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  • Welcome to the
    ​City of Vancouver

All About Vancouver

Vancouver is Canada’s eighth largest city and the largest on the West Coast. The population of Vancouver's metropolitan area according to the 2021 census is 2,642,845. Vancouver’s location on the Pacific Ocean gives the city a mild climate year-round. It seldom snows in winter or gets extremely hot in summer. Vancouver’s natural deepwater harbour has helped the city become one of the largest and busiest ports in North America and one of Canada’s leading industrial centres. Leading local industries include high-tech, film production, tourism, forest products, and trade and financial services.


Government

Vancouver’s city government is made up of the Vancouver City Council. City Council is made up of the Mayor and ten Councilors who are elected at large for a four-year term.

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Details on how to Import your Pets Into Canada

Emergency Services

Call 911 if you require fire, police, or an ambulance!

HealthLink BC

Phone: 811 or visit: Website

  HealthLink BC provides free non-emergency health information and referral services. You can get help and information nay time of the day or night, every day of the year. Call 8-1-1 to ask a registered nurse your health questions.      

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Vancouver 
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Things to See
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Transit 
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Education


Elementary and Secondary Overview

District school boards administer publicly funded elementary and secondary schools. Working within the framework of the province’s K-12 education program and its regulations, district school boards adapt provincial education policy to local situations. Trustees, as elected members of the board, represent the local community and provide a link between electors and the education system.

    

There are 3 type of schools in BC:

  • Elementary for Kindergarten to Grade 7
  • Middle schools for Grades 6 through 8, and;
  • High Schools for Grades 8 to 12. The High School program is based on the credit system. In order to graduate and receive a diploma, students must earn 52 credits in grades 11 and 12. There are 28 credits required in Foundation Studies, which are credits in core subjects that each student must have. The remaining 24 credits consist of Selected Studies, which are courses that students select based on their interests and career goals. Courses have values of between 1 to 4 credits based on hours of instruction and difficulty of the curriculum. In addition, each student is required to have 30 hours of work experience to be eligible for graduation.

    

Schools in BC offer many types of special programs from French Immersion and Aboriginal Education to Mandarin and Japanese Language Programs.

    

BC is a part of the Western Canadian Protocol for Collaboration in Basic Education Kindergarten to Grade 12. This is a project that involves The Northwest Territories, Yukon, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Nunavut. They are working on developing common curriculum formats for math, computer guided learning, languages, and cultures.

    

In British Columbia, children begin school in September of the year they turn 5 and are kept with their age-appropriate peers. The school year runs from September-June with a two-week break in late December (Christmas Break) and typically a one-week break in March. 

    

Registration Procedures

Each school district may have a slightly different registration procedure, but as soon as you have secured an address, you should proceed with the registration procedure. The process may not be able to be completed, however, until you are physically present in the Vancouver area. 


Vancouver School Board – Public Education

The Vancouver School District is one of the more diverse districts in Canada with enrolment of over 54,000 students each year in grades K-12. 

    

Vancouver schools are organized into three areas: North, Centre and South. Every school has its own catchment area. Each school also belongs to a family of schools with a secondary school and the elementary schools and annexes that feed into the secondary. 


All Vancouver schools provide a comprehensive educational program, as well as special programs to meet a wide variety of student needs. Vancouver schools follow the British Columbia provincial curriculum. 

In total there are:

  • 18 secondary schools
  • 89 elementary schools

    

The Vancouver School Board operates using the boundary system. Your children will go to a designated school within the neighbourhood based on your address. To locate your catchment school, please visit: School Directory and Map. 

    

You can apply to attend a school outside of the school boundaries if there are special circumstances, but can only attend a school of choice if there is space available. Each circumstance would have to be reviewed by the School Board.

    In British Columbia, children begin school in September of the year they turn 5 and are kept with their age-appropriate peers. 

    

Registration Information    

Please visit Student Registration for details on how to register. 


You can also contact:  

Vancouver School Board District 39

1580 West Broadway '

Website: www.vsb.bc.ca

Vancouver, BC V6J5K8 

Phone: 604-713-5000

    

Lifestyle

SHOPPING

Granville Island Public Market

1398 Cartwright Street

Website

Vancouver, BC

Phone: 604-666-5784

 

Hours of operation: Monday to Sunday - 9am to 7pm

 

The Public Market is a bustling place with permanent and temporary booths featuring wares from local farmers, bakers, butchers, fishmongers and craftspeople. It has been a popular destination for locals and visitors since it opened in July 1979

 

The centerpiece of the Island shopping experience, the Public Market is an irresistible emporium of green grocers, butchers, bakers, fishmongers, importers, ethnic food sellers, craft vendors, sweet stands, florists and casual eateries. It also features a wine shop and a micro-roaster of organic coffee.

 

The top shopping malls in Vancouver are: 

Oakridge Shopping Centre

Website: http://www.oakridgecentre.com/

 Oakridge features over 150 stores and services. Anchor stores include: Safeway, The Bay, The Gap, and Empire Oakridge Cinemas. 

 

Pacific Centre

701 West Georgia Street

Vancouver, BC

Website: http://www.pacificcentre.ca

 

Pacific Centre has over 140 shops & services such as Holt Renfrew, The Bay, Atmosphere, Guess, The Gap, Club Monaco, Jacob, & La Senza to name just a few. 

