Running dry

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This article was published 13/08/2022 (1311 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Some child-care providers are hot after learning the city will turn off the taps at most outdoor wading pools next week.

“Wading pools are a big staple of our summer,” said Mikayla Carter, who along with Julia Stern, was supervising a group of children Friday as they screamed and scampered throughout Elmwood Park.

“I think they should (stay) open, almost closer to when school starts.”

Carter and Stern work at a summer child-care program operating from the nearby Lord Selkirk School. They bring kids to pools in the area multiple times a week. It gives children a place to play and develop social skills while also providing valuable amenities like bathrooms and fresh, cool water to the community, Stern said.

On Thursday, the city announced the end of the season for its outdoor pools and spray pads, most of which will close by Aug. 19.

“It’s kind of unfortunate. If it’s not within walking distance, probably a lot of kids won’t be going to those facilities.” Carter said. “If we have to start travelling and taking a school bus, then it’s not really worth the trip.”

It’s been a difficult year for Winnipeg’s public pools, which have suffered from staffing shortages. Earlier this week, city spokesman David Driedger said 19 of the city’s 79 wading pools failed to open this season. By Aug. 26, only four wading pools will remain open.

“There’s some (wading pools) that are pretty dead, and they might get four kids in a day, but a lot of people can’t afford to take their kids to a big pool, so taking them to a splash pad is a much cheaper alternative,” said Kiara, a child-care worker from West Broadway Youth Outreach.

Kiara, who declined to provide her last name, was supervising a large group of children at the Central Park wading pool Friday afternoon.

It was the third time children in the program had visited the pool this week, Kiara said.

Fortunately, the Central Park location is among the handful staying open until Sept. 5.

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Karen Kowalski, assistant executive director of the Manitoba Childcare Association, believes many child-care providers have been turning away from outdoor pools in recent years.

She doesn’t think closing the wading pools will significantly impact child-care centres because many already set up their own sprinklers to avoid carting groups of kids to the public spaces, she said.

“I think that people have just sort of moved away from that due to the fact that you need much more volunteers if you’re going to take kids to those kinds of things,” she said.

On Sept. 5, all of the city’s outdoor aquatic centres will close for the season.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca

Tyler Searle
Reporter

Tyler Searle is a multimedia producer who writes for the Free Press’s city desk. A graduate of Red River College Polytechnic’s creative communications program, he wrote for the Stonewall Teulon Tribune, Selkirk Record and Express Weekly News before joining the paper in 2022. Read more about Tyler.

Every piece of reporting Tyler produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.