, and then you take a look at other schools in the district and compare those websites and those mini programs, it's like night and day.”
She believes that the VSB and the ministry are failing to recognize the value of the school’s programs as anchors for students in a catchment facing many challenges. “A lot of these kids are coming from homes where parents don't know whether they're going to pay rent or buy groceries this week. Maybe it's one parent. Maybe they're working three separate jobs. [...] And the school is an anchor for them. It's a lodestone. It should be protected, and the VSB and the ministry are failing to recognize its value in that regard.”
When asked about the impacts of BHA’s cancellation on Indigenous students, the VSB did not respond directly.
The VSB shared that they supported BHA former students in selecting “alternative physical and health education or elective course options of their choice.” They added that “since [the suspension decision], staff have met with families with additional questions to discuss course options and how best to support their child.”
What’s Next?
In June 2026, parents launched an online petition asking the VSB to give the academy one year to rebuild enrollment before making the suspension permanent. As of publication, it has received 730 signatures and 398 comments.
Del Vicario and Stinson continue to lead the efforts to spread awareness about the program to students in the hockey community. They discussed establishing a before- or after-school hockey program for kids formerly in BHA while they try to attract prospective students for the 2027–28 school year.