Winnipeg's draft budget includes plan to close several pools, put in splash pads
CBC
The City of Winnipeg could close several of its aging pools and replace some of them with splash pads over the next six years.
The city's preliminary 2024 budget, released Wednesday, includes a proposal to replace or decommission 20 outdoor wading pools and open 10 new splash pads at a cost of about $20 million.
The Eldon Ross indoor pool and Happyland and Windsor Park outdoor pools would also be closed in the coming years.
Finance chair Coun. Jeff Browaty said these pools are near the end of their life cycles and are more expensive to operate due to staff and maintenance costs.
"They're 50, 60, 70-year-old pieces of infrastructure, and they need significant investment," he said.
It's also been difficult to find enough staff to keep the pools open, something splash pads don't require, Browaty said.
"We're having pools that we can't open because we can't get the attendants," he said.
"One of the nice things about spray pads is they do need attendance by staff to ensure that they're safe and that everything is working, but you don't need somebody there on ongoing basis."
The plan is to build and open the new splash pads before the pools close, according to the draft budget.
Four wading pools will be closed this year in neighbourhoods where new splash pads are set to open soon, at the Cordova, Bronx Park, Valour (Clifton site) and Turtle Island community centres.
Other wading pools that are on the chopping block include those at the Winakwa Community Centre, Tyndall Park Community Centre, Elmwood Winter Club, Centennial Park, and Bruce Park.
The 2024 preliminary budget allocates $150,000 for the decommissioning of the city's aging aquatic facilities, while the city plans to spend close to $20 million over the next six years to build the new splash pads.
The proposed closure of the Happyland Park outdoor pool in St. Boniface does not sit well with Teresa Cwik of the South St. Boniface Residents Association, who says the association has been fighting to get it repaired for years.
"We have nothing to replace it," she said. "It's an outdoor pool. This is where the kids go to learn to swim. It needs to be fixed."
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