City’s hopes for buyer to reopen inner-city pool drying up

An effort to reopen Eldon Ross indoor pool with a new private owner may be swirling around the drain.

In September 2024, the city issued a request for proposals to sell its pool at 1887 Pacific Ave.; the facility was shuttered earlier that month due to budget cuts. The deal required bidders to keep the indoor and wading pools open to the public at low or no cost.

But the city received just one proposal that didn’t ensure that access, a staff report revealed Friday.

Coun. Vivian Santos said it’s unfortunate a private owner couldn’t step in to save the pool, which residents fought to keep.

Santos (Point Douglas) said there appeared to be interest in doing so two years ago, when the city first looked for buyers.

“I am disappointed that… actually it didn’t come to fruition. I understand that swimming is a necessity, but I also do understand that the long-term vision for aquatics is to have much larger pools,” she said.

The Sergeant Tommy Prince (formerly North Centennial Recreation and Leisure Facility), Cindy Klassen and Kinsmen Sherbrook pools are alternatives located in the inner city.

While city staff say councillors could opt to revise the rules of the pool’s sale to seek buyers a second time, Santos said she expects its closure will be permanent.

“Unfortunately, it costs quite a bit of money to deal with aquatics, and so I (want) to be mindful of our financial constraints,” she said.

In 2024, the city estimated it would cost about $10 million to repair and maintain the Eldon Ross pool.

Santos said she is committed to finding another amenity for the same site, such as an indoor gym or an outdoor “water play” structure that is much larger than the standard splash pad. She said a feasibility study and public consultation would help determine the best option.

Samantha Amaral, principal of Brooklands School, said the pool is missed by her students and their families.

“I’m disappointed it’s not open. No matter how we go about doing that, I wish that it was still an option for this community,” Amaral said.

“When it was open, it was the place for our students to go after school, somewhere they could get physical activity, as well as be with friends, socializing, with family, a safe place to be.”

She said the pool was well-loved and well-used, especially since there is no community club and few other recreation options nearby.

The pool, which is located next to Brooklands School’s playground, once hosted its Grade 3 swim program. Now students have to bus to other facilities for those lessons.

Amaral said any recreation option is better than keeping the site vacant, but other amenities won’t teach swimming or survival skills around water.

“I think (the pool is) important for the community… I don’t think the desire to have a pool has lessened at all,” she said.

The city staff report says the sole bid to buy the pool “lacked a comprehensive plan to ensure continued public access to the pool, did not adequately address pricing and failed to provide sufficient evidence of available funding or relevant experience” of the proposed owner.

Staff suggest the city now consider exploring other options, such as imposing fewer conditions on the sale or selling/leasing the property for a different use.

The city’s inability to sell the pool and still ensure public access to it underlines the challenges of maintaining the aging facility, said Coun. Evan Duncan (Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood).

“The infrastructure has reached its end of life and, without support, with actual operating dollars and potential capital investment by the City of Winnipeg into Eldon Ross, it’s not a viable project,” said Duncan, the chairman of council’s property and development committee.

He said he believes the city needs to explore potential partnerships with the private sector to make public pools more sustainable in the future.

“If we don’t come up with a plan, unfortunately, we could see more situations like this, where… if you don’t invest ‘X’ amount of dollars, (another) pool has to be considered for closure,” he said.

While Duncan did not lay out exactly how a partnership with a private operator could work in Winnipeg, he said some Alberta cities have successfully allowed the YMCA to operate publicly owned pools.

The property and development committee is set to debate the report Thursday.

Any changes would require city council approval.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

X: @joyanne_pursaga