Extensive repairs to keep U of M’s pool closed through summer-camp season

As the summer-camp season approaches, the University of Manitoba has shuttered its pool for repairs, leaving young swimmers high and dry.

Xinli Wang’s 10-year-old daughter has gone without swimming lessons since April 9, when spring classes were cancelled for pool maintenance. By then, it was too late for her to register for city-run learn-to-swim programs that were already full.

There’s really nothing much we can do except going with the flow,” Wang said. “Its frustrating that a project like this lasts that long.”

And there was more disappointment when they learned summer programs were also cancelled. Wang said her daughter, who has been swimming for the last five years and was hoping to improve so she could play on her school’s water polo team, was upset with the news.

And Wang doesn’t have any other child-care options to fill the time her daughter would’ve been swimming.

A notice on the university’s website said the 60-year-old Joyce Fromson Pool was closed so “essential repairs and maintenance” could be done. On Friday, MiniU, the university’s main summer-camp program, notified families that its usual swimming programs for campers were cancelled.

“Due to the extended closure of the pool at the University of Manitoba, we unfortunately cannot include swimming as part of the summer camp experience this year,” reads a MiniU email to parents.

The email went on to say alternative activities for MiniU campers have been planned during the times that would otherwise have swimming scheduled.

University of Manitoba Students’ Union President Prabhnoor Singh said he hasn’t heard from any students affected by the pool being closed, but said it’s important that as many resources and services offered at the university stay available.

“It’s stuff that many, not only U of M students, but community members at large, and citizens that use the MiniU program value,” Singh said.

The pool closure affects 6,500 MiniU campers and 500 people registered for swimming lessons, a University of Manitoba spokesperson said in an email.

The spokesperson noted the university’s athletics programs that use the pool have been relocated to other facilities in Winnipeg. The university didn’t respond to questions from the Free Press about which alternative pool locations the teams will be using.

Refunds will be sent to those who registered for classes, the spokesperson said. The pool doesn’t have an expected re-opening date due to ongoing assessments, they said, but a timeline will be released when more information is available.

matthew.frank@freepress.mb.ca