New Westwood Lake Park upgrades bring more inclusion to the lake

These new auditions have allowed people like Haley Young (pictured) to finally be able to spend the day at the lake for the first time in years. Photo: Lauryn Mackenzie / CHLY 101.7fm

As summer heats up, Westwood Lake Park is a go-to spot for many locals, and the City of Nanaimo has finished upgrades that will allow many more people to get out and enjoy the lake.

On Wednesday, July 29, the City of Nanaimo hosted a grand opening event at Westwood Lake Park following the completion of the second phase of the Westwood Lake Park Amenity Improvements Project.

The improvement project started back in 2021 with phase one increasing parking and improving pedestrian flow. Phase two began in September of 2024 and is now nearing completion.

Phase two has brought a new look to the beach with an expansion of the beachfront, new seating and picnic areas, additional shade trees, new washrooms and change rooms, and an upgraded boat launch.

As well as the new upgrades added more accessibility and inclusiveness amenities to the park with new accessible decking, accessible signage with braille and audio features, an accessible beach ramp and beach mat, and new accessible washroom and change room facilities. One of the new accessible washrooms features an adult-size changing table that can be lowered or raised.

These new additions have allowed people like Haley Young to be able to spend the day at the lake for the first time in years.

Following a horseback riding accident in 2015 and a subsequent car crash in 2023, Young is now wheelchair bound, which she said forced her to stop coming to Westwood Lake Park after being a long-time beachgoer.

“Once I had my accident, I just pretty much couldn't [come to Westwood Lake]. My partner and I tried once, and it was like having to lean uphill as he's pushing you,” she said. “So the wheelchair couldn’t just go into the grass because it was so slanted, just to get to the bathrooms.”

After not being to the park in three years, Young said she is blown away by the new upgrades. 

For the event, the centre rented accessible kayaks, allowing Young to kayak for the first time since her accident. Photo: Lauryn Mackenzie / CHLY 101.7fm

“Even just like the stones for the pavement and stuff, they made it so they're a lot smaller in gaps than they would be in other places,” Young said. “So it's not as bumpy when I'm rolling around and my feet aren't falling off. That's the same as the little boardwalk areas that they have set up, where it's really easy and comfortable to go over it.”

Young just finished her practicum at the Nanaimo Child Development Centre for her child and youth care degree at Vancouver Island University.

The grand opening was done in partnership with the Nanaimo Child Development Centre, part of their Outdoor Play Day, meant to highlight inclusive outdoor recreation and encourage more children and youth with disabilities to get outside and play.

For the event, the centre rented accessible kayaks, allowing Young to kayak for the first time since her accident.

“Oh my goodness. It was so much fun,” she said. “Such a great place for it, I could fully get to the water, which is awesome.”

She said it is really exciting to have a space where she and other people can turn the impossible into the possible.

“It's so incredibly exciting–it's hard for me to put into words. My heart is just absolutely bursting, seeing some of the kiddos that I worked with in practicum and seeing that they're able to come here,” Young said. “I just love that that's a possibility now, because especially once you have some mobility challenges, it's so easy to just hear the word impossible and ‘oh no, you can't do that anymore’, but you absolutely can do that.”

Also at the event was Tami Hirasawa, physiotherapist for the Nanaimo Child Development Centre. She spoke to CHLY about her excitement to see the new accessible features at the lake.

“I really love that they have new washrooms, and particularly the accessible washrooms, where we have an adult change table, and we have way more accessible features in all the toilets,” Hirasawa said. “So that right there is going to make a big deal of whether people will come to Westwood Lake because they can now have accessible bathrooms.”

She also highlighted the new Mobi-Mat that has been installed on first beach. The mat is a slip mat made to go on top of the sand to take people from the paved area to the water.

Hirasawa also sits on the Advisory Committee on Accessibility and Inclusiveness for the City of Nanaimo.

The advisory worked with the Nanaimo City Council and gave feedback on plans for the upgrades. One item they proposed was the second accessible washroom, after the City planned to only add one.

“I think that the city of Nanaimo is a real leader in terms of accessibility and inclusiveness,” Hirasawa said. “I think that all public spaces are going to have to become more accessible for everyone, and this is the first step in terms of the City of Nanaimo, creating Westwood Lake more accessible.”

City Councillor Hilary Eastmure, and co-chair of the Advisory Committee on Accessibility and Inclusiveness, also spoke to CHLY about the work to make sure the upgrades feature accessibility for all.

“It was really cool to see staff come forward to the committee with the proposal to get feedback at every stage of the process and to really incorporate that feedback in a meaningful way. Just to be able as chair, to help facilitate those conversations and push forward what the committee wanted and needed to see from this project and then help that move through council,” Eastmure said. “Those types of changes and improvements to the project really show how impactful this particular advisory committee is and why it's so important to listen to people with lived experience so that you end up with a better project in the end that serves the diverse needs of our community and meets the needs now and into the future.”

The new signs feature text in braille, tactile maps of the park for people to feel the map, and a QR code that leads to an audio description of the park and trails. Photo: Lauryn Mackenzie / CHLY 101.7fm

She said the committee looks at things that may seem so small or simple to others, but would make a huge difference to people with disabilities.

“Even something seemingly as basic as the colour of the signage, we had a decision point whether to make it green or blue, and we had people on the committee who are visually impaired, who gave very specific feedback that blue was the right choice,” she said.

Along with the signs throughout the park being blue to improve legibility for people with visual impairments, the signs also feature text in braille, tactile maps of the park for people to feel the map, and a QR code that leads to an audio description of the park and trails.

Eastmure said as they celebrate the completion of the upgrades to the park and add additional features, the City of Nanaimo is already looking at future phases coming down the pipe to better the park and make sure everyone, no matter their abilities, can enjoy a day at the lake.

Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.