 

Sinclair Centre

Website: http://www.sinclaircentre.com

Sinclair Centre is an upscale shopping mall located in Downtown Vancouver at 757 West Hastings Street between Granville and Howe. The centre is comprised of four buildings that were restored by Henriquez Partners Architects and joined together by a glass atrium roof in 1986, at a cost of $38 million. 

 

Park Royal Shopping Centre

Website: http://www.shopparkroyal.com/

 Located just over the Lions Gate Bridge from downtown, this mall truly has it all. Anchor stores include Home Depot, Winners, Homesense, The Brick, Michaels Arts and Crafts, H&M, The Gap, and many more. 

 

Richmond Centre

Website: http://www.richmondcentre.com

 The Richmond Center offers over 240 stores within the mall, as well as food services and fun for the family.

 

Brentwood Mall

Website: http://www.brentwoodtowncentre.com/

 Brentwood Town Centre is home to 110 stores and services.

 

Metrotown Mall in Burnaby

Website: http://www.metropolisatmetrotown.com

Metrotown is British Columbia’s largest shopping centre with over 450 stores and services. 


Library

Vancouver Public Library

Website: www.vpl.ca

The Vancouver Public Library operates 22 branches throughout the City of Vancouver. To find the one closest to your home, please visit their website and click on Branches and hours.

  

Community Centres

Within the 23 different communities that make up the entire City of Vancouver, you will find a community centre with a wide range of activities available for everyone in the family. Many branches of the Vancouver Public Library are located within close proximity of the community centres. For further information about the community centre within your specific area, please click on the following link: http://vancouver.ca/community_profiles/CommunityList.htm

 

Swimming

Vancouver has 9 indoor pools which are open year-round and offer a variety of recreational and instruction swimming opportunities. 

 

Parks and Trails

Vancouver has more than 200 diverse parks, including destination parks, small neighbourhood parks, remnant woodlands and ravines, seawall walks and beaches, display gardens, botanical collections, and golf courses.

 

For information on the location and services at Vancouver Parks, please visit Parks and Gardens. 

 

Bike Trails

The City of Vancouver now has more than 300 lane kilometres of on-and off-street bicycle routes, including 10 new bike lanes downtown. Bike routes may be on painted bike lanes, on local street bikeways with traffic calming measures, or on off-street paths. For more information, please visit Bike Vancouver. 

 

Dog Off-Leash Areas

Vancouver's canine population can take part in special off-leash privileges during specific times at selected Vancouver Parks. Please check the parks listed below for off-leash times. The designated off-leash times and parks (or areas within parks) are not exclusively for dogs but are to be shared with all park users: 

Off-leash dog park locations

 

 Skiing

Skiing in Vancouver generally begins in late November/early December (weather permitting of course). Listed below are the Vancouver’s three local mountains. These mountains, in addition to offering great skiing in the winter, also have summer opportunities as well—hiking and biking. Before heading out you may wish to call the mountains or visit their ‘weather centres’ online for up to date conditions and hours. 

 

Grouse Mountain

Website: http://www.grousemountain.com/W inter/

Grouse Mountain is Vancouver’s premier four-season attraction. Panoramic views of the city, ocean and mountains unfold as the Skyride, North America’s largest aerial tram system, whisks visitors to the mountaintop, 3,700’ above the city. 

 

Grouse Mountain’s winter activities include the finest in local skiing and snowboarding, as well as snowshoeing, ice-skating and sleighrides. In summer, activities include entertaining lumberjack shows, mountain zip-lines, hiking trails, guided eco walks, paragliding, falconry demonstrations, scenic chairlift rides, and helicopter tours. Grouse Mountain is located just minutes from Downtown Vancouver. 

 

Cypress Mountain

Website: www.cypressmountain.com 

Cypress is the largest Mountain on Vancouver's legendary North Shore and only 30 minutes from downtown Vancouver. Cypress was Official Freestyle Skiing and Snowboarding Venue for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. With Winter Skiing & Riding, Cross Country Skiing, Snowtubing, Snowshoeing Tours and the Summer Bike Park, Cypress truly offers something for everyone. 

 

Mount Seymour

Website: https://mtseymour.ca/

Mount Seymour is located in beautiful North Vancouver. Mount Seymour is a great winter park for family fun tobogganing and snow tubing, over 10km of marked and maintained snowshoe trails, and instant access, via four lifts, to over 23 downhill ski and snowboard runs of varying lengths and levels of difficulty. Mount Seymour is also home to its renowned terrain parks, Northlands, Young Guns and Mushroom Terrain Parks, boasting over forty snow, rail and box features from small to x-large, as well as a half pipe.

 

While all three mountains are great places for the entire family to enjoy, Mount Seymour is probably the most kid-friendly of the three local mountains. 

Golf

The Vancouver area has over a dozen excellent golf courses providing golf enthusiasts with the perfect place to enjoy the coastal weather, lush greenery and breathtaking views while driving the fairway. 

 

Outside the city limits, majestic and thoroughly challenging courses attract golfers to the nearby areas of Richmond, Furry Creek, Coquitlam and Pitt Meadows. There are well over 40 different golf courses that are within an hours’ drive from Vancouver. 


 

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