A local resident is frustrated at the lack of Wi-Fi at Brennan Park and says the district should be more transparent in delivering projects.
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Kelly Ann Woods settled in at Brennan Park recreation centre in April, ready to put in a few hours of remote work while her child swam. She pulled out her laptop, went to connect to the Wi-Fi, but found nothing to connect to.
After asking staff at the front desk, Woods said she was informed that there was no longer public Wi-Fi access at Brennan Park, and no word on when it might be reinstated.
“I thought, well, what’s the plan? And there was just no information available,” said Woods.
For Woods, what started as a practical inconvenience quickly became a broader concern. Woods not only had concerns for the other users of the facility, like coaches, youth program participants, and community groups without reliable access to Wi-Fi, but started to question the District’s transparency when delivering projects. Woods spent the following six weeks asking the District for answers, but says she got very few.
In an interview, Woods told the Squamish Reporter that throughout her email correspondence with the District she felt they were “just hoping I would go away… and hoping ‘they’ go away isn’t going to solve the problems we’re facing in town.”
The Email Exchange
On April 25, 2026 Woods emailed the District asking about the lack of wifi at Brennan Park recreation centre. A few days later, on April 30 Mandy Foster, the Manager of Recreation services, emailed Woods back saying the District was prioritizing the reinstatement of wifi, and was “fast-tracking this initiative.”
Woods said she expected that to mean a clear plan was underway. Over the following six weeks, Woods sent several follow-up emails to the District, some of which went unanswered for weeks, seeking specifics on the project’s timeline and status.
On May 6, Woods emailed the District saying the public deserved a more “meaningful understanding of when this infrastructure might actually be delivered.” She asked for specifics on the current procurement stage, if a request for proposal (RFP) or request for quote (RFQ) had been issued, the expected procurement completion timing, if implementation was anticipated for 2026, if council formally directed or approved an accelerated rollout, and the name of the project lead.
That email went unanswered. On May 26, Woods sent a follow-up outlining the same questions.
On May 29, Foster replied, apologising for the delayed response. The email said the project was still in the internal scoping and requirements-definition stage, with no RFP or RFQ issued. It said the District had met with a vendor as “part of early exploratory work” and they were waiting on a quote, something Foster noted was “standard pre-procurement” and didn’t indicate a vendor being chosen.
Foster confirmed the IT team was leading the project, and that procurement timeline was still not finalized. Foster noted that it was “still possible” the project was completed in 2026, but it depended on “procurement, vendor availability, and the final technical design.”
Foster also said that “Fast‑tracked refers to prioritization within staff workloads, not bypassing required internal processes or procurement rules.”
Woods responded to the email a few days later outlining her dissatisfaction.
“To be candid, I find this update deeply disappointing,” Woods wrote back in an email. “It took more than three weeks to receive a response and, after reading it, I am left with the impression that there is effectively no project.”
The District’s Response
On June 10, the District told the Squamish Reporter in an email statement that procurement was still underway with no clear timeline for its completion. This is consistent with the response Woods received, more than a month earlier, on May 5, in which Foster wrote that the District would not have a timeline until procurement was completed..
In the statement to the Squamish Reporter, the District said that prior to the renovation, the existing free public Wi-Fi service had been offered at no cost to the District by a third-party vendor, but that in April the vendor informed the District the free service was no longer available .
The District described the situation as “an unplanned and unbudgeted item,” and said the work to address it “has been prioritized and is advancing, though it needed to be balanced alongside other existing work and commitments.” It added that the project outline has been developed, procurement is underway, and installation timelines will be available after a contract is awarded.
For Woods, the situation goes beyond simply installing Wi-Fi at Brennan Park, and is indicative of larger problems within the District.
“If it’s a struggle to provide Wi-Fi at a public recreation centre, it leads me to have deeper concerns about our ability to manage bigger community priorities and projects,” Woods said.
“I can handle a no. What’s difficult is getting no clear answers at all, just vagueness. It’s not about prioritizing Wi-Fi over housing or healthcare, it’s about communication and accountability.”
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The District’s full response to the Squamish Reporter:
Prior to the renovation, a free public Wi-Fi service offered by a third-party vendor at no cost to the District was available at Brennan Park Recreation Centre, and was anticipated to continue following the renovations. In April, the vendor informed the District that the free service was no longer available.
As a result, District staff began work to procure a new solution to provide the same level of service to patrons. The work to address this unplanned and unbudgeted item has been prioritized and is advancing, though it needed to be balanced alongside other existing work and commitments.
The District’s Information Technology team has been working closely with the Recreation Services and Procurement departments to secure and implement a new Wi‑Fi solution. The project requirements have been developed, and the procurement process is underway. The District will have a clearer sense of installation timelines once a contract is awarded.
