WCTA Executive Director Update - Spring 2025
by Jerry Rousseau
After months of planning and organizing, the 61st Annual WCTA Conference and Trade Show, held February 11-13, 2025 at the River Rock Casino Resort in downtown Richmond, BC, is in the books.
WCTA2025 marked the 5th time our largest annual undertaking has been held at the River Rock and with the fastest ever trade-show sell-out (2 days), final attendance came in just 10 people short of our best numbers from two years ago at 527 total delegates. Thanks to all our delegates, speakers, exhibitors, sponsors, silent auction donors and production team for participating!
On the topic of the show, we recently announced the 62nd Annual WCTA Conference and Trade Show will head back to the River Rock for the sixth time, Feb 10-12, 2026. Other venues were considered for WCTA2026 but its very hard to beat the River Rock. The City of Richmond has once again come to the table with significant funding to assist with production costs allowing us to keep delegate registration fees low while providing a world-class education program and turf management industry trade show.
Event production has already begun and a draft show program is expected in just a few weeks. With motivation to get rolling sooner rather than later, trade show registration is expected by early August with delegate registration opening in September.
Foundations - Membership
As a unified voice for the professional golf and sportsturf management industry in western Canada, the WCTA is 723 members strong at March 7, 2025. If you're keeping track, that's up from 710 at our last report and includes 61 new members this fiscal year.
Foundations - Turf Research & Resources
The WCTA Board is pleased to announce it will continue supporting important and valuable turf research in 2025, approving approximately $29,000 in project funding as follows:
- Canadian Turf Research Foundation Cooperative Funding - $4000
- Alberta Turfgrass Research Foundation Cooperative Funding - $5000
- Cost Analysis for Natural Grass and Artificial Turf Fields, University of Minnesota - $15,000USD
We are pursuing an update to the IPM Manual for British Columbia Turfgrass Managers, a free, online publication originally created in the early 2000s by the WCTA and re-published electronically by the Allied Golf Association of British Columbia in 2019.
Authored by Mario Lanthier, this comprehensive resource was made possible by a significant government grant from the Ministry of Environment but after six years, is in need of an update and expansion. The good news there are funds remaining from the original grant, enough to cover this project, but approval from the AGA-BC Board is needed.
Foundations - Advocacy
I know this doesnt affect the entire province but its quite common for municipalities to implement Metro-Vancouvers policies, monkey-see, monkey-do if you will, so its a good idea to follow along.
With that, Metros initiative to ban gas-powered equipment under 25hp is of great interest. Its basically a copy-cat of Californias poorly rolled-out policy targeting primarily 2-stroke small equipment such as line trimmers and back-pack blowers but actually captures a wide range of important landscape and turf/golf maintenance equipment that dont necessarily have viable elective counterparts.
'Industry consultation' is underway but it looks to me like the decision has been made and the regulator is just trying to figure out an implementation plan. It will likely take several years but there will most certainly be a ban on gas equipment with certain exemption, ie. generators, water pumps, specialty equipment with no electric alternatives.
Provincial water restrictions remain a concern and I expect more media attention with warm weather and spring melt already upon us. Chris Doughty, Resource Manager for the BC Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship, spoke at our conference and along with allied groups, the WCTA continues to be at the table with the provincial regulator and is helping decision makers understand that arbitrary watering restrictions dont work well for golf versus the implementation of water management plans.
At the same time, were trying to better understand MOEs decision making process, ie. what measurements are being taken and how are they used, how thresholds are determined, who actually makes the call, etc, so that we might be able to better strategize in the future. Its no secret that government bureaucrats tend to be risk averse and often make decisions without considering negative impacts to the public, businesses and overall quality of life.
As always, there is much more going on than can fit in this brief report - check-out www.wcta-online.com for news and updates.
All the best throughout the rest of the 2025 season!