Pools targeted for closure cheaper to operate

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This article was published 04/03/2024 (593 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Questions are being raised about the city’s decision to shutter two of its outdoor pools after data analyzed by the Free Press reveals the average operating costs per visit for both are lower than other outdoor pools that weren’t targeted for closure.

The relatively low cost to taxpayers, combined with the value in health and well-being the pools offer to residents in the St. Boniface and Windsor Park areas, have left some city councillors and the head of a neighbourhood association scratching their heads.

“Our summers are so short in Winnipeg. These pools (act as) people’s cottages for those that can’t get out of the city,” said Coun. Matt Allard, whose St. Boniface ward includes both the Windsor Park and Happyland outdoor pools targeted in the city’s proposed 2024-27 budget.

“I think that outdoor pools offer excellent value for money and I’d like to see more of them in Winnipeg.”

Data averaged over 2019, 2022 and 2023 (the most recent non-pandemic years) shows the city spends an average of $2.16 million each year to run nine outdoor pools. The pool at Kildonan Park is the most expensive at nearly $540,000 annually. Happyland (located at Marion and Archibald streets) and Windsor Park pools, by comparison, are relative bargains, at an average of $83,000 and $121,000, respectively.

When attendance figures are factored in, outdoor pools cost the city an average of $17 per visit. That figure was just $13 for Windsor Park (tied for lowest with Transcona Aquatic Park) and $21 for Happyland.

Several outdoor pools saw average costs per visit more expensive than Happyland, including Fort Garry Lions ($34) and Westdale ($28).

Allard recently raised a motion that asks city council to suspend all proposed budget cuts to aquatic facilities.

He said $1 million earmarked for a new spray pad on the same property as Windsor Park pool could be diverted to help keep the facility open.

If additional funding is needed, he could also support charging a new fee for the two outdoor pools, which currently offer free admission.

“People would be willing to pay for these pools if these pools would remain,” he said. “I think the demand is there.”

Windsor Park Residents Association president Amber Gauthier said she’d prefer to keep the pool in her neighbourhood admission-free because a fee could create a barrier to people living in nearby low-income housing.

However, she said could support a “very small” fee, if it’s the only way to keep the facility open. The value the facility offers more than justifies the overall operating costs, she said.

“For what it brings to the community, to me, that’s nothing, especially for the youth,” she said.

“You could spend (summer) in the basement gaming and being anti-social… or you can go to a free pool, get vitamin D and fresh air and spend all day there.”

Gauthier said the pool is also popular among families and adults who don’t have air conditioning; many have called or reached out on social media to offer to help save it.

The city spends an average of $21 million per year operating indoor pools. The most expensive pool to operate is the huge Pan Am complex, with average annual costs of $4.7 million a year ($9 per visit).

The Eldon Ross pool on Pacific Avenue is the least expensive to operate — averaging just $325,000 a year — but is used by a small population, so its cost-per-visit is notably high at $45 per, versus an average cost of $14 per visit for indoor pools.

While the cost per visit is higher for Eldon Ross, many community members are lobbying to save that facility, as well, stressing that recreation options are scarce in the Brooklands area.

Brooklands residents fight to save pool

The city has said it would cost millions of dollars to repair and maintain the three pools slated to close.

The closures are part of a plan to modernize aquatic facilities, which includes $20 million for spray pads over the next six years. Ten new spray pads would add to five already planned.

In an email, city spokesman Adam Campbell noted the city’s recreation strategy also calls for council to consider developing new regional recreation centres that include pools. Aquatics are set to be included at the future South Winnipeg Recreation Complex, though the timeline to complete that phase of the project isn’t known. The East of the Red Rec Plex is also expected to include a pool, with construction slated for 2028 to 2030, pending council funding and approval.

Since the pool closures are expected this year, there will be at least some reduction in recreation options, Allard said.

Residents, councillors unhappy with pool closures in proposed city budget

Mayor Scott Gillingham said the pool closures are a key example of difficult decisions the city warned it would need to make in this budget.

“These are hard choices. At some point, as a council, we need to make a decision between investing in old infrastructure that needs significant financial input to bring up to quality… or transitioning (to) investing in new aquatic facilities,” said Gillingham.

The mayor noted the city’s council-approved recreation strategy calls for more investment in spray pads. He said the proximity between pools is also considered in potential closures, noting the unheated, outdoor Windsor Park pool is located less than two kilometres from the indoor Bonivital pool that operates year-round.

“There are several factors that go into determining which pools to invest in, which assets to decommission,” said Gillingham.

Meanwhile, Coun. Sherri Rollins said she believes swimming is a life skill and Winnipeggers value both existing and new pools.

Rollins (Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry) recently supported a motion at the city centre community committee, which calls on council to suspend all aquatic facility cuts in the multi-year budget.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

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Joyanne Pursaga
Reporter

Joyanne is city hall reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. A reporter since 2004, she began covering politics exclusively in 2012, writing on city hall and the Manitoba Legislature for the Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in early 2020. Read more about Joyanne.

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